is the story of Gina and Cam ~ and Gina's friend , Carola who is unhappily married to Tuppy, and their friend Esme who is unhappily married to Miles ~ they are joined occasionally by their friend Helene, who is unhappily married to Rees. Thrown in with the friendships is a fun little quad, for Cam is married to Gina ~ Gina is engaged to Sebastian ~ Sebastian has feelings for Esme ~ and Esme, a close friend of Gina's is married to Miles (who has a mistress) and has feelings for Sebastian. Sounds confusing, perhaps, but the stories were actually very easy to follow.

Gina and Cam married very young and the young groom immediately fled for Greece leaving his young bride to live with his father. 12 years later, Gina is in love with Sebastian and has requested an annulment of her marriage to Cam, since it was never consummated. Along the way, Cam meets Tuppy and the two form a fast friendship. When they come to England, Cam is immediately smitten by a readhead he sees dancing with, Cam assumes, her husband. Imagine his surprise when he discovers that the woman he can't take his eyes off of is the wife he deserted 12 years ago.

Carola and Tuppy married three years ago. Carola took an immediate dislike to the marriage act and after two short weeks, Tuppy left her believing that it is what Carola wanted. But now she wants him back. The schemes she comes up with to get him back are humorous and often times laugh-out-loud funny.

Esme married Miles who was quite a bit older than her ~ he saw her once and immediately thought himself "in love". Esme is a beauty ~ Miles is not, although he is a kind man and very likeable. Esme and Miles have lived in separate houses for the majority of their marriage, at Esme's request. Esme is actually a bit of a tragic character. She is beautiful, funny, smart...and incredibly lonely. She and Sebastian (Gina's fiance) are constantly butting heads and the reader could almost tell from the first meeting of these two characters that something inevitably would happen between them.

Helene has a very, very small part in this book ~ but the story of her and Rees is one of the next ones in the series, so I felt I needed to mention her.

I'd rate this story an A ~ Definitely one I want to reread, and one I liked well enough I ran out to my UBS today and picked up all 4 books in the series (I borrowed Duchess from the library).

Labels: Eloisa James, Excellent, Historical Romance