Miss Emily Payne is a spoiled young woman in nineteenth-century London, seeking fulfillment and security in a high-society marriage. She seems to care for nothing beyond the young man she has decided to win, and her purchases of bonnets and jewelry for the conquest.
When Emily’s father hires Nicholas Brentwood, a Bow Street Runner, to protect her while he’s away on business, Emily meets her match in strong-willed character. Nicholas has only one reason for accepting this awkward assignment, and that is to save the money to help his gravely ill sister.
Those are the goals and motivations of the main characters. The obstacles that spring from this premise are considerable. What stands between Emily and her father? Where has he gone and why has his business partner been murdered? And why has Emily herself become a target?
Nicholas is challenged to protect Emily from herself as well as the criminals who stalk her.
Inherent in this tightly written romance are faith in God and commitment to morality. In light of the situations the characters find themselves in, their convictions are severely tested.
Readers are held by the conflict until the last page, yet all necessary threads are ultimately tied and solved. While faith in God is rewarded, life is neither easy nor predictable.
Michelle Griep has been writing since she first discovered blank wall space and Crayolas. She seeks to glorify God in all that she writes—except for that graffiti phase she went through as a teenager. She resides in the frozen tundra of Minnesota, where she teaches history and writing classes for a local high school co-op. An Anglophile at heart, she runs away to England every chance she gets, under the guise of research. Really, though, she’s eating excessive amounts of scones while rambling around a castle. Michelle is a member of ACFW (American Christian Fiction Writers) and MCWG (Minnesota Christian Writers Guild). Keep up with her adventures at her blog “Writer off the Leash” or visit http://michellegriep.com/about-3/
Janice L. Dick 
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