When this book was first published by St Martin's Press in New Your and Headline in London, in 1993, it attracted the following notices:* If lavish romantic page-turners set your heart pounding, [this book] could be just the thing to fire up a chilly winter's evening — Irish Voice* A most entertaining romantic read [with] the added interest of its Irish setting. [Macdonald] is an acknowledged expert on the history of the last [=19th] century. It shows in the authentic nature of his writing about old Dublin and environs — Irish Press* ... combines strong characters and a brisk narrative full of trenchant observations about life, love, and the eternal communications problems between the sexes — Publishers Weekly* Talk-talk-talk and much of it bright and appealing — though, overall, the whole is a shade less lively than Macdonald's feisty-lady portraits or the gossipy Hell Hath No Fury — KirkusAnd, of the writer himself:* He is every bit as bad as Dickens – Martin Seymour-Smith