Full Steam Ahead by Karen Witemeyer

From the Publisher: 

When love simmers between a reclusive scientist and a wealthy debutante, will they abandon ship or is it full steam ahead?

Nicole Renard returns home to Galveston, Texas, to find her father deathly ill. Though she loves him, Nicole's father has always focused on what she's not. Not male. Not married. Not able to run Renard Shipping.

Vowing to find a suitable husband to give her father the heir he desires before it's too late, Nicole sets out with the Renard family's greatest treasure as her dowry: the highly coveted Lafitte Dagger. But her father's rivals come after the dagger, forcing a change in Nicole's plans.

After a boiler explosion aboard the Louisiana nearly took his life, Darius Thornton has been a man obsessed. He will do anything to stop even one more steamship disaster. Even if it means letting a female secretary into his secluded world.

Nicole is determined not to let her odd employer scare her off with his explosive experiments, yet when respect and mutual attraction grow between them, a new fear arises. How can she acquire an heir for her father when her heart belongs to another? And when her father's rivals discover her hiding place, will she have to choose between that love and her family's legacy?

My Review:

I started this book around 9:30 Friday night. I read the last page around 2:30 Saturday morning. 'nuf said. :)

This was an amazing book. The characters were likable and they had histories and personalities and thoughts and feelings!! Darius was amazing... a heroic gentleman created with some complexity to his character. He's so noble. Interestingly, the name Darius means "upholder of the good". I wonder if that was intentional. Both characters were unconventional for their time... I loved that.

The plot was SO good. There was some suspense and danger in the book. Darius's life sort of came full circle. Darius and Nicole both had issues unrelated to one another that they helped the other work through. This was a really good book. So good, in fact, that I gave my mom an extremely thorough summary of it when I woke up Saturday morning.

READ THIS BOOK!!

I received a free copy of this book from Bethany House in exchange for an honest review.