Title: The Bachelor and the Bride
Author: Sarah M. Eden
Publication: September 6, 2022
Publisher: Shadow Mountain
Genre: Historical Fiction, Romance
Pages: 368
SYNOPSIS: (From Goodreads)
London, 1866
Dr. Barnabus Milligan has always felt called to help people, whether that means setting a broken bone or rescuing the impoverished women of London from their desperate lives on the streets as part of his work with the Dread Penny Society.
Three years ago, he helped rescue Gemma Kincaid by secretly marrying her to protect her from her family of notorious grave robbers.
But six months after Gemma and Barnabus exchanged vows, she realized her love for her new husband was unrequited. To protect her heart, she left, telling Barnabus to contact her if his feelings for her ever grew beyond a sense of duty.
When Barnabus sends a letter to Gemma inviting her to return home, she hopes to find a true connection between them. But unfortunately, he only wants her help to foil the Kincaids, who have been terrorizing the boroughs of London, eager to gain both money and power.
Heartbroken, Gemma agrees to help, but she warns Barnabus that she will not stay for long, and once she goes, he’ll never see her again.
Yet as the couple follows the clues that seem to connect the Kincaids to the Mastiff, the leader of London’s criminal network, Gemma and Barnabus realize they might make a better match than either of them suspected. Perhaps the marriage that had once saved Gemma’s life might now save Barnabus—and his lonely heart.
But before the once-confirmed bachelor can properly court his secret bride, they’ll need to evade the dangerous forces that are drawing ever closer to the hopeful lovers and the entire Dread Penny Society itself.
REVIEW:
**A copy of this book was provided by the publisher in exchange for an honest review.**
I always love to get new books in the mail to review for publishers. New authors are always a plus and romance authors are nice as well. So when I got this book in the mail after agreeing to review it I was excited to read it.
Baz is a grumpy-ish physician. He seems to be a bachelor to all of his friends, until a mystery case causes him to admit that he has been married for the past 3 years. Gemma comes from a dangerous family of grave diggers in London. Baz married her three years ago to save her life. She left London when loving Baz was too much and he didn’t seem to reciprocate the same feelings. She returns to London on his request. Will things be different this time or does he just want something else? Where do I start with this book. It has everything: romance, body snatching, murder, attempted murder the works. It does take a bit for the story to unfold but once it does pay attention to the details. My jaw dropped when I got to the end and found out who the bad guy was all along.
I will say this, and it was the one thing that annoyed me to the point of knocking a star off. The little penny dreadful stories that are woven into the story absolutely drove me nuts. From what I was reading it had absolutely nothing to do with the actual story themselves. It just drove me crazy that I would be cruising right along in a story and bam there is one of those darn stories. I really liked the writing style. It was a well developed story and flowed from chapter to chapter sans the penny dreadfuls tucked in it. I think my favorite character was Gemma. In my mind she kind of reminded me of the girl from My Fair Lady. At least maybe her speech pattern. She seemed to slide somewhat flawlessly into Baz’s world and make friends with all of his. This is certainly a book I would recommend to someone who like mystery and romance but in a clean way. It would be perfect for them. I may have to look into the rest of the books by this author. I see that this book is book 4 in a series but from my understanding I can read them as standalone. I think the other books are just the book for some of the side characters in this one. I would certainly be interested in finding out about their story for sure.
