Bond of Passion is part of the Border Chronicles series. Other books in the series include A Dangerous Love, The Border Lord's Bride, The Captive Heart, The Border Lord and the Lady, and The Border Vixen.

Angus Ferguson, Earl of Duin, is a master strategist, a wily negotiator and the handsomest man in the borders. He shrewdly bargains for the hand of a plain-faced bride, one of the daughters of the laird of Rath, and accepts for her dowry a prime piece of land he wants. What he never bargained for, however, is the reality of the lass who is now his wife.

Annabella is luscious of form (although plain of face), kind and intelligent. She leaves her home to marry a man she's never met, and is more than pleased to find him devastatingly gorgeous, pleasant of temperament and willing to make a real marriage out of this arrangement. Soon, the two must leave their cozy castle along the borderlands to join the royal court, and they find themselves drawn into a dark, swirling pool of court intrigue, deceit, indescribable loss, charges of treason and the testing of loyalties. Can they manage to make a life together in spite of the ever-changing politics that threaten to drown them?

Bond of Passion is the tale of two strangers wed who become partners in the fullest sense of the word. Annabella and Angus were perfectly suited in spite of his fantastic wealth and her disappointing plainness in a family of beauties. Anabella showed strength and purpose far beyond her years, and Angus demonstrated depth of character and an overriding need to protect what is his. I very much enjoyed this tale, but felt that the author dwelled too much about Anabella's plainness, when it was obvious that her wisdom and selflessness far outshone her less-than-desirable physical beauty. I also felt that the characters were flat-out cruel to Annabella regarding something over which she had no control, namely her ordinary looks. The plotline of the story moved along very smoothly and the descriptions of the scenery and settings were spot on. Four Angels.

Reviewed by: Michelle B.