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Eleanor Lyndon is perfectly content in life, even though she is considered a spinster at the age of twenty-three. She’s unusual for the women of her time. She is highly intelligent and even manages her own money, albeit under her father’s name. She’s out for a walk when a handsome stranger literally falls on her. He’s terribly drunk and terribly handsome, but when she find out he’s the Charles Wycombe, the Earl of Billington, she tries to keep the handsome part out of her mind.
Charles Wycombe is renowned in England—and probably beyond—as the biggest rake, but in fifteen days, rake or not, he must marry or all his inheritance goes to his cousin. When he falls from the tree onto Ellie, he’s charmed by not only her beauty but her wit and intelligence as well. Ellie is just the sort of woman Charles would want to spend the rest of his life with, someone who will keep him entertained with conversation and banter, and someone he would willingly bed to produce an heir.
Charles’s dilemma: without a wife he receives no inheritance. Eleanor’s dilemma: stay at home and be married off by her father’s new, nasty wife to one of many not so desirable prospects. Solution: marriage of convenience.
The moment the wedding is over and married life begins, a series of mishaps, involving Ellie, makes her seem like and incompetent dolt. Ellie believes that someone is out to get her, but Charles doesn’t believe her. However, when the mishaps begin to take a more dangerous turn, Charles has no choice but to believe her and find out who wants Ellie dead. Danger comes at Ellie from all sides as she is in danger of falling in love with her husband. She cannot deny the passion he stirs with his stolen kisses, but what is she to do when her marriage of convenience turns out to be the real thing?
I can’t remember a time when I’ve had more fun reading a historical romance. Julia Quinn takes the age old story of a marriage of convenience and makes it her own, with a twist. Ellie and Charles are both funny characters that you can’t help but root for. I have a feeling some of the secondary characters gave Ms. Quinn a hard time with wanting a more prominent role, such as Charles’s batty Aunt Cordelia and the six-going-on-thirty Cousin Judith. BRIGHTER THAN THE SUN is not your run of the mill historical and once you read page one, you’ll be hooked, on the book and Julia Quinn.
Reviewed by Tina Burns
for The Road to Romance
November 4, 2004
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