3.5 stars
Shortly after the death of her father, Miss Cecilia Harcourt gets a letter informing her that her brother, Thomas Harcourt has been injured during battle i the American colonies. Her odious cousin keeps coming around hinting strongly at how beneficial it would be for Cecilia to marry him, so instead she buries the family silver in the garden and sets off over the Atlantic to find her brother and nurse him back to health. Unfortunately, no one seems to be willing to speak to her and her brother appears to be missing. Instead she finds his best friend, Captain Edward Rokesby, who’s unconscious in the hospital and clearly also needs her aid. In order to be allowed to tend to him, Cecilia lies and claims to be his wife. She knows the charade will be up as soon as Rokesby wakes up, but at least she can give him the tenderest of care until then.
When Edward wakes up, he’s surprised to find the woman he identifies as his best friend Thomas’ sister Cecilia by his bedside. He’s even more confused when she appears to be his wife, but the doctors confirm that the blow he took to the head when out on some very secretive mission appears to have caused him to forget the last six months of his memory. As Edward had frequently sent messages to Cecilia in Thomas’ letters to her, and she had started sending little greetings for him, he’s not entirely surprised that he’s married to her, having already half fallen in love with her through he correspondence, he just can’t remember when or how the marriage took place.
Cecilia feels dreadful about her lies, but discovers that the army officials are much more likely to assist her in her search for her brother if she is Captain Rokesby’s wife, not just Miss Harcourt, sister of a missing officer. So even though it pains her to deceive a clearly very honest and upstanding gentleman, she keeps up the lie that she married Edward and promises herself that as soon as they locate Thomas, she will tell him the truth and set him free, even if he’s unlikely to ever want to see her again afterwards.
Full review here.
I was wondering if this was any good! I wasn’t thrilled with the first book that much, and the amnesia trope isn’t one of my favorites so I think I’ll wait to pick it up at the library whenever it appears there.
Like all of Julia Quinn’s books it’s perfectly fine, but I would not pay full price for this. Wait until you can get it at the library. As I say in my review, it doesn’t help that I read a different, more interesting romance with the same premise (heroine pretends to be married to unconscious man, he wakes up with amnesia, the lie continues) earlier this spring, and it was so much more satisfying.
Which book was that?
A Lady’s Code of Misconduct by Meredith Duran: http://cbr.bgwdesigns.com/2017/05/a-historical-romance-with-lies-angst-an-opportunistic-heroine-and-a-hero-with-amnesia/
Sweet, thanks! Already have it on my TBR :)