For Your Arms Onlyby Caroline Lindenreviewed by Cheryl SneedDecember 2009, 384 pages, Publisher: Avon, ISBN: 0061706477 Back Cover Blurb: He was once a distinguished army officer, a man of honor and heroism. But that was before Alexander Hayes was wrongly accused of treason. Forced to abandon everything he held dear, Alec became a spy for England in an attempt to clear his name. His latest commission sounds simple: locate a retired soldier gone missing. But it also sends him back home, to a family who'd thought him dead for five years - and a woman who'd like to shoot him.
Everything Cressida Turner's ever heard about Alec tells her that he's a traitor of the worst kind, and yet this enigmatic, infuriating, and utterly captivating man may be the only person she can trust - and the only one who can find her missing father. With nowhere else to turn, she reluctantly joins forces with Alec, unprepared for both the dangerous secrets that threaten them and the relentless passion that drives them into each other's arms.
Alec Hayes died at Waterloo, leaving behind papers in his belongings which showed him to be a traitor. But Alec didn't die, nor did he betray his country. He was rescued by an old French farmwoman and eventually made his way to England where he is working as a spy for the very government which accused him of treason, while looking for proof of his innocence. No, it doesn't make sense to me either.
His latest assignment has him shedding his false name and reappearing back at his home after an absence of five years to his mother's delight, but everyone else's suspicion. His job is to find an old soldier who has gone missing. What Alec finds is the man's daughters and a powerful attraction to one of them: Cressida Turner. Can they solve the mystery of the missing Sgt. Turner and will their budding love survive what they discover?
I liked Alec and Cressida and their romance. They're both cautious, independent people and there are some nice scenes of them working together and getting to know each other. There's an obvious chemistry between them and a nice sizzle to their interactions.
However, there were more scenes that left me thinking, "Huh?" Alec is an accused traitor, yet his cousin simply hands over the estate he has been caring for without a quibble. Alec and Cressida go on an overnight trip to London as part of their investigation and no one raises an eyebrow. And then halfway through the book, chapters suddenly appear detailing what happened to Alec five years ago in the aftermath of Waterloo, which really broke up the rhythm and flow of the narrative.
In the end, For Your Arms Only was only an average read for me; a good romance surrounded by little problems that nagged at me. Linden has a short story on her website which details the romance between Cressida's sister Callie and Tom, a friend of the family. It may be found here, but is meant to be read after this story. It was a bit disjointed and episodic, as it covered a span of 13 years in 23 pages, but a satisfying expansion of Callie and Tom's romance.
Reviewed by Cheryl Sneed, December 29, 2009
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