At the Duke's Wedding

At the Duke's Wedding R

"That Rogue Jack" by Maya Rodale
Jack Willoughby is a unrepentant and irresponsible rake while Miss Henrietta Black is the penniless and far too proper companion to cantankerous old Lady Sonophria. Jack has been tasked with bringing the family heirloom ring to the Duke of Wessex's wedding and the Duchess has been pressuring Henrietta to ensure its' safety. When she realizes Jack has lost the ring, she is furious, but the two embark on an adventure to find it. While the females are busy planning the wedding, and the men are busy admiring Jack's new pheaton, Henrietta and Jack, are trying to piece together his memories of his trip to Kingstag Castle in an attempt to locate the ring. Jack's happy attitude helps Henrietta loosen the constraints she has placed on herself. Luckily the two find the ring just in the nick of time, and in the process find that they are perfect for each other.

While I liked Henrietta finally coming into her own, I had a problem with the fact that her sense of responsibility was portrayed as something that needed to be fixed with the help of a very irresponsible man. Jack was just too much for me to handle because he didn't seem to care about anything and I could not really understand how he and Henrietta would really have a happy future together. They were too different, and he was so obviously not ready for a real relationship or anything that required him to focus and care about something than his own happiness. I would give this 2 hearts for funny times but an incomprehensible relationship.

"P.S. I Love You" by Miranda Neville
Frank Newnham enlists his cousin, Christian's, help in wooing lady Roseanne Lacy by letter as Frank is not precisely a wordsmith. As Christian and Roseanna exchange letters, Christian develops feelings for the intelligent and observant young lady and refuses to write more letters. Roseanne wonders what happened to the articulate and funny who wrote her letters when they became less interesting, but she hopes to find out at the Duke of Wessex's wedding. She is shocked when she finds herself far more interested in Frank's brooding cousin, but continues to be confused about what is happening. Christian is determined not to ruin his cousin's happiness, but it is increasingly clear that Roseanne is perfect for him.

I loved this case of mistaken identity and how Christian and Roseanne began their relationship via letters and fell in love that way. Christian was an amazing brooding hero, and the scarred face, made him positively swoon worthy, while his loyalty to his cousin was admirable. Although it took Roseanne a little long to figure everything else, I was rooting for these two from the beginning and liked reading every scene these two had together, including a very passionate kiss that burned up the pages. I would give this little short story 5 hearts and highly recommend this and other Neville books to anyone.

"When I Met My Duchess" by Caroline Linden
Gareth Cavendish, the Duke of Wessex, is preparing for his wedding to the beautiful and perfect bride, until he meets her vibrant and outspoken older sister and his plans are thrown on their head. Cleo Barrows is widowed and runs her husband's fabric shop while supporting her disapproving parents. Gareth knows he has made a mistake, but his honor demands he follow through on his promises, while Cleo would never do anything to hurt her sister. The two are thrown together during the preparation and it becomes harder for them to deny what is happening between them.

I loved this little short story as well; I think I just have a soft spot for stories where the characters have to risk hurting others to find love and find that it is worth it. Gareth was the wonderful, honorable, if not fully developed hero and Cleo was the outgoing and independent woman who is all wrong for him in the best possible way. The two aren't together that much, but what time they are together makes it clear that they are perfect for each other. The ending to this one was wonderful and of course everything turned out the only way it could have. I would rate this short story 4 hearts and really wish this had been a full length novel.

"How Angela Got Her Rogue Back" by Katharine Ashe
Angela Cowdrey is a graduate student in Michigan writing a baby about a huge scandal that took place in England 150 years ago and trying to figure out what caused a man to expose the huge secret he had been keeping. One day she falls into a lake and wakes up in England and meets a very handsome Lord Trent Ascot, whose own family is currently being sucked into the very scandal that Angela is investigating in the future. Angela confides in Trent and he reveals that he is a closeted artist and his pictures show a strong resemblance to ones Angela saw in a comic book shop. She simultaneously flirts with Trent and tries to do some investigating that will help her with her graduate paper. Unfortunately once her mystery is solved she is transported back to the future and despite her best efforts she can't seem to return to the past and to Trent. Finally Trent remembers that it was his drawing that helped Angela find him so he takes up a pen and begins to draw and once again Angela is in his arms.

