The Substitute Bridegroom

Goldsborough #1

by Charlotte Louise Dolan

Elizabeth Goldsborough is the happiest of young ladies--set to wed the most handsome gentleman in town. Then, shockingly, all is stripped from her when an accidental encounter with an arrogant captain leaves her with no choice but to marry a man she despises. From the author of The Black Widow. A Regency romance reissue.

Genres: Historical Romance, Regency, Romance, Historical, Marriage Of Convenience, Traditional Regency, Fiction

223 pages, Mass Market Paperback

First published January 1, 1991

About the author

Charlotte Louise Dolan earned a bachelors degree from Eastern Illinois University and a masters degree in German from Middlebury College. She has lived throughout the United States and in Germany, the Soviet Union, Canada, Taiwan, and Austria. A bookworm since the age of four, she fell in love with Regency England when she read her first Georgette Heyer book. Besides writing, she has worked as a high school Germany teacher, a toymaker, a tech editor, a genealogist, and a craft designer. She is the mother of three children.

Reviews

[Preeti ♥︎ Her Bookshelves · Rating 3 out of 5]

*With Spoilers*
This regency has a forced moc plot, but with a little twist. The H, a captain on leave from Spain, ends up hurting and scarring the h on the face while curricle racing with a friend. Her fickle fiancé dumps her as he cannot bear to look at her ruined face and her brother decides that if it can be ‘an eye for an eye’ it sure can be ‘a husband for a husband’ too! The H, a dedicated career soldier and a misogynist who has no intention of ever marrying, offers for her not because the h’s brother challenges his honor but because it’s something his vampy sister warns him against! This H had some serious woman issues.

The h is as pure as driven snow in thoughts, heart and body, of course.
The bad people are as immoral, self-seeking and lacking in anything good as the people of those infamous mythological cities of yore. The level of immorality and promiscuity suggested is unbelievable.
(..your sisters have brought their husbands, their lovers, their lovers' wives, their husbands' mistresses, their husbands' mistresses' husbands—")
The H is rigid and judgmental - and a doubting Thomas of the worst kind. He thinks all women are duplicitous and depraved who fool men. (Men, of course are the faithful, incorruptible babes in the wood.)

The tone is vague and distant, and apart from when telling about the debauchery and evil deeds of the bad people, the reader is told of things rather than shown. The h/H barely spend time together for most of the book (as he's off several times, to teach the Corsican upstart a lesson), and do not really connect even when they are together. It’s also has the problem of keeping the blacks and whites too stark and undiluted. Since this is my first book by this author, I don’t know if this is her usual style.

But still a good formulaic read. The servants, her neighbours and her young cousin make up for the lack of warmth, with their (fairytale-ish) dedication to the h. The exchange of letters is also a good touch.

[Ridley · Rating 4 out of 5]

While it's no standout for innovation in traditional regencies, it's absolutely perfect as what it is - a light, fun marriage of convenience story with enough wit and drama to stay entertaining from start to finish.

Army Captain Darius St. John is just about to pull even in a carriage race down a narrow country lane when he has to suddenly swerve at the last second to avoid a child in the road. As he does so, a woman dashes in front of him and yanks the boy clear of the road. Everyone survives the accident, although the woman is injured by flying debris in the ensuing collision between the curricles and is left with a jagged scar down her face.

Elizabeth Gainsborough was the shining belle of the London Season and set to marry an equally sought after gentleman at the end of the summer. When she notices how he can no longer bear to look at her marred face, she calls off the engagement, unwilling to marry a man who's disturbed by her appearance. Though she's content to retire to her family's country estate and be a doting aunt, her brother thinks otherwise, and sets off to demand Darius substitute himself for the dismissed fiance.

So, like I said, this book wins no awards for innovation. It's your standard marriage of convenience plot. There's the awkward wedding night (though this book is fade-to-black in the bedroom), the surprising appearance of mutual affection, the misunderstanding that sets them back and the climactic event that brings them back together. Even in 1991, this was old hat.

But, I mean, so what? The characters are all a satisfying mix of motives, quirks and other traits that it's still a fun trip. The flirtatious banter between Beth and Darius sparkles as much as their mixed signals rankles. They both make mistakes, but they do it in ways that are true to their characters, so it's suspenseful rather than exasperating. You know they'll work it out, but you want to stick around and see how, if only to see them giggle to each other about how wrong they'd been.

