Penelope Ashford, the administrator of the Foundling Home and the daughter of a Viscount, takes upon herself to investigate the disappearance of the boys. More time in the book is actually given to the murder/kidnapping story where various young orphan boys are kidnapped before being taken to a Foundling Home in order to be trained as Burglar's Boys. This was a really enjoyable story with two major threads, a major and a minor romance and a murder/kidnapping mystery with an unusual mix of characters from different social levels in society. What a coincidence that the stunning and intelligent Penelope shows up at Barnaby's door just when he is sitting alone in his parlor nursing a brandy and deciding what to do with his life that was once exciting and As soon as she knocks on his door late one night she realizes that she is drawn to the handsome and intelligent Barnaby, and is more thrilled when she realizes he understands, respects and is not judgmental about her school, intelligence and involvement in social causes.
Her feelings about love, passion, and even marriage begin to change a bit after four boys due to arrive at the school show up missing and she considers asking the third son of a nobleman, Barnaby Adair, well-known for solving mysterious cases of the ton, to consider helping her find these boys. A beauty, but considered a bluestocking and a bit overwhelming to many gentlemen of the ton, Penelope has been dedicated to her work and has never thought of marrying, believing she would never be able to find the type of true love other Cynster women have found, especially in her unique position of running the school and having a rare intelligence and deep calling for social justice. Now after marrying Simon and running a house and having children of her own, the responsibility of the school has been turned over to Penelope, Portia's sister. Portia Cynster started a Foundling School for Orphans that aids poor orphans after the death of their only living relative, which was the focus of another Cynster novel and mentioned in some of the others. In this book we see how the other side lives.
During this period there were those that suffered while others lived lives of leisure. Now she entertains and educates readers further with her knowledge of what it is like behind the glittering ballrooms, gentlemen clubs, shining ladies in silks and rogues outfitted in Hessians and superfine. No one knows the Regency Period and 19th century more than Stephanie Laurens especially when she wrote a few Cynster novels with storylines about the rare and extremely interesting horse racing world that took place during the period. Those will always remain favorites for romance fans and collectors. That is not to say that Stephanie Lauren's most recent book is not extremely well-written with characters of depth, it is just that after a while the whole Cynster mystique gets diluted so much down the line of cousins and siblings of Cynster relations that the reader now has to expect something different and this story is different, not close to the original fabulous Cynster novels that were written early on.
Cynster fans, looking for a story like the earlier passionate and heart stopping handsome Cynster males sensually pursuing strong beautiful ladies, made-to-be Cynster brides, may be left just a bit disappointed. Where the Heart Leads is considered the 15th book in the Cynsters Family Saga, and although the Casebook of Barnaby Adair is mentioned on the cover, that is the true nature of the book.
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