Tired of those perfect, size zero, too-stupid-to-live romance heroines? Good, me too.

Olympia St. Leger is an exiled princess, an innocent who really knows nothing about the big bad world. You've probably encountered such heroines prior to this novel, but rarely do such heroines transform beyond their initial construct. Olympia does.

Sheridan Drake was annoying from the get-go; he already thinks of himself as a hero (though I think he's very much an anti-hero, which is part of the appeal). He knows he's not perfect, but who in the world assigns themselves "hero" as any part of their description. You've probably encountered such fictional men prior to this novel, but rarely do they strive to be any more than what they already are. Sheridan does.

And that's what Laura Kinsale excels at. I didn't expect to like Seize the Fire, but it's now on my "keeper shelf," along with The Shadow and the Star and Flowers from the Storm (also by Kinsale). Kinsale creates beautiful, damaged characters, who live remarkable lives despite the damage they carry around. They strive to be more than their angst, which you can't say about a good many romance novel characters.

Olympia comes into her own in beautiful fashion; she learns to fight for her life, something she's never had to do before. And Sheridan too learns to fight for his own; he is beset by demons but eventually faces them as we all must. We meet two annoying characters who grow into people we can actually care about by book's end.