Series: The 1797 Club, #1
Traits & Tropes: fake relationship; titled hero; wallflower heroine
Publication Date: 03.14.17
Genre/Setting: Historical; Regency; England, 1810
Heat Level: 3.5/5
Rating: 4/5
Narration Rating: 4/5
James Rylon, the Duke of Abernathe, is charming and well-liked, with many friends. He’s also the de facto leader of the 1797 Club, his closest friends, a group of ten men who banded together to help each other learn and cope with the responsibilities of running the dukedoms they would one day inherit. Despite his popularity and desirability among women, James is determined never to marry.
With a small dowry and a wastrel, absentee father, Emma Liston hasn’t exactly been a success on the marriage mart. She’s a wallflower but given that her father is a ticking timebomb of scandal, she needs to marry and soon. When she jokingly suggests a faux courtship to her new friend Meg’s brother, James, Emma is shocked when he agrees, citing the potential benefits to them both. James’ interest will help Emma attract more suitors and save James from the attentions of some of the more aggressive mamas. Only, everything with Emma is easy and feels right and James has no clue what to make of that or his increasingly possessive feelings towards her.
When her father returns at the most inopportune time, he presents Emma with a future that is most undesirable. The courtship between Emma and James is suddenly feeling very real for them both, but they each must put aside their own insecurities if a relationship between them is going to work.
This was a classic and well-executed example of the fake relationship trope. James was afraid of love because he hadn’t experienced much of it and both James and Emma harbored doubts about their own worthiness. Emma’s family was truly horrible, and I loved how James stepped in to defend her from their machinations. I thought Emma and James were very sweet together and I loved Meg as a supporting character, so I’m looking forward to listening to her story next.
https://www.bookbub.com/reviews/3378492188
https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/2513983739
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