marriage of inconvenience
For the buttonedup duke!
Bound by convention, William Calthorpe, Duke of Aylsham, is in search of a suitable bride to help raise his half siblings.
Despite his methodical approach to finding such a lady, he stumblesquite literallyinto freethinking and rebellious bishops daughter Verity Wingate.
And when they find themselves stranded overnight on a tiny island, compromising them completely, he knows exactly what he must do As Usual an Engaging Read
A new series by Louise Allen, and without a doubt it was interesting, and entertaining read, which as usual is well written.
Verity and Will are the central characters in this story and True love never runs smooth, Verity along with her four friends are independent young ladies, who are attempting to fend off marriage for as long as possible.
Verity who is usually in no doubt of being forced into marriage by her doting father, the retired Bishop Wingate, is unfortunately, put into a very difficult position by Will's The Duke of Alysham's unthinking siblings, and so the struggle to prevent an enforced marriage begins.
An old 'flame' of Verity's raises his head, thinking he has the upper hand, but soon receives his comeuppance
The plot is entertaining, with the majority of the characters likeable, those that aren't are dealt with favourably.
I would thoroughly recommend this book and I look forward to the next book, Hes nicknamed Lord Appropriate. She is anything but. So its highly inconvenient for both of them when William, the Duke of Aylsham, and Verity Wingate, unconventional daughter of a retired bishop, find themselves reluctantly attracted to each other and much worse when Williams interfering younger siblings arrange for a compromise which leaves William no choice but to offer for Veritys hand!
It never even occurs to Will that Verity will refuse him, until she does exactly that.
Hes forced to take a step back and examine himself, really think about why and what he has to do to change her mind when he realises his feelings are very much engaged.
Veritys very lucky in that her father has a great deal of faith in her and allows her what is, for the era, basically unlimited freedom in both her movements and her choices.
She did come off as somewhat reckless especially when a past indiscretion came to light and threatened to derail everything and I also found her rather quick to jump to conclusions.
She made a lot of incorrect assumptions about Wills treatment of his siblings based on absolutely no evidence so far as I could tell.
And her stubborn refusal to accept Wills proposal even though she already understood how decent he was made me think less of her.
Theres determination to control your own destiny and then theres not recognising when your decisions have serious consequences for other people and Verity definitely slipped over into the latter.
Though I enjoyed this especially Wills younger siblings I did find Verity a bit obnoxious at times.
Ill give this four, This certainly did not read like a book by a prolific romance writer, This would have been a more interesting story without the instalust, There were moments when the story took off and came to a halt due to lust, H/h thought about it a lot with some heavy duty kissing, The Duke kept up an inner monologue that was wearisome, After an introduction to Verity's interest in antiquarian bones, not much else was said about it,
I did like her father, he was interesting, And the Duke's siblings were funny, And as if there wasn't enough going on, there was an extra villian thrown in at the end.
It was too steamy, which lost it an extra star, DNF atCan I just say I absolutely love Verity, She like all the other women could have bow downed to stupid patriarchy and yet the badass of a woman knew her worth didn't question her worth or choices.
I also love Will for his sense of duty and his honesty, Enjoyed this even though it was predictable, But the writing was good and I think the rest of the series has a lot of potential.
I really enjoyed the cast of characters in this, The story is set inGreat Staning Dorset,
William Calthorpe stumbles across Verity Wingate,
The pace is a little slow,
Towards the end, there is a puff of steam, Who knew ASDA was a good place to find books And for cheap And where I found my first romance novel and read it on the plane before finishing it at home.
Ive been aware of Mills amp Boon of the Harlequin romance novel publishing company for a while, but never have seen their books in person so to see it in a supermarket of all places was wonderful to see.
AND IT WAS CHEAP! JUSTPOUNDS! I HAD TO TAKE IT!
This was a nice read.
Its not badly written I think Mills amp Boons are higher quality than the usual fare, even by the quality of their nice pocket sized paperbacks and the characters are very of that time yet clearly not of it in the most usual way.
Verity is very much the Modern Woman TM of that time yet ahead of it with her interests and Duke Will yes I will call him that for funsies is all uptight and ridged like a man of that time would usually be, especially with the package he is carrying that can be taken many ways.
Enjoy!. Veritys and Duke Wills chemistry and interactions are the best parts of the book and the tension reading this to when they will do the inevitable makes you want to turn the page, because that is mainly the reason you are reading this book in the first place.
They are well written both and you can see as to why they would not be perfect for one another in the beginning, but at the end they are clearly meant for one another I hardly think saying that is a shocker.
I mean cmon.
Then there is the setting of the Regency, Surprisingly even for me the setting was well established, same as the rules of society and what would happen if you broke them.
There is the use I think, but I am notsure of the period slang and the writing does go on in to details like court dresses and clothes mostly when its about taking them off and they read good for that time.
So historically this does cut good as well, So a very delightful read and all in all swoonworthy story filled with characters we know will change and how they will, but there are some twists and reason in this Regency romance.
Decent enough beginning but once she was thoroughly compromised and refused to accept his proposal it seemed like it was just to keep it going.
.stars.Sweet and fun. Trevlig lättsam när man som jag just nu enbart ville ha avkoppling, Librarian Note: There is than one author in the GoodReads database with this name, sitelink See this thread for information, This author also writes under the name sitelink Francesca Shaw, I have had my nose buried in a history book fact or fiction for as long as I can remember, but even important to me are the places and the objects that conjure up the past.
My first attempt at historical fiction at the age of eight was three pages of improbable medieval drama set in the local castle.
With a degree in geography and archaeology I love to try and read the landscape and the buildings in it for clues about the past.
Virtually any place can trigger ideas for plots, but I am particularly inspired by Venice, Burgundy, Mediterranean islands and Librarian Note: There is than one author in the GoodReads database with this name.
sitelink See this thread for information, This author also writes under the name sitelink Francesca Shaw, I have
had my nose buried in a history book fact or fiction for as long as I can remember, but even important to me are the places and the objects that conjure up the past.
My first attempt at historical fiction at the age of eight was three pages of improbable medieval drama set in the local castle.
With a degree in geography and archaeology I love to try and 'read' the landscape and the buildings in it for clues about the past.
Virtually any place can trigger ideas for plots, but I am particularly inspired by Venice, Burgundy, Mediterranean islands and the Hertfordshire and Norfolk countryside.
I live in England in a village in Bedfordshire with my long suffering husband, He is not sure whether to be flattered or alarmed to be told he is the inspiration for all my romantic heroes! Whenever possible we escape to our cottage on the North Norfolk coast where Percy, the bossy pheasant, allows us to share the garden.
My resolution every time I start on a new plot is to plan it carefully, make copious notes first and write lots of drafts in a disciplined and orderly manner.
What inevitably happens is that the story starts to write itself in my head until it gets completely out of control meanwhile my study floor becomes a sea of open books, prints and maps and I am found sitting in the car at traffic lights, muttering dialogue.
At that point I have to start writing, knowing full well that the hero and heroine are going to take over and sabotage all my attempts at discipline.
It is, after all, their story, sitelink.