I won this in a GOODREADS giveaway. ( )

Jesus, what a missed angst opportunity! This had all the makings of a 4.5 star book! I was starting to worry about how the Big Conflict was going to be handled and resolved when I had read 80% of the book and the other shoe hadn't dropped, giving enough time for angst and feelings and groveling and making up. Granted, if Eliza's inner monologue after she learned of Hugh's deception had focused on how he said he loved her AFTER it was advantageous to him - they were already married and the deal totally done - then her easy acceptance that he loved her despite his lies and betrayal might have been more plausible. Instead, we have a heroine confronting a hero about his egregious deception from the beginning of their acquaintance, and the hero blames everything on her father and storms out. And she just runs off to yell at her father because she's angry that he put Hugh up to it! Where is the groveling??? Where is the heroine's pain at realizing her entire romance was based on a lie?? She rationalizes his actions and forgives him before he even finds her to apologize! Also, when Hugh confronts Cross after Eliza, he says "I was never after her dowry," as if he was somehow different from the fortune hunters who had pursued Eliza before. The only reason he hadn't previously thought of her and her dowry when contemplating marrying was because she was so far beneath him socially! He would never have agreed to Cross' manipulations if there wasn't a payoff in the end! He hardly gets to pretend superiority on that count. And Elia just immediately capitulates when he shows up. Ugh. Still, I loved both the main characters, especially the plain heroine with a heart of gold, so I did enjoy it. (3.5 stars) ( )

I suppose I was expecting the story to give the background not covered in the previous book and then quickly pick up at the point where it had left off. I might have enjoyed the journey getting to there more if I had known that that would very nearly be the ending point of this book as well, and not 'when the real journey would begin' or something. Also, I ended up feeling a little bit disappointed with the hero. I wanted to like him, but he kept receiving opportunities to show true character and then kind of flubbing them. Taking the coward's way out of a sticky situation, or mishandeling conflict. He wasn't bad, but I just couldn't really put much faith in him. And I don't hold his major deception against him, it's practically the whole premise of the book, it was other stuff added on top of that. Staying out on his wedding night, (I'm not sure he ever even apologized for it) was super inconsiderate Or pretty much leaving her to fend for herself with his family. At one point he thinks that deflowering the heroine would insure that the marriage proceeded, and then he *does* that. (He and her father had already been sort of using her as an unknowing pawn, but it seemed especially callous to use *that* in his machinations). And then when he took the handkerchief with her blood on it and said something about it being 'proof she was his', I was honestly afraid that her father might threaten to back out and that he genuinely *would* produce it as evidence that it was too late or something! (Her father didn't try, so we can't know for certain how he would have played his cards in that situation, but I hate to even *think* such a thing of a hero, especially after he'd developed feelings for her, and so late in the book! I ended up liking the heroine though, she was very sweet and open hearted. And she seemed especially reasonable as well, given all the trying circumstances. ( )

Eliza’s father is a wealthy untitled businessman and wants his daughter to have the very best and has arranged a marriage for her, unbeknownst to her. He has picked an Earl, young, handsome and swimming in debt left to him by his father and proposed an agreement that he would cover all his debts if he would court and marry his daughter. She must not know of the arrangement and she should be courted. Hugh (the Earl) is resentful but is desperate and as he gets to know Eliza he realizes how kind and wonderful she is and slowly starts falling in love with her. There are family introductions and snubs before it’s all sorted out for the HEA. ( )

I am loving this series!

Hugh and Eliza are a wonderful couple. Though they get together originally for all the wrong reasons--unbeknownst to Eliza, unfortunately--it's hard to imagine that they would have found each other any other way (and even if they had met somehow, that Hugh would have truly noticed her anyway--he even admits this to himself at one point) so it's hard to hate her father *too* much. Hugh truly does have his heart in the right place--the ways he can help his mother and sisters are very limited and the alternate method he'd come up with by himself just wasn't going to have the same effect (though OMG, man, you should have admitted to them the situation your father left you all in much sooner than you did!)

Reading this story is like reading an unusually romantic train wreck--you love the characters, hate the deception behind them being together, and know disaster is coming and just can't stop reading until the HEA is achieved. I can't wait to see what Ms. Linden has in store for the rest of the series!

Rating: 4 1/2 stars / A

I voluntarily reviewed an Advance Reader Copy of this book. ( )