Title: The Scoundrel's Daughter
Author: Anne Gracie
Publication: 24 August 2021
Format: Kindle ebook
When Lady Charlton is forced into becoming London's most reluctant matchmaker, sparks fly and romance ensues, from the national bestselling author of Marry in Scarlet.
Alice, Lady Charlton, newly-widowed and eager to embrace a life free of her domineering husband is devastated when a scoundrel appears, brandishing letters that could ruin her. To prevent their publication he wants Alice to find a noble husband—a lord!—for his daughter, Lucy.
Alice is forced to agree to his blackmail but when Lucy arrives, she has absolutely no interest in her father's scheme. A lord, she says, will only look down his nose at her—and she's having none of that!
Desperate to retrieve the letters, Alice enlists the aid of her handsome young nephew, Gerald, who in turn seeks the help of his former commanding officer, James, Lord Tarrant. James is soon beguiled by the marriage-averse lady and sets out to teach her about love. Meanwhile, Gerald and Lucy strike sparks each time they meet.
To combat the dastardly plot, Alice and Lucy must learn to trust each other. But can Alice put the past behind her and open her heart to love?
Ramble-y Teaserish Stuff
Yet again I grabbed a book from NetGalley without noticing that it is not the first in a series. I don't care if they all claim to be stand-alones ... I just can't do it without feeling like I'm missing something so I will always backtrack if I can. Luckily for me, my library had a digital copy of the first in Anne Gracie's The Brides of Bellaire Gardens series so I'm able to dive in before reading the second which is due to be released in less than two weeks.
This is actually two love stories: Gerald and Lucy, James and Alice. The best relationship, though, is most definitely that between Lucy and Alice. They both have preconceived notions about the other when Lucy is thrust into Alice's life -- a life that she was just about to start reclaiming as her own. Watching them learn about each other and themselves in the process was even better than the "will they won't they (but of course they will)" enemies-to-lovers of Gerald and Lucy ... and even the mostly-swoon-worthiness of widowed father/ex-soldier James. I have a thing for ex-soldiers so that was an automatic plus for James. There were times, though, when I thought that both Alice and Lucy deserved better ... and that "better" may be going with their original ideas of remaining single ... but all in all I was pleased with how everything turned out.
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