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THE ARRANGEMENT by Mary Balogh Kirkus Star

THE ARRANGEMENT

by Mary Balogh

Pub Date: Aug. 27th, 2013
ISBN: 978-0-345-53587-0
Publisher: Dell

After running away from home to escape his family’s matchmaking, Vincent Hunt, Viscount Darleigh, is nearly caught in another marriage trap, then decides to marry the unassuming woman who rescues him.

Vincent never expected to inherit a title. In fact, he’d expected to live his life as a soldier. But after being wounded in battle, he was only beginning to learn how to live life as a blind man when he’d learned he was a lord. Now, four years later, he is surrounded by women who want to make his life easier, and they are convinced the best way to do this is to get him married. When it becomes clear his mother and sisters have invited a suitable young woman to his estate with the purpose of matching them up, he flees, first to the Lake District and then to the village where he grew up, hoping to stay quietly undiscovered for a short time. Those plans are dashed, and Vincent is nearly forced into marriage to the daughter of an obnoxious family who takes advantage of his blindness. Realizing her relatives’ intentions, their niece Sophia intercedes to rescue him, then is turned out of their home for her troubles. Hearing of Sophia’s plight, Vincent convinces her to marry him, since it will solve both their troubles: She will be cared for, and he can never be forced into marriage to a woman he can’t abide. However, in convincing her, Vincent has built in an end-date for their arrangement, and as the days pass, both Vincent and Sophia wonder if they could ever survive in a world without the other—and how they can make sure that day never comes. This sexy, touching book revisits the marriage-of-convenience plot, joining two heroic, conflicted characters who are navigating their own versions of darkness and delivering them to the redemptive power of love.

Regency best-seller Balogh once again takes a standard romance trope and imbues it with heart, emotional intelligence and flawless authenticity.