This was a time traveling modern/ historical romance which is definitely not my cup of tea, but I still enjoyed reading it. I did not like that the book really seemed to be pushing the idea that Angela's life was not fulfilling despite all of her success and what she really needed to be happy was to go back to a "simpler" time and find a man. I was uninterested in the investigation she was involved in because it was ridiculous and sounded generally unimportant. I did enjoy the relationship between Angela and Trent and the relationships they both had with other characters; Trent's with his younger siblings and Angela's with other members of the wedding party. This story featured far more sex than the other stories in the book and it was fairly hot for such a short story. I rate this story 3 hearts because I did enjoy parts of it, but also had some difficulties with some of what the story seemed to be implying about Angela.

Love and Other Scandals

Love and Other Scandals by Caroline Linden

Tristan, Viscount Bourke, is friends with Douglas Bennett even though Douglas' mother disapproves, and he and Joan Bennett, Douglas' sister, run into each other several times throughout the years. At 24 Joan is firmly on the shelf and per her mother's request she goes to coerce her brother into attending a ball in the hopes that he will find a wife. She runs into Tristan who is staying with Douglas while his house is repaired and is immediately horrified at the virago who storms into the house. She blackmails and manipulates the hungover Douglas before turning her sights on Tristan and he can't help but admire her. They next meet at a bookseller where Joan is secretly trying to buy a very scandalous pamphlet but upon seeing him she leaves and he purchases it for her, not knowing what it is. At a ball he returns her book to her and discovers that The Fury, as he calls her, has quite a little secret. Everybody notices that the most scandalous man of the ton has taken an interest in the ton's most infuriating spinster, including Joan's controlling mother who entreats Joan to refuse any attempts of Tristan to court her.

When Joan's mother is struck by an illness her parents go out of town leaving her in the care of very scandalous Aunt and Douglas goes to a family estate after asking Tristan to "look out" for Joan. Tristan takes the call to heart and begins to call on Joan, taking her on a balloon ride and finding that he can confide in her about the death of his parent and growing up as an orphan. She realizes that the happy and scandalous facade he presented was merely to cover up the hurt inside and to make himself likable. She learns about his unhappy childhood with a bitter aunt and cousins who resented him because he would inherit the title one day. Joan does not know if Tristan ever plan to marry but she knows that she wants one night to remember, but when her parents come rushing into town after hearing the rumors. Suddenly Tristan and Joan's relationship is thrust into the spotlight and they realize that they are in love.

Tristan and Joan had a very contentious relationship that basically consisted entirely of them arguing, bantering, trying to one-up the other, and trying to annoy the other. This is something found in a lot of romance novels and it is something that I despise. I want to see characters who like each other, who enjoy being with the other and even though they apparently like arguing with each other, I could not get behind their relationship. Joan was an overly talkative young woman who was far too fearful of her mother for my taste and it made her seem very immature and incapable of holding her own. Tristan's past as an orphan who had to live with a hateful relative drew me in but was not really developed enough for my taste. They did spend a lot of time together, both in large group settings, in secret meeting, and just the two of them and not all of them were completely contentious. There were some fun times between them, especially the hot air balloon.

They were supposedly extremely attracted to each other, and their arguing was apparently a sign of that, but the book did not have a lot of sexual heat in it. There were a few little kissing scenes but only one scene where they actually had sex and it was far from hot. It was bland and boring and I just did not feel it. Their relationship just did not seem to be built on anything lasting; they didn't really seem to like each other and they didn't have a ton of sex so really nothing there. The writing was fast and it took me almost no time to get through it, and not just because I was hoping that something I liked would happen. I know that Linden can do better than this and hope that in the future she writes characters capable of carrying on a real conversation and engaging in some extremely hot sex.

Rating: Rather boring characters really who argued FAR too much and did not have nearly enough sex to make this very fast read enjoyable.

