Cheryl Bolen’s latest Regency romance, Oh What a (Wedding) Night, the third in her Brazen Brides series, features mistaken identity, smuggling, and blackmail. Perfect setting for romance, right?
Lady Sophia Beresford has realized, just a bit too late, that she never should have married Lord Finkel, not even to save her younger sister’s reputation. So she climbs out the boudoir window, her timid maid in tow, and escapes, leaving Finkel in a state of . . . anticipation.
Desperate for shelter at a crowded coaching inn, and pursued by Finkel’s armed servants, Sophia approaches the only well-dressed traveler in sight, and boldly announces that she’s been searching for him.
William Birmingham, the youngest of the wealthy Birmingham brothers we met in One Golden Ring, is not as startled by this claim as one might expect, since he is at the inn to meet a beautiful woman called Isadore, who wishes to sell him eighty thousand pounds of smuggled gold bullion.
Although she has no idea who (or what) Isadore might be, Sophia takes on the role, passing off her maid as her conveniently mute older sister, and traveling back to London with William. As she slowly puts the pieces together and finds ways to stall on the delivery of the gold, she finds herself regretting that ill-timed marriage more with every moment she spends with William. Surely this man was meant to be the love of her life, but it’s too late.
In order to hide from Finkel, Sophia must remain secluded in William’s house on Grosvenor Square, where the real Isadore, and the gold, may show up at any time. Her pretense becomes even more complicated as William learns more about Isadore, and Finkel learns more about Sophia.
To tell more would spoil the surprises Bolen lays out for her characters and for her readers.
Oh What a (Wedding) Night is another most enjoyable tale of the members of Bolen’s many interconnected families.
Kay Hudson 