Lady Christina Fairchild is a respectable widow who tolerates her horrid mother-in-law, wears black for the husband she never loved, and is the victim of a blackmail scheme that threatens to smear the reputation of her recently-deceased brother. Her world is turned upside down when an attractive ex-army captain arrives at her doorstep. He tells her that she is a duke's granddaughter, and that they must travel to reach her grandfather before he passes away in order to claim her inheritance. There is the small matter of the blackmail to contend with, and soon Christina's strong-willed spiritedness begins to make itself known.

Captain Gavin Briggs' wants are simple: retrieve the heiress, collect his bounty and set up his farm at a quiet country manor, where he and his sister can live peacefully. He deserves at least that after the horrific things he's seen and done in the war. Gavin is haunted by the faces of the men he killed and he questions his own honor at the way he went about doing his job. Christina flits into his life like a breath of fresh air, but he knows that she is not for him...or is she? Gavin must now use his experience as a man of war to protect the one thing he's come to treasure more than life itself - Christina.

Brazen is a tale of breaking out of one's shell and healing from the emotional baggage that we all carry. Christina is a woman testing her wings and making her own decisions after being told who to marry by her father and living her married life as a powerless wife. Her husband's death frees her to make a life for herself and she grows exponentially as a character as the story progresses. Gavin is just delicious, albeit a bit overbearing for my tastes, and his wounded warrior mentality and goals for bettering himself are endearing. My issue with this book was that the plot seemed quite convoluted; there was really too much happening in the latter third of the book, at least in my opinion. The characters were well crafted and interesting, however, and based mostly on that, I give this one Four Angels.

Reviewed by: Michelle B.