“Charlotte Beck Gets What She Wants, Even When She Doesn't Know It Is What She Wants
Spoiled wild child from America rocks the social elite on their ears with her crazy antics. She makes a splash across newspaper headlines by riding horseback with Indians while shooting the hat off Bill Cody's head in his Wild West Show. She always manages to wriggle free of consequences. She even manages to make it a trend to participate in the show. She sees her life moving along quite nicely when she trades inside business information with her father for a degree in mathematical studies. She longs to work in his company.
Charlotte's father wants her to marry and feels that English business man, and astronomer, Alex Hambly is the only one who can keep his daughter both happy and in check. He uses Alex's family financial woes and his daughter's desire to attend school to bind them into an arranged marriage contract. The couple grudgingly agrees, hoping something will happen in the four years before she graduates to change the situation. They drive each other crazy, build up the usual tensions and cave to the marriage anyway, even as they plot a way to get out of it as soon after saying their vows as possible.
This is where the question of faith comes to play a role, although it seems a small role, in the book. Can Alex go through with the annulment when he made a promise before God? The marriage Charlotte originally finds so inconvenient to her goals turns out to be what she wants after all.
I enjoyed this story, although it was a little predictable and Charlotte was very immature and frustrating. I did find the corset bonfire a little amusing. The truth behind her mother being gone was never explained in detail. Suspicions of adultery and questions of Charlotte's true paternity were hinted at, but her birth certificate was revealed at the end of the story and her mother's love for her father confirmed.
I was given this book for free in exchange for an honest review.
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Marie Drake wrote this review Friday, February 1, 2013.
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