The Accidental Countess
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5.0 • 1 Rating
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- $21.99
Publisher Description
Bestselling author Valerie Bowman sets the stage in Regency England for her Playful Brides series, where couples' misadventures on the way to the altar are witty, romantic romps based on some of the world's most beloved plays. The second entry, The Accidental Countess, is inspired by Oscar Wilde's The Importance of Being Earnest.
CAN A SCANDALOUS CHARADE
For seven long years, Lady Cassandra Monroe has waited for the man of her dreams to return from the war. Unfortunately, he happens to be engaged to her flighty cousin. What Cass wouldn't give to take her cousin's place! When he mistakes Cass for Patience Bunbury, a fictitious friend her cousin has invented to escape social obligations...even with her future husband, Cass thinks this is her chance.
LEAD TO TRUE AND LASTING LOVE?
After defeating Napoleon at Waterloo, Captain Julian Swift is not quite ready to settle down and enter into his unwanted arranged marriage-especially when the real object of his affection turns out to be a beguiling beauty he meets at a party. Patience Bunbury is witty, independent, passionate...and, unbeknownst to him, the cousin of his current fiancée. When the truth about Cass comes out-and Julian discovers that their courtship is anything but accidental-will he surrender his heart to a woman who really is too good to be true?
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
Bowman draws on the identity confusion capers of Oscar Wilde's The Importance of Being Ernest in the charming second entry in her Playful Brides Regency series (after The Unexpected Duchess). Capt. Julian Swift, an untitled second son who served in the Napoleonic wars, returns to London in the autumn of 1815. Cassandra Monroe has been exchanging heartfelt correspondence with him, and a deep emotional connection has grown between them, but Julian is intended to be betrothed to Cass's cousin, Penelope. When an unenthusiastic Penelope uses a house party with the fictional Patience Bunbury to evade meeting Julian, Cass decides to boldly adopt the persona of Patience in order to spend time with her beloved pen pal. Antics ensue. Readers who are frustrated by Cass's initial passivity and the contrivances and coincidences demanded by the story's source material will be rewarded by Bowman's depiction of the intimate caring connecting between Cass and Julian.
