// Wild Rose Press // Emma Lai Writes

Masquerading as an American, Eallair, a Guardian Steward from another world, is searching Victorian England for the kidnapped mate of a fellow Guardian. When he meets Miss Harriet Cartwright, he knows her for the spirited, intelligent mate he has longed to find.

Since the death of their parents, Harriet has used her intelligence and sharp tongue to guard her sister from fortune hunters, but now that Prudence is close to choosing a husband, Harriet can consider her own future—one hopefully filled with adventure. When she meets Eallair, an American rancher who likes to travel and isn’t put off by her outspokenness, she is intrigued.

But before Harriet and Eallair can explore their attraction, she and her sister are kidnapped. While Eallair scours the countryside for them, Harriet discovers Eallair’s off-world origins. Now she must decide: just how much adventure does she want in her future?

The Mates of the Guardian series by Emma Lai has kept my interest since the first book (His Ship, Her Fantasy) which I read back in 2009.  Actually I read both of the previous novels (book 2 is His Hope, Her Salvation) back in 2009.  Like the second book this is set in the past (different century however, and the first book was set in the future) and it features Eallair, who was a secondary character in Book 2 (Donovan's story, similarly Donovan was a secondary character in Alastair's book).

Oh Harriet, she's a strong mixture of Ellie and Judith.  She's got the gumption of Elle, but the elegance of Judith and does not take 'you're just a woman!' utterances with any sort of peaceful tolerance.  Actually as Eallair is daydreaming about his potential mate (who he hasn't met yet) she's pointed out to him having a...shall we say heated discussion with a couple of men about the British Empire.

Honestly it doesn't take Eallair long to begin seducing Harriet with words and flirting, but it also doesn't take long for Harriet to get embroiled in a plot to snatch the Guardians' mates, which unfortunately they started with Elle (not a spectacularly good idea on the bad guys' parts, considering all things) and brought Harriet's sister Prudence along for the ride.  Harriet is however very clever--she leaves clues for Eallair (so I guess you could say Eallair is also clever) that seem kind of innocuous, but are actually quite practical.

If you haven't figured it out yet I love Harriet to utter distraction.

His Capture, Her Rescue is twice as long as the other two books (longer than both books together actually), but the story was a direct as the two previous.  It was nice to catch up with Alastair and Donovan, as well as Judith and Ellie (not Orla. I still dislike Orla.  Though she proves useful here at least), but I admit to some confusion over Ellie's 'memory loss'.  I suppose it comes there not being enough information given over how it all happened since Ellie's kidnapping occurred between books 2 and 3.

That's pretty much my only fault with the book however.  The longer format gives Lai ample time to build up not only the relationship between Eallair and Harriet (yes despite their being apart for about a third or so of the book), but also gives the reader a better understanding of the world itself.  The ending suggests there shall be more and I am deeply interested in knowing more about this 'Cayden' and why they react the way they do to his name.