Capturing the Flame by Mysty McPartland
BookStrand
Historical
ISBN: 1-61034-474-X
Reviewed by Vanessa




Lord Ashton, the Duke of Ashford, spots the lovely Lady Jayla McBride across the room.  He is intrigued and wants an introduction to the beauty.  However, once the lovely lady in question cuts him with her rudeness, Ashton’s hackles spike up, and he wants to teach her a lesson –a lesson that he will find quite enjoyable to perpetuate upon the young innocent who seems to light the fire within his blood.  Soon, Ashton is caught in the web of his machinations as he seeks to protect Jayla from ruthless gold diggers and strives to find happiness for her.

Lady Jayla McBride wants nothing to do with men especially one of the ilk of the Duke of Ashford, a known “rake and bounder”.  She determines to steer clear of the notorious scoundrel and seek to find her own happiness without him.  Yet she, too, can’t seem to deny the intense spark that ignites when she is within his company nor the stirrings that spell trouble for her.

Capturing the Flame is a historical story that doesn’t quite fully develop for me.  I could have been in any time for the setting didn’t seem to be set and some of the actions of the characters didn’t seem proper for the time period.  I found myself constantly tossed out of the story with Jayla’s speech and found that towards the end it changed.

Jayla is caught in the smoldering embers that flash up between her and Ashton, but she is determined to resist his allure.  She grows even more resistant when she sees the women throwing their eager selves at Ashton in Capturing the Flame, and one can’t blame her either.

Capturing the Flame was full of drama that seemed to liven-up this story some and present obstacles for Ashton and Jayla to overcome.  The antics that they get up to in Capturing the Flame are mildly entertaining, but for some reason the story just didn’t hold my interest for long.  I found myself wondering when I would get to the end of Capturing the Flame and Ashton and Jayla would ride off into their HEA!  The constant point of view changes from Ashton to Jayla to a minor character that didn’t even play much of a part in moving Capturing the Flame forward got tiresome as well, and I found it quite distracting.  I like to know what characters are thinking, but if they aren’t to play much of a role in the story, I don’t want to read about them, and I really don’t want to watch them pop out of the woodwork and not contribute much to the momentum of the story.

I would have been quite content if Capturing the Flame had focused more on the sweet moments between Ashton and Jayla instead of tossing in all the minor characters and distracting from their love story.  I have to also say that I was disappointed that the special note for Capturing the Flame was a bit erroneous, in my opinion.