I Love the Earl

I Love the Earl by Caroline Linden 1115

Margaret de Lacey has accepted her life of quiet spinsterhood, living with her brother Francis, a modestly well off merchant. Their world is turned upside down when Francis very unexpectedly inherits the Dukedom Durham and they are both thrust into society. Almost as a joke Francis settles an enormous dowry on Margaret that makes her much sought after by everyone in the ton, especially the fortune hunters. Rhys Corwin, Marques of Dowling is in desperate need of an heiress after his father and then his guardian squandered his money before he inherited and then a freak flood drowned the entire flock of sheep he was hoping to rebuild his fortune on. Margaret knows Rhys' game and has no intention of falling for it and from the very first set down she issues him Rhys knows that that Margaret is the only woman for him.

Rhys sets out to win Margaret's hand by befriending her friends and "appearing" everywhere she is and he maneuvers them into private setting as often as possible. Margaret begins to warm to Rhys, and it does not hurt that she is immensely attracted to him, and she realizes that she can not fault a man for being poor, especially in Rhys' situation. She is especially won over as the two of them discuss how he, how THEY, will spend her dowry once they are married and Margaret is able to place herself in his life and see that they will work so well as a married couple. Neither are prepared for her brother's reaction as he refuses to condone the marriage and threatens to withhold Margaret's much needed and anticipated dowry. Both of them work together to decide how they will make their life work and realize that as long as they have each other, and their love for each other, they will be fine.

This book is very short, only 144 written pages, and I am beginning to realize that there are some major advantages to a shortened historical romance. The first important aspect was that there was no big misunderstanding or any sort of misunderstanding. They met, they had words, and they slowly began to get to know each other and fall in love. There was no time for any betrayals or any behavior, on either of their parts, that made me cringe, and there were no mystery side plots what not that would poor me or take away from the romance. The romance between them was the entire focus of the book and I feel that Linden did an amazing job with such a short amount of space. While Rhys' immediate attraction to Margaret over her taunts was a bit odd, they spent a lot of time together and I felt like their love was really natural and flowed.

I liked that Margaret was a more mature heroine and that she was genuinely satisfied with her life, not just pretending, but wasn't about to turn down a happier future than she had envisioned. Rhys was amazing, I'm half in love with him myself, because his very moving conversations about how he would spend Margaret's dowry made it so clear that he wanted her in his life and that her dowry was just an added bonus that he would use to enrich THEIR lives together. There was some sex in the novel, it was very loving and pretty hot and it fit really well in the story. Francis was an interesting side character and the problem that he caused for the relationship was perfect because there did need to be a little conflict at the end and he provided it in a way that made the relationship stronger and really pointed out to the reader that Margaret and Rhys worked so well together.

Rating: A very good novella that showcases some of the best aspects of romance novels with two amazing characters who just meshed so well with each other.

A View to Kiss

A View to Kiss by Caroline Linden 622

Mariah is the beautiful and well-loved daughter of the Earl of Dorcester, who has made quite a name for himself in politics. The family has returned from years of travel and Mariah is thrust on the social scene to find a husband, and while her parents will leave the decision to her, Mariah is horrified to find that the men of the ton bore her. Harry Sinclair works for the crown as a spy and his latest job is to keep an eye on three men whom the government believes could be targets of discontents. So Harry dons several disguises while he discreetly follows the Earl of Dorcester around London, including that of Sir Henry Wroth, an elderly gentleman with a hunchback and a naughty sense of humor. At one of her parents balls, Mariah escapes the crows out on the balcony where she runs into a mystery man who tempts her and intrigues her like no man she has met. Harry knows that Mariah is far above him and that he should not be trifling with her, but he cannot stop himself from flirting with the beautiful and intelligent young woman, but he leaves before giving her his name.

