In Bed With A Stranger-Mary Wine

In Bed With A Stranger
Mary Wine
Kensington Brava, Jun 2009, $14.00
ISBN: 9780758234636

In 1602, twenty-four years old Anne Cooper is the daughter of the Earl of Warwickshire, but born on the wrong side of the sheets. She lives with the family, but is treated no better than a servant by his wife Philipa and daughter Mary at Warwick Castle.

In Scotland, Brodick McJames worries about his clan collapsing so to prevent that he needs a special wife, a daughter of a powerful England lord. He chooses Mary sight unseen as the offspring of an Earl, but the spoiled woman rejects being married to a barbarian. Instead she orders her half sister Anne to pretend to be Mary and marry the brute. Anne arrives at Broderick’s home Alcaon and quickly becomes a favorite of his clan with her kind ways. She and the laird are attracted to one another from the onset; and she proves a worthy partner. When the Warwickshire females realize Anne’s switch they vow to kill Brodrick’s wife and replace her with Mary.

With homage to Cinderella, Mary Wine provides a wonderful early seventeenth century romance starring two likable caring lead protagonists and two avarice merciless villainesses. Fans will root for Anne while hissing at the legitimate Warwick females whose odious antics make for a strong tale.

Harriet Klausner