In Marry in Scandal shy Lady Lily Rutherford is painfully self-conscious about her dyslexia and has kept a low profile out of shame and embarrassment. Suddenly thrust into first an engagement and then marriage to the gallant war-hero who rescued her from a kidnapping attempt, the intrepid, sympathetic and well-rounded heroine overcomes many obstacles on her path to happiness. Entertaining and highly recommended.

Started out well, lost steam, got better again toward the end. Too much time was spent on the heroine’s “shameful” secret (she can’t read), the hero’s “shameful” secret (guilt from the war), and the two of them hiding their feelings from each other. Also two characters who presumably are getting their own books later in the series were mostly in the way.

I read an advance reader copy of Marry in Scandal from Netgalley.

Featuring likeable and sympathetic characters and a unique story line, this is another delightful historical romance from Anne Gracie.

A copy of this ARC was provided to me by NetGalley courtesy of the Berkley Publishing Group, in exchange for my honest opinion.

The set-up for this book was definitely unique; the heroine has learning disabilities (dyslexia is implied, although I am no specialist by any stretch of the imagination to be able to diagnose her condition) and cannot read. I was quite surprised both at her naivete in befriending Sylvia, who was quite obviously UP TO NO GOOD, and in trotting right outside with the cousin (Victor), unattended and without telling anyone, because she received <i>a note</i> [which she obviously could not read]. At any rate, the abduction and recovery plot were well done separately but seemed very episodic; it made the story as a whole feel very sectioned-off, and disrupted the flow.

I would have liked to see how Aunt Agatha got her revenge on the old gossipy lady who spilled the beans about Lady Lily; their feud was almost more intriguing than the main plot.

The plot point about Edward's war guilt was buried until literally the bitter end; it would have been nice to give that a little bit more room to play out. The book was almost over when that was just neatly and suddenly resolved.

Oh, and whatever happened to Becky? Did she see her London sights? Once the carriage arrived in London, Becky and her brother just kinda, uh, dropped off the page.

One last quibble, early on in Ned's recovery of Lady Lily: he wonders if she recognizes him, and thinks "<b>Nope.</b>" Hopefully that will be changed prior to publishing as it was glaringly anachronistic.

Positives: I really enjoyed Lily's practicality in marrying Edward as (at the time) would have been absolutely necessary so as not to ruin the rest of the family by proxy. It's fine to hold one's head up and say "it doesn't matter!" as the other girls planned to do, but in reality, they would all have been pariahs. It was also a nice change to see Edward hire a chaperone for Lily, instead of just sneaking in with her to spend the night as happens in So. Many. Romance. Novels. And also nice to see him sleeping outside her room, "on guard"; what a gentleman.
I also enjoyed the growth of Lily's and Edward's relationship and the development of trust and camaraderie between them. Very sweet.

This is an enjoyable, light read that I have no qualms in recommending that the library purchase in print or as an eBook.

War does strange things to people and in Marry in Scandal Edward Galbraith is living proof. I really like Anne Gracie's books and the characters here are very busy keeping the story moving. Edward is frozen in time and keeps any feeling he has locked down. Lady Lily Rutherford finds herself on the brink of ruin through no fault of her own. Of course Edward moves in to save her. This is a interesting story line as Lily moves to save Edward just as he saved her. There are some side characters who are critical to the story and there is a glimpse of characters from Gracie's previous series. All in all a very good story.

I received a free copy of the book in return for an honest review.

Look for an April release for Marry in Scandal.

Really liked this latest edition to Ms Gracie's series. Liked the characters - they were engaging and believable. Looking forward to more. PS I handsel her books a lot.