After Talia Dobson is jilted at the altar, she endures another humiliation: a substitute groom! The elder brother of her runaway betrothed has taken matters into his own hands. Shy Talia has long held a secret attraction for Andrew Richardson, the handsome Earl of Ashcombe. But when she's wedded, bedded and dispatched alone to his country estate, the timid beauty discovers one night of passion has ignited a bold inner fire.
While his lovely green-eyed bride is out of sight, she is not far from Andrew's mind—and when Talia is abducted by French spies, the earl fears he may lose what he's only just found. Yet the wife he races to rescue is a far cry from the gentle bride he abandoned. She's a woman who dares to demand forever after from her husband….
Talia is the daughter of Silas Dobson – a wealthy self-made son of a butcher. He wants nothing more than to be looked upon fondly by the ton and those titled gentleman. But Silas is rough and gruff and is not welcomed into society as he wishes. Since he can’t wedge himself into the spot he wants he decides to put his daughter in a spot. He offers one hundred thousand pounds as her dowry but gets no takers. Talia is painfully shy and when she gets anxious she stutters and she’s not very coordinated. Her father finally engages her to a second son but unfortunately he stands her up at the altar. Talia’s father is incensed and blackmails brother #1 – an Earl – to marry his daughter.
The Earl of Ashcombe is none to happy with his reprobate brother, Harry, in any way. He’s especially not thrilled that he’s being blackmailed into marrying someone who’s been dubbed “Dowdy Dobson”. He marries Talia in a secret ceremony and then consummates the marriage. He then sends her off to his estate in Devonshire and moves on with his life.
Talia is somewhat thrilled to be in the country. She’s become quite comfortable in her role as Countess with the tenants and matured in the month since her wedding. Unfortunately she overhears the vicar planning treason, is caught and is then kidnapped and taken to France. Gabriel hears of Talia’s disappearance and will do anything to get his wife back.
I must say that the first portion of this book truly grabbed me and had me madly turning pages. Unfortunately the excitement died down and things got a bit slower after that.
When Talia is kidnapped she is taken to a manor in France. She’s not put under lock and key and has free roam of the house and its grounds. Yes, she’s afraid to leave for fear she will run into something worse than her kidnapper – who has treated her quite well, but also she has no paper to leave the country. These are both great reasons to stay put but frankly I couldn’t help but wonder why she didn’t try to get the hell outta Dodge! I would have tried everything in my power to leave and get as far from my kidnapper as possible – despite being treated well. She was still a prisoner! Luckily she wasn’t there long before Gabriel shows up and tries to save her. I really liked the hutzpah that Talia shows in this portion of the book but I feel that her personality turned around completely. There’s maturing and then there’s becoming a completely different person. Yes, she was out from under her father’s demeaning control but it was almost like reading about two different heroines.
Gabriel and Talia find a passion together in the story that is undeniable but I was a little disappointed in the fact that we had to wait until almost the end of the book before we got to hear the background thoughts from Gabriel. What was his reasoning behind the acceptance of the marriage and why did he initially treat Talia so badly? I felt the story would have been better served in having that information earlier in the book.
The secondary characters in the book were well done and very three dimensional. I liked how they were brought into the story and each given their own stories woven into the main one.
Overall the story was a good, romantic spy novel that kept me reading.
Rating: 3.5 out of 5
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