Publisher: Carina Press
Source: ebook (given by Netgalley)
Rate:




Summary:

Victoria Carson never expected love. An American heiress and graduate of Lady Grantham's finishing school, she's been groomed since birth to marry an English title—the grander the better. So when the man chosen for her, the forbidding Earl of Dunnley, seems to hate her on sight, she understands that it can't matter. Love can have no place in this arrangement.
Andrew Hargrave has little use for his title and even less for his cold, disinterested parents. Determined to make his own way, he's devoted to his life in Italy working as an archaeologist. Until the collapse of his family's fortune drags him back to England to a marriage he never wanted and a woman he doesn't care to know.
Wild attraction is an unwanted complication for them both, though it forms the most fragile of bonds. Their marriage of convenience isn't so intolerable after all—but it may not be enough when the deception that bound them is finally revealed.

Review:
*The publisher provided this book in exchange for an honest review through NetGalley.*
Victoria Carson is an American heiress and so she has always known that she will marry for money and not for love, she has not created any illusions in her mind that she'll have a happy union. So when the man she marries, the Earl of Dunnley, seems to hate her she's not surprised and chooses that it doesn't matter.
Andrew Hargrave has been working as an archaeologist in Italy for some time now and he has absolutely no use for his title and even less for his cold and hateful parents. So when he's dragged to an arranged marriage with an American girl he has never even met before in order to save his family's finances he's not happy.
Even though they seem to not care for each other some attraction grows between Victoria and Andrew but they don't want it, it's not needed. Their marriage doesn't seem to be tolerable but miracles can happen and people can change.
So, first of all, I have to warn you that if you don't like vivid descriptions of sexual intercourse then you'll not like this book, because it contains a lot of that kind of content (don't be scared it's not the whole book).
This is a great story! The characters are well developed and immensely complex, a trait that will certainly glue readers to this book.
Victoria is not the typical socialite and I like it since I don't really enjoy the generalization that is usually made that all socialites of the past were hateful superficial weak people and that they didn't have their own will and their own judgement.
Andrew is a gem, he has been controlled solely by his great desire of finding something (if you want to know what you'll have to actually read the book) and that desire has blinded him in some ways, making him hateful when he really isn't.
Character and plot development are beautiful things and this book has hit the bullseye with it! If you like steamy and romantic stories about dukes and duchesses then this is a good book for you, if you don't why don't you give it a try?