A Kirkus Best Book of the Year
A BookPage Best Romance of the Year
A Fresh Fiction “Fresh Pick”
A Publishers Weekly “Big Title of Spring”

“Berne’s third Penhallow title maintains the exquisite writing, lush emotion, and complex characters we’ve come to expect. . . . An elegant, poignant, and joyful romance and a must-read for Regency fans.”
—Kirkus, starred review

“In Berne’s marvelous third Penhallow Dynasty Regency (after The Laird Takes a Bride), reunited friends find that a hasty marriage leads to significant challenges. . . . Beautifully written. Regency fans will love this forthright, intellectual heroine and affable, resourceful hero.”
—Publishers Weekly, starred review

Katherine Brooke may be a fabulously wealthy heiress, but she’s trapped, a pawn in her parents’ ruthless game to marry her into the nobility. Then Captain Hugo Penhallow—so charming, as handsome as a Greek god—comes into her life once more, and suddenly she sees a chance to be free.

As a Penhallow, his is one of the highest names in the land, but still his family is facing ruin. So Katherine boldly proposes an exchange: his name for her money. But only if Hugo understands it’s merely a practical arrangement, and that she’s not surrendering herself entirely.

Back from eight years in America and determined to give his younger siblings a better life, Hugo agrees. He’s never fallen in love, so why not? Yet neither of them guesses that this marriage will become far, far more than they ever dreamed of . . .

More praise »

Read the Prologue & Chapter 1 »

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