Miss Bradshaw's Bought Betrothal

Virginia Heath

Feb 2017 · Harlequin

About this ebook

An heiress’s escape plan takes a rude but handsome detour in this Regency Cinderella story about second chances.

Fed up with being a doormat to her evil stepmother, heiress Evelyn Bradshaw pays a dissolute rake to pose as her betrothed so she can secure her freedom. But then her fake fiancé leaves her with his estranged brother Finn Matlock and disappears!

Having withdrawn from the world, Finn knows the last thing he needs is the temptation of a woman, especially one like Evie. She has an irritating habit of causing chaos wherever she goes and being in places she shouldn’t . . . including, as he soon learns, his heart!

“Heath’s ability to create flawed characters whose emotional growth is at the heart of the story turns a classic plotline into a meaningful romance. You’ll be cheering the characters on to their HEA.” —RT Book Reviews

Ratings and reviews

In searching for my next book to read through my overloaded TBR pile, I came across this lovely looking book by Virginia Heath. Remembering that several book blogger friends had recommended it highly, I immediately dove in! This is Virginia Heath’s version of Cinderella. After reading it, I do believe I like Ms. Heath’s version the best! ;-) Finnegan “Finn” Matlock is nothing like the Prince Charming we’ve read in our fairy tales. Finn is a rude, obnoxious and miserable man who would prefer to be left alone. So when his selfish scoundrel of a twin brother Fergus dumps his fiancé Evie and her elderly Aunt Winnie in his home and disappears, Finn is not happy. Evelyn “Evie” Bradshaw is our Cinderella. For ten long years, she’s suffered the emotional abuse of her stepmother and two stepsisters. A spur of the moment plan leads her to hire Fergus Matlock as her fake fiancé to finally help gain her freedom. Oh my, how I fell in love with Finn & Evie! Evie is such a good-hearted, generous, and selfless young woman who has spent the last ten years being torn down emotionally by her evil stepfamily. She has little self-esteem left and yet there’s still that glimmer of hope, a spark inside her wanting to escape and live and have all the things she dreams of. She’s the type of heroine you start rooting for from the very beginning and rejoice when she finally blossoms into the person you knew she could be. As for Finn, I have to admit I liked him from the beginning. There was something under all the gruff, rude behavior that says he’s hurting and hiding from his past. He’s a good man just struggling with guilt that’s preventing him from moving on with his life. Together these two were absolutely perfect for each other.  I loved the banter between them and although Evie is known to be a doormat, when it came to Finn she gave as good as she got! They were a lovely couple who went through a lot in their past to get to their well deserved HEA. Although this story focused mainly on Evie and Finn and their interactions between each other, it did have some fabulous secondary characters with Hyacinth as the evil stepmother and of course the fabulous Aunt Winnie. This was a wonderful story of new beginnings with an ending that was absolutely perfect. 5/5 stars.

About the author

When Virginia Heath was a little girl it took her ages to fall asleep, so she made up stories in her head to help pass the time while she was staring at the ceiling. As she got older, the stories became more complicated, sometimes taking weeks to get to the happy ending. Then one day, she decided to embrace the insomnia and start writing them down. But it still takes her ages to fall asleep.