Hardly a Gentleman
A Novel
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4.5 • 145 Ratings
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- $6.99
Publisher Description
New York Times bestselling author Eloisa James returns to the Accidental Brides series with a romance about a forced marriage between a feisty heroine and a Scottish laird... neither of whom have plans to marry, let alone fall in love.
Desperate after her Season comes to a spectacularly disastrous end, the Honorable Miss Clara Vetry jumps into a carriage hired to take a housekeeper to Scotland.
The laird of Castle CaerLaven has no interest in a wife, especially a love match—but when Caelan sees his new housekeeper, he changes his mind. Marriage to a delectable bookworm strikes him as a perfect arrangement.
To his surprise, Clara refuses his proposal once…and again…yet again.
When her true identity is revealed, and they’re forced to marry, Caelan realizes he has a far more crucial challenge.
He finally has Clara’s hand—but how will he ever win her heart?
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
A lady escaping Georgian London discovers love with a Scottish laird in bestseller James's scintillating second Accidental Brides romance (after Viscount in Love). After Clara Vetry publicly rejects Prince George's handsy advances, her marriage prospects are ruined. Eager to get away from society's gossips, she goes along when she's mistaken for the newly hired housekeeper of Castle CaerLaven and boards a carriage bound for Scotland. She first catches sight of her employer, Laird Caelan MacCrae, as he emerges naked from a stream. Though painfully attracted to him, Clara devotes herself to cleaning the unkempt castle. Caelan, meanwhile, is bowled over by her beauty, wit, affability, and lack of pretension. Soon the pair are stealing kisses, but Clara repeatedly rejects Caelan's marriage proposals, believing she can never replace Isla, his wife, who died two years ago. James offers a nuanced depiction of the rocky road of courtship between two characters who defy societal conventions surrounding sex and relationships. With a fast-paced plot, dynamic leads, and plenty of heat, this proves unputdownable.
Customer Reviews
Romantic
I really enjoyed this book. However, Could have cut some of the sex scenes.
Great story!
Full fun and misunderstandings that lead to a happy ending.
Heartwarming romance with tons of longing
🎧Audio/📖ebook Review
Narrated by Mary Jane Wells
To me, Mary Jane Wells and historical romance audios go together like peanut butter and jelly. She has always been one of my favorite historical romance narrators and I‘m so excited to be able to review an advanced copy of this audio.
Clara Is well past her marriageable age and her mother has given up. Attending a ball which included the prince regent, an embarrassment of epic proportions leads Clara to escape to Scotland, impersonating a newly hired house keeper for Castle Caerlaven. Laird Caelan knows Clara is lying about her identity but his attraction to her from the beginning prevents him from letting her go. Clara wants true love….to be number one in someone’s life. Yet she can’t fight the ghost of Caelan’s departed beloved wife. As they grow closer, he’s not sure that he can give her what she wants and Clara won’t settle for second best. I was in tears at Clara’s heartbreak over her unrequited love for Caelan. It was like a knife in my gut. Caelan just needs to get out of his own way and see what’s right in front of him.
Mary Jane dose a superb job. She really showcased her skill with the various accents from posh English to peasant Scottish and everything in between. Her male voices are so well done. She is one of the few female narrators that can do a male voice so well that I don’t miss a duet narration at all.
*A note about reading in order. Although this is book 2 and, usually, I’m a stickler about reading books in order so I don’t feel lost, this book can definitely be read without reading the first. The characters from book one barely even make a dent in this and the entire book takes place in Scotland.