The Duke of Everingham still has nightmares about his aborted wedding to Lady Rose Rutherford. Back on the marriage mart the last thing he intends is to offer for Rose's niece, Lady George Rutherford. But conniving relatives and a gorgeous Arabian horse overturn his best laid plans and have him going down on bended knee in full view of the ton.
Despite her noble blood, George has had an unusual upbringing. Determined to be independent she first spurns Hart's offer for her horse and then subsequently his offers of marriage despite his blatant attempts at blackmail. Her tender heart foils her though when she's taken in by his mother's acting skills. Unfortunately for George, while she has agreed to be Hart's duchess the ton is pretty unforgiving including her erstwhile swains leading her to thumb her nose at the ton on her wedding day.
Hart comes across as a typical privileged member of the aristocracy who's determined to win at all costs even if that cost is running roughshod over other's hearts and lives. He is baffled by his attraction to George and uses every opportunity not only to look out for her in the face of the hostility of his peers but to win her kisses. In his own way he indulges her the best he knows how while waiting for the other shoe to drop and find the rotten core inside her enticing interior.
Just when things are getting interesting between Hart and George, the author shifts gears and we seem to be in the midst of an entirely different story, a mystery at that. This gives me a bit of a pause on how to rate this book but all in all I quite enjoyed it. I absolutely loved George's baffled innocence and stoic indifference to the aristocracy that she's now a part of. I totally laughed aloud when she asked her aunt how long human females were in heat when she's trying to rationalize her desire for the duke.

When Lady Georgiana Rutherford is caught kissing Hart, the Duke of Everingham, she rails against having to marry him just because they kissed. George is independent, willful and against being told what she must do. Hart was determined to marry George despite her reluctance. Can these two reconcile their feelings and admit they are attracted to one another?

I enjoy Ms. Gracie's books and read one of the other books in the series as well. I liked George more than Hart who was so stiff and stuffy for the first 3/4 of the story. I would have liked more about Hart's earlier life to really get a sense of him. The wedding scene was great, but there was no following up either through gossip or at the wedding breakfast about her dress or anything about her being an unconventional duchess. I thought that was a missed opportunity for George to have the last word in Society. Also, the last part of the book was about Hart's ward which I thought veered off the plot of the couple's relationship. Even the epilogue focussed on a family reunion more than just about Hart and George. That's what knocked the book down to 3 stars instead of 4.

Marry in Scarlet was a highly anticipated read for me and I'm sorry to say that this one just missed the mark.

I had been so excited to read George's romance with the stuff Duke of Everingham. George is a lady that defies convention and I thought she would be a fabulous foil for the duke, and to a certain extent she was. But, to be totally honest, I just wasn't a big fan of the duke. Hart tricks and manipulates George into marrying him, and while there was some evidence that he got that what he did was wrong, it was too little too late. I'm actually surprised that this kind of manipulation made it into a romance considering the importance of consent in romance, or at least this should have been given greater care. Hart was arrogant and controlling and I'm not sure that I was ever convinced that George didn't deserve better.

I also found it jarring that the novel changed course in the last part with this last minute mystery involving two missing boys. And the resolution of that added on intrigue just felt overly sweet.

Ultimately, this was an uneven novel for and not my favourite from Gracie.

Marry in Scarlet is the final book in Anne Gracie’s Marriage of Convenience series, and it features George, who is the niece of Ashendon, Rose and Lily, who featured in the previous three books. In some ways, it feels like a bit of a riff on Pride and Prejudice - the slightly unconventional but charming heroine versus the wealthy, insufferably arrogant hero who needs someone to hold up a mirror to him before he can see his flaws - but in this instance we get to see inside the hero's head, and this is... painful. I'm not sure how much I would have liked Darcy if I'd been able to read every thought that crossed his mind, and Everingham is definitely worse than Darcy was. Not to put too fine a point on it, at the start of the book, he's a bit of a misogynist prick. He is quite convinced that there is no point in listening to anything a woman says about herself, because she is bound to be concealing her motives in any case, and when he decides he wants to marry George, he doesn’t for one moment consider that she might be telling the truth when she says she isn’t interested. Of course she’s interested – he’s a wealthy duke! Clearly, George is playing some sort of game, but he doesn’t have time to deal with that, so he traps her into marriage, for her own good.

