'A lady in shining armour. A knight in distress. And a dark night in London.
MARYANN HAYES has set her sights on marrying Lord Hefferton, a kind, respectable gentleman, who promises to be the solution to her family’s financial problems. After her drunkard of an uncle gambled away the family’s fortune, debtors are now knocking on their door. The only solution is a respectable marriage to a wealthy man.
Admittedly, once upon a time, Maryann dreamed of love and passion, of the one man who would sweep her off her feet, see with one glance what lived in her heart and was willing to risk everything to win her hand.
Now, as a grown woman, Maryann is determined to face facts: love is nothing but a fairy-tale and she better ought to forget those girlish dreams.
LEOPOLD LANCASTER, the future MARQUESS OF ELMRIDGE, finds himself rather intimidated by the title he is to inherit. Not only does the thought of losing his beloved father break his heart, but he also fears disappointing all those who depend upon him for their livelihood.
In a dark moment, Leopold ends up drunk and rather unsteady upon his feet on the streets of London at night. He can barely see straight, let alone remember where he lives when he stumbles upon an angel in disguise.
Rather heroically, the young lady comes to his rescue and Leopold is surprised to find a kindred spirit as those bright blue eyes look into his. When they finally part ways, he is determined to seek her out, knowing he has to see her again.
Unfortunately, when he does, Leopold is forced to realize that the lady is already promised to wed another.'
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3.5 stars, rounded up to 4 stars.
Persuaded & Rescued: The Heir's Lady in Shining Armour is the prequel novella in Bree Wolf's Love's Second Chance: Tales of Damsels and Knights series and is a clean historical romance.
As a novella, this is a sweet and charming story, both characters are lovely and I was happy things turned out so happily for them. But as far a the storyline went, it seemed to be a bit rushed to me, but this is often the pitfall of novellas and so it is not a deal-breaker for me.
Leopold and Maryann feel a startling and nearly instantaneous connection when they stumble across one another by chance one night and discover that they have a sort of kinship of burdens and are equally unsure as to how to proceed forward with their lives. This connection develops very quickly into attraction and then abruptly(or at least it seemed to me) into love. Personally I wish there had a bit more of getting to know one another and exploring of their newly discovered feelings beforehand. They had esentially only just learned one another's names before declarations of love and a need to wed were thrown at us. I also wish that Maryann has taken a more active role in the story. She is clearly determined to follow through with her plan to save her family and securing a marriage which which will enable her do so, but that us glossed over in order to pick up where she meets Leopold. We see one character defining moment when she sneaks out of the house, trying to find her through a decision. Besides that moment, she is a very passive character in this story, aloowing things to happen to her and for others to take action on her behalf.
As far as the chracters go, as I mentioned before Leopold and Maryann were lovely chracters and I like them both. And as for the supporting characters, it was lovely to be able these characters again in this prequel before their lives are altered by the events from their own books, which follow later in the seres.
Persuaded & Rescued is a short novella at a little under 100 pages. It's a very quick read, but the story is sweet. I do however, wish it had been a little longer and fleshed out. But it serves very nicely as an introduction into the Love's Second Chance: Tales of Damsels and Knights series.
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I would like to thank the author, Bree Wolf, for sharing an eARC of Persuaded & Rescued: The Heir's Lady in Shining Armour. with me. This is my honest review.