The only complaints I have for this fun story would be with the uncomplicated supporting characters. The antagonists in particular were too clearly written as bad people. The dismissed suitor, selfish cousin and slutty dowager duchess were almost cartoonish in their actions. They'd have been much more satisfying and effective characters if there had been more ambiguity in their behavior and motivations.

For a fun, light regency, this is a joy to read. So long as you're not expecting a groundbreaking sort of experience, there's a lot to like here.

[Mou: Fae of Heartfelt ARC · Rating 3 out of 5]

I liked the heroine, but can’t say same for the hero.

The Hero was an honest, loyal and honorable person in every way but one thing about him really pissed me off. I can understand his viewing about women and the reason behind it, but that doesn’t give him THE ACCESSES to judge every single woman. He thinks every woman is a hypocrite and cynical, but what about man? Surely not all men are good?

The writing style is good. The side characters and subplots are also good enough.

Overall It was ok.

[Megzy · Rating 4 out of 5]

It is one of those plots that you either are going to like or hate. I liked it because I understand the realities of the regency time period. If you want the heroine to act and think like someone in our modern time, you might want to stick with unrealistic modern regency books... there are everywhere. If you don't want to hear about the promiscuity in marriages during that era, then you are deluding yourself.. they were part of their culture. Just to be clear, the main characters do not cheat.

[Ellyn (Mrs. Darcy in my Dreams) · Rating 4 out of 5]

3.5 stars This is my first book by this author and I will definitely read more!! It was somewhat predictable but I still loved the MCs and the plot! I really admired the h's courage and resilience, she had to put up with the idiocy of London society and her absent husband. I only wish the h had given the H more of a piece of her mind. She was too easy going even though she was hurting. Overall it was a great regency!

[Ririn Aziz · Rating 3 out of 5]

3.75 stars

[Kathy * Bookworm Nation · Rating 4 out of 5]

4.5

I really enjoyed this one. I thought it was really well written and it flowed nicely. I normally don’t like too many POVs, but in this case I thought it was handled well. I liked all the secondary characters and thought it was fun to see things from different perspectives. The reason for Elizabeth and Darius to marry was different then I was expecting. I thought they had good chemistry, when they were together that is. Elizabeth was a very likable heroine. She is so sweet and understanding. I do wish she would have confronted Darius a little more. Darius was also likable, but so closed off to Elizabeth. He was also quick to think the worst, which was highly aggravating.

While I really enjoyed the story, there were a few things I would have changed. For one, I would have liked more time spent with Elizabeth and Darius. I would have liked their conversations to be a bit more meaningful. Another thing, Elizabeth was always saying she wanted to break down his walls, but we never really get to see her do it. Even though they are married early in the story, they spend very little time together. I felt like that took away from their story.

I still really enjoyed the overall story and will definitely be looking for more books by Charlotte Dolan.

Content: Clean, PG. Since they are married there are marital relations, but it’s all behind closed doors and somewhat vague. Also, the "D" word is used a lot.

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[Georgie-who-is-Sarah-Drew · Rating 1 out of 5]

I liked the initial premise very much - that the hero proposes from a sense of guilt, and that this is explicit from the start. That should set up an intriguing "Does he love me or is it just guilt talking?" situation. Unfortunately, that potential is not really explored.

There were some very nice touches, though, in the hero's sharing with his men the Letters from Home, the attitude of the servants in the Big House, and some gorgeously bitchy sisters.

The hero is Strong and Silent, and since he doesn't say much, and what he does say is often curt, it's very hard to understand him. His actions at the start of the book cause the heroine to be badly injured, but we don't see him ever apologise to her. The heroine writes to him constantly while they are apart, but it doesn't ever seem to cross his mind to write back. When his neglect is pointed out to him, he still doesn't provide any explanation for it. He jumps to conclusions on the flimsiest evidence (even when the evidence isn't really evident) and consequently treats the heroine badly. His eventual redemption is ... unconvincing.

So that all makes it difficult to emphathise much with the heroine who has fallen in love with a really not very nice man. By 3/4 of the book they have spent just two weeks together, most of it in the company of family, with little one to one conversation. I found myself rooting for her to put down the bitchy sisters, call the hero out on his appalling behaviour, do Something to assert herself, other than steal a baby and conceal it from her husband. But she didn't.

So, sadly, although the heroine fell in love, I didn't - and I do need to love the hero just a bit to love the book.

[Kagama-the Literaturevixen · Rating 1 out of 5]

I didnt care for this at all. I never made it through the whole book,there was just something so bland and off about the whole book.

