For the runaway heiress!
After escaping to avoid an arranged marriage, American heiress Madeline Macooish stows away aboard a ship bound for England. She's rescued by Rees Dalton and spends the night in his cabin. Knowing her reputation is compromised, she accepts Rees's offer of a temporary marriage. Drawn to his honest heart, Madeline begins to imagine wearing his ring forever. Until she learns her new husband has a secret identity!
Good book. This is a companion to The Earl's American Heiress. Their grandfather raised Madeline and her cousin Clementine after their parents' deaths. Now that they are grown, James Macooish wants them to marry titled men. He arranged a marriage between Madeline and a British earl, but Madeline wanted nothing to do with it. Rather than marry someone she doesn't love, she ran off with another man, leaving Clementine to fulfill the bargain James made.
As this book opens, Madeline realizes that Bertram was more interested in her dowry than her and has made her escape. Feeling guilty about the way she deserted her family, she plans to follow them to England. Through an unexpected series of events, Madeline ends up stowing away on the ship, where she comes to the attention of Rees Dalton, Viscount Glenwood.
Rees is an unusual man. As the ship's new owner, rather than hire men to investigate conditions, he does it himself in a very unorthodox manner. Rather than board the vessel as himself, he takes a job as one of the firemen - the men who stoke the boilers that make the ship run. It is hard, dirty work, but it gives him a ground-level view of life on board. The only one who knows the truth is the captain. Rees saw Madeline's attempt to board and instructed the captain to let her on, expecting that she would be taken care of. Instead, the captain let her on board and then left her on her own.
I enjoyed seeing the relationship develop between Madeline and Rees. Because she had no room, Madeline hid in one of the lifeboats, an uncomfortable place to be in December in the Atlantic Ocean. Rees found her one night, soaked, shivering, and nearly unconscious, and took her to his room to care for her. I loved his determination to save her and his tender treatment of her. Rees knows that Madeline's reputation would suffer because of it and, as an honorable man, intends to marry her immediately. He also admits to himself that marrying Madeline will solve a couple of problems for him.
I liked seeing Rees and Madeline get to know each other. Madeline has a sweet and sunny nature, with a bit of sass that appeals to Rees. He hears all about her cousin and grandfather and the events that led to her arrival on his ship. The one thing that gives him pause is her dislike of men with titles, as Rees hasn't told her about his. She believes he is a working man and is quite content with that future. Rees feels guilty about the deception and knows that he must come clean before they arrive in England. However, a shipboard emergency prevents it, and Madeline gets quite the shock when she hears her husband greeted as Lord Glenwood, and she runs away from him.
I was impressed by Rees's determination to find her and cheered as he finally tracked her down. I liked how he apologized and explained what happened, and asked for her help. He needs a mother for his two little girls and a reason not to marry his fiancée, who is in love with Rees's brother. There's quite the brouhaha when they arrive at Rees's home, but Madeline quickly finds herself part of the family. There are sweet scenes with Rees's girls, and Madeline finds herself dreaming of making the marriage a real one. But Rees had offered a temporary marriage of three months, and Madeline believes her feelings are one-sided. She has no idea that Rees fell for her at the start and only suggested a temporary marriage to keep her from running scared.
I liked seeing Rees's attempts to convince Madeline to stay married to him while still making sure she knows it is her choice. Madeline also takes a close look at herself and isn't sure she likes what she sees. She realizes that she is a runner - someone who runs away rather than face her problems head-on. As she and Rees move toward admitting their feelings for each other, she promises herself and him that she won't run again. Then she's faced with what looks like another deception by Rees and has to decide what to do. I ached for both Madeline and Rees as they struggled to determine the right way to proceed. The ending was terrific, and the epilogue was fun.
I liked Rees's brother Wilson. He's a good man and would have kept quiet about his feelings for Bethany to protect Rees. I wasn't sure about Bethany when I first saw her, but she turned out to be great once the whole marriage thing was settled. On the other hand, her uncle was a horrible man who didn't care about her, just what her marriage would do for him. I loved the scene where Rees and Madeline confronted him about his plans. I loved the reunion between Madeline, Clementine, and their grandfather. There was also an interesting little twist involving James at the end that made me smile for him.
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