Merely a Marriage
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4.7 • 3 Ratings
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- $7.99
Publisher Description
The New York Times bestselling author of The Viscount Needs a Wife returns with another roguishly delicious Regency romance...
As England mourns the death of Princess Charlotte, Lady Ariana Boxstall has another succession in mind. Her brother, Norris, is a strapping young man, but he’s also happily unmarried and childless. Norris agrees to take a wife on one condition: that Ariana take a husband first. Although she realizes she risks a lifetime in a loveless marriage, for the sake of her family, Ariana accepts his challenge.
When the Earl of Kynaston met Ariana eight years ago, he broke her heart. Since then, his own heart has been broken, and he’s sworn off love...until he sees Ariana all grown-up and his resolve is threatened.
Could Ariana’s bargain with Norris actually lead her to happiness? With real love on the line, she must win over the one man who refuses to be had.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
Beverley's Regency romance touches on an important historical event, the childbed death of Princess Charlotte, but never makes it feel real. Princess Charlotte's tragedy leads everyone to confront mortality, including Lady Ariana Boxstall, who fears the demise of her family's earldom if her younger brother, Norris, does not marry and procreate immediately. Norris, who's not in any hurry, challenges Ariana to marry first, which sets her on a quest to London in search of a suitor. When she first debuted in London at the age of 17, Ariana felt awkward and Amazonian compared to the delicate other debutantes. Eight years later, she's more self-assured, but she spends an inordinate amount of time seeking tall men and considering her own height. The widowed Earl of Kynaston is likewise obsessed with death; he remembers Ariana warmly, but he refuses to risk his heart, which shattered when his wife died. Longtime Beverley readers will appreciate small cameos from her Company of Rogues series characters, but they'll be disappointed that Ariana and Kynaston's story moves rather slowly, propelled by a minor scandal that's resolved too neatly.