Something else that annoyed me was the author cutting to scenes.

The hero is carrying the heroine to her home to get her help,then in the next paragraph some time has passed.

The heroine is waiting for her fiancee to come visit her

Then cut! to the heroine telling her brother "yep my fiancee was here and broke the engagement, because he cant stand to look at my face"

It was like the author was to go to the effort and write those scenes.

Isnt there an useful rule for writing? How does it go again? Oh yes...
show dont tell

And the hero was too arrogant He was a bit too casual about crashing his curricle and nearly killing a small child(heroine was trying to rescue it)

Then the heroines younger brother gets it in his head that since the "hero"(i say hah!) was responsible for his sister scarred face leading to her believe no one will want to marry a woman like that,the brother decides to call on the hero guy.

He is essentially made fun off and sent away.

When I read the blurb I thought it sounded interesting but the characters were so one-dimensional I couldnt finish it.

I wouldnt recommend this at all. :I

[MissKitty · Rating 3 out of 5]

Was okay.

A marriage of convenience. The Hero is responsible for causing the heroine to be scarred, so he does the honorable thing and marries her when her fiancé cannot bear to look at her now flawed face.

The heroine actually breaks it off with the fiance, since she didnt want to be tied to someone who could not even look at her, but I still dont get why she married the Hero who was a complete stranger.

Shortly after their marriage the Hero who is a soldier goes back to war, so they hardly had time to get to know each other. The wedding night is fade to black, but apparently it is good enough that the heroine is in love with her absent husband and writes to him faithfully even if he does not write back.

The Hero has a lot of trust issues because his mother and his two sisters are sluts of the first order. There is some angst becaus the Hero ialways suspects the heroine of betraying him, but he never confronts her. Somehow all the misconceptions he has of her get cleared up by unwitting third parties, so he never really gets to know her and trust her for herself until the end. I didnt really like this attitude of his.

The heroine is a one dimensional goody two shoes who doesnt have much of a personality. Her young cousin had more spunk than she did.

Overall was an okay read, enough to pass an hour or two.

[Judith Hale Everett · Rating 5 out of 5]

Such a lovely story! Excellent plotting, great characters, delicious romance. My only beef was with Darius’s stupidity, but it didn’t last long enough to really destroy the satisfaction—or at least I was so pleased with the final transformation that I forgave him. Just a wonderful read.

[Rob Imes · Rating 4 out of 5]

According to the index at FictionDB, Charlotte Louise Dolan wrote only 7 novels from 1991 to 1994, all of them for Signet's traditional Regency line, plus two novellas for anthologies also published by Signet. And then, nothing. It's always a little surprising to me when that happens, when a prolific and promising new author abruptly disappears from the scene. The Substitute Bridegroom, published in February 1991, happens to be Dolan's first published novel (as she wrote about in an article in Romantic Times #91) which grabbed me from the first page and kept me reading due to its page-turning power. Dolan's prose focuses more on actions and events than dwelling on descriptions of the characters' internal feelings (at least until the end), which keeps things moving along without a lot of filler. Our heroine, Elizabeth Goldsborough, has a scarred face due to a carriage accident in which our hero, military captain Darius St. John, was involved. Elizabeth's brother Nicholas demands that St. John marry Elizabeth since he was responsible for this facial disfigurement that repulses other men. (Nicholas, as Dolan wrote about in Romantic Times #95, became the hero of Dolan's third book, The Resolute Runaway, which I don't have.)

I tend to refrain from giving thin traditional Regency novels a full 5 stars, saving that highest rating for thicker books that have more complexity, but this book was very nearly a 5-star book for me, and one that I enjoyed just as much as thicker historicals. The prose is jam-packed with things happening, with lots of memorable characters and situations. After every scene, Dolan manages to conjure a new inviting scene to follow it, maintaining and refreshing my interest with each new chapter. One unfortunate aspect of the novel is that there are several typos, which suggests a lack of editorial oversight. The name Darius is misspelled "Darious" a few times in the first chapter, and even Elizabeth's name is misspelled once. The writing itself cannot be faulted, however -- only the spelling. Perhaps another criticism that could be levelled at the book is that Darius and Elizabeth are kept apart for too much of the tale, and that Darius is too quick to believe the worst about his wife. The scheming villains of the story may seem more dramatic than realistic, although I did enjoy the fact that they were portrayed as being so inept as to be less of a threat to Darius and Elizabeth's happiness. And the presence of the sensible and intelligent Lady Letitia, as well as all the faithful servants, provided a welcome balance to the unlikable and selfish ton.

