Ilze

Very enjoyable read and fully deserving of its 5 stars, not just because my name is on the frontispiece ;-) (The frontispiece has quotes from reader reviews of Grace Burrowes' books instead of the usual quotes from published reviews, and one of these quotes is from yours truly's review of "The Soldier".)

The story is set in the Victorian era, when Queen Victoria and Prince Albert started spending time at their estate in Balmoral in Scotland. The hero Ian MacGregor is a Scottish earl whose estate, close to Balmoral, and family are in difficult financial straits, such that the earl feels he has to marry a wealthy heiress in order to set his estate on a better financial footing. He's also set his family home up as a very expensive and exclusive extended-stay hotel, where the Daniels family are spending a holiday. The father of the Daniels family knows the condition of the MacGregor family finances, so he knows that Ian is in the market for a wealthy bride, while he has a daughter he wishes to marry into an aristocratic title to raise his own social standing. Things don't go according to Daniels' plans at all, of course, and the way the story plays out makes for a very satisfactory romance read indeed.