In “Ten Reasons to Stay,” previously published in the anthology The School for Heiresses, lessons go far beyond etiquette and needlepoint. Eliza Crenshawe’s lesson is to look before she leaps. But when she discovers that her new guardian plans to marry her off without so much as a Season, she forgets all that. She flees—on a horse she unwittingly steals (oops!)—from Colin Hunt, a newly minted earl who wants nothing more than for her to go home…or stay forever.
It’s the Earl of Monteith’s first night back in England after leaving the country of his mother, India, that he’s lived in for many years. He’s not sure how he feels about being back in England as he knows that people will judge him for his mixed heritage. He’s contemplating this while looking out on his land when he sees someone sneaking into his stables. He follows and discovers a horse thief who is actually a woman.
He hauls her into his home and then listens to what he can only believe is a complete fabrication. The woman, Eliza, tells him that she is “borrowing” the horse to get to the nearest town with the mail coach so that she can head back to her school to seek help from her uncle. Her uncle, who used to be nice and gentle, is her guardian now that her father has passed and he’s planning on marrying her off to some old man who she doesn’t know. The earl, Colin, doesn’t believe a word of it but it doesn’t stop him from being attracted to the woman. He ends up putting her into his dressing room as it’s the only place with no doors or windows that she can sneak out of and plans to find out the real story in the morning.
Eliza is at her wits end because she fears that Colin will find out the that she’s telling the truth but send her off with her uncle anyway. During the night, however, she tries to use her feminine wiles to get him to do her bidding. It doesn’t work out the way she hopes but it does end up making both parties involved have deeper feelings for the other.
This was a cute little story. It had a good premise and some fun and interesting moments.
It was pretty short though and I think that that caused a problem for me when the h/h fell in love so very quickly. The heroine was thinking she was “desperately” in love with the hero after having known him for all of about 12 hours. The hero fell hard and fast too which didn’t exactly seem to fit with his character. I think had this been even 50 more pages the love would have been a bit more believable.
Despite that I liked the story and of course I always enjoy Sabrina Jeffries’ writing. If you don’t mind your characters falling in love very quickly and want a fun read then this one is definitely for you.
Rating: 3.5 out of 5
I had a similar response to this book. I liked both the hero and the heroine, but the romance happened too quickly for my taste. Just one of the perils of novellas, I guess. Great and thoughtful review!