This was Dolan's first book and it is written as if it would be her last book as well, seemingly putting her all -- everything but the kitchen sink -- into its 224 pages. For that reason it's hard for me to evaluate whether this is the author at the peak of her powers or whether she got even better with the next book. So, despite my temptation to give this a 5-star rating, I'm going to say 4.5 stars for her first effort and look forward to seeing where she goes from here.

[Englishrose · Rating 5 out of 5]

I simply love this book. The plot moves along at a good pace and the dialogue is fantastic. I really feel for Elizabeth who is such a sweet character even if she is a bit quiet. Darius is a great character who shows growth even while being a consistent figure. There are times I want to hit him over the head, but so does the heroine, so I count that as a good thing. Their romance is sweet and a good roller coaster. Side characters are colorful and fun and really flush out the storyline as they add in their own plot twists. It keeps you guessing what will happen next and how it will all work out. All in all a fun romance with some good laughs and perhaps a few tears as you root for true love to prevail.

www.cleanromancereviews.com

[Mandi Ellsworth]

This is the second of Ms. Dolan's books I've read. She does a decent job of creating situations where it could get too adult for me, but never crosses that line. Several times I prepared myself to cringe, or put the book down, or feel exasperation with stupid characters, but each time she navigated the machinations of her characters with skill, so no one got too hurt. The characters are likable, the setting and manners authentic. Her nasty women are really, really nasty.

This is a good read, but I'd still recommend the audience be a little older. 17 and up.

[Saadia Y · Rating 2 out of 5]

I did not find this story "light-hearted" it was very frustrating. The hero was in fact the most frustrating. 97% of the women were conniving and the sudden changes of point-of-views was quite annoying. I Have no idea what made them fall in love with each other because they were barely together until the latter part of the book and everyone they knew (apart from 2 people) had major flaws in them. The servants had more sense than the members of the ton. Rated it a 2 rather than 1 because I've read worse books.

[Susannah Carleton · Rating 4 out of 5]

A wonderful story! The characters and the tale are as delightful on the tenth or fifteenth reading as on the first one.

[Pauline Ross · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was a hard one to rate. There was a lot about it I disliked quite intensely, and there were moments that had me rolling my eyes pretty hard. But on the other hand, I read it avidly despite the eye-rolling and that has to count for something.

Here’s the premise: Elizabeth Goldsborough is the Incomparable beauty of the season, a resounding success, capped with an engagement to the most handsome and eligible gentleman of the day, Simon Bellgrave. But an accident leaves her with a disfiguring scar on one cheek, her betrothed has trouble even looking at the injury and so she releases him from their engagement. And he, the cad, takes off without the slightest protest. Elizabeth’s brother isn’t having her spending her days as an old maid, so he informs the man responsible for her accident, Captain Darius St John, that he’d better marry her to make reparation. And he, the cad, refuses. Until his snake of a sister tells him he mustn’t do it, whereupon he promptly offers for Elizabeth, and she accepts him.

And at this point, I’m probably at peak eye-rolling, because what kind of hero only does the honourable thing because his sister tells him not to? And what kind of daft heroine accepts a man like that? I can see that she might if she already knows and likes him, or if he at least presents himself in a gentlemanly manner, and puts a good face on the inevitable, but Darius is so rude and surly and totally bad-mannered that it’s hard to imagine any rational woman wanting him. And it’s not as if she would be entirely destitute if she doesn’t marry him, either. She has a brother to look after her, she has her own fortune, for heaven’s sake, she’s independent. She can wait it out for a man to come along who doesn’t care about her scar. The author makes a valiant effort to convince the reader that Elizabeth is completely unmarriageable now, because only a perfectly flawless face can possibly succeed in attracting a man, and the ton will ostracise her and bla bla bla… no, not convincing for a moment (as later events prove).

So she’s stupid, and he’s boorish and self-centred and rag-mannered and… yes, I disliked him pretty thoroughly at this point. He’s completely focused on his army career, and thinks all women are fickle, duplicitous witches, and with his own family as evidence, I can see where he’s got that idea from. Anyway, they marry and after a quick romp with her, he disappears back to the war, because heaven forfend that he should change anything in his life just because he has a wife (and possibly a child, given the romping interlude). And here’s where we’re back into eye-rolling territory, because at this point, for no reason whatsoever that I can ascertain, she decides she’s in love with him. Good grief.

