At a sýance Stephen St. Leger tries to prove that it is a fake by capturing a woman he thinks is part of the act, but instead he catches Olivia Moreland, an investigator of Psychic Phenomena. All her life Olivia had been fascinated with the idea that people can communicate with spirits, but had never run into a "psychic" who proved to be the real thing. Her grandmother, one of the first to be called a 'mad Moreland', had the 'second sight' and claimed Olivia did too. Stephen's frustration lies in the fact that his mother is being duped by a medium, Madame Valenskaya. His brother had died the previous year and in order to ease her grief she turned to Madame Valenskaya, a woman who manipulates Lady St. Leger's feelings to extort money from her, pretending she can communicate with the Lady's dead son. Stephen wants to tell his mother that the woman is just making a fool out of her, but he knows it is going to take more to convince her of that so he hires Olivia to help him show his mother that the medium is a fraud. Olivia is determined to keep their relationship strictly on a business level, but will she be able to ignore the attraction she feels for Stephen? After arriving at Blackhope Hall, Olivia starts to have dreams about a woman who lived long ago. Did this woman really exist or is she just a figment of Olivia's imagination? Olivia soon finds out Stephen has dreams about a knight who loved the woman Olivia has been dreaming about. Are these dreams real or are they just another trick of Madame Valenskaya? As darkness and evil loom around Stephen and Olivia, they find themselves falling in love, but will that love be powerful enough to save them?

I found Olivia to be a very believable and likeable heroine. She wasn't an impossibly beautiful woman, her looks bordered on plain and ordinary, but in the eyes of the hero she was beautiful. She was witty and open-minded, loving her family despite the things that other people in society found odd. It was nice to read about a heroine who had a loving and unique family; they only helped add to the story, they never took away from it. She was very confident in her abilities, but in the ways of being a woman, she wasn't sure how to act. I found this very endearing and relatable. Stephen wasn't your typical hero; he wasn't a womanizing, lustful creature. He was compassionate and truly cared about what the heroine thought and felt. His love and loyalty to his mother was touching, even though he didn't believe the medium was the real thing, he let his mother keep her around. He was never cruel to any of the main characters, which I found to be a refreshing change from the norm in historical romances.

Even though there are a lot of romance novels out there, many don't contain true romance, but this novel was an exception. The moments between the hero and heroine were breathtakingly romantic, not simply an exchange of passionate kisses and bold caresses. The reader can feel the deep connection and love between these two characters. Instead of spending all their time kissing, they actually talked to one another, building a foundation for a deep and strong love. I enjoy reading about characters who converse in a story, it helps draw in more emotion from the reader and makes their confession of love more plausible. I'm not usually one for a mystery in a romance novel, but I felt Camp did a great job weaving it into this story. The mystery never overpowered the novel, it simply complemented the romance between Stephen and Olivia. I was pleased with the novel as a whole and I can find no real faults with it. The storyline was fresh and original as were the characters, the secondary characters never overpowered the storyline, and all the events in the novel fit together perfectly. This is definitely going on my 'keeper' shelf.

In hopes of stealing a couple of hours of uninterrupted reading time, I had ridden along with my husband to a meeting. It was a beautiful late summer evening and I opted to stay in the car. I opened by purse, and guess what? No book- I had left it on my nightstand! Disappointed and frustrated, I found a neighborhood drug store and picked up "Mesmerized".

Normally, I do not enjoy historical romances. However, I'm always drawn to ghost stories with in minutes, I was "Mesmerized". The characters were delightful. The plot was well thought out and quite wonderful. I literally couldn't "put it down". And now that I've finished it, I'm rather sad. It's been far too long since I've enjoyed a book this much! Now all I need to do is find another treasure like this one!

I read this book after I slogged through Beyond Compare. This was head and shoulders above that one. I couldn't put this one down. The characters were so much more appealing and the ghost part was especially heartwarming to read. The author really did a great job of keeping the characters likable which I felt she missed in Beyond Compare. I got my copy of Mesmerized at a used bookstore and thought I would skim through it and then re- sell it (I couldn't unload Beyond Compare fast enough!). I was pleasantly surprised to find that it is a great read and will end up on my keeper shelf.