Books

by Madeline Hunter

I enjoyed this book a lot more than I did the previous book I read by this author. The characters seemed more believable somehow.

This book was a little different from most historical romance novels in that the heroine is much older than most of the young ingénues. Long-forgotten traumas from her childhood had made Fleur Monley determined to never marry, never have intimate relations with a man, and never suffer the pain of childbirth. As she nears 30 years of age, she is considered by most of society to be a paragon of virtue and spinsterhood. Her substantial inheritance has made her an eccentric with a deep and devoted interest in charities.

Eventually she realizes that her charities are not enough to substitute for the traditional life of marriage that her fears will never let her accept. So she conceives of a Grand Plan to create a school for farmer's children and a trust that would provide perpetual funding for the school. These plans threaten to expose long hidden sins of her stepfather who abducts her and makes plans of his own to declare her unfit to manage her own finances. In desperation, she turns tries to turn to Virgil Duclairc, a respected peer of the realm and friend who once assisted her by participating in a sham engagement to deflect other prospects from seeking her hand in marriage. Unfortunately, he’s out-of-town with his opera-singer wife and she is innocently caught in a compromising circumstance with his rogue of a brother, Dante.

Dante has his own problems to deal with…mainly gambling debts that outweigh his available finances. Faced with debtor’s prison and concerned with the troubles faced by the fair Ms. Monley, Dante agrees to a so-called White Marriage (no intimacy) with Fleur. Of course their troubles do not end with their elopement. Dante finds himself more and more enchanted with Fleur who also feels a strong physical attraction to Dante, but they find themselves at a loss when trying to overcome Fleur’s fears. Also, the protection of marriage does not stop Fleur’s stepfather from trying to overthrow the Grand Plan, but only escalates the lengths that he and his silent (and more nefarious) partner go to in order to protect their own schemes.

This was a thoroughly enjoyable book and was well-worth the hours spent reading it.