More determined than ever to find out who he is, she enlists the help of her cousin and her mother, even while she doesn't reveal the entire story. Harry cannot resist and finds himself sneaking into Mariah's window at midnight to spend time with her and during these interludes he tells her about himself while still maintaining his anonymity. He begins to wonder what is going on with his latest mission because it does not seem like his usual protection business and he is proven right when he confronts his superior to discover that the men he is following, including Mariah's father, are possible traitors to the crown. Mariah realizes that Sir Henry Wroth is her Harry and sets out trying to spend every second possible with him, even while Harry is trying to keep his distance because he feels like he is not worthy of Mariah. But then Harry finds out that the Earl, and possibly Mariah, are in danger from the real traitors and when he intervenes he is thrust into Mariah's sights and she has no intention of ever letting him go; she just needs to convince Harry that they belong together.

This book languished on my bookshelves for awhile because I have not had much luck with Linden's spy novels, even while I have loved her other books. Mariah was rather one-dimensional I felt like and I couldn't really find anything about her that set her apart or made her special and I just felt like I didn't get much of anything from her. She was bored by the men of the ton, but I could not see why they weren't just as bored with her because I certainly was. Harry was a little better because we were given some interesting background about his family, but I feel like an interesting family history isn't really enough to make him interesting. I guess Mariah was drawn to him because he met her on dark terraces and in her bedroom in the dark because I didn't see what else there could have been. The two spent very little time together in the book and that very little time was secretive, furtive, and over incredibly quickly. I don't understand how either of them could feel like they knew the other well enough to fall in love. I really wanted these two to have had more time together- maybe that would have made them more interesting.

The majority of the book was taken up by her trying to find out who Harry was or thinking about how she wished she knew who Harry was and by him doing his spy job and trying to convince himself to stay away from Mariah. Really, that does not make a very interesting book and I will say again that I was so disappointed in the very stingy amount of time these two spent together. There were a few kissing scenes that got a little heated, but the only actual sex came at the very end and by then I was just eager for the book to be over and it was not that hot at all. Both of their families were interesting and I thought that her family was particularly well written because they were traditionalists but still were really just looking out for the best interests of their child. The spy plot was interesting at first, but when the romance completely stagnated I got frustrated that the spy plot was progressing while the relationship wasn't. I was able to guess what was going on before Harry and I just wanted to slap him for not seeing it too, and I wish that it had taken a backseat to more romantic developments.

Ratings: The book had a nice flow and writing style, but there was little romantic development and far too much spying in a book where neither character was able to pull me in.

You Only Love Once

You Only Love Once by Caroline Linden 1109

Nathaniel Avery goes to London to apprehend the man who stole money from the Port of New York and left his godfather, who was responsible for the money, in dire straights. He wants to go through the proper channels so he asks Lord Selwyn who refers him to Mr. Stafford, who runs a ring of spies for the government. Stafford calls on his trusted agent, Angelique Marton, whose family had been killed in the revolution and only escaped France with the help of her mother's maid. She is still angry about the terror that overtook the country and originally started spying to prevent something similar from happening in England, but even she admits that her way of life has grown tiring. She wants to retire and considers turning down the job, especially when she sees that Nate is going to be quite the distraction on the expedition, but she decides to go out with a bang with this last mission.

Both Nate and Angelique are immensely attracted to each other and it does not take long for them to succumb to lust. But it is clear to both of them that there is more than lust behind their relationship as Angelique wonders if she has finally met someone she can confide her dark past to and he wonders if he has found a woman he won't be bored settling down with. However, Stafford does not trust them to finish their mission as he has tasked Angelique with killing the thief even while Nate wants to bring him back to New York for justice. Suddenly they are fighting thieves and fences, they have some of Britain's best spies after them and both question how important this mission is- or if they would risk everything for the chance to be with the other. It will take some trickery, some dealings with enemies, the help of close friends and a lot of trust and luck for them to make out of this alive and together.

