Much Ado About Margaret
A Novel
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- Pre-Order
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- Expected 22 Oct 2024
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- $15.99
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- Pre-Order
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- $15.99
Publisher Description
Madeleine Roux’s next season in Regency England follows a rebellious writer and the man who risks everything to publish her.
Margaret Arden yearns to live like the passionate and daring women in her novel. The idyllic life at Mosely Cottage with her two younger sisters and mother is fine, but Margaret wants more than the demure and dainty existence she’s known. After a particularly brutal rejection from an annoyingly attractive publisher, Margaret fears being forced into marriage to protect her family if their financial situation doesn’t improve—until her cousin’s glamorous wedding masquerade brings her onto a collision course with scandal, notoriety, and even love.
Captain Bridger Darrow is starting over after fighting for his country. Now home, he is struggling to save his family from destitution and succeed in a new venture of passion: book publishing. It’s all going rather poorly, until he stumbles upon loose pages of an astonishing novel while in attendance at his dearest friend’s wedding. Bridger knows he must publish it. But upon meeting the author, Bridger is stunned to discover that he—she—is a woman, and he has already told her off in grand fashion.
While Bridger is keen to gain her trust and rescind the initial rejection, Margaret can’t help but be skeptical of his intentions. Sparks fly between the two, just as the wedding of the season starts to descend into chaos when a masked dance leads to a case of mistaken identities.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
Mixing the wit of Jane Austen, plot points borrowed from Shakespeare, and distinctly modern sensibilities, Roux's delightful latest Regency (after The Proposition) turns on an eventful wedding weekend. Margaret Arden is determined to publish her novel—despite the harsh critiques of editor Bridger Darrow, who read the first few pages and dismissed the project as "an overwrought examination of whose misplaced giggle at the ball made Mamma beside herself." This makes Bridger the last man Margaret wants to see at her cousin Lane's wedding. But when the pages of Margaret's manuscript go flying out an open window, Bridger's shocked to see how deeply the guests respond to these scattered pages and gives her book another try. The pair bond over their love of all things literary and the weekend is looking up—until Lane's bride-to-be, Ann, is spotted apparently kissing another man, shattering the newlyweds' bliss. Bridger suspects his rascally cousin is somehow involved, and he and Margaret join forces to get to the bottom of the supposed infidelity. Their dialogue sparkles and their chemistry crackles, but Margaret's aunts are determined she should marry for money, which may doom the relationship before it can begin. Readers will adore both ambitious, strong-willed Margaret and brooding softy Bridger. This is a gem.
