The premise is promising. Cynthia Banester needs to marry a wealthy gentleman quickly because her father has lost the family fortune to a clever, black-hearted villain. Lord Kenton, son and heir of the Earl of Spayne seems the perfect candidate. Only Kenton is really actor Jack Briggs, who has been hired by Spayne to play the role of his son as part of an attempt to thwart a blackmailer (the same villain who cheated Cynthia’s father). Jack’s task is to marry and impregnate a wealthy wife and then conveniently “die.” But when Cynthia forces Kenton at gunpoint to fall in with her plan, the deceiver is deceived on both sides. Now a greater problem confronts them—how to outwit the villain.

Jack is an appealing hero, conscious that he’s no gentleman but genuinely caring in his relationship with Cynthia and with his “father.” The secondary characters add interest and flavor to the story. This would have been a four-star read for me if I had liked the heroine even a little. But she impressed me as a snob and a hypocrite, ready to condemn Jack for his lies and unable to see the beam in her own eye. By the time she changed, it was too late for me to develop any sympathy for her. This was a disappointing read from an author who has several books on my keeper shelves.

I thought this was going to be a silly Harlequin historical romance and I'd end up not liking it, but it honestly pulled me in, sat me down, and made me care about Jack and Cynthia making it work.

It was still rather silly, but the amusing kind of silly (instead of the roll-your-eyes kind), and it was definitely a fast read as I finished it in one night.