There’s a strange scenario where she writes to him regularly, nice, chatty letters about what’s going on back home, which he reads out for the entertainment of his men, but it never once occurs to him to write back to her. She’s hanging about waiting for the letters to arrive every day and always being disappointed, so when he appears unexpectedly (because no, he couldn’t possibly have written to tell his wife he’s coming home, could he?), he finds himself cold-shouldered by all the locals who’ve gathered protectively around his neglected wife. And naturally he blames her for it. Because of course he does.

And so it goes on. Whenever there’s the least possibility of him behaving badly and misunderstanding everything and blaming his poor wife for everything he perceives is wrong (because women are wicked, duplicitous witches, so of course he does), he storms out in a huff, and it takes the whole book for him to dimly perceive, through the fog of his own prejudice and (frankly) stupidity that she’s actually quite nice really, despite being a woman. Honestly, his batman is streets brighter than Darius is.

The ending gets pretty silly, with his sisters having a starring role. I think it was meant to be funny, but I didn’t find it particularly amusing. But at least Darius realises what a treasure he has in Elizabeth, and they get their happy ending eventually, even though, as it turns out, scars fade with time and become fashion accessories, so Elizabeth’s prospects weren’t as ruined as we were all led to believe. Especially when she might become a duchess. There was one major historical error - a duke can’t ever resign his title or his entailed estates, whether or not there’s an heir. It was also mentioned at one point that if Elizabeth were a duchess and Darius died, she would lose her title, but that’s wrong, and since there’s a dowager duchess in this very book, I can’t imagine why the idea was even mentioned.

I’ve been pretty critical of this on a number of levels, but the fact remains that I galloped through it almost without taking a breath, and despite all the eye-rolling, I never once considered abandoning the book. So I concluded that it worked for me at some deeper level, despite the problems. It’s probably somewhere between a three and a four star read, but the writing was generally good, so I’m going with four.

[Gerrie · Rating 3 out of 5]

3.5 out of 5 stars

I really like Charlotte Louis Dolan. She writes wonderful traditional regencies, and has written one of my all time favorites, Fallen Angel.

This book has an interesting plot, several story lines that all work and converge quite well, lots of well drawn secondary characters, and a great heroine. It's a marriage of convenience story, and the basis for the marriage is a unique plot device I haven't seen elsewhere the hero injures and disfigures the heroine, and her brother insists the hero marry her, because now no one else will.

Ordinarily I would give a book of this caliber a solid 4 stars. Even 4.5 stars. But, the hero was a total jackass. His mother and sisters were all wildly promiscuous, as well as very vicious. So, understandably, he has a poor view of women. But, his view so colors his perception, that he can't see reality, and that he has married a kind, compassionate woman. He willfully misconstrues everything the heroine does and says, assumes the worst of her, and is cold and cruel to her as a result. Constantly and consistently throughout almost all of the book. Even when people he respects tell him he's wrong about the heroine, he chooses to disbelieve them. Wow, that got old really quickly. I was extremely annoyed with him, and ended up disliking him intensely. He really had no redeeming qualities to offset his obnoxious behavior. And, he was never sufficiently redeemed for me at the end to change my opinion. Hence, the 3.5 stars.

[Claire S · Rating 2 out of 5]

I read Three Lords for Lady Anne and really enjoyed it but this book was 80% unlikable for me. What saves it from 1 star is that the author writes very well and portrays the Regency period mostly well (as far as I know, a Duke can't pass on the title while he's still alive, even if there's a male heir). She also has some likeable characters like the h's younger cousin and the H's batman/valet (I'm not sure we ever learn what his position is but I did skim through parts). In fact, I'd love to read a book about her cousin's come out season.
That's pretty much it. In truth, I don't like marriage of convenience plots because there's always a spouse who is in love and a doormat (usually the wife). This seems to be magnified tenfold here. Apologies for the cuss word but the best adjective to describe the H is a**hole. He treats his wife like crap, doesn't ever apologize for it, and gets away with it without any consequences. The h can actually act strong at times and I love the fact that she learned to accept her scar and didn't want it to define her, but other times she lets people treat her as a non-entity. I get that she felt gratitude toward some of them but she should have put her foot down after a while. The fact that the couple was apart for so much of the story didn't help either.
I was going to stop reading the book after a while, which I've been doing with a lot of books lately, but decided to finish it to see if there was any redemption. There wasn't.

