3.5 stars

Talia has been a wallflower and a merchant's daughter to boot, so she has been snobbed by the ton all her life. After three failed seasons, her father decides to finally buy her a husband who's a member of the ton and thus gain her entrance in that restricted circle of society. Talia who's painfully shy, doesn't want a husband, but her father is not asking for her opinion. A marriage with an indebted brother of an Earl is arranged only to have the groom stand her at the altar. Talia is mortified, but her father quickly manages to blackmail the Earl himself to stand up in his brother's place. The Earl appears furious at Talia, blaming her for scheming along with her father to trap him and won't accept she's an innocent and not a hungry title grabber. He plans to banish her in the country after their marriage and he does, but there Talia thrives under the tenants love and care and develops a spine of her own. It is when Andrew finds out that she has been adbucted by the French that he comes to realize how important she may be to him after all...

This romance started with a lot of promise for me. A marriage of convenience -my favorite troppe- check, a cold, angry, rude hero -my favorite again!- check, a wallflower heroine who has brains in her head check. The opening suggested of an angsty, storming tale of passion and hate until those two came to love each other, which is just my cup of tea. Unfortunately, things didn't turn exactly like I expected:

My main problem with the book, is that Andrew goes from hating Talia to desiring her in the blink of an eye. His inner struggle is over before it's begun. The leap from desire to respect and affection takes even less time. So, what -in my opinion- should have been the spine of the plot, is over and done with before the book's middle. In Talia's case, we at least know from the start, that she has always been attracted to the handsome Earl, so her reactions seem more natural. Plus, it takes her a while to trust Andrew's affections, and well she does, after the way he treated her in the beginning of their relationship.

What follows after the first half of the story, is a mix of adventure, with the couple trying to escape from France and a series of subplots with Andrew's errant brother and his friend Hugo. The romance has already settled in a state of deep affection between the main two heroes, and the only thing that's left, is their respective declarations of eternal love. If you like suspense, action and spy plots, you'll probbaly enjoy this part of the story more than I did, but for me, things got rather boring at this stage.

The story picks up again near the end, and the reason for that is once again Hugo, rather than the main couple. I'm really interested in his book -as opposed to Harry's whom I disliked- but I think that the fact that he was more interesting than the main protagonists, doesn't speak in the current book's favor.

All in all, a nice historical romance, with a couple of likable heroes (Andrew does behave like a decent man and caring husband after the first few chapters after all) and lots of adventure and spy plots. Nothing new or groundbreaking, but enjoyable nonetheless.

ARC provided by NetGalley