My first thought upon reading this book was how excited I was to read about a female spy, especially one who was so incredibly good at her job. Not the typical romance novel heroine and I was inclined to like this and I also admired her when it was revealed that she was an assassin. Not because I admire assassins but because it really did make her so different and made it so much more wonderful when Nate fell in love with her and had to deal with her past. She didn't think that any man could ever fall in love with her and there were times when I too had a hard time discovering why Nate fell in love with her. Aside from her unique-ness, she wasn't particularly loving or kind, just very capable of taking care of herself and killing other people. I didn't dislike her, but I felt like Linden should have given her some softer qualities so that I could have related to Angelique a little more.

Nate was great (!) because he did see past her tough exterior and she was able to act a little more loving with him than she usually did. His dedication to helping his godfather was admirable and I liked that he tried to be diplomatic about it and really had a streak of wanting to help everyone in him. The two were explosive in bed and also somewhat creative and it led to some very hot steamy scenes between them. Unfortunately the second half of the book was taken up completely overtaken by the plot to catch the thief and escape from Stafford's evil machinations. The plot was interesting and I did start getting into it as the book progressed, but it was not as important to me as the romance that it overwhelmed. It was not particularly exciting, and it really did get to the point where I just wanted to figure out what was going to happen and have it done with.

Rating: The book had some good qualities, but on the whole I did not particularly enjoy it. I find Linden's other historical romances, with less intrigue/ suspense, much better.

A Rake's Guide to Seduction

A Rake's Guide to Seduction by Caroline Linden

This is the third addition to the Reece family romances and our heroine is Celia Reece, younger half- sister to twins Marcus, the Duke of Exeter, and David. Celia is out for her first season and she quickly catches the attention of several eligible young men, and one exceedingly un-eligible man. Anthony Hamilton has been a friend of the Reece family since childhood when he parted ways with his father, the Duke of Lynley. Everyone believes Anthony to be a bastard and he learned quickly to at least appear not to care what anyone else thinks about him. He has courted a reputation as a rake and a gambler and Celia should be terrified him. However one outing on a balcony shows Anthony that with the right incentive he could come to care about someone. He asks Marcus for permission to court Celia but it is already to late and Celia marries Bertram, heir to the Duke of Lansborough. Celia fancies herself in love with Bertie but soon into their marriage she realizes she has made an enormous mistake as Bertie is not who she had thought him to be. Three years later Bertie dies and Celia's mother, Rosalind, comes and takes her back to the family homestead.

Rosalind notices that Celia is very downcast and decides to host a month long house party to get her daughter's spirits up. David invites Anthony and he only decides at the last minute to attend. Celia is no longer the carefree, blushing young woman he remembers. She now has a depth and a level of experience that makes her even more attractive to him. He decides to raise her spirits by sending her annonymous love letters and while at first she is wary, they achieve his desired intentions and Celia guesses the identity of her secret admirer. When she confronts him the two end up in a very compromising position in the library in front of her brothers and several house guests. Celia knows she needs to time to decide if she is ready for another marriage; she had been so sure that Bertie was the one for her and she does not want to make the same mistake. Meanwhile Anthony is worried that he can never be good enough for Celia as there are rumors circulating throughout the ton about his black nature. Celia knows not to believe the gossip but there is someone else who will do anything to keep Celia and Anthony apart.

I rarely get in to series books where past characters show up but from the beginning I knew that I would want to read all the books about the Reece family. I am certainly glad I did as all three of them, and their chosen spouses are very fun and all three books are very well written. This book was no exception in either case. Linden also did a wonderful job balancing Celia's first marriage: Bertie was not a villian but neither was he a loving dead husband. He was a very flawed man and Celia recognized these flaws and her own fault in not recognizing them sooner. Her reflections on her misguided actions in betrothing herself too quickly to her first love were very well done and quite realistic. Anthony is a scandalous rake like many heroines but I liked the backstory involving his family life that made his issues so much "real" than a lot of other romance novel hero complaints. I also really liked how they were really destined for each other but fate stood in their way until together they made a life for themselves possible.

