Overview

A dissipate rake, a reckless bet, and a feisty lady. One night, Verity Farrington's father, an inveterate gambler down on his luck, stakes the only thing he has left to wager on a last hand of cards, and loses. What he's lost is far more valuable than mere money - it's his daughter. He's lost her to one of the worst rakes in London, a man known as the Black Earl for his dissipate soul. But Verity, the veteran of a life spent roaming Europe with some dangerous escapes from angry creditors, is made of stern stuff. Mindful of debtors' prison threatening her dear papa, on the morning after that fateful card game, she turns up on the doorstep of Jonathan Wintringham, Earl of Dunster. He's more than a little taken aback: he was so drunk, he's forgotten all about winning that final wager. Things only get worse when his best friend, Walter, turns up and recognizes Verity as his long-lost cousin. Jonnie Wintringham is tall, dark, and devastatingly handsome. He's been Earl of Dunster since he was only sixteen, and from an early age has led the sort of life of indulgence Verity can only imagine. Until he realizes he's compromised Walter's cousin, he's harbored no intention to get leg shackled in the near future. Thanks to Walter's horror-stricken reaction, Jonnie decides marrying her could be quite fun, and if it gets him an heir, it will shut up his bothersome family for good. They agree to a marriage in name only, and he sends Verity to his country estate, Luxborough. Once there, she discovers he has an estranged mother, an illegitimate half-sister, and a very dark secret he's shared with no one. Not an auspicious start to a marriage. But when Jonnie is attacked by supposed random footpads and is taken to Luxborough to recuperate, things could well take a turn for the better when Verity has to nurse him back to health. Tropes You'll Love: Marriage of Convenience / Marriage in Name Only Rake Hero / Reformed Rake Feisty, Independent Heroine Forced Proximity (Country Estate Recuperation) Wager for a Bride / Gambling Debt Dark Secret / Hidden Past

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9781972086056

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Fil Reid lives four miles from the sea in Cornwall with her husband and a rescue dog from Romania called Bella. Her books have been published by Dragonblade in the US since she won their Write Stuff competition. Her first six books comprise the Guinevere series - an innovative retelling of the Arthurian legend from the point of view of a modern origin Guinevere. Her short stories have been shortlisted in several competitions and won a few prizes. She has a new series set in Cornwall coming out this year, starting with The Cornish Mermaid.Apart from writing, the great love of her life has always been horses, and when she was younger she worked with them for a number of years - on the stud attached to Highclere Castle (where Downton Abbey was filmed), as a stable girl in a flat racing yard (when she was young, brave and thin), and in a riding school. She also ran her own riding school when her children were small.She speaks fluent French after having lived there for ten years, after which she lived on a widebeam canal boat before her move to Cornwall. One of the things she loves to do is to visit the sites she uses in her stories. However, she has acrophobia, a morbid fear of heights, so one or two places are out of reach to her. Too scary!She's been fascinated by all things Arthurian since she was a small child and saw the Disney film The Sword in the Stone, but didn't find out until she was an adult that she has Asperger's Syndrome (as do two of her sons). She now believes her ASD accounts for her obsessions with both horses and King Arthur.

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