[Terry Southard · Rating 3 out of 5]

Regency romance is my refuge after reading several serious books in a row. Having been immersed in my "classics list" and reading super long books, it was time for a little break. This one was recommended on a FB group that I read.

I liked it. Almost enough for 4 stars. But in the end the utter perfection of the heroine made me drop a star. I would have liked for her to have been even the slightest bit *angry* or something about the was the H was treating her. Although I must say, I did like the fact that the secondary characters are the ones who convince the H that she is everything she appeaars.

And how could you hide a baby that you have rescued for *weeks* from your husband? I thought that was just weird - no matter how big the house is.

The rest of the tropes I am ok with - Regency romance is what it is, you know? Enjoyable. Not great like Heyer. Not funny like I find Marion Chesney. But really enjoyable.

[Bea Tea · Rating 1 out of 5]

This book was MISERABLE. I just felt so unhappy and tense reading this. In summary, there is a large cast of characters who are complete cunts and spend the entire book plotting and scheming to hurt the sweet, kind heroine. The 'hero' of this book ruins the heroine's life, first by causing terrible scarring to her face (and barely being bothered by it) then by marrying her and spending the whole first year of their marriage avoiding her, loathing her, treating her terribly, believing ever lie about her, making up his own lies about her, and generally being just another horrible cunt who treats her terribly. In the first year they married he spends 2 week in her company, and all that time he's dying to get away and escape her ass. And it goes on and on and on and on - we're up to a good 93% into the book and he STILL thinks she's trash to be ignored and gotten rid of.

No romance AT ALL in this book, just a poor woman living in non-stop misery because her husband is a prick.

[Meggie · Rating 3 out of 5]

I wanted to track this book down after reading a review on the Dear Author site, because I've had a hankering for some old Signet Regency romances.

In short: a curricle accident injures a young woman, and the hero proposes marriage. The heroine is lovely inside and out, and her facial scar is a complete non-issue with the hero. The hero was surprisingly kind to those around him (like little cousin Dorie), yet was a complete misogynist--especially when it came to his wife! (His biases were somewhat understandable considering his childhood, but he was rather cruel for most of the book.) A lot of the secondary characters were ridiculously villainous?? Yet I still liked it in the end, and I'd read more of Dolan's books. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

[MrsMascara · Rating 4 out of 5]

Nice set up, heroine scarred accidentally by the hero, breaks off engagement because of damage to her looks, and is married to hero, in order to make amends. Elizabeth falls in love with her husband, however he is extremely suspicious of women due to the selfish, mercenary and sluttish example of his sisters, and misunderstands her and thinks the worst of her at every turn. Darius was a bit annoying as he didn’t seem to learn from his mistakes, but altogether a mostly enjoyable read

[Diedre · Rating 3 out of 5]

I don't know why this was a difficult story to get through. It had all of the tropes I like. The hero was always suspicious, the heroine was always contrite and the relatives were always meddling and causing havoc. You knew things were always getting misconstrued. And it just became so aggravating. If the heroine would have left and damned it all for a season I would have been happier, but her naivety was annoying. So maybe that was it.

[Andy · Rating 4 out of 5]

Overall, I liked this book. It is your classic marriage of convenience trope. Which I do enjoy when done right. The heroine, Elizabeth, was practically a saint considering all that happened. Darius was less lovable but in the end, he figured it out. I liked how the author gave multiple pov's from side characters, but they never took away from the main couple. I would read more by this author.

[KaRi · Rating 2 out of 5]

Dear diary,
I can’t be bothered with this book. Is this one story?! I felt as if I started one book and it became several other completely different books. I was so confused on the sudden scene and plot changes. Ugh! DNF a 1/3 through. Life is too short to wallow through this kind of tale. I didn’t like anyone but the heroine but even she didn’t make sense!

[Anne Patkau · Rating 4 out of 5]

When stern soldier Darius scars the face of Season's beauty Liza, losing her fribble fiancé, her brother demands the satisfaction of his marriage.Side roles, matchmaker Letitia, gawky Dorie, greedy Amelia, and more, make Dolan an author for smile breaks.

[Elen · Rating 2 out of 5]

meh

[Jeri Stofa · Rating 4 out of 5]

Fun read

This book was an enjoyable read, it was fun and entertaining, you are able to just escape for a bit. Parts were definitely predictable, but all in all good.

[Angela · Rating 4 out of 5]

So well written you don't want to stop reading until you finally read that Darius love his wife.