He’s nicknamed Lord Appropriate. She is anything but. So it’s highly inconvenient for both of them when William, the Duke of Aylsham, and Verity Wingate, unconventional daughter of a retired bishop, find themselves reluctantly attracted to each other… and much worse when William’s interfering younger siblings arrange for a compromise which leaves William no choice but to offer for Verity’s hand!
It never even occurs to Will that Verity will refuse him, until she does exactly that. He’s forced to take a step back and examine himself, really think about why… and what he has to do to change her mind when he realises his feelings are very much engaged.
Verity’s very lucky in that her father has a great deal of faith in her and allows her what is, for the era, basically unlimited freedom in both her movements and her choices. She did come off as somewhat reckless (especially when a past indiscretion came to light and threatened to derail everything) and I also found her rather quick to jump to conclusions. She made a lot of incorrect assumptions about Will’s treatment of his siblings based on absolutely no evidence so far as I could tell. And her stubborn refusal to accept Will’s proposal even though she already understood how decent he was made me think less of her. There’s determination to control your own destiny and then there’s not recognising when your decisions have serious consequences for other people and Verity definitely slipped over into the latter.
Though I enjoyed this - especially Will’s younger siblings - I did find Verity a bit obnoxious at times. I’ll give this four stars.
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