Willed To Wed

Regency Series #1

by Wilma Counts

According to the will of Lady Sarah Longbourne's Grandpapa, she would inherit only if she wed the heir to the adjoining estate. Of course Grandpapa thought her fiance would be sweet Robert Markholme. But the young man's drowning changed everything. Now the independent lady had to marry a stranger -- Matthew Cameron, whose new estate was in debt But could a marriage of convenience between a reluctant bride and groom lead to a lifetime of love?

Genres: Regency, Traditional Regency, Historical Romance

224 pages, Paperback

First published September 1, 1999

About the author

Before moving to Nevada in 1994, Wilma Counts taught high school English and social studies in Germany to dependents of American forces stationed there. She loved the kids, but hated meaningless paperwork. She especially enjoyed her work with Advance Placement English, Model United Nations, and student exchanges with a Russian school.

Wilma grew up in Oregon, a product of the Leave It To Beaver era. She holds degrees in education and international relations. Having traveled widely, she is keenly interested in politics and international relations. She freely admits to being a C-SPAN junkie.

A member of the Romance Writers of America, she has written two Regency novels and a novella for Zebra. Willed to Wed is slated for publication in September, '99, and My Lady Governess in February, '00. Her current projects include another Regency and a novel set in the American West. She contributes a regular column on grammar and usage to the local RWA newsletter. Besides her interest in travel and writing, Wilma is an avid reader and she loves to cook, garden, and gamble—not necessarily in that order.

Reviews

[Gerrie · Rating 3 out of 5]

I have enjoyed many of Wilma Counts' books. Two of them, An Earl Like No Other and Rules Of Marriage are favorites of mine. Willed to Wed is about an arranged marriage of strangers, a trope I usually enjoy. Matthew and Sarah are forced into marriage by the actions of her grandfather and his uncle. Sarah has very competently been managing her family's estate. Matthew, an officer in the Peninsular Campaign, never expected to inherit his title and estate, but is committed to doing what he must to protect all the people connected with the estate who are dependent upon him. Both Sarah and Matthew are fully realized characters, who are both interesting and likable. The author deftly shows their deepening feelings and respect for each other. The secondary characters - her family, his friends and family - are also well drawn. And, as usual, Ms. Counts writes well with excellent pacing. But...here's where all this goes sour for me. There is one misunderstanding after another. Each misunderstanding not only goes on too long, but Sarah and Matthew (depending which one at what time has misunderstood) refuse to talk about them. And almost all of the misunderstandings could have been cleared up very quickly with a simple conversation. Further, the villain of the piece is a woman Matthew almost married in his extreme youth, but she threw him over for an older man who was not only richer than Matthew, but a duke as well. So, since then he thinks all women are greedy and grasping, and are all betrayers. That also got old pretty fast, as it had been quite a few years since this had happened, and Matthew should have become wiser and more knowledgable about women during that time.

[Diane Garland · Rating 3 out of 5]

My English teacher from 11th and 12th grade wrote this!

[Seema · Rating 3 out of 5]

A familiar trope of marriage of convenience with innumerable misunderstandings between the two main characters. I still read through this book because Sarah and Matthew were essentially two good people who managed to fall in love with each other despite all the innumerable obstacles that the author put in their way. There was a secondary story of the younger sister Emily also tacked on. The middle portion could be skipped and the last quarter was predictable and led to the HEA ending. I wish the author could do better plots. Her writing is very good. This is a twenty year old book so I guess belongs to the trad regency trope.

[Frances · Rating 3 out of 5]

Same plot I have read hundreds of times. The same conflicts, the same miscommunications, and the same spiteful woman from the past. What was different, the plot was very well developed and the characters were interesting and had depth. 3.5

[SM · Rating 3 out of 5]

3.5
Enjoyed reading this book, but felt that everything was too easy/shallow.

Misunderstanding and Mis communication between couple was irking.

[Sylvia · Rating 4 out of 5]

Regency

[Mayu · Rating 5 out of 5]

I totally, absolutely and completely love it.
It's a truly romantic regency story.