IMPROPERLY WED - Anna DePalo
Harlequin Desire #2123
ISBN: 978-0-373-73136-7
November 2011
Contemporary Series Romance

New York and England - Present Day

Belinda Wentworth's high society wedding to Tod Dillingham goes horrifyingly wrong when Colin Granville arrives and announces to the congregation that Belinda is already married – to him.  Two years ago, on a wild night in Vegas, Belinda impulsively married Colin.  But in the morning, a call from her mother reminded her of the centuries old feud between the Granvilles and the Wentworths, and Belinda ran.  She never told anyone of her wedding, and believed that the marriage was annulled, but it turns out that the annulment was never finalized.

Seven months later, the scandal has died down a bit, and Belinda believes she has found the way to quietly annul the marriage, in spite of Colin's refusal to cooperate.  Colin, who sees his marriage as part of the way for the Granvilles to finally best the Wentworths, anticipates Belinda's move and tries to get her to agree to stay married.  It's only when Belinda learns that Colin now owns two of the Wentworth's major properties that she agrees to stay with him – for now.  Though she's not happy with the arrangement, Belinda's biggest worry is how to resist the passion that runs just as strongly between them now as it did the night they eloped.

Will a centuries-long feud be resolved or grow worse is the question in IMPROPERLY WED.  Belinda was raised to be a proper lady, to make a good match for marriage, and to always detest the Granville family.  When she runs into Colin in Las Vegas , she's both charmed and intrigued, and though the passion between them is strong, she tells Colin she won't sleep with him because they aren't married.  When he responds by offering to find a wedding chapel, she goes along with things, carried along by passion and impulse.  It's partly realizing just how out of character she acted, as well as how out of control Colin makes her feel, that scares off Belinda the next morning.  For his part, Colin felt something for Belinda that he'd never had with another woman and, being a gambling man, was willing to take a chance by marrying her.  He's never been able to put her out of his mind, and he's willing to do whatever it takes to win Belinda back.

This is the third book about the Aristocratic Grooms, featuring friends Colin (Marquess of Easterbridge), Sawyer, the Earl of Melton, and Hawk, Duke of Hawkshire.  The interrupted wedding is actually introduced in Sawyer and Tamara's book, and revisited with Pia and Hawk's, so readers finally get to see what happened after Colin makes his statement.  Can Belinda find the happiness that her two best friends have found?  Pick up IMPROPERLY WED and find out.

Jennifer Bishop