Marry in Secret

Written by Anne Gracie

Narrated by Alison Larkin

A rugged and ruined naval officer comes to claim his bride in an unforgettable tale of love, revenge, and redemption from the nationally bestselling author of Marry in Scandal.

Lady Rose Rutherford-rebel, heiress, and exasperated target of the town's hungry bachelors-has a plan to gain the freedom she so desperately desires: she will enter into a marriage of convenience with the biggest prize on the London marriage mart.

There's just one problem: the fierce-looking man who crashes her wedding to the Duke of Everingham-Thomas Beresford, the young naval officer she fell in love with and secretly married when she was still a schoolgirl. Thought to have died four years ago he's returned, a cold, hard stranger with one driving purpose-revenge.

Embittered by betrayal and hungry for vengeance, Thomas will stop at nothing to reclaim his rightful place, even if that means using Rose-and her fortune-to do it. But Rose never did follow the rules, and as she takes matters into her own unpredictable hands, Thomas finds himself in an unexpected and infuriating predicament: he's falling in love with his wife . . .

Contains mature themes.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Tantor Media, Inc
• Release date: Jul 30, 2019
• ISBN: 9781977337894

Reviews for Marry in Secret

[wyvernfriend · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

Lady Rose Rutherford's comfortable marriage ceremony is interrupted by a disreputable scruffy man who claims to be her husband. A husband who no-one else knows about, he was lost at sea and declared dead shortly after the marriage and she didn't think it was important.to let any one know.Thomas Beresford survived his ship sinking and was sold into slavery where he eventually escaped just in time to interrupt the wedding. He has to cope with coming back to life and the fact that his family left him to be a slave. He's also not sure he wants to, or will be able to have a relationship with her.The struggle was real and I enjoyed the story and I also liked how things weren't easily resolved. She was determined to be his partner even if it was going to be a lot of work.

[phyllis2779 · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

Enjoyable regency. I read the next book in the series which I liked even more. The books felt like they could be in the Regency with no glaring errors but the plots seemed pretty far-fetched. For example, in this one a naval officer comes back from being imprisoned by pirates, etc., in the nick of time to prevent the marriage of his secret wife (who thought he was dead after the Navy said he was dead) to a Duke. It was a fun read but the plot wasn't meant to be taken seriously.

[jorgeousjotts · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

This one wasn't terribly memorable for me. I'd been looking forward to Rose's story from the first, but she didn't really seem to have the spark she'd had as a supporting character. Her sister Lily stepped up in her book, but Rose just sort of sat down. Linden's books tend to be above average for me, but this one was just fine.

[eurohackie · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

Never have I been so happy to have a back cover blurb that was so laughably wrong about the story contained between the covers. If you read the blurb, you'll come into this book thinking that it's going to be a marriage-as-revenge story, but it is very emphatically NOT that. If you're looking for that, look elsewhere - this is a rather extraordinary second chance romance, as our hero comes back from the dead to reclaim not only his wife, but his place among the living.Thomas Beresford and Rose Rutherford were secretly married when he was 23 and she was 16. They got married so they could have sex, but they only had 2 weeks together before naval officer Thomas boarded his ship again, and then he was shipwrecked and declared dead, which devastated our heroine, Rose. Knowing what it is to love and lose, she's determined to never put her heart on the line again, so she knowingly walks into a marriage of convenience with *the* Catch of the Season. In the middle of the Wedding of the Season, Thomas suddenly appears again, looking like a madman, and stops the ceremony.Both Rose and Thomas are torn - they loved each other four years ago when they married, and both thought the relationship was lost (Rose because she thought Thomas was dead; Thomas because he wasn't dead but was living in horrific circumstances). The Rutherford family had no notion of this secret marriage and are all up in arms. Rose, the daughter of an earl, is a very wealthy heiress, and nothing less than a social equal will be tolerated (by her social climbing Aunt Agatha, at least). Everyone is 1000% suspicious of Thomas's motives and his ability to oh-so-conveniently reappear during the wedding ceremony. Everyone, that is, except Rose. Once she gets over the shock of her beloved being alive, she is determined to make their marriage work. She is very stubborn, and tips into TSTL territory as the story goes on, which was irritating.Thomas, on the other hand, is a lot more than the vengeful fortune hunter he's portrayed as in the blurb. He was shipwrecked, yes, but he and five of his crew managed to swim to shore, only to be captured on the Barbary coast, held for ransom, and then sold into captivity when the ransom fell through. His time in captivity has changed him through and through, and he has a lot to work through when he returns to England. First and foremost on his list is trying to bring those five crewmates back; second is trying to figure out why his uncle and cousin refused to pay the ransom for him.I suppose its not enough these days to just have a book about putting a marriage back together after the miraculous reappearance of one of the spouses; there has to be a mystery tacked on, too. Unfortunately, the mystery felt very tacked on: the moment the villain was mentioned in an afterthought, I knew exactly who was responsible for Thomas's misery. (To give this author credit, at least he had a more interesting reason than just being an evil personage, and the way Thomas ultimately dealt with him was also rather interesting.)So the mystery plot was "meh" (and Rose was being stupid with her insistence on accompanying Thomas on his journey to rescue his crewmates, because WTF Rose, it's the goddamned Barbary coast and you've heard your husband's horror stories so why in the hell do you think it'd be safe for you to go traipsing around there?), but the romance was tender and sweet, which is what I was looking for. I enjoyed Thomas and Rose coming together for a second time after life-altering events, and there wasn't too much "woe is me/I'm not good enough for him/her anymore" angsting.Thomas's captivity was based on a true story, and there's a great author's note at the end with mentions of her research and where to learn more about it. I certainly appreciated that =) So while this book wasn't quite as good as the first two in the series, I'll definitely be adding it to my collection.I've been most curious about George's story (she'll be the final heroine in the series), but the hints that she's going to be paired up with this cold and indifferent duke that Rose almost married has not exactly set my heart aflutter.

