NO PLACE FOR A LADY By Deb Stover Zebra Historical Romance November 2001 ISBN # 0-8217-7091-8 {Click here to buy this book} Deb Stover is no ordinary author. She's exceptional in ways that only the most brazen authors can be. Her books have garnered

Set in 1888, this story takes us from high society London to the pioneer west of Colorado. A stagecoach hold up, mistaken identity and kidnapping get this story off to a galloping good start.

Molly Riordan is an Irish servant in the employ of Lady Elizabeth Summersby of London. When Elizabeth finds herself pregnant after a wild romp one night at a masque she's forced to tell her parents. The cad is immediately notified, who surprisingly sends for her. So off Elizabeth and Molly go to the wilds of America and to the state of Colorado to a man whom Elizabeth has never seen, nor he her, because of their customes. What neither woman expects is to have their coach held up. More surprising is that the leader of the bandits has a vendetta against the man they are traveling to meet, his own brother, Dirk Ballinger. Elizabeth is kidnapped leaving Molly with a dying stagecoach driver. It's not long before she's rescued but the case of mistaken identity continues when the last words of the stagecoach driver before dying are that Molly is Lady Elizabeth. Why would a man on his deathbed lie? Indeed why!

Dirk Ballinger had never set foot in London a day in his life and suspects that the Lady Elizabeth who claims to bare his child was really involved in a tryst with his half brother, Ray Lovejoy. Ray had claimed half ownership on the Colorado Ranch on their father's death. It was something Dirk never contested. He tried to welcome Ray into the family but instead Ray took off with his share of the money, and Dirk's name, and went to Europe. Dirk had heard that Ray was up to no good so it was no surprise to learn of Elizabeth's pregnancy. When a woman shows up called Lady Elizabeth, who is he to dispute that this is the woman his brother bedded? The only trouble is 1) she's not pregnant as her father had claimed and 2) he falls for her like falling off a bronc…hard!

"No Place For A Lady" should really be called "No Lady In The Place" as the rollicking good times had in this book would qualify. Molly is a shy girl who learns to be much more than a lady's servant. Dirk teaches her what it means to be a woman. While she's no titled Lady, Dirk makes her feel like royalty in bed and out.

Elizabeth's behavior is anything but ladylike. Wanton in the back of a carriage during a masque is just something one did in her world. But once in the hands of Ray Lovejoy the hate/hate relationship heats up as the verbal abuse is slung around the place like manure. But they like it that way it turns out and once Elizabeth's child is born they come to love each other.

But there's the issue hovering over all their heads over who the real father is of Elizabeth's child and if he'll step of or if Elizabeth will be forced to marry the wrong man, thus taking away the only thing Molly every really wanted in her life, the man of her dreams.

This is a story with a strong plot, tightly knit facts and not a hole in sight that would have left any questions in the readers mind unanswered. Primary and secondary characters are all well fleshed and likeable, even when you want to hate them. The setting of the story comes through more than adequately. From Dirk's ranch house to Ray's cave, each detail is depicted to bring a vivid visual image into the readers mind. In a word, this story is terrific.