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Abigail Mercer is an American, through and through. Which is precisely why Spencer Law, the Viscount Ravenswood, is so attracted to her. She is nothing like the pale, boring English misses of Society that he is so accustomed to finding in England.
Abigail finds Spencer quit attractive, even kind, when he and his brother visit her father in America. Spencer’s brother, Nat, has sailed all of the way from England just to try to get Abigail’s father to sell him their family business. Negotiations are well on their way when Spencer returns to England.
So when, to his complete and utter surprise, his new wife shows up on his doorstep, in the person of one Abigail Mercer, he is understandably confused. When he had left Abigail in America, both of them had been unmarried. Apparently, due to a family secret that Spencer had imparted to Nat, his brother had decided that he needed a wife. And so he had set about getting him one, by whatever nefarious means necessary, even knowing that the very last thing Spencer would ever want is a wife.
After Spencer left America, Nat had convinced Abigail that his brother wished to marry her by proxy. He had also convinced Abigail’s ailing father to sign over the family business when Abigail married, and her dowry, leaving her quite penniless and at the mercy of her new husband. Who, she finds out when she reaches England, doesn’t want her as his wife at all. This leaves them both in quite a quandary. Since Nat has absconded with her dowry, Abigail does not have the means to return to England, and Spencer cannot send her into the streets penniless. His brother will have to be found, and Spencer plans to personally see to it that the scoundrel returns every bit of the dowry that he has stolen. Until then, to avoid a scandal, Abigail and Spencer agree to try to make their faux marriage seem real.
In MARRIED TO THE VISCOUNT, Sabrina Jeffries has put together a first-rate tale of two people who are thrust into an untenable situation, but still manage to find love and delight in each other. MARRIED TO THE VISCOUNT is skillfully written, providing everything that romance readers want in a novel: multi-faceted characters, realistic historical detail, a clever plot, witty secondary characters and an abiding romance.
Following the first four books in the Swanlea Spinster Series (DANGEROUS LOVE, A NOTORIOUS LOVE, AFTER THE ABDUCTION, DANCE OF SEDUCTION), MARRIED TO THE VISCOUNT delivers the characteristic style expected of Ms. Jeffries and is sure to delight readers everywhere.
Reviewed by Janean Nusz
for The Road to Romance
May 5, 2004
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