The Red Cottage

A young woman in 19th-century England grapples with memory loss in this riveting historical from Linder (When Tomorrow Came). Meg Foxcroft has just decided to marry longtime beau Tom McGwen when strangers break into her uncle’s apothecary and attack her, causing injuries that erase all her memories. She’s rescued by Benedict Cunningham, a wealthy lord who invites her to recover at his sprawling estate. A brokenhearted Tom finally tracks her down, but Meg wants nothing to do with the apparent stranger. Her new high-society life isn’t all it’s cracked up to be, however, and when she becomes the target of several more attacks she seeks comfort in Tom. The more she gets to know her even-keeled ex, the more she understands why she’d been drawn to him in the first place, but with evidence emerging that Meg is entangled in a much-larger conspiracy, they’ll need to draw on their faith to protect themselves while planning a future together. Linder weaves a taut mystery into a sizzling romance, and brings Meg’s sense of disorientation to life with vivid prose (following the attack, she feels “empty, hollow, like a book ripped of all its pages”). This addictive Regency romance has thrills to spare. (Nov.)