Laura Martin (1) (1952–)

When faced with the prospect of marrying her vile cousin Cecil, the ordinarily cautious Alice joins her friend Lydia in sneaking into a neighbor's masquerade ball. She encounters Simon, Earl of Northumberland, who saves her from an embarrassing mishap. They dance, they talk, and, during a stroll in the garden, engage in an ill-advised kiss before Alice runs off. Unfortunately, they were seen, and rumors began to circulate. Simon does the honorable thing and proposes.

Simon never intended to show more marry. He inherited the title after his older brother's sudden death, a death very much like their father's. He suffers from the same kind of headaches they did and is convinced that he will also die young. Rather than put his family through seeing that happen, Simon plans to leave the country and go off to die alone. But he won't leave Alice to suffer the consequences of their actions, so he marries her first. It will be a marriage in name only, and when he is dead, she will be free to pursue the love she craves.

They marry, and Simon leaves within days. Alice is left to build her own life, which she does. Meanwhile, Simon has been off in Italy, waiting to die, only to find that the headaches have stopped. When a doctor tells him there's no reason to believe he will die soon, Simon goes home to England and the wife he has ignored for almost a year. Alice is stunned by his arrival but hopeful that her marriage will become real.

I liked Alice. She is kind, compassionate, and determined. I loved how she moved to London and made a life for herself, making friends and finding a purpose that satisfied her. The scenes of her working with her charity were terrific.

I had a harder time liking Simon. His grief over his father's and brother's deaths was understandable, and I ached for him because of the guilt he felt for being alive. But after a while, I felt he was using it as an excuse to avoid getting close to Alice.

The development of Simon and Alice's relationship was frustrating at times. Alice is wary of letting herself grow close to Simon because she isn't sure he won't run again. But the more time they spend together, the more she sees the man he could be. Simon is attracted to Alice but tries to resist. He is also fascinated by her. But his survivor's guilt is so intense that every time he starts to feel that he could be happy, he pulls away, hurting Alice in the process. I loved seeing Alice finally call Simon out on it and its effect on him. The ending was emotional, and the epilogue was a nice wrap-up to their story. show less

I wanted to like this book more than I did. I was intrigued because it's a different take on books typically set in this era. The hero, Thomas, is a virgin because he doesn't want to take the chance of fathering a child to pass on his family's "curse." The heroine isn't a virgin, obviously, since she's pregnant. We later learn that she was raped by a neighbor and that is how she became pregnant. I also like that the author took on Thomas' family's "curse," a genetic disease called show more Huntington's. To this day, there is still no cure for it.

These differences are what kept the book from getting a one star from me. The remainder of the book didn't appeal to me. The structure of the writing itself is poor; the pages are littered with comma splices, which are like nails on a chalkboard every time I come across one (and there was at least one per page - or, at least, it felt that way to me).

(If you aren't sure what a comma splice is, it is two complete sentences joined improperly with a comma. For example, this is a comma splice: "The cat was outside, she was sure that it would return inside shortly." NO. This is wrong and so annoying! It can be corrected in a few different ways: by separating the sentences [The cat was outside. She was sure that it would return inside shortly.], or using a semi-colon [The cat was outside; she was sure that it would return inside shortly.], or using a conjunction [The cat was outside, but she was sure that it would return inside shortly.])

And then there were the ridiculous coincidences in the book. The one that bothered me the most was that the hero and heroine were in a shipwreck, and they were practically washed ashore onto Thomas' estate. Really? The baddies were all Very Bad and didn't seem to serve much purpose, and they were dispatched with relatively quickly. David, the neighbor who raped Rosa, shows up unexpectedly towards the end of the book and demands Rosa to be "returned" to him. When she doesn't immediately back down, he ends up calling her a whore and threatens to tell everyone the true parentage of the child Rosa is carrying. Thomas has bought up all of David's father's debt and uses that as leverage to assure his silence. That was much too conveniently tied up in a neat bow - and, to be honest, I was left wondering why David bothered to return at all, since his disinterest in her was made clear from the beginning.

Altogether, it wasn't the story itself that interested me; it was the fact that the author attempted to tackle a tough subject (genetic disorders and whether potential carriers should have children). That was the only thing that saved this from being a one-star book, in my opinion. show less

Good book with an unusual hero. Sam is a self-made man, going from convict to one of the wealthiest men in Australia. He is back in England with one goal - revenge on the man responsible for sending him there. All Sam needs to do is find a way to get close to the man and uncover the information needed to destroy him. He didn't expect to fall in love with his enemy's daughter.

