Review from Library Journal

Jewkes, Diane R. The Heart You Need. Crimson Romance. Jan. 2017. 95p. ebk. ISBN 9781507203101. $3.99. HISTORICAL ROMANCE
Jewkes sets her new novella (after The Heart You Own) in late 19th-century California. Adeline Ellsworth is a journalist trying to make the move from the society page to the front page in 1896 San Francisco. Her investigation into the death of her cousin Tommy (a police officer) has led her back to society events, where she meets Alec, Lord MacCairn, a Scottish peer who is visiting the city on business. When Alec and Linnie are kidnapped, she has to take him into her confidence and her investigation. Alec, who feels instantly protective of Linnie, insists that he be allowed to help. As the two probe further, their attraction turns into something deeper.
Verdict Jewkes attempts a lot in a short number of pages and succeeds with some of it. Linnie and Alec are appealing, and their quick-fire romance works, but the rest of the story and the other characters are sketched in (necessarily so) and feel thin. Still, fans of Joanna Shupe’s “The Knickerbocker Club” series will find much to like here.—Jane Jorgenson, Madison P.L., WI

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