And of course Linden is great at writing inner dialogue and some very amazing emotional scenes in her book. I LOVED the scene where Anthony went to ask Exeter for permission to court Celia only to discover that she was already betrothed to another. It was so poignant and full of just such overwhelming emotions and really gave great insight into Anthony's feelings for Celia. As usual Linden worked some great sex into the story, although it was rather similar to her other books, and I wish there had been more of it.There was also a nice little side romance between Rosalind and the Earl of Warfield, a distant relative of Anthony's, that was very underdeveloped but still very fun to read about. The ending was a tad weird when Celia is kidnapped by a man who had wanted her to marry him as it was not at all developed in the rest of the story and while not completely coming out of left field still felt rather random. It was also wrapped up a little too quickly and neatly for my taste.

Rating: I very much enjoyed this book. It was better than David's story because it definitely had more of the emotion I was looking for. Just did not quite sparkle.

What a Rogue Desires

What a Rogue Desires by Caroline Linden

David Reece is determined to prove that he is not the wastrel that he has been his entire life, and he wants to make up for all the times his brother, the Duke of Exeter, had bailed him out of sticky situations. When the Duke goes on an extended honeymoon, David takes on the Exeter responsibilities including a signet ring his brother has made for him. On his way to London he and his fellow passengers are set upon by highwaymen and his signet ring is stolen from him. The beautiful widow Mrs. Gray, who had attracted David's attention on the beginning, turns out to be in league with the thieves and her job is to fence the stolen merchandise. But David has set out feelers to all the men in the business and it is not long before David is called in to apprehend "Mrs. Gray." David is shocked to discover her identify and even more so that she does not have the ring with her. He is furious, kidnaps her, and locks her up in his house. Mrs. Gray turns out to be Vivian Beechem and Vivien has been living with her brother, Simon, and a gang of thieves headed up by a bully named Flynn.

Needless to say she is not at all happy to find herself locked up in a strange man's house, but she has to admit that she is certainly liking having a full stomach, a warm house, and a nice soft, clean bed to sleep in every night. David finds that all his old rakish friends do not like his new respectability and that everyone in London is betting that he bankrupts his brother's estate. That leaves him with his unlikely house guest for company and he finds himself spending more and more time with Vivien. She tells him her life story and it is not long before he is no longer judging her for the choices she has made and getting back the ring seems almost unnecessary. He delights in taking her to plays and letting her experience all the different opportunities she'd never had before. But when Flynn begins to wear the ring during the robberies while claiming to be the Black Duke, suspicion falls on David. He and Vivien hatch a plan to track down Flynn, get the ring back, and save her brother Simon from a life of crime. This does not go quite as planned and at the end of the day the two end up having to save each other and move past society's rules to find happiness with each other.

I have to admit that I began to wonder if Stockholm Syndrome played a part in Vivian's learning to like David, as really the situation they found themselves in would have certainly leant itself to that. The book kind of skips over some time (most books do) and I wish it could have been more specific into how long she was locked up before he also started taking her into the real world. I didn't hate the kidnap/ lock her up plot as much as I feel like I should have. I guess the nice amenities that came with it kind of made up for it, although I do know that I should say it was horrible and wrong. However it was really enjoyable to read about the joy David found in making Vivien happy: he absolutely loved seeing her face light up at plays, when she said something clever, when she had fun reading a novel, and when she called him on his theatrics. Given where she had grown up Vivien had absolutely no problem telling David straight to his face when he was being self-pitying and needed to get over it. The sex was really good and quite hot, even really spicy at one point, but I wish there had been more build up to it and more of it throughout the book.

The stolen ring plot was very well integrated into the story- it really was the reason for the two for them coming together in the first place really. It did not overpower the romance and the developing relationship between Vivien and David even it really did help to shape it. My problem with this plot was the plan the two of them came up with the capture Flynn and get the ring back: it was really quite ridiculous and made me really wish characters in romance novels would just let the authorities handle things on their own. Basically it was a dumb plan and really it was only a miracle it worked out. I also really enjoyed that David told all of his servants that he was "saving" Vivien from a life of crime as part of his Christian duty to cover up his kidnapping her. It was one of many rather funny parts of this book. After reading "What a Gentleman Wants" I knew I had to read the rest of the books in the series and I am really pleasantly surprised that Linden manages to work Marcus and Hannah's happiness into the story without having the book become a homage to her past works.

