I was expecting two quite short stories but they were both a lot longer than I thought they would be.
The first story is called "The earls untouched bride". It's about 200-220 pages long in kindle. The basic story is that Charles Fawley, the Earl of Walton has just been jilted by his french fiancee. Who has run of with her much poorer lover who her parents do not approve of. The earl is then approached by his fiancees sister who suggests that they marry instead. Her main reason for doing so are so that she can escape an unwanted marriage and she believes that they can trick society into believing that it was her instead of his sister he was courting the whole time and thus salve his pride. He doesn't seriously consider it until she inadvertantly reveals the man who wants to marry her is a man he truly detests. The rest of the story is their growing relationship and misunderstanding of each others feelings. For once I can see why there are so many misunderstandings between them and it doesn't grate the way it can in some stories. Both the hero and heroine are likable and I think the author does a good job of switching between their points of view and their developing feelings. There are one or two sex scenes that are brief and come relatively late in the book, so for people who need a lot of sex it might be quite frustrating, but personally I don't feel it's wanting for that. The story moves along quite nicely and there's enough tension between the h&h to keep you engadged. If you've read and liked Annie Burrows books before then I think you're likely to like this as well. I give it 4 stars.
The second story is called "Captain Fawleys Innocent Bride". It's also about 200-220 pages long in kindle. This story is about Captain Robert Fawley who is introduced in the previous story as the Earls half brother. He has been terribly injured during the war with scarring covering half his face and having lost part of one arm and one leg. He is trying to court a girl called Susannah Hullworthy, although she keeps rejecting him as she wishes for a title and finds his injuries repellant. Her friend Deborah Gillies however (who he hasn't appeared to notice much) has fallen in love with him. She is generally considered plainer and doesn't have any money. The situation changes when Captain Fawley learns that a distant aunt had left her estate to him, however if he doesn't marry by the time he's thirty his cousin Percy who he hates will inherit. Feeling that Deborah is the only woman who will accept him he asks her to marry him with possibly the most insulting marriage proposal I have ever heard. Captain Fawley then starts to believe that Deborah is a gold digger, despite being initially fond of her. His resentment and insecurity then make him treat her rather badly although there are signs that he is growing to care for her. There are some rather harsh reviews on this story and while I agree that I don't always like the hero's treatment of the heroine the author does still manage to paint him in a sympathetic light and I still liked him despite all that, especially having read the first story. I also didn't think she was the pushover that others seemed to think given that at that time in history she would have been regarded as little more than her husbands property. I liked this story and I think it just about scrapes 4 stars.
All in all I was pleased I bought this book for the price.
