Ten Reasons to Stay
by Sabrina Jeffries
- File Size: 559 KB
- Publisher: Pocket Star (May 6, 2013)
- Sold by: Simon and Schuster Digital Sales Inc
- Language: English
- ASIN: B009UVL9L4
My Rating: 4.5 of 5.0
Book Description
Publication Date: May 6, 2013
A delightful eNovella from New York Times bestselling author Sabrina Jeffries about a young woman who learns that you can’t learn about love from a textbook.
In “Ten Reasons to Stay,” previously published in the anthology The School for Heiresses, lessons go far beyond etiquette and needlepoint. Eliza Crenshawe’s lesson is to look before she leaps. But when she discovers that her new guardian plans to marry her off without so much as a Season, she forgets all that. She flees—on a horse she unwittingly steals (oops!)—from Colin Hunt, a newly minted earl who wants nothing more than for her to go home…or stay forever.
Review:
I have enjoyed many novels by Ms. Jeffries and this one joins the group. It manages a full romance, albeit almost love at first sight, in a short novella.
Eliza has finished most of her lessons at The School for Heiresses. The school didn’t teach lessons on love and she never mastered how to look before leaping. Her father has died and her drunken uncle has become her guardian. Uncle Silas claims that her father left only debts and there is no inheritance. He has whisked Eliza away from town and announced that he has arranged for her to be married immediately.
Eliza dresses like a lad and sneaks off to a neighboring estate to “borrow” a horse. She gets caught by the new lord who has recently returned from India. Colin isn’t very trusting of women since many shun his mixed, Indian and English, blood and his first wife was flighty and untrustworthy. He doesn’t believe this thieving young imposter even when he finally drags from her a Gothic tale of threatened marriage and missing inheritance. She continues to refuse to tell him her name or let him take her to the magistrate. Colin locks her in his bedroom while he tries to discover her identity and the truth of her circumstances. Eliza discovers an interesting collection of erotic art while rummaging in his boxes and a provocative bargaining begins.
I appreciated the dialogue between these two cautious individuals. Eliza seeks a life of passion and doesn’t want to be trapped in a loveless marriage. She is afraid that Colin will return her home to that fate. Colin thinks he just wants peace and not a lively, inquisitive woman. The romance was a bit bold for my tastes but the story was more than just an excuse for virgin introduction into sexual exploration. (I'm curious to pull my copy of the anthology to see if there was any change since the earlier publication.) I enjoyed the characters and the plot worked well. Ms. Jeffries succeeded in creating a satisfying, entertaining read in a shorter story.
I received this title for an honest review through NetGalley.