Georgina is twenty-one and in her third season in London. She knows she needs to pick a husband soon, or her parents show more will choose one for her. The problem is that she finds all the eligible men so dull. Underneath her proper exterior, Georgina has the heart of an adventurer and marriage to any of these men will mean the end to her dreams of travel.

Sam's original intention was simple - befriend Georgina and use her to get close to her father. He doesn't plan to do anything that will hurt her or damage her reputation. Georgina was intrigued by Sam and the mystery of his past. I loved the connection they felt from the moment they met. Though Georgina knew he wasn't a suitable match, and Sam knew that she was far above him, they continued to find ways to spend time together. By the time he finagled an invitation to the family's house party, Sam dreamed of a future with Georgina in it. Georgina, too, fantasizes about a life with Sam rather than the insipid future that awaits her. I loved the scene where Sam tells her of his background and his experiences in Australia, and Georgina's acceptance of that truth. But the closer he gets to Georgina, the guiltier Sam feels about hiding the truth from her. Before he can tell her himself, she overhears his confrontation with her father. Georgina is devastated, and feeling betrayed accepts the proposal of the man that her mother has been pushing at her. I ached for both of them and was on the edge of my seat, waiting to see how they would resolve the problem. I loved how Sam gave Georgina the tools to follow her heart, but stepped back and left the decision to her. I hurt for Georgina, caught between her desire to be the daughter her parents wanted and her love for Sam. An unexpected conversation with her mother and a little push from her best friend gave her what she needed to follow her heart. There was a nice touch that showed that Georgina's sense of honor matched Sam's. The ending was pretty intense as I held my breath, waiting to see how they would make it happen. I loved the epilogue and the description of their life in Australia.

The secondary characters were all well done. The Earl showed the downside of some of the nobility with his selfishness and disregard of those he felt were beneath him. What he did to Sam and why showed how awful he was. Georgina's mother appeared to have her heart in the right place, wanting what she believed was the best for her daughter. However, her unwillingness to see Sam for the good man that he was and push Georgina into a loveless marriage in spite of the unhappiness of her own marriage made me less sympathetic toward her. I liked Georgina's friend Caroline. She truly did have Georgina's best interests in mind, and I loved her part in Georgina's escape. I'd like to see her with a happy ending of her own, perhaps with the Duke. I was surprised and impressed with his understanding at the end. There wasn't much with Sam's two friends, but I liked what I learned about them. I'm looking forward to their stories. show less

Excellent book that caught my interest from the beginning and held it to the end. Jane is not your typical debutante. Though she was sent to London to find a husband, her true ambition is to find a publisher for the children's books she has written. While looking for one of the publishers, she encounters Tom, a recent acquaintance, who is horrified to find her in that neighborhood and escorts her home.

Tom has cultivated a reputation as a rake, all in the name of avoiding marriage. He stays show more far away from young women and the Marriage Mart, believing marriage is not for him. He likes his life - doing what he wants when he wants. Then he comes home one day and finds that he is his nephew Edward's guardian.

Both Jane and Tom want to avoid marriage. Tom needs help with his nephew, and Jane needs help finding a publisher. When Jane, who has several younger siblings, offers to help Tom with his nephew, he reciprocates by offering to help her find a publisher. Jane and Tom enter into a pretend courtship to facilitate spending time together and protect themselves from matchmakers. Neither expects the feelings that spring up between them.

I liked seeing the relationship develop between Jane and Tom. Their connection was immediate, bonding over their lack of interest in marriage. It didn't take them long to become friends, finding it very easy to talk to each other. Tom envies Jane's easy manner with Edward and pays close attention to her instructions on how to get to know the boy. Jane can talk about her writing ambitions with Tom. But the more time they spend together, the more their fake relationship feels real. Each finds themselves thinking of their little group as a family. Jane realizes she's falling in love with Tom but doesn't believe he feels the same way. Tom fights his growing feelings for Jane, convinced he's incapable of caring for another person (his reasons are heartbreaking). Tom offers to do the honorable thing when their growing attraction causes a compromising situation. But Jane refuses to settle for a loveless marriage. It takes an eye-opening conversation with his best friend for Tom to see the truth, but it is nearly too late. I loved seeing Tom's determination to make things right. It wasn't easy, and Jane made him work for it, but seeing them come together was terrific. I loved the epilogue and catching up with them a few years later.

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