Merely a Marriage
1817: Lady Ariana Boxstall fears for her brother Norris’s legacy and her own future. If he dies unmarried and without heirs, she will be forced from the family home by their odious uncle set to inherit stately Boxstall Priory. However, Norris has the same apathy towards marriage as does Ariana. Finally they agree to a wager: if she finds a husband by the end of the year, he will immediately marry and start a family.
Encountering the seemingly always-drunk Titus Delacorte, Earl of Kynaston—the man who broke her heart almost a decade prior—Ariana is simultaneously attracted and repelled. How could she fall for such a man again? In discovering his secret agony, it is revealed why he feels unable to ever marry again. Can these two damaged souls find peace and contentment with one another? Will Cupid’s arrow pierce their stubborn hearts? Check out Merely a Marriage and discover the convoluted path to love.
By underpinning the history concerning the English reaction to the tragic death of Princess Charlotte in childbirth, sparking Ariana’s fears, and reinforcing Kynaston’s bad behavior, made the characters and the story to life. Jo Beverley has always been one of my favorite romance authors, and her death makes this, her last book, all the more poignant. Recommended.