Rating: I really enjoyed this book, but I really felt as though there was something lacking in it- I wish there had been more emotion really. I think the book deserves 3 1/2 but I'll give it a three b/c it was not as good as her previous work.

What a Gentleman Wants

What a Gentleman Wants by Caroline Linden

Sarah Preston has been recently widowed and is not looking forward to leaving the vicarage moving herself and her daughter, Molly, back in to her father's house. When Lord David Reece is injured while racing his carriage through her small village she takes him in and tends to his broken wounds. David proposes to Sarah thinking that Sarah will calm him and that the marriage will get Sarah out of her difficult situation but it is not long before he begins panicking about what marriage will mean for his love of gambling, whoring, drinking, and horse racing. He devises a plan to get back at his twin brother, Marcus, for all the times that Marcus has interfered in his life and signs Marcus' name on the register. He packs Sarah and Molly off to his brother's London townhouse and leaves town- after informing the London Times, sending a quick note to Marcus, and dropping by to inform his stepmother and his sister about the marriage. Marcus originally intends to figure out how to stop the marriage, but seeing how happy the marriage has made his female relatives, and discovering that all of London already believes him marriage he decides the easier solution will be to just pretend to be married and then pack her off to the country later.

Sarah is outraged when she discovers what David has done and she originally intends to just leave and go back to the country, but she decides to go along with his plan as the only real solution. What neither expected was that they would find themselves immensely attracted to the other. At first this attraction is only physical but as the two get to know each other Marcus finds himself laughing and enjoying himself for the first time in a long time and Sarah discovers that this taciturn man is actually very caring, sensitive, and quite humorous. Both begin to realize that merely pretending to be married is not enough for them but Marcus fears that because of his responsibilities and his stern upbringing he can never make Sarah happy. Just as things begin to look up for Sarah and Marcus, David returns and brings with him some very sensitive secrets. The men he has been laundering counterfeit money for have come back for repayment and it turns out that someone very close to the family has it out for both brothers. Together Sarah and Marcus have to work together to put down the bad guys and work through the possibility that they can make each other happy for the rest of their lives.

Sarah is quite an amazing characters; she is very strong, she knows what she wants, and she has very real moments of weakness such as when she agrees to marry David. She admits her mistakes and tries to make the best of things while being an utterly devoted mother. Molly is a well-written, slightly more verbal than I expected, four year-old who contributes very well to the plot of the story. Marcus is a very interesting character as he went from a rather stern, unsmiling, controlling patriarch to a man who wants to be happy and wants to find that happiness through a great relationship with Sarah. The best example of his changing is his dealings over a gambling debt that he wants to enforce until Sarah convinces him that doing so will ruin an entirely family. She is a great influence on him and I loved it.Unfortunately I felt that Marcus' "transformation" and the development of their relationship in general, was a little rushed and not really as fleshed out as I would have liked. There were some great scenes between the two of them as they are falling in love, such as the late night tea and the walk in the garden, and they were some of my very favorite parts of the book and I really wanted more of them.

The side plot involving David and the counterfeit money was a great addition to the story and I was on the edge of my seat trying to figure out what would happen. It was briefly mentioned throughout the book so it was not completely out of left field, but it did not overwhelm or detract from the romance or lead to lots and lots of issues and angsty discussions. The sex was great and very steamy but it was admittedly crammed in to less than 20 pages of the book. It was offset somewhat by how great the build up was as these two had quite a few passion filled glances and quite a lot of thinking about how great it would be between them. I also liked how they handled David's role in this relationship, with no one obsessing about how she "chose" David first, as everyone understood that she really only fell back on David because she felt she had no other options. The relationship between David and Marcus is also a really intriguing part of this book as Marcus learns that he can't control his younger brother and he needs to let David suffer through the consequences of his own actions and not constantly bail him out.

Rating: Another book I absolutely loved. I really would have liked more relationship development between Marcus and Sarah but overall a great book. Probably 4 1/2 hearts really.