Reviewer: Rowena Secrets of a Runaway Bride (Secret Brides, #2) by Valerie Bowman
Publisher: St. Martin's Press
Publication Date: March 26th 2013
Genres: Historical Romance
Pages: 384
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The Thrill Of Escape
Miss Annie Andrews is finally free to marry the man she loves. With her overprotective sister out of the country on her honeymoon, nothing can prevent her flight to Gretna Green—nothing, that is, but an abduction by the wrong gentleman.
The Sweetness Of Surrender
When Jordan Holloway, the Earl of Ashbourne, promised to look after his best friend's sister-in-law, he didn’t realize she would prove so difficult. But when he spirits her away to his country house to prevent her elopement, he discovers that the tempting beauty knows how to put up a fight. To make matters worse, he’s stuck playing the role of honorable protector...when what he really wants is to run away with her himself.
Anne Andrews has pretty much been left on her own in London. Her sister Lily is on her honeymoon and her chaperone for the month is her aunt by marriage, Aunt Clarissa. Aunt Clarissa is a bit of a lush so she’s really not all that much of a chaperone. Since Anne thinks herself in love with a man named Arthur Eggleston, and about six months ago had tried to marry him by heading off to Gretna Green. She was stopped then but she’s determined to get Arthur to marry her. Unfortunately Arthur’s not exactly coming up to snuff. Anne is kind of making a fool of herself trying to get Arthur’s attention and it falls to Lily’s friend Jordan Holloway, the Earl of Ashbourne, to try to keep her reputation pristine and Anne out of trouble. Unfortunately Anne is proving to be a royal pain in the ass.
Jordan saves Anne from herself time and time again and even saves her from yet another attempt to get to Gretna Green with Arthur. Jordan decides he’s had enough and drags Anne, her maid and Aunt Clarissa to his manor in Surrey to keep Anne out of trouble. While in Surrey Jordan tries to find an eligible bachelor for Anne to marry but when it comes down to it she decides she wants Jordan. He, however, decided about 6 years before that he would never marry.
This was a good little read. Anne was a bit of a pain in the ass but she was sweet and really had good intentions with everything she did. She had self-esteem issues as her sister is extremely beautiful and her father once told her that she was unremarkable. I couldn’t blame her for thinking that she wasn’t all that pretty as it had been drilled into her head, that’s for sure. I did think she was in love for love. I don’t know, she really seemed kind of finicky in the book and seemed to go from Arthur to Jordan pretty quickly. She did realize pretty quickly that Arthur wasn’t what she wanted but still – it was a bit frustrating.
Jordan was supposedly a rake but we really didn’t see that except for him with his mistress once. He really was an upstanding man and I liked him a whole hell of a lot. He tried to be honorable time and again when it came to Anne but she really made it difficult for him. He tried! LOL
Overall it was a decent story with some fun parts to it. I certainly liked it much better than book 1 and after reading an excerpt of book 3 I’m definitely interested.
Rating: 3.5 out of 5
The Series:
You can read more from Tracy at Tracy’s Place.
This book is available from St. Martin’s Paperbacks. You can buy it here or here in e-format. This book was provided by the publisher for an honest review.
Sounds like a good book.