Title: The Inconvenient Marriage of Charlotte Beck.
Author: Kathleen Y’Barbo.
Genre: Christian, Historical Fiction, Romance, Sequel.
Plot: Eighteen year old Charlotte Beck is in London with her stepmother Gennie preparing for her New York début. She’s spent the majority of her life trying to convince people {mostly her father} that she’s a mature grow-up young woman while her actions speak otherwise. At a formal ball hosted by the wealthy Earl Hambly, Charlotte manages to nonchalantly fall out of a window and land in the arms of the Hambly heir. She doesn’t learn till later that there are two Hambly sons, twins; Martin is the heir but his time in the war so marred his mind that he is incapable of succeeding. Thus the burden of heir and firstborn falls on Alex’s shoulders. He didn’t want it, he didn’t ask for it and he’d much rather study the stars than play the role of his brother at social meetings but he accepted it without compliant.
That is, until Charlotte Beck landed in his arms late one night when he was escaping from the stifling atmosphere in the ballroom. His meetings with Charlotte soon lead to a black eye, a stack of ruined research notes, a bent telescope and an arrangement of marriage with the wild girl in question that he can’t refuse. Charlotte, ever the schemer, gets a shock when Alex declares he doesn’t want to break off the marriage and she sets about to find a way out of the inconvenient marriage.
Likes/Dislikes: The beginning half of this book was delightful, with a humorous undercurrent to the story. From one misadventure to the other I felt I was enjoying a real treat. And then the second half came along; I was hoping for the same bouncing, happy undercurrent but it wasn’t there and I quickly lost interest after the wedding. I really lost interest when Alex and Charlotte got caught in a snowstorm and had to take shelter in an abandoned cabin. I knew where that scene would go {thankfully the father bounced in before it got too far} and I was mentally screaming, “No! Don’t do that, don’t go into that cabin! What’s wrong with you people?!” I really didn’t enjoy the second half; the first half was grand though. And then the whole hinted conspiracy concerning Charlotte’s mother was a deflated balloon.
Rating: PG-15 and up for suggested suggestive content and reading level.
Date Report Written: August 27, 2011.
I received a free copy of this book from the publishers. I was not required to write a positive review. The opinions expressed in the above review are my own.
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