Lisa Kleypas' Bow Street Runners trilogy

Kleypas’ Bow Street Runners trilogy is a fun one. They are the romances of the first unofficial police in London. Though a date for the first two stories was not given and no monarch is mentioned, since the Bow Street Runners operated from 1749 to 1839, I guessed it was late Regency era or early Victorian. The hero in book 1 had been a runner for many years when the story begins. In book 3, we have a date--1839--so by the 3rd story, we are into the Victorian era.

Book 1, Someone to Watch Over Me begins as Grant Morgan, a famous London Bow Street Runner, is called to the Thames where a half dead woman is fetched out of the water. Grant recognizes the redhead as the infamous courtesan, Vivien Rose Duvall. Grant takes her home where his staff cares for her. When she wakes, he discovers Vivien has amnesia.

Vivien accepts Grant’s claim she is a prostitute and that they were lovers, despite her misgivings. He tells her a lie about them being together as revenge for her snubbing him once at a ball. He believes she is the courtesan and tells her she sells her body for money. While Vivian is appalled by the thought, she knows her near drowning in the Thames was no accident. Someone wants her dead.

Meanwhile, Grant hunts for the criminal all the while very attracted to Vivian who he believes is playing the innocent.

I have to say that I did not want to put this one down. Kleypas does a great job with the sexual tension between the hero and there is just enough of a mystery as to who the heroine is and who wants to kill her to keep you reading. Though I figured out her identity before I was half way through, I still wanted to know how it ended.

The other two stories are similar but the first remained my favorite.

Buy on Amazon.

Book 2

Book 3

The Bow Street Runners trilogy:

Someone to Watch Over Me

Lady Sophia’s Lover

Worth Any Price