This is Anna and Liam’s story. They were supposed to be a marriage of convenience. Liam disappeared on their wedding night. Anna thinks that he went on his merry way but he was kidnapped and put in a penal colony. He survives to come back to find the cousin who put him there. He brings back the men he served with. The story is very descriptive of the horrors he lived. They find their way to loving each other. Meredith Duran is a fabulous author.

I enjoyed reading this book, it was fun to get the story of a character that's been instrumental in the other books in the series. I thought it was interesting that the main villain wasn't quite as worried about his fate as characters in similar situations would have been. I felt like this has happened in other books to other characters, where members of the aristocracy cut off their funding, get them banned socially, etc. And his lack of concern over this makes me wonder if it's a commentary on the rising power of the non-aristocracy class. Anywho, it was an interesting story.

I felt that the ending was a little abrupt, but still enjoyed it.

I have not read any of the other books in this series, so I feel like I cannot give this a fair review. As a drop in, I did not enjoy it.

I enjoyed this book quite a lot - the characters were engaging and while there was some suspension of disbelief regarding the central premise of the work (kidnapped groom the day after the wedding etc., the fact that the wife didn't raise alarm) once you got past that it was a good read. The villain was a bit of an old fashioned mustache-twirler.