His Bride for the Taking: A Regency Romcom novella

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She shrugged, trying to appear nonchalant. “Perhaps I’ll have to surrender my membership in the Ladies’ Social Justice Society. The meetings were rather a bore, anyhow.”

Yes, but your reputation will not. You know the things people say when a long engagement is broken. They will assume that you’ve… Well, that the two of you… He churned the air with one hand. Help me here. What’s a polite way to say it? My loyalty is not misplaced. In fact, there is nowhere else my loyalty could be placed. I don’t have anyone else.” He forged on, wanting to escape the softness in her eyes. “As for the suggestion that I’d be throwing away my future, I won’t even dignify that with a response.” Mary has been left at the alter and will be ruined. Sebastian has loved Mary from afar for years but she was the sister of his best friend and even after the death of Mary’s brother, he can’t break the pact they made as children that she would be hands off to him. But, he also can’t let her be ruined; Sebastian decides he will save Mary and marry her, it is the least he can do for his dead friend when there is no one else to take care of her. This story begins with a wedding, sort of. Mary has been left at the altar and Sebastian is there to rescue her. He’s always been there to rescue her. He’s her younger brother’s best friend, and spent a lot of time with them when they were younger. When her brother was killed in the war, Sebastian couldn’t rescue Henry, so his protective instincts intensified.

The Wanton Dairymaid Trilogy

And what about your political causes and all those charitable organizations?” he asked. “I know how important they are to you. If you lose your good reputation, you’d lose a good measure of influence, too.” His Bride for the Taking did all of the above. It features a marriage of rescue convenience between a man and his best friend's older (YES!) sister. There is a twist to keep readers on their toes, but it is an otherwise simple, easy and utterly lovely story. It’s quite possible. In fact, it’s evident. He’s not here, and neither is his family.” She released her breath in a defeated sigh. “He must have changed his mind at the last moment.” My parents are both dead, as are yours. And now Henry, too. We don’t have families to attend the ceremony. Or to object.” I liked she was older then Sebastian, even if it is a short year’s difference, it shows them under a new light.

This was my first read by Ms. Caldwell. I did enjoy the story but for a short one it did drag in places. Though at times I really enjoyed it and the pain the H and h felt as they recounted the past memories and hurts with each other was a nice bit of angst. Still, I was left wanting, not sure why.

Other Works (Non-Series)

He refused to take up that argument. “You’ll be a lady. A wealthy one. I’ve always known I’d need a wife eventually.” He put off the wedding once, she corrected. The other time I was in mourning. That wasn’t his fault. Although I enjoyed this duet - it is Tessa Dare and Christi Caldwell, after all - petty is as petty does and I have to complain about the cover. Both heroines have reddish (described as auburn and crimson) hair. Yet I spy...a blonde? talk her into this. He wasn’t giving her months of time to change her mind. “We’re getting married today.”

He supposed he could see why a weaker man might find her intimidating. She’d always been more clever than Sebastian and Henry put together. She was strong and self-reliant, because losing her mother at a young age had given her no other choice. I had a harder time with this heroine. She left her new husband and stayed away for 10 years. Was he an ogre you ask? No, he was her best friend. And then when he shows up she has the nerve to think ill of him cos she has seen his name in the scandal sheets. You left him, for 10 years! He did not know whether you were dead or alive!I don’t care if he’s the Prince of Wales. The man made a promise to you, and he’s not here to keep it. That makes him a bastard. A tardy bastard, at that. Of course you do. You always deserved better than Giles Perry in the first place. But he proposed to you, and you accepted him. And I’ll be damned if he’ll get away with this.”

But you were the one who saw it through. The dear little bird thought you were its mother. Remember?” She hooked two fingers and skipped them up his arm. “Hop, hop, hop…”

Girl Meets Duke Series

Sebastian Ives, Lord Byrne, doesn't usually follow the rules, but he value friendship above all and the most important principle of it is don't touch your best friend's sister. For eleven years he kept his promise to himself but when Mary's reputation is at stake, the honorable Sebastian will do whatever it take, even if it means take the place of the no-show groom at the altar.