I know. My jaw dropped, too. He really is an absolutely colossal jerk.

In Everingham’s defense, the woman he has spent the most time with in his life is his mother, who really is a terrible person and a manipulator of the highest order. But is it necessary to generalise from one woman to all of womankind? I don’t think so.

As a result of this, I found the first part of the book very hard to read. I really like George, who had a very difficult childhood and comes by her tomboyish and unconventional ways honestly, and it upset me a lot to see her trapped by convention. She is such a bright, kind, character, full of integrity and she didn't deserve Everingham's idiotic assumptions.

Thankfully, Everingham's transformation is as profound as Darcy's, if not more so, and the second half of the book was pretty delightful. Once he realises he has wronged George, he goes all out to make up for it. Some of George's choices are potentially socially humiliating for him, but he takes them in stride, because he understands precisely where she is coming from and that she deserves his support, even at the expense of his dignity.

I enjoyed this book immensely, but it did leave me feeling uneasy on one count. At the end of the story, Duke is an exemplary husband and foster father, who loves George and not just accepts but actively embraces and values her eccentricities. This is wonderful stuff.

Hwever, we are reminded, frequently, that George is Not Like Other Women. And she isn’t – she had virtually no upbringing, and she lived as a boy for most of her childhood and teenage years. Of course her manners, values and worldview are not typical of upper class women of her time. And given Duke’s history with women of her class – particularly his mother, who is genuinely awful – it’s not surprising that it took someone who was very, very, different from the other women he knew to capture his heart.

But… look, at the start of the book, Duke’s attitude to women is, frankly, misogynistic. He doesn’t hate women, precisely, he just views them all as manipulative and out for their own advantage. By the end of the book, he clearly doesn’t think that of George, but I do wonder whether he extends this grace to other women of her class. The moment when he realises that he has in fact acted in a way that is utterly opposed to his ethics and view of himself is, I think, a very soul-shaking one for him. It forces him to see himself differently, and to realise that some of his beliefs about the world are not as accurate as he had thought. Does he re-examine his entire worldview, though? There is certainly room for this interpretation, and I would like to think he does. But to tell you the truth, I am not absolutely certain. And I would like to be.

I'm giving this book 4 stars out of 5. It's well-paced and funny and sweet; George is a complete delight; and I love the relationship she and Everingham have at the end. I'm just... still not entirely sure about Everingham himself.

Perhaps it's a good thing that we will never know what Darcy actually thought of Elizabeth and her family at the start of Pride and Prejudice.

I have enjoyed Anne Gracie books for a while now. This one is anther good story. Found the characters very likable and the romance sweet. Can't wait for another one!

I adored this book so much. I could not put it down and in fact I wish it was longer, I loved the characters so much. I should state it is book 4 in a series and the only one I read. and It easily stands alone.

This is the story about Hart, a pompous Duke who is jilted and the Duke is offered her niece, Georgiana as a replacement. The duke refuses and when its discussed with George she refuses as well. Then the Duke goes riding and sees this rider and horse and he wants to buy the horse.

His friend says the horse and rider are Georgina and so he tries to buy her horse and she refuses. He starts to chase her around town to buy the horse and thats how he finds out he is attracted to her, though she tries to duck him.

Hijinks occur and they end up kissing and thats when the Duke decides to marry her but George is very opposed to any kind of marriage and so the Duke attempts to trap her....I am not spoiling anything else vbut this book was so wonderul and fun I absolutely loved it and all the characters in the story.

This whole Marriage of Convenience series has been wonderful and I have thoroughly enjoyed each book. George in particular has been a real pleasure and I was really looking forward to her story. While this book took me longer to enjoy than the previous ones because secondary characters and the hero were being kind of horrible to George, George herself carried me through to really enjoying it in the end. And once we got to know Hart a bit more and George called him out on his behavior, he turns out to be a man with a big heart. By the end, I was happily cheering for this pair's HEA.

