I received this book in a Baecrate subscription and was instantly intrigued! Though it took me a while to finally start reading it. Almost 500 pages long I was intimidated by the size of this little mass market book.
Lady Alexandra Lane experiences the most horrific night a young girl could live through. With the help of her best friends she manages to get past the night and the three form an unbreakable friendship that is called upon 10 years later.
Alexandra has been blackmailed for years, and managed to keep it from her friends. Now though, her family is in financial ruins and she is in desperate need of a rich husband that will be willing to marry her and tuck her away from society. The Duke of Redmayne needs such a bride. Though they go into the marriage with intentions of using each other by staying away, they end up falling for each other.
Though this is historical romance and the women are therefor restricted by different circumstances of the time, Alexandra and her friends are strong willed women that fight for their rights and The Duke of Redmayne appreciates this quality in the group of friends and pushes Alexandra to be the best she can.
The beginning was great, but be warned you start the first page with a graphic and violent scene. Reading the dedication you will see this is a me too movement book, so maybe skip to the 10 years later part if you are sensitive to that. You did feel some of those almost 500 pages in the middle. It slowed down a lot and I think some of it could have been skipped. At the end we got a little suspense and thrilling mystery which hooked you back in and the relationships developed between the couple became important to the story.
Overall, a great read that went fairly quickly and I would definitely look for more works by this author!
