Isabel Author: Martha Keyes
Series: Families of Dorset #2
Genres: Historical Romance
Format: eBook, Print
Pages: 272
Date: August 15, 2019
Publisher: Indie
A gentleman‘s impulsive wager to marry a stranger. A young woman’s determination not to marry the man she wants.
When Isabel Cosgrove is informed by her father that he lost her hand in marriage while playing cards with Charles Galbraith—the gentleman she’s been admiring from a distance for years—she is filled with dismay. How can she agree to wed a man whose reason for marriage is part-revenge, part-indifference? Intent on avoiding a painful union where her regard cannot be returned, she concocts a plan.
Charles Galbraith didn’t intend to become engaged as a result of a drunken wager at cards, but after the woman he loves spurns him, what does it matter whom he marries? But even Miss Cosgrove, the fiancée he won by wager, seems intent not to marry him—a fact that both relieves and piques him. She instead suggests a plan that has the potential to temporarily appease her father’s demand of marriage while also winning back the love of the woman Charles truly wants.
But when Charles and Isabel are thrown into the midst of a brewing scandal and another man’s potential disinheritance, their plan begins to unravel thread by thread, challenging what Galbraith thinks he wants—and just how much more time with him Isabel’s heart can stand.
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About Martha Keyes
Martha Keyes was born, raised, and educated in Utah. She received a BA in French Studies and a Master of Public Health, both from Brigham Young University. Word crafting has always fascinated and motivated her, but it wasn’t until a few years ago that she considered writing her own stories. When she isn’t writing, she is honing her photography skills, looking for travel deals, and spending time with her family.
I enjoyed this book and the main characters. Isabel is stable, mature, and at peace especially for someone that is treated so unfairly by her family. Charles was a fun hero. A little dense at figuring out his feelings but I liked him all the same. I thought I might not like Mary as much since she was so into gossip but I found her to be a true friend to Isabel. And I loved Hetty and was sad when she went away.
I can only think of two things I didn’t like. 1) I should have liked to hear the conversation between Charles and Isabel talking about their first meeting as children. Did he remember it at all? Does he ever realize how much it meant to Isabel over the years? It was so sweet and hearing the story was what made me love Charles from the beginning. And 2) I would like to have learned what happens with Cecy and Miss Darling but perhaps that is for future books in the series?
Sex: some innuendo, a young woman carrying a child out of wedlock but no sex on the page
Language: just a little -mild
Violence: rector is hit over the head, attempted murder
*I received a complimentary advanced copy of this book and voluntarily choose to review it.