Hidden Affections by Delia Parr

 

Annabelle Tyler has been betrayed. She has lost her parents and the scoundrel that she married has taken her inheritance and divorced her. The year is 1831 and divorce is a terrible mark against a woman in society. Because she is divorced, she can no longer teach and the people in the area where she was living, are not kind to her. On a trip to Philadelphia to start a new job in a candy store, the coach she was riding in is attacked by robbers and she is handcuffed to a male passenger who turns out to be a very rich man from Philadelphia named Harrison Graymoor, a known playboy type person. They spend the cold night together waiting for help to come. The local sheriff and other men from the area take them to a minister insisting that they are doing the right thing to force them to marry.

I enjoyed this romance story very much. I could almost imagine this fictional story actually happening way back when. It is a bit difficult to accept that anyone would be forced to marry a stranger under threats from the sheriff, but once I got past that idea, I just enjoyed reading the story and learning how love developed between Annabelle and Harrison. There are a lot of twists and turns and interesting characters in this book. Historical romances give us a chance to see how different things were in the past. This book is a worthwhile read and another fine story from Delia Parr.

I received this book from Bethany House Publishers to read and review.