arranged marriage

Vanessa Kelly returns to the Renegade Royals with her fourth book (sixth book if you count the two digital novellas) in the series, How to Marry a Royal Highlander.  We were introduced to the Whitney twins and their family in book three, How to Plan a Wedding for a Royal Spy, and this novel follows up with the romance of Edie Whitney and former spy, Alasdair Gilbride. 

Gilbride is actually heir to a Scottish earldom but has been avoiding his responsibilities to both the earldom and his arranged marriage since he was 16 years old.  Unfortunately, his time has run out.  With his grandfathers’

I happened upon this author when she came out with Forgotten late last year, and I enjoyed it enough to want to read some of her others. Arranged is a story about Anne Blythe, a writer who starts to question whether she’ll ever get married after the combination of ending a disastrous long-term relationship and her best friend getting engaged to a great guy. Love doesn’t seem possible until she finds a business card for what she thinks is a matchmaking service, appropriately called Blythe & Co. Thinking it’s a sign, she makes an appointment, where she finds out it’s actually a very discrete

Peony is a lovesick maiden in China during the 1600s. Meaning, she read a play called The Peony Pavilion and then, like the main character in the play, starved herself to death for want of love. The first half of the book details Peony’s life until her death. The second half details Peony’s journey to becoming an ancestor after her death.

On the one hand, I appreciate See’s ability to explain the traditions and beliefs of a culture vastly different from my own through story. Unfortunately, I found every one of the characters to be so unlikable that reading the story was a chore. I initially