The Five-Minute Marriage

By Joan Aiken

First comes marriage.

Then comes love.

Then things start to get really complicated.

Desperate to help her ailing mother, Delphie Carteret agrees to a sham wedding ceremony to her cousin, Gareth. Her mother will be guaranteed annuity for life, and Gareth's obligation to marry before his sick uncle passes is fulfilled. The plan is perfect.

But perfect plans usually go awry. Not only is the marriage ceremony valid, but Gareth's dying uncle makes a miraculous recovery. An imposter is threatening Delphie's identity and her life, and the whole family is on the brink of scandal.

As Gareth and Delphie try to mastermind a way out of this mess, they begin to discover that what's between them may be surprisingly real…

Praise for Joan Aiken:

"Ingenious...a country-dance in high style, twirled to the tune of a proven virtuoso." —Kirkus Reviews for The Five-Minute Marriage

"Delightful and humorous." —Historical Novels Review for Eliza's Daughter

• Language: English
• Publisher: Sourcebooks
• Release date: Mar 7, 2017
• ISBN: 9781492641254

Joan Aiken

Joan Aiken was born in Rye, Sussex in 1924, daughter of the American poet Conrad Aiken, and started writing herself at the age of five. Since the 1960s she wrote full time and published over 100 books. Best known for her children’s books such as The Wolves of Willoughby Chase and Midnight is a Place, she also wrote extensively for adults and published many contemporary and historical novels, including sequels to novels by Jane Austen. In 1968 she won the Guardian Children’s book prize for Whispering Mountain, followed by an Edgar Allan Poe award for Night Fall in 1972, and was awarded an MBE for her services to children’s literature in 1999. Joan Aiken died in 2004.

Reviews for The Five-Minute Marriage

[Aléxa Anderson · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

I enjoyed this book a LOT. I absolutely grieve it's ending!

[Kathy · Rating: 1 out of 5 stars]

Amazingly bad. It’s like a bad horror movie, yikes .

[Isabel Coria · Rating: 1 out of 5 stars]

Sweet jesus this book blowed dog chunks it was that bad skipped most of it just to say I sort of finished it. Good grief they never got to the point. Just a total disaster. I don't recommend this book at all .

[caroline · Rating: 1 out of 5 stars]

The writing is so bad, I couldn’t get past the first few chapters. Worst delivery of dialog ever!!