This is a charming, touching book. Tristan's banishment from polite society, and the guilt he feels over his uncle's death prevent him from marrying the woman he loves - until he finds himself with her in a rather unique compromising situation and is forced to marry her. When they're married, she sets forth to clear his name, knowing that the man she loves and has always loved cannot be a murderer. Fighting years of silence and Tristan's silent fears that he is, perhaps, guilty, this is a mystery in addition to a romance, and one where the plot device manages not to get in the way of the romance. It's a wonderful story, brilliantly written. Love this book! ( )

Felt a little familiar, as if I'd read it before, with the strawberry allergy and drugged wine (although I don't think it was ever determined the wine was drugged). Entertaining, overall. ( )

# I usually really like her books, but this one kind of irritated me. And then I got irritated with myself because the things that irritated me were things that made it more historically realistic than most historical romances. So I docked it a half star for all that irritation.
The h/h have loved each other since they were teens, but can't marry because he's not titled. IMO, the heroine accepted this way too easily; the objection didn't ring true to me because the hero's also her brother's best friend, & the brother is her guardian. The other problem is that when they both meet again, he's inherited a title & thus is now eligible, however, there's a rumor that he killed his uncle, which is how he got the title, so if she marries him, her whole family will be disgraced, & her younger sisters won't be able to marry well. It took over half of the book for her to decide to investigate, & they were already married by that time. Argh. ( )

This is a charming, touching book. Tristan's banishment from polite society, and the guilt he feels over his uncle's death prevent him from marrying the woman he loves - until he finds himself with her in a rather unique compromising situation and is forced to marry her. When they're married, she sets forth to clear his name, knowing that the man she loves and has always loved cannot be a murderer. Fighting years of silence and Tristan's silent fears that he is, perhaps, guilty, this is a mystery in addition to a romance, and one where the plot device manages not to get in the way of the romance. It's a wonderful story, brilliantly written. Love this book! ( )