Counterfeit Caress

by Elizabeth Leigh

When the most accomplished master printer in colonial Williamsburg is accused of counterfeiting money, she is outraged. Samarra Seldon has constantly had to prove that a woman could succeed in business, and the last thing she needs is an arrogant Britisher's accusations--even if his gaze makes her tremble with desire.

Genres: Historical Romance

384 pages, Paperback

First published November 1, 1991

Reviews

[Courtney · Rating 3 out of 5]

Click here for a close up shot of the front and back cover of this book. I picked this one purely for the fall vibes of the cover. I love that they included the FMC's cat on the back illustration.

A Zebra Heartfire romance set in 1754 Colonial Williamsburg, where the MMC is a lieutenant colonel in the British Army working undercover and investigating the FMC, a master printer, as she is suspected of printing counterfeit money. Overall I thought it had a really good concept and some outlandish plot elements that were fun, but the romance was of middling quality and the story did not hold my interest as long as I hoped.

The story starts with our male main character, Clint Holbrooke, being tasked with investigating the printing business of our female main character, Samarra Seldon. Someone in the Virginia colony is printing counterfeit money, and the Governor believes it could be Samarra. When Clint walks into Samarra's shop to start his undercover investigation, the two immediately fall into insta-lust so intense it borders on ridiculous. Their mutual mental undressing of each other is interrupted when Clint takes a throwing knife to the leg via an unknown assailant who apparently throws the knife in a drive-by style attack when Samarra's shop door is left open. Thus ends Chapter 1, which led me to believe I was in for a wild ride.

Detailed plot synopsis with spoilers and my thoughts on the book beyond this point.

Clint is only mildly hurt by this attack, but decides to use it to his advantage when Samarra offers to let him convalesce in the vacant apartment above her print shop - knowing that this will give him much more access to her business than his previous plan of simply being a customer. Clint and Samarra struggle with their intense attraction to each other. Clint is convinced Samarra must be hiding something, but his spying on her and rifling through her print shop turn up nothing of interest. Samarra is hiding something - but not what Clint thinks. Samarra's big secret is that she has an identical twin sister, Georgiana, who went blind due to an illness as a teenager and now lives as a recluse in Samarra's home.

On a night when Samarra is out at the theater with friends, Clint enters her home to try to find evidence there. He finds nothing of interest, except of course Georgiana when he unknowingly breaks into her room, waking her up and frightening her. Coincidentally that same night Clint's assailant returns, breaking into Clint's apartment and violently attacking his mattress in the assumption that Clint is sleeping. Samarra's cat attacks the assailant which is the final straw for him and causes him to flee Virginia. When Samarra returns home, Georgiana reveals to her that a man broke into their house that night. Samarra tells Clint, who tells her that he wasn't home that night, and that his apartment was also broken in to, so it must be the same person who broke into both homes.

At this point, Clint is convinced that Samarra is not the counterfeiter. The Governor invites them both to a costumed Hallow's Eve Ball (something that sadly is not historically accurate for 1750s Virginia). Their intense attraction becomes even more intense when Clint is wearing the stag costume he plans to wear to the ball, and they want to fool around, but suddenly nothing feels right and they both feel that they need a real commitment from each other instead of just intense lust. At the ball, Clint reports his investigation findings to the Governor. They both agree Samarra is innocent, but that the real counterfeiter must be nearby and be behind the attacks on Clint. The Governor and Clint concoct a plan to keep Clint and Samarra close - the Governor will simply command them to marry each other. Samarra is slightly hesitant, but this is *conveniently* the exact commitment they needed to enthusiastically consummate their relationship.

Comically, Samarra is pregnant and having symptoms literally within one week of their wedding. However, Samarra's wedded bliss starts to fade when cracks start becoming very apparent in Clint's cover story of being a French translator, although she continues to give him the benefit of the doubt. Clint's cover is completely blown when Georgiana, by recognizing the scent of Clint's unusual tobacco blend, eventually discovers that he was the intruder in her room. This news sends Samarra into a trance like state of shock. The next day, Clint is called out of the colony on business. Samarra does her own investigating around town and quickly discovers Clint's true identity as a lieutenant colonel working undercover for the Governor, but she is simply not very bothered it and she and Clint never discuss it again.

The true counterfeiter and antagonist who hired the assailant that attempted to have Clint killed is revealed to be a random villain from another novel this author wrote, Fiery Virginia Jewel. The villain enlists the help of an old flame who jilted Clint in the past, and the two of them conspire to kidnap Samarra and eventually Georgiana as well. He then turns on the old flame, and the three women have to work together to escape. Of course, Clint returns to Virginia just in time to have a knife fight with the villain and save the day. The epilogue ends with Samarra slipping on a pile of spilled coffee beans and going into premature labor, but she gives birth to twins and everyone lives happily ever after.

The counterfeiting storyline was difficult for me to get into because the stakes of it were so low. The book tells us that colonial paper money is so low in value vs. coins that counterfeiting it has barely any effect on the economy, and that the Governor of Virginia is really only investigating the counterfeiter because he is taking the counterfeiting operation personally. Also, there is never any doubt as to Samarra's innocence. Perhaps if there had been some mystery surrounding whether or not she was involved, the entire counterfeit investigation storyline would have been more compelling.

Samarra's character was very much a "modern" (ie. 1990s) woman placed in 1700s Colonial America. She enjoys running her own printing business and the independence it affords her, but she also wants to find love and start a family - but she worries about balancing her job and family. I sincerely thought it was really cool that Samarra was a master printer. It wasn't super common, but it wasn't unheard of for women to run their own printing businesses in the 17th and 18th centuries, so I really appreciated that the author chose to highlight that area of women's history in this book. I just wished that Samarra's printing work was better incorporated into the story. Aside from a clunky scene were Samarra "teaches" Clint how to run the press by basically reading off a printing press encyclopedia page, there is no "on screen" printing press work despite Samarra spending much of the book in her printing shop. It was obvious that the author did not have much of an understanding of how the printing press works.  

Clint's character is, to his credit, not an alpha asshole like many other bodice-ripper heroes. However, I still didn't care much for him. While his character is supposed to be in his early 30s, his impishness and horniess (the man gets turned on at the sight of billowing curtains, for instance) made him come across as more of a 19/2o year old. Not to mention, he has a proclivity for being naked that would be concerning in a 21st century man, much less an 18th century one. I also just felt that his deception of Samarra went on for an uncomfortably long time. It was hard to like him as a character when he was actively lying to Samarra - and it was extremely unsatisfying to me that when Samarra discovers his true identity as a British soldier working undercover, they never discuss it.

In terms of their romance, it was jarring to go from the insane "can't form a coherent sentence because I'm too busy picturing you naked" insta-lust to "nothing will feel right unless we are married". That said, I did think that their "domestic bliss" romantic scenes after their marriage were sweet. Kudos to this book for certainly trying to be spicy with it's sex scenes, but all of those attempts were completely whiffing it for my tastes. 

My biggest let down was the reveal that the villain was a character from another book by this author. I figured this book and Fiery Virginia Jewel were at least in the same "Elizabeth Leigh Colonial Virginia Universe", because there was an extended cameo from some characters from that book. However, the shared villain makes me think that maybe this is supposed to be a sequel to that? In any case, the villain seemed to have little to do with this story and it seemed like I was simply supposed to remember his evil deeds in Fiery Virginia Jewel and hate him for that. It pains the completionist in me to think that I read book 2 of a series without reading book 1, but my interest in reading Fiery Virginia Jewel after the mediocracy of Counterfeit Caress is very low.