Series: Second Chance Manor, #5
Traits & Tropes: marriage of convenience; class difference; illegitimate hero
Publication Date: 08.12.21
Genre/Setting: Historical; Victorian, Yorkshire, England
Heat Level: 2
Rating: 4/5
American heiress Melanie Pennypacker is only attending her former finishing school headmistress’ house party to find a business partner. She dreams of opening a department store of her own but needs access to her dowry funds to do so, which means finding a business-inclined man.
Valet Frank Crymble is quite clearly an illegitimate relation of his employer, Lord Avery O’Shea, and like the rest of the family, he has a knack for finding scandal. His ambition for investing means he doesn’t plan to remain in his lowly station for much longer, so when he and Melanie strike up a friendship, it doesn’t take much convincing for him to agree to her proposal of a marriage of convenience.
But their engagement announcement meets with more backlash than had expected, with even their friends being less than supportive. To make matters worse, Melanie’s overbearing father is summoned to the party intent on dragging her back to Philadelphia and threatening both of their futures unless they can prove their true feelings for each other.
This is a light-hearted, fun short novel that proved to be a good escape for me. The silliness of the plot and the characters was pretty endearing, and I enjoyed Melanie and Frank’s determination to be together no matter what, flying in the face of convention. The steamy scenes in this one weren’t as well thought out or engaging as I’m used to from this author, but the couple was charming anyway, despite some rather poor decision making on their parts. It also annoyed me how unsupportive Melanie’s friends were of her, especially since part of the premise of the series is how close these women are, so that definitely killed the girl group vibe this had going for it. This is a fun romp to help escape the mundanities of life and was a cute story.
I voluntarily read and reviewed an advanced copy of this book. All thoughts and opinions are my own.
https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/4164287136
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