Marry in Scarlet is the fourth book in the series and in this book we have the final (I am guessing the final) book in the series. Now I haven’t had a chance to read all the books in the series here so I will say first off that you don’t need to read all the previous books in the series to read this book. Because I have only read book two and I wasn’t lost at all. And if you understand the inner workings of Anne Gracie and how she writes, you will fall in love with this style that this book is penned in. Now I probably might have loved this book a bit more if I had read previous books and seen more background in our hero and heroine, but overall I did like this book.

Marry In Scarlet starts with some tension between our hero and heroine and they hate each other with a passion. George finds Hart overbearing, rude and controlling. And Hart finds George unconventional, a prude and too prideful. Soon Hart and George find something more building between them other than the hate and distrust that have for each other. Soon we see a physical attraction which builds into tender affection and playfulness and trust between these two. But their road is packed with obstacles especially within the relationship….will George and Hart find the balance and openness they need or will it fall apart?

This book honestly is a pride and prejudice retelling. And what a retelling this turned out to be and quite frankly I fell in love with this style of retelling. Now first I want to make it clear that the angst in this book is the type of angst I REALLY need to be prepped beforehand because this is the main reason my rating isn’t as high. I really struggled with the first half of the book and the biggest reason for that is due to the tension that was pretty strong for me if I didnt know I was going into it and the second reason I struggled with this book is the heroine. *Sigh* I get the whole independent woman and all that and being all for feminism, but the personality of our heroine put my teeth on edge. I did like her in parts but her character was too much for me and didn’t seem at all easy to relate with. If this heroine was real, I doubt we would be friends and in many ways due to how she treats and views men, very demeaning of them at times. It just didn’t sit well with me and I probably will be in the minority opinion but this is a honest view.

Now I will say that the second half of the story was ROCKIN GREAT…..this story really worked for me once we got past most of the hate and tension and got to the beauty of the book and that is seeing both George and Hart softening towards each other and exploring what they feel for one another. They both have strong opinions but the book really shines once we see them see the good sides of each other instead of all the bad. And boy this book had me laughing so hard. Especially in how George views the physical attraction she has for Hart…..like its animal heat and will go away lol yeah sorry Miss George, but human sexual attraction doesn’t really work like animals. It was pretty hilarious to see her view it like its the common cold or flu, to be avoided at all costs.

Overall I have found Marry In Scarlet to be a highly enjoyable read that is packed with laughs, an entertaining dialogue and true delights to savor.

Marry in Scarlet delivers a satisfying emotional connection between two freshly drawn main characters in a well-paced plot. Georgiana and Hart, while both strong and independent, know early on that they are destined to be together. Their coming together seems organic and believable. Highly recommended for fans of intelligently written romance. Enjoyable secondary characters and a lovely supporting cast of various animals are also engaging.

If you’re an Anne Gracie fan, you’ll like this. The best comps I can think of is a meld of Judith McNaught, Mary Balogh, and Stephanie Laurens. The writing style is decent and the character archetypes are Icy/Sneering/Asshole Duke paired with Hoyden Lady Who Loves Her Horses And Independence. I was disappointed because the blurb misrepresented that it was a marriage-of-convenience trope. MOC is my favorite trope in historical romance and I was SO looking forward to a book that featured a married couple.

Y’all. This isn’t a marriage-of-convenience book. The blurb summarizes the first SEVENTY-FIVE percent. Seriously. The wedding with the dramatic red dress occurs three-quarters into the book (they basically love each other by then but haven’t admitted it). The final twenty-five percent is sex scenes (which is fine, I love sex scenes!) and then a bewildering subplot where they run off to the countryside and investigate the kidnapping of two missing boys (two boys who are completely irrelevant and unknown to the plot until this point! It was so weird!). Finally they confess their love and the book ends after a family reunion epilogue.