[n.w.moors-1 · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

Rose Rutherford is about to marry a Duke when the wedding is interrupted by - her husband she thought was dead. Thomas Beresford, a naval officer, was shipwrecked for the last four years but has finally made his way back to Rose.I didn't read the first two books in the series, not that I thought it was a problem as the story is fine as a stand-alone. Rose and Thomas are a good couple as they find their way back to each other. The later part of the book with the somewhat predictable mystery wasn't as interesting.

[barbararogers-1 · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

Series: Marriage of Convenience #3Publication Date: 7/30/2019Number of Pages: 336I absolutely loved this book! There was no “Oh, woe is me”. No navel-gazing. No page-after-page of angst - even though both of these characters had every reason to do those things. I know – it is odd to love a book for what it doesn’t have, but I do get so tired of books where the main focus is nothing but those things. This one was refreshing, romantic, steamy and just a lovely read.There are some heartbreaking subjects in this novel, particularly that of the slave trade on the Barbary Coast. It doesn’t touch on or deal with the African slave trade (to the Americas), only that of the Ottoman Empire. Lady Rose Rutherford is one of the best heroines I’ve read in a long time. She’s smart, steadfast, loyal, faithful and loving. She fell head-over-heels in love at sixteen and never doubted, never faltered, never stopped – even in the face of some of the worst heartache you’ll ever see.Thomas Beresford followed in his father’s footsteps and purchased a commission in the Navy when he was sixteen. He loved the navy and rose through the ranks over the next seven years to the rank of Commander. Then, at the age of twenty-three, he met, fell in love, and married Rose Rutherford. They married in secret and then he sailed away. His ship sank with all hands reported lost – and his four-year nightmare began.Thomas was a wonderful hero. After all that had happened to him, he was still the most honorable and caring of men. He was truly a hero in every sense of the word. He was totally unselfish and bent on rescuing the other members of his crew who were enslaved.I loved the opening scene. Rose had finally agreed to marry because it would, with agreement from the groom, be a totally loveless marriage based solely on procreation. Rose would never love again, but she did want children, so a marriage of convenience would suit her fine. At the wedding ceremony, during that tensest of statements “If anyone has a reason this marriage cannot take place” – there is a shout from the back of the church. The man is unkempt – with long hair, beard, ragged clothing, and a stench – and he had just claimed that Rose was his wife.After Rose’s initial shock – and wouldn’t that be a shock – she embraced her marriage to Thomas and her love for him. She never, ever wavered even when he tried to dissuade her. Her initial reaction might not have been everything he had hoped for, even he recognized that his appearance and his return from the dead was enough to shock her for a while. But boy, once that shock wore off, she was a very determined lady. I highly recommend this book and hope you love it as much as I did.I voluntarily read and reviewed an Advanced Reader Copy of this book. All thoughts and opinions are my own.