A MATCH MADE IN LONDON

Third in a historical romance series (The Viscount’s Promise, 2018, etc.) about women who have been
burned in love and the men who convince them to take a risk.

Ever since her family was ruined by a nobleman who seduced and
abandoned her older sister, Miss Rosalind Merriweather “had been passed around
as a [paid] companion…like a plate of particularly unappetizing food at a
party.” Her latest charge is a painfully shy girl whose wealthy parents hope to
marry into the nobility. Rosalind’s sister’s debauchery and subsequent death
have made our heroine deeply skeptical of London society, especially of
charming rogues like Sir Tristan Crosby. Rosalind’s attempts to thwart Sir
Tristan’s attention to her charge bring them into contact, and he becomes
intrigued by the tart-tongued woman from Staffordshire. Tristan’s upbringing at
the hands of a cruel father who far favored his half brother has made him feel
like the worthless libertine Rosalind believes him to be. But Tristan has found
a secret wellspring of happiness in his ability to use his charms to arrange
suitable matches for young ladies like Rosalind’s charge. Both Rosalind and Tristan
have buried hurts which are slowly revealed as they begin to like and trust one
another underneath their steady trading of barbs. At the same time, their
growing attraction seems dangerous for them both. Britton’s plot is motivated
by a close study of the rules of the matchmaking season in Regency-era London
society, and she writes with respect for the refinement of the time period.
While Rosalind’s stereotyping of all London’s rich families can be fatiguing,
she eventually grows to acknowledge everyone’s humanity: “We are all like
paper dolls, flat, garbed carefully, only showing what we wish for others to
see. But within we are books’ worth of stories and dramas, heartaches and joys.”