Annabelle Hallston is in the difficult position of choosing between marrying the enigmatic rake she has known all her life or coming up with the money her father owed his father. There really is no choice--her father has left them penniless and she must provide a home for her brothers or be forced out of her own. Royce Kincaid has his own reasons for agreeing to marry Annabelle and they are strikingly similar--to protect his own brother. Royce puts several caveats on the deal and Annabelle adds a few of her own. Although it's a marriage in name only, plain, skinny Annabelle falls in love with Royce, but his troubled past prevents him from acknowledging any feelings for Annabelle, and he does his best to push her away. Set during the Civil War, Eschenburg's romance is epic in proportion, yet intimately affecting in its depiction of how two bruised and battered souls learn to love each other. Maria Hatton
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Book Description
Orphaned and penniless as war clouds threaten the land, Annabelle Hallston has vowed to do anything to keep her younger brother safe -- which brings her to Royce Kincaid, the notorious black sheep scion of an aristocratic family. Arrogant, dissolute, and handsome as the Devil, Royce is the sort of rogue Annabelle would never have associated with -- let alone have agreed to marry! -- had her situation been less desperate.
But while he is no gentleman, an honorable heart beats beneath his cool exterior.
Royce Kincaid cannot -- will not -- believe in love. But a marriage would provide this proud, independent lady with a home, even as their world crumbles around them. Annabelle can see the fine, tormented man behind the scoundrel's mask, but how can she give her heart to one who will only break it? Yet, perhaps, in this time of great turmoil, her love will be the key that unlocks his true passion and frees his wounded soul.
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