Shy Belinda Presleigh has been pushed into the background all her life. She's also been in love with Richard Branston, Earl of Berrington, since she was 13. When she is trapped in a compromising situation with him by her mother, she refuses to turn down the opportunity to marry him. Little does she realize she may not only be sacrificing her happiness, but her life as well.

FORCED OFFER left me with mixed emotions. While it succeeded at whetting my appetite for another story focused on specific secondary characters, there are some historical inaccuracies and the hero and heroine would have benefited from a more in-depth characterization. (Mar., 216 pp., $14.95)

—Susan Mobley