The Chick: Freyja Bedwyn,who she thought was the love of her life recently turned up with his new wife and they are now expecting a child so she has escaped to Bath so that she doesn’t have to observe the happy celebrations. Find Bath society tedious she finds amusement with the marquess of Hallmere.
The Dude: Joshua Moore, Marquess of Hallmere, orphaned when he was six he had to live with his aunt and uncle who treated him as a poor relation. But due to unfortunate events his cousin dies and he becomes the heir and escapes to Europe for five years. Upon the death of his uncle he inherits the title and the aunt to keep her rule over the household by betrothing her eldest daughter to Josh.
The Plot in 10 (ish):
Freyja: (at Inn) Get out of my room!*punch*
Joshua: ow! Sweetheart
Freyja: (at Park) get your hands off that servant girl! *punch*
Joshua: sweetheart, you definitely not a duke sister, your quite good fun
Evil Aunt: Dance with your cousin Joshua, it is your duty! Muhwahwah *evil scheming*
Joshua: You don’t fancy a fake bethrotal so that I can escape a marriage with my cousin or my aunt will make me. It will only be for a few days, until she leaves
Freyja: Ok im bored and it will keep my mind off the baby which has just popped.
Joshua's Grandmother: We must have a party, your aunt will stay for that.
Wulfric: Why did you not tell me you were engaged. You must be introduced to ALL the family.
Evil Aunt: Even though it is five years after his death, you murdered my son Muhwahwah, you cant make me look like a fool!
Joshua: urm this engagement might last more than a few days
*murder accusation abolished*
Joshua: Why don't we get married for real?
HUZZAH!
The End
The Book:
Freyja thought she was engaged to Kit and old friend and neighbour, but when he returned from the peninsula with a bride Freyjas was not impressed and now they are married with a baby due at any moment and so she escapes to Bath on an invitation from a distant friend. Anything so that she does not have to be home to share in the happy celebrations.
On her journey to Bath she has to stay in a slightly disreputable inn and during the night she is woken up by a disheveled man who has bust into her room and asked for help to escape a con artist who tries to trick him into marriage. He hides in the wardrobe and when he tries to repay his gratitude with a kiss, she punches him and screams and he escapes out of the window.
Freyja makes it to bath and finds the society incredibly dull, but she must wade it out for at least a month. Trying to pass some time she goes for a long walk around Bath and visits a Park, there she hears a scream and goes to help the girl, but comes across the man from the inn holding the girl who immediately runs off. Freyja punches him and promises she will find out who this man is and make sure he is not allowed in bath society.
The next day Freyja visits the Pump rooms and finds him there. She immediately confronts him only to find that he is the Marquess of Hallmere and there has been a misunderstanding and she has made a fool of herself. But she finds him entertaining which she needs because Bath is so dull.
Joshua is just in Bath on a short visit to see his grandmother after spending the previous five years travelling around Europe as a spy. Even though he inherited his title from his uncle six months ago he has no plans to ever return to Penhallow, the home of his aunt and uncle and lots of unhappy memories. But it appears his aunt has other plans and once she hears that he back in the country she set out the bath with her eldest daughter with plans to keep her position of running Penhallow, by encouraging Joshua to marry her daughter.
Joshua does his duty to the family when they arrive and escort them around bath but there is no affection between the cousins and his aunt tries to trick him into a marriage of duty during a ball. Joshua luckily finds out about the plan in time and must act in haste. He jokes with Freyja about a possible fake betrothal for a few days as his aunt will be sure to leave after it is announced and then she can call it off. Freyja agrees because it will be fun, especially to see the look on his aunts face who has not been kind to Freyja.
Unfortunately everyone wants celebrate the betrothal and a few days turns into a few weeks.
I enjoyed this story which is part of the Bedwyn series. Freyja is not your usual heroine, at first she is haughty, demanding, arrogant and above all a bitch... but a likeable bitch. She makes snide comments about the new wife of Kit and she expects to be treated with respect because she is the sister of a Duke, she will definitely not let Josh's aunt talk to her like that! She has her flaws and is not ashamed about her remarks but as the story develops she softens and is likeable.
The first incident at the inn shows Freyja's true character that she is not afraid of men and is prepared to stand her ground in a most amusing way. You don’t often come across fisticuffs from a woman to a man, so makes you want to shout... you go girl!
Joshua and her complement each other well and I think the relationship is developed nicely between them, it is in fact Freyja who pushes the relationship to the next step. You see affection develop into love at a nice pace. They learn from each other and change and yet they still keep true to their characters.
One thing that I found a bit strange was her stomach doing a flip-flop?....a flip-flop? As in those brightly coloured plastic shoes you wear on holiday! Am I just being strange but I thought stomachs did flips without the flop.
As with the rest of the series, the rest of the family does get involved with the relationship, but it is not too overpowering. Although I don’t think EVERYONE needs to go Cornwall and I thought Joshua's cousins were pushed a bit to the back character wise.
Overall I really enjoyed this book, the characters where strong and I loved the fact that she was not a perfect specimen or character, but you still feel that she deserves a happy ending and luckily for her he is a greek god!
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