Shy young heiress, Lady Lily Rutherford, is in no hurry to marry. She dreams of true love and a real courtship. But when disaster strikes, she finds herself facing a scandal-forced marriage to her rescuer, Edward Galbraith, a well known rake.

Despite his reputation Lily is drawn to the handsome Galbraith. In the gamble of her life, she agrees to marry him, hoping to turn a convenient marriage into a love match.

As heir to a title, Galbraith knows he must wed, so a convenient marriage suits him perfectly. But there is a darkness in his past, and secrets he refuses to share with his tender-hearted young bride. All Lily's efforts to get close to him fall on stony ground, and in desperation she retreats to his childhood home—the place he's avoided for nearly a decade.

Must Lily reconcile herself to a marriage without love? Or will Galbraith realize that this warm-hearted, loving girl is the key to healing the wounds of his past—and his heart?

Lily is an heiress and while a husband would be nice, she definitely wants to marry for love.  Her brother married for convenience, but that match turned into true love. After seeing love at work in her home, she definitely wants that for herself.  Unfortunately there are others who have something else in mind.  Lily is tricked into thinking her sister needs help and kidnapped by a man who only wants Lily for her money.  She manages to escape and is saved by Lord Galbraith, a friend of her brothers.  Despite all the machinations to keep Lily’s identity a secret it only took one person seeing her to ruin her reputation.

Galbraith is a rake (at least we are told he is, we see no evidence of this in the book) and as such, not the marrying kind.  He is, however, the heir to a title so he knows he must marry eventually.  When he realizes that Lily’s reputation has been compromised, although they did nothing but kiss, he offers for her.  Galbraith tries everything he can to keep away from Lily because her softness draws him like a bee to honey.  He can’t let himself get in deep with the woman as he has serious secrets and guilt from his past. He can’t keep himself away for too long, however.

I loved Lily in this book.  She was clever and smart and tough.  She put up with a whole hell of a lot in the first part of this book but she didn’t just sit back and let it happen. She saved herself and I was so proud of her!  Her father had made her think she was an idiot because she couldn’t read (I’m assuming dyslexia) and that had been carried with her throughout the years.  She had a good head on her shoulders.  When it came to Galbraith I was happy that she stood up for what she wanted (him) and didn’t let him get away.  I liked her strength of character.

Despite Galbraith supposedly being a rake he was actually quite a gentleman and honorable.  He helped Lily when she needed it and made every effort to protect her.  When he couldn’t he stepped up to the plate.  He had some issues that were worked out in the book and they played a part in the making of his personality, but they got smoothed out in the end.  He really was a good man and I liked him a lot.

Another great book from Anne Gracie!  I’m not sure how I missed the first book in this series when it released but I did.  Despite that I didn’t feel like I needed to read it in order to read this book.  There were a few times that events from the previous book were mentioned that I didn’t understand, but they were so minor I wasn’t worried I was missing anything.   Definitely a book I’d recommend.

Marriage of Convenience

Rating: 4 out of 5