I like this tale of independent-minded duke's daughter Isabella and scarred Waterloo veteran Nicholas very much. Nicholas has facial burns from a deadly fire in his billet, and that, coupled with his manner, causes society not to look beneath the surface to see the good man beneath. He has come back from the wars wanting only home, family and peace, and had asked Harriet, a very foolish young girl, to marry him. She was being pressured into the marriage by her uncle even though she loved another young man; she made Nicholas a monster in her mind and ran away, at which point Isabella rescued her at an inn and brought her to her home in secret, because Isabella is always rescuing strays. Nicholas is angry at the slight - because of an inadvertent slip on Isabella's part in conversation with one of the Mean Girls of the ton, he is labeled 'The Ogre'. Isabella is appalled at the damage her verbal slip caused, and sets out to fix it as best she can, by pretending Nicholas is a favored admirer -- meanwhile still hiding his watering-pot chosen bride in her own home.

I thought the story was well paced, and the emotional arc of the characters very credible. The author also has a nice writing style. Recommended as a nice, low key read that held my interest to the end.

Updated 3/2/19 - Emily May is a pen name of Emily Larkin. she has rewritten this book for kindle as Lady Isabella's Ogre. she says she changed the ending.

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