Surprising Lord Jack (Duchess of Love, Book 2)
*Starred Review* When Frances Hadley overhears Aunt Viola, her guardian, make plans to marry Frances to a disgusting older man, she disguises herself as a boy and flees on horseback, determined to get the money that will go to her unwanted groom. Frances wants to buy a small cottage where she doesn’t have to worry about others making decisions for her. But a violent winter storm strands her at the Crowing Cock Inn. The innkeeper and his wife take pity on the “lad,” letting him stay in the room usually reserved for Lord Jack. As fate would have it, Lord Jack unexpectedly checks in but decides to let the scrawny, sleeping boy stay. Jack then insists on accompanying the youth to London, where he discovers that the lad is a lass. Although nothing happened, they did spent the night in the same bed, so there’s only one thing an honorable man, even one known as a rake, can do—marry her. But Frances still has no interest in matrimony. MacKenzie (Bedding Lord Ned, 2012) has penned another humorous Regency-era gem that will get a collective thumbs-up from readers. --Shelley Mosley