First, the disclaimer: Jeannie Ruesch, the author of Something About Her, is a very good online friend of mine. I met her when Brenda Novak hosted a Christmas party on Second Life (she's Novak's web-gal and a fabulous designer also), and she and I share a lovely little beachfront party on Second Life. However, the fact that she's a friend of mine results only in my reading the book. I recommend it because I loved it and because I think you will too. Now, the review: Sit down. Make sure your seatbelt is fastened correctly. Keep your hands inside the car at all times. And hang on! Because Something About Her by Jeannie Rueschis a carnival ride during which you might forget to breathe. Blythe Willoughby has lived a year in solitude after her husband Thomas disappeared an hour after the wedding -- taking all her money but leaving her maidenhood intact. Her brother arrives at her country house to say Thomas is dead. He wants her to return to London for the social season and pretend the marriage never took place. Michael Ashton, Duke of Ravensdale, was raised amidst scandal, and he's determined to restore the family's good name. His cousin Thomas didn't help any when he vanished with thousands of dollars entrusted to him by wealthy investors. And now some chit appears with her father to say he -- He, Michael! Who's never even met her! -- left her pregnant and must marry her.  It seems like a good time to leave London and go visit his cousin's wife Blythe, obviously in on the fraud, and get her to tell him where Thomas is hiding. Too bad she's so darned cute! And she doesn't trust him any more than he trusts her. The best fiction features a main character the reader can't help but like, puts her in boiling water, and then turns up the fire, notch by notch, until you're sure the poor thing will be boiled alive and served with garlic butter. And Jeannie Ruesch does this like a master. I kept thinking it could not get any worse for poor Blythe, and then it did. Again and again. In fact, it got SO bad I couldn't see any possible way for Ruesch to pull off the Happily-Ever-After ending. But Something About Her is category romance! It has to end happily, it has to! Romance writers make a tacit contract with their readers promising everything will turn out well, the girl will get the guy, and the reader will be able to close with the book with a happy sigh.  It's a FIRM contract, and it's a big reason we read romances: we know they are safe. No matter how much the author may frighten us in the middle of the book, everything will turn out OK in the end. A romance writer who tricks the reader by writing any other ending won't get a second chance.  But we love it when a writer makes us worry that maybe this time will be the exception, and halfway through the final chapter, I still wasn't sure it would turn out well. This is the one of the best examples I've seen recently of an author raising the stakes to the point where the main character absolutely MUST get what she wants, and raising the conflict to the point where there appears to be no possible way she will.  I would have liked to see antagonists as fully developed and real as the rest of the characters, but this is a very small objection, especially for a debut novel. The fact is, Ruesch's writing is some of the cleanest I've ever seen in romance (or at all, really), and her storytelling skills are equally strong. The story starts smack in the middle of the action (just the way I like it!), and it never slows down until the last sentence (ditto). It was a great ride, and I'll willingly step through any door Ruesch opens in the future.