The Stranger She Married Author: Donna Hatch
Series: Rogue Hearts #1
Genres: Historical Romance
Format: eBook, Print
Pages: 464
Date: November 2008
Publisher: Mirror Lake Press
When her parents and only brother die within weeks of each other, Alicia and her younger sister are left in the hands of an uncle who has brought them all to financial and social ruin.
Desperate to save her family from debtor’s prison, Alicia vows to marry the first wealthy man to propose. She meets the dashing Lord Amesbury, and her heart whispers that this is the man she is destined to love, but his tainted past may forever stand in their way. Her choices in potential husbands narrow to either a scarred cripple with the heart of a poet, or a handsome rake with a deadly secret.
Cole Amesbury is tormented by his own ghosts, and believes he is beyond redemption, yet he cannot deny his attraction for the girl whose genuine goodness touches the heart he’d thought long dead. He fears the scars in his soul cut so deeply that he may never be able to offer Alicia a love that is true.
When yet another bizarre mishap threatens her life, Alicia suspects the seemingly unrelated accidents that have plagued her loved ones are actually a killer’s attempt to exterminate every member of her family. Despite the threat looming over her, learning to love the stranger she married may pose the greatest danger to her heart.
Rating: Moderate. Mild substance use; mild kissing; non-detailed fade-out sensuality; some violence or horror.
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About Donna Hatch
Multi-award-winning author of more than twenty best-selling Regency Historical Romances, Donna Hatch is a hopeful romantic and an adventurer at heart. Each book she writes is filled with wit and heart and plenty of swoon-worthy romance. Donna sings, plays the harp, and loves to ballroom dance. Her family, including six children and two cats, recently left their native Arizona for the Pacific coast of the US. No matter where they live, she and her husband of over twenty years are proof that there truly is a happily ever after.
Having already read the second book, I knew pretty much how this one would end, but that didn’t diminish my enjoyment of it. I did have a harder time with some of the character’s actions and decisions but overall it was a great Regency story.
I loved this book while hating it! I needed to know the mystery, and thought I knew it until I didn’t. There were some aspects of the book I didn’t like (how can a woman insist she’s been true to her husband while she’s kissing another man?), but overall it was a good read. I’m giving it four stars because it kept me reading.