Third book in this series which I'm not reading in order but it doesn't seem to make any difference as each book can be a stand alone.Lady Allegra Humphrey is in trouble because her father gambled away the estate and all the family money and she is left homeless, with only her mother's jewels and her clothing to finance her future. Her twin brother, Richard is Lord Witherton, the Duke of Colchester and he now has an empty title unless her marries the rich merchant's daughter that bought out his estate. Self-made merchant rich-man, Mr. Jago Tremayne has a lot of money, but no social standing for himself and his daughter so he has plans to buy it with a marriage.St Osyth’s Priory, Allegra's ancestral home where she never thought to leave, but now must find a new future for herself at twenty-five years old. Her twin brother isn't thinking about her well being, but Jago (weird but cool name choice!) picks up the slack but with the motivation to marry her. Which is really odd to have twins marry a father and daughter, Jago's age isn't mentioned but he must be 18 years older then Allegra's 25 years. But age gaps apart, the couples work and there is lots of chemistry between Allegra and Jago, even though she really works hard to reject it. Each couple's love will be tested by each other, outside accidents and evil people trying to break them a part. What is crazy in this story is all four will risk death at some point and the strangest one happens to have a tree and cat as the threat which was original and I've never thought how everyday events can quickly become lethal.Lots of story (almost too much story!) to get through before we find a HEA.179 pages and kindle freebie3 stars
As in another book by this author that I read, there is far too much saying of things and then immediately wishing them recalled. I thought it was a quirk of the character's personality in the last one, but it applies to several people in this one. It was annoying. I don't always think before I speak, but after it's said there's no use wishing it undone and then capitulating my entire persona to make it up to the person I'm speaking to.I lost interest in what happened to the characters around 45% of the way through because it just got too ridiculous to follow. I did finish the book, though. The finish was, like the last one, rather abrupt.This series has thus far left me very underwhelmed.
