Review: Nice bit of fluff  3 1/2 stars
Rating: 3 out of 5
Date: 06 26, 2014
The story is rather sweet and quick reading. After the head of the family dies, the survivors think they are comfortable. The eldest daughter--the stepdaughter of the man who dies--lives with her mother and half-sister. We learn that she is illegitimate, but her step-father loved her and her mother. After the step-father dies, the h, Mariah, has been running both the house and the estate. Believing that she will never marry because of her illegitimacy, she has sunk her entire dowry into improvements to the estate. After 3 years, a solicitor appears, informing Mariah that her stepfather did not really own the land. The land was entailed and could not be sold by the old Earl who fraudulently sold the property to the stepfather. The new Earl appears soon thereafter, ready and anxious to evict Mariah and her family. He has a family of  Americans coming to stay at the estate and who may decide to lease it for a while longer. Mariah and the Earl of Dovington strike a bargain: she and her family will stay in the house for the meantime while they figure out a new place to go and host the Americans. The Americans are wealthy and have a daughter. Mariah believes the Earl is trying to set up a match with the American heiress because he needs to refill his coffers due to the old Earl's profligacy. In fact, Dovington wants to set up the match between his cousin and the American heiress. Add the cousin, the heiress, Mariah’s younger sister, and a vicar to the cast. Stir and shake and watch the fun.All the couples seem to be matched with the wrong person and are secretly attracted to one of the others at the house party. Misunderstandings abound but of course they all end up with the right match in the end. Cute, sweet and a very easy read.I had a couple of issues with the legal premises—law not accurate, but just ignore that part.