The Inconvenient Marriage of Charlotte Beck Book Review

SUMMARY:  Unlikely romance is sometimes just an inconvenient marriage away.

     Charlotte Beck may be entering adulthood, but she can’t seem to keep her stubborn, independent spirit from bucking social protocol.  Fed up with her behavior, Charlotte’s father, Daniel, pressures her to settle into a nice marriage, despite knowing she is set on going to college.  Then Daniel sees Charlotte with the handsome but annoying English astronomer Alex Hambly, and everything changes.

     Though Alex and Charlotte can barely stand one another, Daniel offers them a deal they can’t refuse:  if they agree to marry, he will save Alex’s family from financial ruin and grant Charlotte the freedom to go to college.  Reluctantly the couple agrees, but in private they plot to annul the marriage as soon as possible.

     But when Alex’s feelings change and he refuses to dissolve their contract, will Charlotte find a way out of her vows?  Or will she discover that maybe this marriage isn’t so inconvenient after all?

REVIEW:  This book is set in Victorian England and the Colorado Territory, so it took a little bit for me to fully understand why some of Charlotte’s behavior was frowned upon.  But after a little bit, the story and plot line became easier to follow.  I would have liked to have seen a couple of the characters (Martin Hambly, Edwin Beck) more fully developed and included further into the story.  That said, I thought this was a good book and really enjoyed reading it.

This book is the third book in the Women of the West series that discusses Charlotte Beck’s character but all three are meant to stand alone.  The first one, The Confidential Life of Eugenia Cooper, is one of the first books I reviewed and I loved it.

This book was provided by Waterbrook Multnomah for review without compensation.

Kathleen Y’Barbo is a best-selling author of more than forty award-winning novels and novellas with nearly one million books in print.  Kathleen is a tenth-generation Texan, a graduate of Texas A&M University’s Mays Business School, and the mother of three grown sons and a daughter.  She recently enlisted for a happily-ever-after of her own with her hero in combat boots.  Find out more about Kathleen at www.kathleenybarbo.com.