Series:
Lyon's Den (Book 49)
Being held in his arms had felt right. Perhaps for the
first time in her life, she had felt she was where she belonged.
Miss Poppy Granville has a plan to save the fortune left
to her and her sister by their grandfather. Perhaps it isn’t a very good plan.
It’s certainly not a foolproof one. But with a bit of misdirection, a few lies,
bending some rules while breaking others, along with the cooperation of a well-connected
ally—none other than the Black Widow of White Hall—it just might work. All it
will take is for one of them, more than likely Marigold as she was more content
to be managed rather than to manage, to land themselves a husband. In eight
days.
Julien knows that his cousin is facing an uphill battle
in finding himself a wife—despite all that Phillip has to recommend him, the
man’s own obsession with hunting and shooting might derail his plan and the
considerable efforts of Mrs. Dove-Lyon. But Julien hadn’t expected that the
prospective bride, sent by Bessie for Phillip, would be accompanied by the one
woman in the world he was hopeless to resist. A woman he knows, at very first
glance, will be his.
But the course of true love and matchmaking will never
run smooth, and the Cressington house party is no exception. With plots,
schemes, jealousy, and a scandalous wardrobe encounter all converging into one
point of utter chaos, both Julien and Poppy discover that it doesn’t really
matter what brought them together.
It only matters that they are together… and both of them
mean to stay that way.
Good Cinderella-like book. Poppy and her older sister,
Marigold, have had a rough time ever since her father remarried - a woman with
two daughters of her own. Portia constantly puts her stepdaughters down and has
convinced their father to split their dowries with her daughters. Poppy and
Marigold desperately need husbands to get them out from under Portia's thumb. So,
Poppy writes a letter to her mother's childhood friend, Mrs. Dove-Lyons, asking
for her help. Within days, Mrs. Dove-Lyons has secured an invitation to a house
party, a chaperone, and the name of a likely suitor for Marigold. Poppy is
content to wait for Marigold to marry before looking for a husband.
Julien isn't looking forward to his mother's house party.
She has been badgering him for years to find a wife and has resorted to
decorative blackmail to achieve her goal (Julien's descriptions of his mother's
efforts are hilarious). On the other hand, his cousin Phillip is ready to find
a bride, but his social awkwardness makes his search an uphill battle. I loved
the men's first sight of Poppy and Marigold. Phillip is nervous, and Julien
feels like he's been hit by a bolt of lightning.
I ached for Marigold, whose high hopes are blasted by
Phillip's apparent inability to talk about anything except shooting and hunting.
She's ready to give up in despair but has a minor obstacle to making a clean
escape. She wrote a letter to her prospective intended, to be delivered by Mrs.
Dove-Lyons, that could easily be misconstrued if it falls into the wrong hands.
Poppy, being the take-action woman she is, plots a way to retrieve the letter.
Unfortunately, it goes sadly awry in a scene that had me laughing out loud.
Julien decides that no one but Poppy will do for him and
is determined to court her immediately. He runs into a problem when Poppy
doesn't believe he is serious. She is a young woman with generous curves whose
self-confidence has been beaten down by her stepmother's jibes. She does not think
a viscount like Julien would have any serious interest in her. That's not to
say he hasn't drawn her attention. His good looks and charm stir feelings in
her that she's never felt before. When her attempt to retrieve Marigold's
letter puts her in a compromising position with Julien, it takes some effort
for Julien to convince her of their need to marry.
But Julien's interest in Poppy has made two enemies that
will do anything to get their way. A nasty plot puts Poppy in danger, and only Julien's
quick action can save the day. I was on the edge of my seat as I watched the
situation unfold, hoping Julien would be in time. The ending was terrific, and
I was happy to see how things turned out for Julien and Poppy.
I also enjoyed the romance between Marigold and Phillip.
He comes across as dull-witted at the beginning of the book, but as the story
progresses, it appears there is more to him than meets the eye. His nervousness
around Marigold exacerbates his awkwardness, and it takes a bit of advice from
Julien to point him in the right direction. Marigold quickly writes him off,
but as the days pass, her attitude changes. She, too, seemed somewhat
air-headed initially, but a previously undemonstrated practicality came to the
fore as she dealt with Phillip. I loved the twist to their romance at the end.
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