Marriage of Safety
The most convenient thing about marriage might be survival
It’s hopefully no secret I really love marriage of convenience stories. And the following three take this trope a step further, where the literal safety of the heroine is what ultimately spurs the union. You know I’m a sucker for real stakes, and safety/security is one of the highest stakes conflicts out there! What’s not to like??
Worth Any Price by Lisa Kleypas. The third in a series, we have a classic Kleypas caper- turning the pseudo-villain from previous books into the hero of his own! Nick Gentry has been a criminal kingpin, a legendary rake, and now he’s a Bow Street Runner (read the previous books to see how he got there- they’re also great!). So when the benefactor of a family hires Nick to find a wayward young woman who’s run off, he assumes an easy gig (how hard could it be to find one silly girl?) and takes it.
When he finds Charlotte Howard, though, the situation isn’t as simple as he expected. She’s on the run from the benefactor who hired Nick for reasons that I imagine you’ll find obvious, and Nick finds himself unable to complete the original job. Instead, due to her predicament, he has a pitch- they should get married, so she’s safe from the benefactor, so her family is safe to boot, and so he can show her a sensual new world that unlocks more than just orgasms from both of them.
What I like about this book is how quickly the marriage of safety goes down. Nick basically meets her, his brain fully melts out his ears, and they spend most of the book married. There’s barely any equivocation; as soon as he understands the circumstances, they are together. Marriage of conveniences even more than fake dating books are so great because they immediately force the two protagonists together and it becomes much more a story of teamwork than of two wayward souls coming together. And you know I loved a reformed bad guy.
Rating: 4.5/5
How hot? 🔥🔥🔥🔥
Ana María and the Fox by Liana De la Rosa. The first in a series that I’m DESPERATELY anticipating for book 2 in a few months. Ana María is a Mexican heiress, eldest daughter, and representative of the Mexican people’s plight during the French occupation, trying to sway English hearts and minds to their cause. She’s treated like a beacon (of familial duty, of the Mexican people) and for the longest time hasn’t much questioned this status quo. At least, not until she’s out of reach of her controlling, politically-ambitious father and arranged fiance with her sisters, making eyes at Gideon Fox across ballrooms.
Gideon is an activist and politician in his own right in London, the grandson of an enslaved woman fighting tooth and nail to abolish the Atlantic slave trade and doing whatever it takes to ensure he has the votes in Parliament to do just that. Which includes avoiding his growing feelings for a far-too-flashy and controversial heiress like Ana María.
This book takes slightly longer for our marriage of safety to happen, but there’s plenty of pining leading up to it so you won’t be upset. As you might imagine, her arranged political marriage back in Mexico is NOT the vibe, so that’s what finally decides things for Gideon and locking her down. To protect her from that fate because for so many reasons she really doesn’t have another choice. Turns out, this is exactly what both of them needed, because of course!
Rating: 4.5/5
How hot? 🔥🔥🔥
A Notorious Vow by Joanna Shupe. Shy Lady Christina Barclay came to NYC from London with the weight of her family on her shoulders. At first, her non-confrontational nature accepts her lot in life as a bargaining chip to help rescue her family from their disgrace (that has nothing at all to do with her), but when the man they want to sell her to turns out to be more monstrous than she’s comfortable submitting to (and believe me, she was willing to submit to a lot for the sake of familial loyalty), she turns to her reclusive new neighbor who she accidentally stumbled upon during one of her many little escapes from her new home.
Oliver Hawkes, a deaf inventor working on an early form of hearing aid, agrees to a platonic union to rescue his sweet new neighbor from certain misery under a few concrete conditions. Namely, the marriage can only last a year and she must not distract him from his inventing.
From Christina’s complete willingness to find new ways to communicate with a man who’s resigned himself to isolation, to Oliver’s clumsy but earnest attempts to make her not just feel safe but wanted, to a forced asylum imprisonment, this book is a dream of a read. And it’s another where the marriage happens pretty much right away, so they can’t escape each other on the page, just the way I like it.
Rating: 4.5/5
How hot? 🔥🔥🔥🔥
Next week, to give you a break from the adrenaline rush of this roundup, I’ll be recommending books with cinnamon roll athlete heroes. They’re jocks, they’re nice, so if you’re into that sort of thing, you’ll be in luck.
What should I be reading next? Let me know in the comments!