To Wed an Heiress: An All for Love Novel
Circa 1865: American heiress, Mercy Rutherford has always been the perfect daughter, but her rebellion grows when she is told that she must behave a certain way. Escaping her possessive fiancé, Mercy sails to Scotland to deliver a suitcase of cash to her impoverished maternal grandmother and aunt who escaped the invading Union Army in North Carolina. Her mission of mercy (pun intended) is detoured by a descending flying machine, which causes their vehicle to overturn.
Lord Lennox Caitheart, the “eccentric” Earl of Morton, is devoted to science and history. He hopes to repair his ancestral castle, but he lacks funds. He works on new inventions, especially his beloved flying machine, so he will have the funds to provide for the castle and more inventions. The relationships are tense in this story: Mercy and Lennox are headstrong and single-minded. What is worse, Mercy discovers that most of her relatives are self-centered and judgmental. Without a support system, Mercy learns to rely upon herself—and Lennox. She sees the solution to Lennox’s problems, and her own, are literally at hand. Can love be far off?
I enjoyed the protagonists’ long arc of personal discovery. The grandmother’s characterization shows real dimension: sometimes you can love-to-hate an unlovable character, even in a romance.
