IRISH BLESSINGS: REILLY'S LAW Elizabeth Keys Zebra Ballad Romance July 2000 ISBN # 0-8217-6647-3 {Click here to buy this book} "Irish Blessings: Reilly's Law" is the first in a new trilogy by Elizabeth Keys, the writing team of Mary Lou Frank and Susan

Bryan Reilly hopes to make things right in his family by securing the much-needed contract with Harlan Shipbuilders in Liverpool. Without it Reilly Ship Works would surely fail, and with it any respect his family has left for him. While it was family tradition to go into the ship building business Bryan had his sights set on learning the law and fighting for justice. But when a mysterious woman appears on his docks in Limerick, Ireland calling him husband his interest in the law takes another turn as she begs for his help under her breath. While sailing for England, Bryan discovers the reason behind Emilyne Wellesly's plight, her niece's and nephew's safety from the man who killed their parents and has been hunting them ever since they left Kildare. When Bryan learns the full details of Emilyne's case he must come to terms with the fact that this is the woman that his law firm has been hired to fight against for custody of the children.

Emilyne Wellesly saw an opportunity and grabbed it when she approached a young ship captain can called him husband. Begging for help this stranger takes her and her niece and nephew aboard his ship and sets sail with promises to take her home to England before continuing on his way to Liverpool. While on board she finds herself becoming attracted to Captain Bryan Reilly and when she lands in Liverpool she's shocked to learn of his plans to accompany her home. While traveling she's further shocked that he insists on them traveling as man and wife, for her safety. And just when she finds herself falling in love with him she learns that he's a lawyer and his firm was the one hired to take "her children" away from her.

My feelings for "Irish Blessings: Reilly's Law" are two fold. On one side, I feel that this story is a good read. The characters have personality, pages turn quickly with action and a family blessing ads to the flavor. On the other hand, I was left without a sense of place. Settings were not describes to their fullest so I didn't have a feeling for where the characters were most of the time. The book, indeed the trilogy, is being marketed as Irish set books when in actuality only the first and last chapter of this book were the only times you see the characters in Ireland. And while in those chapters I had no sense of what the country looked like, the culture or the period. The story is set in a time not long after the Great Famine but there was nothing in the book to suggest anything of this history. The book is sprinkled with several Irish words and I believe that a glossary, even a small one, would help readers to identify pronunciations and meanings a little more clearly.