While on her way to be a poor relation in her cousin's household, she made the mistake of wandering off when her cousin didn't show up at the coaching inn, and consequently got lost. Overhearing the thugs (named Filey and Monks), Grace discovers they believe her to be a prostitute.

The marquess of whom? Where is she? How did she get there? To Campbell's credit, this opening scene is a grabber for how legitimately frightening it is. One of them paws her a bit, but is warned off by the other, who says she's intended for the marquess. She overhears two thugs coarsely describing her physical assets. The novel opens just as our heroine, Grace, wakes up from a drugged sleep to find herself strapped to a table. Frankly, I thought having an isolated hero who has to learn about women for the first time to be a great idea, so I picked up Untouched and gave it a try. I'm used to romance heroes being totally oversexed Dukes of Slut, or at least Gold Medalists in the Orgasm Olympics, but with Anna Campbell's Untouched (her second novel after Claiming the Courtesan), our hero's not only a virgin, but a man who has been isolated from women and society in general for eleven years. The Word: I picked this book up because the hero sounded intriguing. Matthew: Enough of your martyring! We're getting married! Grace: This novel needs about twenty pages of last minute conflict - just run with it! Grace: I love you too - but WE CAN NEVER BE. Matthew: Wow, you're pretty - I mean WHORE! He doesn't want to give in and let his uncle win, but Grace is just so darn pretty! The Rub: After failing to escape for a third time, Matthew realizes that Grace's enforced presence on the estate is his uncle's attempt to get him to surrender and accept his captivity. Ever since, he's kept Matthew imprisoned on an isolated estate and bribed unscrupulous doctors to maintain Matthew's lunacy.

After catching a brain fever at the age of fourteen, Matthew was declared insane by his grasping uncle Lord John, who then gained control of the Landsdowne fortune. The Dude: Matthew Landsdowne, Marquess of Sheene. And Lord Sheene, thinking she's his uncle's spy, wants nothing to do with her. The Rub: Lord Sheene's 'guardian' Lord John informs her that if she can't lure Sheene into her bed by the end of the week, her days are numbered. Penniless and recently widowed, she's drugged and kidnapped by brutal thugs and wakes up on a secluded country estate, where she's informed her task is to entertain and pleasure its imprisoned occupant, the supposedly insane Lord Sheene.

Untouched by anna campbell