Source: Publisher
Genre: Historical Romance
My Rating:
Introducing the Bow Street Bachelors—men who work undercover for London’s first official police force—and the women they serve to protect. . .and wed?Shipping heiress Georgiana Caversteed is done with men who covet her purse more than her person. Even worse than the ton’s lecherous fortune hunters, however, is the cruel cousin determined to force Georgie into marriage. If only she could find a way to be . . . widowed? Georgie hatches a madcap scheme to wed a condemned criminal before he’s set to be executed. All she has to do is find an eligible bachelor in prison to marry her, and she’ll be free. What could possibly go wrong?Benedict William Henry Wylde, scapegrace second son of the late Earl of Morcott and well-known rake, is in Newgate prison undercover, working for Bow Street. Georgie doesn’t realize who he is when she marries him—and she most certainly never expects to bump into her very-much-alive, and very handsome, husband of convenience at a society gathering weeks later. Soon Wylde finds himself courting his own wife, hoping to win her heart since he already has her hand. But how can this seductive rogue convince brazen, beautiful Georgie that he wants to be together…until actual death do they part?
First up, I’m not going to lie, I read this book a while back and foolishly waited two months to properly write this review beyond words flung at a Goodreads page. A rookie mistake, I know. I should seriously know better, but I agreed to join the blog tour celebrating the release and I am a woman of my word (anyone else find it a crazy coincidence I get back into blogging around the time this post is due for the tour? You cynics you, I intended to get back into blogging sooner but this definitely gave me the push I needed to pull my finger out).
I wanted to put that disclaimer out there for any moments where this review becomes vague or if you feel like I’ve not seemed as enthusiastic as my rating makes it seem. It’s because I’ve had to flick back through and remember my favourite points and that’s difficult. But I really genuinely did enjoy this. I read it at exactly the right time and I was in the ideal mood to read it. I don’t know historical romance always leave me smiling by the end.
I loved how original the idea of this book was. I’ve read a fake relationship book. I’ve read a forced marriage. I’ve never read a book where a woman marries a convict to get out of a marriage but then finds out said convict is not actually a criminal and he hasn't died or been shipped off to the colonies as expected but instead is alive and kicking ruining the plan of becoming a widow. I mean, that concept immediately grabbed my attention because you just know it’ll be damn fun to read.
I was not wrong.
This was a great book. I knew from the first page I was going to like Georgiana. She was a woman who knew her mind and made a plan and (mostly) stuck with it. She was stuck in a bad situation where her cousin wanted to marry her for her money and she just wasn’t down for that. And she wasn’t happy marrying any the other idiots who had been interested in her because turns out they were only after her money too. Gold-diggers need not apply for the role of husband because they all wanted her money and wouldn’t accept her keeping control of her money because they thought they could do better (they were wrong).
And Benedict? Well wasn’t he just a sweetheart! I thought he might be a total alpha hero and annoy me a little but that was not the case here. He was kind and caring and he just had me swooning. I mean, I loved him from the moment he was willing to marry some random woman because she obviously must have been desperate. And their banter and flirtations were just perfect. I was swooning throughout this book because this pair was meant to be. They were perfect and even though ben seemed like he should come across as a gold-digger after her money he didn’t because he worked hard and would never try and take Georgie away from what she loves. He understood and instead was willing to work with her in his job as a bow street runner.
Sure there were plot points that were predictable but also certain plot points (namely the woman needing rescuing) were subverted in it. I would have liked Georgiana to have the chance to come to Ben's rescue but then she was the breadwinner in their relationship so there was that, but it’s a minor grumble to say you didn’t have a woman coming to the rescue.. No rich lord coming to the impoverished girls rescue here. No instead she was running a company and being a badass and who wouldn't enjoy that?
I do admit there were some majorly eye-rolling moments and there was some drama at the end, but I didn’t even care. I still enjoyed it and it was made all the better for it. I feel like some romance books aren’t made without a touch of drama.
Basically, this was a damn enjoyable book. Even if I didn’t write a review for it straight away and even though I had to flick back through it to remember everything that happened. This is a historical romance filled with great characters, some smoking sexy times and a woman who is doing it for herself (but still has to go get married to be able to enjoy her independence because women always have something to bring them down). Check it out if you want something fun and a little different.
Have you read this, what did you think? And am I alone in making the mistake of waiting to write a review?
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