Sophie Jordan creates a pair of opposites who spar with snappy, witty dialogue and ignite lots of heat between them.

Grier Hadley has a large diary but nothing else to recommend her to the marriage mart.  Especially not the fact that she is the illegitimate daughter of a notorious gaming hell owner with bad table manners.  Yet Grier believes marrying a proper gentleman will give her the respectability she craves and make everyone forget her low beginnings.  The fact that she is a former game master is one clue that everything in her personality points to her being anything but a deferential, assuming wife.

Sevastian Maksimi, Prince of Maldania, has been a hero in his country’s war and now must do his duty to his grandfather, the king, to find a proper bride with an impeccable pedigree.  Grier is entirely off his list, especially when she pours a drink on his head in retaliation for overhearing him talk about her bloodline and essentially insulting her.  Hiding with her in very close quarters in a dark armoire stirs his passion for her but does nothing to dampen her unsuitability.

They are thrown together again as guests at a house party, where they begin to understand each other’s true character.  Grier leaps balconies to tell him off when she believes he’s about to run off with someone else, and sparks fly as it becomes clear that these two can’t keep their hands off one another. 

The prince has reason to be jealous of Grier, too, when an old suitor resurfaces, and soon nothing can keep them apart—except the nefarious machinations of a dubious character with revenge on his mind. 

This book is a fast-paced read that keeps you turning the pages.  I enjoyed it very much.  I especially loved when Grier is forced to showcase her singing voice and chooses to sing a bawdy song about a buxom milkmaid in Welsh that everyone is impressed by but no one understands.  Grier and the prince are truly infuriated with one another at the beginning and their repartee is very quick and witty. 

If I had one complaint, it was that I wished the secondary characters would have been sketched a bit more vividly.  In particular, Jack, Grier’s real father, is quite a colorful character, and at times he acts like a real father to her, but at the book’s climax, he is there one minute and gone the next.  It would have been satisfying to see his arc fully played out.  Grier is close to her half-sister, Cleo, but she accepts the attentions of a quite elderly gentleman and I was never clear of the reason why. 

But besides these minor notes, Sophie Jordan has sketched an intelligent, strong heroine who is instantly likeable and who is unafraid to show the prince exactly who she is.  This book is a light, entertaining read that steers away from too much angst—it’s perfect for escape on a pleasant summer evening.

~ Miranda