Kind of blah? I had hoped to have my heart ripped out but I stopped caring halfway through. ( )

Jack and Elizabeth were wed because of a deathbed promise to her dying husband. Jack has been gone to Canada for five years to fight for his country and now returns to the Northumberland farm that Elizabeth has been running for him. They have to deal with each other now after each living their own lives.
I enjoyed this story a lot. The main characters are both interesting, and the setting realistic. Once Jack has to go fight Napoleon again, I liked how Elizabeth fit into his soldier (he's a general) life. While a romance, it's also a good retelling of the days up until Waterloo. ( )

If you can accept that the times they lived in had a different view of cheating then you may be able to overlook the Hero's behavior.
It was a good story, well written and the heroine did make him see he had acted wrongly.

💞🎶💕💓

🐑🐏

🌍🌎🌏💶🔫 ( )

I received this book free from NetGalley for an honest review.

I need to tell you that I usually do not like historical romance, but I absolutely loved this one. It’s well written both the romance and the military aspects. I fell right into it. Read it straight through and got to bed around 3 a.m.

Jack is a soldier that is rarely home. On one of his rare trips back home he makes a deathbed promise that nets him a wife. A wife he doesn’t want or find attractive in any way. He leaves the country days after the hastily arranged wedding without consummating the marriage. Jack reasons that he doesn’t want to leave his new bride pregnant on top of all the other responsibilities she’s inherited as his wife. In the first part of the book Jack comes across as a selfish boy who gets and does as he wants without regard to others. OK maybe he is that way. After his return home 5 yrs. later due to peace he discovers his wife is strong, attractive and pissed off. He’s shocked that he could be drawn to the “mouse” he married. Except she isn’t the mouse he thought. Jack is made aware of the hurt and humiliation his actions caused his wife. As a result I was left with the impression that he grew up quickly and is truly remorseful and ashamed of his behavior. Jack spends the rest of the book trying to make it up to his wife and falling more in love with her.

Elizabeth doesn’t want to marry Jack or be a soldier’s wife, but she made the same promise as Jack. She is both relieved and surprisingly disappointed when the marriage isn’t consummated before Jack leaves for Canada. Elizabeth’s time is spent helping to care for Jack’s ill mother, taking care of the home and managing the farm. As the years pass she realizes she’s falling in love with her husband through the letters they exchange. When Jack’s mother passes away she is visited by a woman who, I believe, is evil through and through. Elizabeth is told of all of Jack’s infidelities by this viper. Now Elizabeth isn’t surprised Jack had affairs, just that he was SO indiscreet about it. At this point, 3 yrs. after wedding, Elizabeth hardens her heart toward her husband and her letters become cold and distant. She is humiliated and removes herself from society for the most part.

It’s the interaction between them after Jack returns home that’s the best part of this book. I got to see Jack grow up and realize his actions do have consequences. Elizabeth deals with her hurt, she doesn’t just let him off the hook, and she grows as well. Elizabeth grows in self-esteem and confidence. They truly do love each other. Then Jack does something really stupid that they have to deal with.

This is a sweet love story with some hurt and feelings of betrayal. What I really liked was the lack of angst. Not that there wasn’t any, it just wasn’t overwhelming. The story was of love and focused on it.

An Infamous Marriage is a 4.5 star read for me.
Review also posted on Darker Passions
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An Infamous Marriage by Susanna Fraser
4/5 stars
Source: Netgalley

General Jack Armstrong’s life is planned; he will live and die as a member of the military and there will be no one to get in his way. If only the universe had been aware of Jack’s plans then he wouldn’t find himself returning home to a woman he hasn’t seen in five years and only married as a means of fulfilling a death-bed promise made to his best friend. Elizabeth Armstrong never thought she would find herself married, widowed, married again, and the mistress of a large farm all within two weeks’ time. Yet here she is the widow of a man she dearly loved, the new wife of a man who not only doesn’t want her or the marriage but is leaving for a long campaign in Canada at the behest of the British military. Oh, and she knows virtually nothing about running a farm that specializes in fine horses. Though Elizabeth is not happy with her situation she is bound and determined to make the most of her lot and life.

For five years Jack and Elizabeth exchange polite letters all the while living totally separate lives – a fact which will most assuredly come back to bite Jack quite firmly on the butt and absolutely enrage Elizabeth. Despite his feelings about marriage and Elizabeth, when Jack returns to England he finds Elizabeth to be strong, confident, capable, and attractive – the complete opposite of the woman he left behind. Elizabeth’s appearance and attitude are more than enough to entice Jack and he finds himself more than eager to finally consummate his marriage. As Jack quickly discovers, his wife not only knows about his extracurricular activities but is quite prepared to kick his ass to the curb if he can’t find a way to make matters right.

The bottom line: I truly enjoyed this novel and reading about the path Jack and Elizabeth travel to find one another. As you might expect the path is neither smooth nor easy but it is one the two must travel in order to find one another and make a go of their marriage. While there are no great surprises as far as the plot is concerned, the novel is full of interesting characters, good dialogue, richly described environments, and a fair amount of naughty bits which certainly spice up the read. I found An Infamous Marriage quite easy to become absorbed in and easy to get through. I would certainly recommend this adult read to lovers of period pieces and romances. ( )