An Eccentric Engagement by Donna Lea Simpson

  An Eccentric Engagement by Donna Lea Simpson

Blurb:

Sorrow Marchand has patiently endured the taunts of London society for her bold speech and curious ways, yet it was those very qualities of the sparkling young beauty that caught the eye of the Honorable Bertram Carlyle and ultimately elicited an offer of marriage from him. But the usually candid Sorrow has kept her ludicrously madcap family a well-hidden secret from her betrothed—and now he is coming to visit!

Bertram was an exceedingly suitable suitor, but for all his many fine traits he had been harshly schooled under the oppressive thumb of his father and had meekly embraced many of the man’s conventional attitudes. Upon meeting Sorrow’s family and becoming swept up in the endless swirl of silly chaos, he senses a conflict of epic proportions on the horizon—both within himself and with his father.

As Sorrow grows more concerned that her outrageous relatives will damn her only chance at happiness with a man she truly loves, Bertram must find the courage to defy his very traditional father and become part of a family that’s anything but—and become the man Sorrow always knew he could be.

This novella was originally published as “Sorrow’s Wedding” in the anthology With This Ring.


I must admit that this book and I, we needed some time to really hit it off. This wasn't my first book by Donna Lea Simpson, I've read others by her that went straight on my "to read again and again"-list but I'm not sure that this book will become a part of that list as well.

The story is sweet and promising and I enjoyed it on the whole but it took me some time. Even though the characters are nice and interesting, they remained somewhat distant and even though I was very happy to see people change and become better men, it happened too quickly and couldn't fully convince me. Nevertheless, I loved to see our hero and our heroine embark on their life together. It was obvious that they were in love and that they belonged together but despite that I wasn't completely convinced that love would have conquered it all and so on.
Despite that, it is a sweet story, nice to read and easy to enjoy. 

 ★★★