Caroline Anderson is on her way back from London after a failed attempt to sell the Home's Widow's Brew beer to a London tavern. In fact, she ended up having to ward off the gentleman from a rather amorous attempt. Now she's on the stagecoach from hell with a judgmental pastor, a husband and wife who are REALLY annoying, and now a young mother with a six-year-old boy and a baby. Then two inebriated gentleman join the trip. And they decide to take over the reins and immediately drive the stagecoach into a ditch. To her astonishment, Caroline knows where they are, near the home of a man known as Lord Devil, a man who's nephew she played with when they were children. Only now the nephew has taken on the mantle as the Lord and he's holding a Christmas orgy at his house to spite his uncle's memory. However, the lord, Nick, isn't so inhuman that he'd turn people out into the cold so the entire stagecoach ends up at his house. He's astonished to recognize his childhood friend and even more astonished when she suggests that they pretend to be lovers.
Caroline has a really good reason for that-especially since her past was Not Good and she could use the dubious protection of a relationship with Nick but she soon realizes that a fake relationship might turn out to be real after all.
Like all MacKenzie books, this is a fast, fun, and fairly shallow read. Everything is wrapped up neatly without a lot of angst. The perfect book to read if you need something fluffy and light but I wish there had been a bit more character development.
Three and a half stars
This book comes out September 24th
Followed by
Cheers to the Duke
ARC kindly provided by Kensington Books and NetGalley
Opinions are my own
