Bookreporter.com - THE RIVER KNOWS by Amanda Quick

Books by
Amanda Quick

THE RIVER KNOWS

LIE BY MOONLIGHT

DON'T LOOK BACK

THE RIVER KNOWS
Amanda Quick
Putnam
Romance
ISBN-10: 0399154175
ISBN-13: 9780399154171

"This is the thing with an illicit affair….It cannot end happily." Oh, but yes it can --- and it does --- in Amanda Quick's latest romance novel, THE RIVER KNOWS. Where love and romance and excitingly dangerous liaisons are concerned, "There are exceptions to every rule" --- and we wouldn't have it any other way. Amanda Quick, a pseudonym for Jayne Ann Krentz, shows us the way to romantic bliss.

Steamy Victorian passion and devastating kisses are what fans of Quick desire. The New York Times bestselling author reveals that the Victorian Age was not quite so straight-laced after all. It was a time of romantic trysts inside the crested carriages that clop-clop-clopped down foggy London streets, long walks in moonlit gardens that led to stolen moments behind large, perfectly trimmed bushes. The seclusion and humidity of the conservatory provided a private location for the passion that novelists and playwrights wrote about. Lovers seeking to ravish and indulge their passions stole away from elegant balls for exhilarating interludes.

Not only do we enjoy a peek behind closed carriages, we also read that there were many bright, educated and talented women who secretly and/or openly engaged in journalism, playwriting, painting and mercantilism. Some even presided successfully as a scantily clad brothel Madam. In a time when it was common for a young woman to wait patiently until she was swept off her feet by a wealthy, handsome Lord, it is refreshing to read here about a Victorian family with "razor-sharp intelligence and forceful willpower" and the young women who forged the very beginnings of the sexual revolution.

THE RIVER KNOWS revolves around Louisa Bryce, who has a secret that only her employer, Lady Ashton, knows --- one that surely would send her to jail. Louisa is determined to flush out the rogues of Society by writing tabloid articles under the name "I.M. Phantom" for the Flying Intelligencer, a "disreputable paper that thrives on the most lurid sensations." Louisa's romantic experience is limited to what she has read in sensation novels; she is captivated by the portrayal of illicit passion as a "transcendent experience."

When Louisa meets Anthony Stalbridge, a handsome member of Society with impeccable bloodlines, at the Hammond ball, Louisa falls in love at that first moment. Louisa undertakes a brazen quest to expose the shocking activities within Polite Society, including the murder of Fiona Risby, Anthony Stalbridge's fiancé. Louisa and Anthony find themselves in intimate circumstances as they delve into the business affairs and blackmail schemes of Elwin Hastings, a prominent member of Society who is at the center of several mysterious deaths. Anthony fears that he failed to protect Fiona from the circumstances that led to her suicide in the river Thames. The clues take the reader from brothels to an attempt on Anthony's life in London's Arden Park to clandestine meetings in foggy alleys and straight to Elwin Hastings's former wife --- who comes back from the murky waters to expose Hastings.

When the servants have the afternoon off, the young lovers bring to life a scene from one of the many sensation novels Louisa has read. Anthony leaves Louisa breathless with kisses and the "transcendent experience" of an illicit tryst. However, danger lurks as the pair gets closer to the truth behind the deaths, and Anthony must rely on his eccentric family to help him save Louisa from the depths of a darkened dungeon.

The "Polite World" of Victorian London had its share of secrets, romantic trysts, villains and marriages based on money, property and family connections. What I was surprised to learn was that Louisa possessed a "wide assortment of sensation novels…filled with stories of illicit love affairs." Quick's books portray an age of privilege and passions, contrary to the belief that Victorian London was staid and proper.

Novels of romantic bliss are not without peril and insecurities. Matters of the heart are mostly complicated, and Louisa finds herself thinking, "Live for the here and now; it is all you will ever have with Anthony." If you believe, as I do, that it's possible to fall in love (or lust) at first sight, then prepare to abandon yourself to the fantasy of romantic bliss a la Amanda Quick.

--- Reviewed by Hillary Wagy

Click here now to buy this book from Amazon.com.