A Scandalous Marriage

by Debbie Raleigh

When a midnight rendezvous with the wrong man leads to a marriage of convenience, headstrong Victoria Mallory and her new husband, Lord Claredon, a notorious rake, must cast aside their differences to overcome danger - an effort that leads to unexpected love and passion.

• Format: Mass Market Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0821773763
• ISBN13: 9780821773765
• Release Date: January 2003
• Publisher: Zebra Books
• Length: 224 Pages
• Weight: 0.25 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.6" x 4.2" x 6.8"

Customer Reviews

a brilliant end to a charming trilogy

When the rakish Lord Claredon is found in Miss Victoria Mallory's bedroom (he had made his way into the room thinking that it was her cousin's), they are forced to marry in order to avert a scandal. It result is not a happy one. Victoria had made up her mind to marry the gentle and romantic Thomas Stice, and angry and bitter about her thwarted dreams has been taking her resentment out on her new husband. The situation is hardly any better for Clarendon either. Although something of a rake, Claredon had always believed that he would one day marry the lady of his dreams and lead a happy and contented life as a faithful and worthy husband. But while he is not at all happy about being forced into marriage, neither can he deny that the fiery and strong-minded Victoria does fascinate him quite a lot. But how to get his prickly and angry wife to lower her guard and give their marriage a chance? Help, unexpectedly comes from two different fronts. First, Victoria's old parish priest, Vicar Humbly, comes for a visit, and gently (and subtly) begins to counsel the couple; and secondly, the physical threat from a masked villain pushes Victoria and Claredon to reexamine their relationship, and come to some rather startling conclusions...This is the third and final installment in the Marriage trilogy, and really fits right in with the other two novels in the series. Like "A Proper Marriage" & "A Convenient Marriage," "A Scandalous Marriage" is a thoughtful novel that focuses on an unhappy marriage, but, thanks largely to the authour's light touch, the book is not heavy going at all. Debbie Raleigh does a first rate job of fleshing out the characters of both principal characters and of showing us both Victoria's and Claredon's anger and frustration about the state they find themselves in. I liked that she had Claredon realize first that theirs was a marriage that was meant to be, and that if Victoria were to give things a chance, that they might actually achieve the happiness and contentment that each was looking for. Also nicely done was how the authour paced things so that Victoria's change of heart towards Claredon didn't feel forced or hurried. "A Scandalous Marriage" tied the trilogy up nicely, and lived up to the expectations raised in the first two. Definitely a novel worth the read.