Helpful Score: 3
This is a wonderful story about two people too afraid to trust and who don't believe they can be loved. Mary is twenty-nine, conditioned by her late father to believe herself plain and unmarriageable; Jack is nine years older, a Marquess and rake who has been hurt in the past by a faithless woman, and who is now looking for a rich wife to save his estates from ruin.
They meet at a ball and quickly become friends: Mary offers to help him find a wife who will not bore him or lose her looks as she grows older. But friends grow closer... and then Jack discovers that Mary herself is very rich.
Candice Hern tells this story beautifully, little by little revealing the details of both characters' past and demonstrating why each finds it so hard to trust - and why, once trust appears to have been broken, it can be so hard to forgive.
There are some excellent supporting characters in this book, including Mary's companion Olivia, Jack's uncle Edward and Jack's mother. It's definitely a book to savour and read again and again.
They meet at a ball and quickly become friends: Mary offers to help him find a wife who will not bore him or lose her looks as she grows older. But friends grow closer... and then Jack discovers that Mary herself is very rich.
Candice Hern tells this story beautifully, little by little revealing the details of both characters' past and demonstrating why each finds it so hard to trust - and why, once trust appears to have been broken, it can be so hard to forgive.
There are some excellent supporting characters in this book, including Mary's companion Olivia, Jack's uncle Edward and Jack's mother. It's definitely a book to savour and read again and again.
