I liked the bookish Ellen and her determination to find happiness where she can. I really enjoyed this but there are two problems that go deep enough that it wasn't an entirely comfortable read, even so. They worked just fine as simply characters and I didn't feel I was missing anything so I'm happy to say you don't need to read the others to enjoy this one. I looked because there are a couple young(ish) couples that felt like leftovers from other stories but if they are, it isn't this series. This is third in a series, but I could see no trace of the others in this one. It had its moments, but I probably won’t remember them in a few weeks. Ellen and Marcus are painfully polite to each other but have trouble really communicating honestly. :) I mean, even if it’s a marriage of convenience, if it’s supposed to be a real, permanent marriage, why not begin as you mean to go on? I’m not sure what Marcus was waiting for. I guess I like my marriage of convenience stories to have a little more heat to them. It’s competently written but doesn’t do anything new with these standard tropes, and there’s not enough kissing or sexual tension to make up for it. So (like a doofus) he blithely announces to her in his proposal that He.

He and Ellen are childhood friends, and she’s been quietly in love with him for years, though he’s unaware of it. So he decides to marry ASAP, and since he’s been burned in the romance department before, he has no plans to fall in love again, ever. Marcus suddenly gets pressure from his mother to marry until then she won’t give him the estate he’s to inherit. Ellen is 25 and pretty much considered a spinster, on the shelf. Kindle freebie Regency romance, sweet but a little tepid and forgettable. But is Marcus willing to risk his heart a second time? What began as a sensible arrangement now has the possibility to become so much more. Marcus, though determined not to expose his heart again, finds more to admire in his childhood friend with each passing day. When Ellen is presented as a possible bride, he proposes a marriage of convenience.Įllen accepts his hand, hiding her feelings rather than risking her husband’s rejection. Still nursing a broken heart, he prefers a practical approach to matrimony rather than romantic love. Until her match-making friends contrive to reintroduce Ellen to the man she has secretly loved since their shared childhood.Īs the younger son to an earl, Marcus Calvert must wed in order to inherit his estate. Overlooked by society and underappreciated in her family, Ellen Bringhurst has resigned herself to spinsterhood and a life of reading.

A marriage of convenience is not what either of them wished for.

His Bluestocking Bride by Sally Britton