The heroine George is great, but I never warmed up to the hero. George is the character that undergoes the most change re: what she wants and her feelings for the duke. The hero didn't seem to change as radically even though he learned to appreciate George's wildness. But also... some of their compromises are weird? George HATES fox-hunting and the hero enjoys it (this is surprisingly an important subplot). The compromise in the marital contract is that the hero won't hunt when she's around... What?!? It seems as though George's wildness and "strange" Original ideas are tolerated up to an extent. It's cool that she rides a stallion because the hero finds it attractive. It's cool that she lacks fancy airs and speaks plainly because the hero finds it attractive. It's cool that she exhibits characteristics Not Like Other Society Girls because the hero is tired of their dishonest, irritating, marriage-hunting ways. We get it; you like her because she's so refreshing and outspoken and daring. But if you really appreciated her, then you'd acquiesce to her fox-hunting ban because she's so passionate about it. And George is somehow okay with this? She's just like, "Oh I guess that's a decent compromise" when her uncle/guardian points out that men should be allowed *some* sport (eyeroll). Anyway, this is just one example out of many, but it does feel like George's controversial ideas/desires are tolerated only when they're okay with the men in her life. The minute it's *too* wild, it gets reined in.

Mostly I was disappointed that their relationship didn’t change much after the wedding. Any character development was ignored in favor of the kidnapped boys subplot. It just felt like something was missing before the I-Love-You stage. The worst part of the book is the final 25%.

The majority of my disappointment is due to misleading blurb expectations. I kept waiting for the marriage-of-convenience and it never happened. That plus my lukewarm feelings re: the duke made it a meh read. If you like Anne Gracie or the author comps I mentioned above, you’ll probably like MARRY IN SCARLET. Just ignore the blurb, which I find truly irritating considering it spoils the majority of the book.

Oh, a brief unimportant tangent. At one point, I was THRILLED because George’s Great Aunt Dottie makes this statement about how marriage/men aren’t necessary for happiness; she (a spinster) is very happy with her life while her thrice-widowed sister is miserable (and always has been, even in marriage). It was a great conversation; I was pleased with the message that people can be fulfilled without marriage/romantic love.

Well. You can be assured that MARRY IN SCARLET reverses that message half a book later. It turns out that ALL the women who are happy/wonderful (Dottie, George’s aunts Rose and Lily, George’s aunt-by-marriage Emma) also happen to be in a loving romantic relationship. Meanwhile, the two women with dead husbands and unhappy former marriages (Great Aunt Agatha and the hero’s mother) are miserable/wretched/villains. The dichotomy is noticeable and Not Great. End trivial rant.

Disclaimer: I received a free e-ARC from the publisher in exchange for an honest review.

Anne Gracie's heroines are bright and spunky and likable. She does an excellent job of anchoring the story in a believable time and place. This will be a book to read again.

This was a sweet romance between George(ianna) and Hart. Hart is a Duke that has just been jilted at the alter and George is the niece of the woman who did the jilting. Her aunt offers her up as a replacement and both George and Hart are outraged at least until they meet each other. Turns out they are very attracted to each other.

This is the Duke of Everingham and Lady Georgiana Rutherford.’s story. He wanted a wife, his wedding to her aunt got stopped. He decides he wants her. They get caught in a compromising position. They get married. She is not a conventional lady. He is very commanding. There are many twists and turns in their relationship. I loved the story. I can’t wait for the next book in the series. Anne Gracie doesn’t disappoint.

A satisfying conclusion to Anne Gracie's Marriage of Convenience series. Lady George (don't call her Georgiana) had an unconventional upbringing, raised by her nurse in poverty and never knowing she was secretly the daughter of a lord. In the first book of the series, her true family discovers her existence after the lord's death, and they bring her to live with them. Now adjusted to her new situation, and happy to be surrounded by loving relatives, George likes nothing better than to ride her horse and walk her dog. She has no incentive or inclination to marry. Not even to a handsome, difficult, intelligent duke.

Hart, the Duke of Everingham, was jilted at the altar by George's relative, Rose, in the previous book. He's also not inclined to marry--and especially not to someone related to the woman who left him--but his family and hers conspire to force a betrothal between George and Hart. Of course, the more time he spends with George, the more he realizes he might actually want to marry her.

This doesn't break new ground in terms of plot (headstrong woman and arrogant titled lord who was neglected by his mother), but it was well-written and I was glad to see George get a happy ending on her own terms. There’s a bit of a boondoggle in the last 20% of the book that I wasn’t sure it needed, but otherwise it was a well-constructed story.

Incidentally, this is also the most realistic portrayal I've ever read of a main character owning a dog. Most of the time in novels, someone has a dog but miraculously never seems to walk it, feed it, or let it outside to do its business. George spends a lot of time walking and caring for her beloved canine.