After the sudden, accidental death of his half-brother, Meriweather, War hero Christian, the Duke of Ranford, has a bit of a problem. Make that three problems, or rather, three widows. His brother, a profligate spendthrift and bonvivant marred three different women in three different towns for their dowries or what not. It’s a scandal! And for Christian who has been cleaning up after his brother for years, it’s just another headache. He’s certainly not interested in the fascinating first wife of his half-brother, the refreshing and forthright Katherine nee Greer.
Katherine has always had to look out for herself. Born on the wrong side of the blanket, she clawed her way up the social ladder to become a successful businesswoman. Now with a Royal contract on the line, her husband’s death and subsequent scandal could not have come at a worse time. Even worse, the Duke seems uninterested and unwilling to help her and her fellow widows with recovering their dowries and reputation. What’s a woman to do?
First off, Despite the title and sort of dreamy cover art this is not a Time-Travel Romance.
Okay, that out of the way, Janna MacGregor is a new to me author and the premise of a widow of a “trigamist” (because two wives isn’t enough) would do when faced with that scandal in Regency London intrigued me. The story was well done and you can definitely see the set up for the future books in this one. One of the major historical conflicts (the fact that one cannot marry one’s brother’s widow per Church of England Law) was solved fairly interestingly. And it was solved to my historian eyes’ satisfaction.
I found Christian a refreshing hero. He walks the line between an alpha and beta hero. He’s respectful and even admiring of Katherine’s abilities and doesn’t try to stop her from being competent, in fact, he cheers her on. While at the same time he’s definitely protective and expects to get his way. I liked him.
I really liked Katherine. She was competent and resourceful and genre-savvy. She got into trouble but she also got herself out. She was kind and considerate but also had a backbone. Frankly I really liked her.
The writing style was okay. I found parts of it stilted and some anachronisms slipped through. Enough that I noticed and enough that it lessened my enjoyment.
But in all this is a solid start to a series and I’m interested in reading more so this gets:
Four Stars
If this is your jam, you can get it here.
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I received an ARC of this book via NetGalley