My Beautiful Enemy

July 15, 2014
This historical romance doubles asan adventure story about two travelers in China who fall in love, only todiscover that they're on opposite sides in a political chess game.Thomas (The Luckiest Lady inLondon, 2013, etc.) returns with sword-wielding heroine Catherine Blade.After a humdrum start, the novel evolves into an engrossing and unpredictabletale of political intrigue and betrayal. The action alternates between ChineseTurkestan (the current-day Xinjiang region of China) in the 1880s and London inthe 1890s. Catherine is the child of a Chinese courtesan and an Englishman.While gathering intelligence for her Chinese politician stepfather in 1883, shemeets and falls in love with a man she thinks of only as "the Persian." Whentheir paths cross in London 8 years later, Catherine discovers that he's notPersian at all, but a landed British gentleman named Capt. Leighton Atwood.Although he still makes her heart beat faster, he's engaged to anotherwoman. Catherine pretends she's merely a gently bred lady returning to herfather's homeland, but once again, she's on a dangerous mission for herstepfather that she can fulfill only with Leighton's help-in spite of hisallegiances to his fiancee and to the British crown. The book's biggestweakness is the villain, Lin, a cartoonish and unconvincing opponent. Itsstrength is the complexity of its main characters. Catherine is graceful andfeminine but also deadly with a blade or her bare hands. "We would neverquestion your manliness, would we?" Leighton teases her. Leighton is anatural caregiver, equally comfortable cooking for Catherine and saving herfrom bandits. A thought-provoking exploration ofgender roles in the East and West and in the historical romance genre. It'salso a darn good read.

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Starred review from August 1, 2014

In England on a covert mission to retrieve a pair of small jade tablets for her stepfather in China, lethal martial arts expert Bai Ying-ying (traveling as demure Catherine Blade) is stunned to come face to face with Leighton Atwood, the only man she has ever loved but thought she had left to die eight years ago in China--a man who is now engaged to another. But Leighton is not the only surprise. A bitter, deadly enemy from her past is in London as well, and when Catherine is targeted, she and Leighton must find a way to work together. VERDICT With incisive character development, deft pacing, and lyrical, nearly poetic prose, Thomas transports readers between remote, breathtaking Chinese Turkestan and teeming late Victorian London. A gripping, mesmerizing romance that is one of Thomas's most unforgettable yet. Thomas (The Luckiest Lady in London) lives in Austin, TX. [An LJ Editors' BEA pick, LJ 7/14, p. 31.]

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