Runaway Hearts

Rating:
Summary: A romance and a mystery in one!
Review: Chemist Mary Lou Finch entered Pierce Thorndike's household as a governess to his mischievous son, Edward. Mary Lou was really there to investigate the disappearance of Thorndike's race horse named Damien's Curse. Her father had bet every cent he owned, including Mary Lou's dowery, on the horse. Mary Lou was determined to put her University degree to use before her father lost everything!

Edward became a challenge to her. He had gone through several governesses recently. However, no matter what Edward did, Mary Lou turned it into a learning experience. He sneaked a snake into her room. She taught him all the Latin names. He like worms. She taught him all the types and then how to dissect them. As she earned his respect, he earned her love.

Pierce Thorndike had never met a woman like Miss Finch before. Since his wife's death, his son had been out of control. Miss Finch was not only beautiful to him, but fantastic with Edward. However, he kept catching her investigating his horse's disappearance and feared for her safety.

***** An exceptional tale combining romance and mystery! I spent my every free moment reading non-stop! It is about time that someone had a heroine that did not have the perfect figure and also had high intelligence! Brava, Katie Rose! *****

Rating:
Summary: A delightful tale
Review: In 1895 Boston, Rutherford Finch bets everything including his daughter's dowry on what he believes is a sure shot with long odds in an upcoming race at Saratoga. However, someone steals the horse, Damien's Curse, while killing the trainer.

Worried about her family's future, amateur scientist Mary Lou Finch travels to Milltown, New York to obtain a job as governess to the son of the owner of Damien's Curse. That enables her to go undercover to begin sleuthing using modern scientific methods. However, May Lou's expertise, when she is not blowing something up, is chemistry, but her skills never prepared her for the attraction between her and the owner, Pierce Thorndike, nor his son.

RUNAWAY HEARTS is a zany but cleverly crafted Americana romantic mystery. The story line is filled with twists that make for a wonderful amateur sleuth tale while brimming with a romance between the lead characters that smoothly glides into the who-done-it. The cast helps bring alive the gay nineties racing crowd adding to the feel of a well written period piece that showcases Katie Rose's abilities to entertain readers from the two genres.

Harriet Klausner

Rating:
Summary: Sstarts off great, but loses steam.
Review: Mary Lou Finch is not a woman to sit by and allow her future to be ruined. So when Pierce Thorndike's prize racehorse Damien's Curse mysteriously disappears before a major horse race, she takes it upon herself to solve the mystery to prevent her father from losing all the money he has wagered on the horse. Sparks fly immediately when Mary Lou applies for the position of governess for Pierce's young son, Edward. She finds him perplexing; he finds her unique Set in late nineteenth century New York, this story illustrates the life of society's elite as they pursue horse racing as a hobby and a venture. While the heroine's character is fleshed out through the course of the story, the hero remains an enigma to the heroine and the reader until close to the very end. The plot is well paced with the romance and the mystery nicely interwoven. The society event scenes read more like a gossip column than a novel. The story limps unsatisfactorily to the finish line.

Rating:
Summary: Sstarts off great, but loses steam.
Review: Mary Lou Finch is not a woman to sit by and allow her future to be ruined. So when Pierce Thorndike's prize racehorse Damien's Curse mysteriously disappears before a major horse race, she takes it upon herself to solve the mystery to prevent her father from losing all the money he has wagered on the horse. Sparks fly immediately when Mary Lou applies for the position of governess for Pierce's young son, Edward. She finds him perplexing; he finds her uniqueSet in late nineteenth century New York, this story illustrates the life of society's elite as they pursue horse racing as a hobby and a venture. While the heroine's character is fleshed out through the course of the story, the hero remains an enigma to the heroine and the reader until close to the very end. The plot is well paced with the romance and the mystery nicely interwoven. The society event scenes read more like a gossip column than a novel. The story limps unsatisfactorily to the finish line.

Rating:
Summary: Mildly entertaining...forgettable
Review: Miss Mary Lou Finch arrives at the estate of Greystone under the guise of a governess, but secretly she has an ulterior motive. Her father has invested all of her dowry into Damiens Curse, a horse that is owned by the master of Greystone, Pierce Thorndike. The problem is that Damien has gone missing and all of Mary Lous money has disappeared right along with him. She is determined to discover the truth about what really happened and to retrieve her dowry. While looking after Mr.Thorndikes son, the unthinkable happens. Mary Lou falls in love with not only the child, but with his father.
"Runaway Hearts" started strongly and I thought that I was in for quite a treat, but the book lost steam and was rather flawed. There was practically no character development at all in regards to Pierce. Mary Lou was more fleshed out, but between the two of them, I felt zero chemistry. The writing was also extremely repetitive. Basically, this book was pleasant but in the words of the delightful Miss Finch, The plot was "as thin as the chocolate glaze on an eclair".