Make Believe Bride is Now Available!

Book 3 in the Marriage by Fate Series is now out!

make believe bride

The books in this series are as follows:

The Reclusive Earl (Book 1)
Married In Haste (Book 2)
Make Believe Bride (Book 3)
The Perfect Duke (Book 4) – the process of writing
I’m considering writing Book 5

I brought back some past characters in Make Believe Bride:

Remember Lord Edon and Lady Catherine (hero and heroine in A Most Unsuitable Earl) and Mr. Christopher Robinson and Agatha (hero and heroine in His Reluctant Lady) from the Marriage by Scandal Series? So for those of you who’ve read those books, I think you’ll enjoy seeing how they are doing in their happily ever afters (including updates on their children).

That’s what’s nice about keeping all of the Regency books in the same world. I get to bring back past characters and give updates on how they’re doing. I also bring in Lord Erandon (from Taming The Viscountess) and Lady Steinbeck (from The Earl’s Wallflower Bride) to a lesser extent in this book. But Christopher and Lord Edon (aka Ethan) have the largest secondary roles.

Make Believe Bride moves forward with the secondary story I started with the destruction of Lady Eloise, which I started in Married In Haste.

As far as I’m concerned the destruction of Lady Eloise happened in Married In Haste (Book 2 in this series) when the way Lady Eloise tried to ruin Ava (aka Lady Youngtown). Lady Cadwalader’s hated Lady Eloise for a long time, and she’s been looking for an incident she could use to bring Lady Eloise down.

I never came out and stated this (at least not yet), but I was never in Lady Cadwalader’s point of view and I never did have a friend or family member of Lady Cadwalader in my books. But I thought you guys might like to know that Lady Cadwalader was the one who pinned Lady Eloise with abhorrent behavior that day at Hyde Park. I’m hoping to get into it in The Perfect Duke (Book 4 in this series which I’m currently writing).

And now for Make Believe Bride….

That aside, this story features Lord Whitney (a new character) and Lady Stacey (who’s been a quiet character in the Ladies of Grace social group). I knew ahead of time that I wanted to write about Lady Stacey. It was just a matter of waiting for the right time to do her story, and her story picks up right where Married In Haste left off. The book opens with Lord Whitney trying to impress some gentlemen at White’s by claiming he’s betrothed and then it goes to Lady Stacey who, along with other members of Ladies of Grace, are comforting Lady Eloise because of Lady Eloise’s impending married to Mr. Stephen Bachman.

This book focuses on Lord Whitney who arranges a fake betrothal with Lady Stacey. Make Believe Bride has a sort of nerdy hero who isn’t afraid to take a stand when necessary. Originally, I thought he was going to have a timid side to him, but it turned out that he didn’t. His strength is quiet. It needed to be because Lady Stacey was under the thumb of a very controlling and self-righteous father. Lady Stacey does gather courage over the course of the book, and she was able to get the courage because Lord Whitney came into her life. Lord Whitney also needs to grow, but his growth is more in the area of feeling valued from who he is, rather than what he has. I like it when both characters grow because of the love they develop for each other.

This book contains some tear-jerker moments. (I won’t lie. It’s not all roses.) But it also has some comedic moments to help lighten the mood. And it definitely has a happily ever after ending.

Anyway, here’s the description of the book:

Lord Whitney is intelligent, rich, and good looking. But he’s also boring. Despite his notable attributes, he has nothing worthwhile to contribute to the gentlemen he would love to establish friendships with. One thing he’s noticed is that all the gentlemen around him are getting married. So in order to have something in common with them, he does something he never thought he’d do: he lies about being betrothed.

His ploy works. For the first time in his life, gentlemen are finally paying attention to him. Soon, however, they start asking him questions about the wonderful lady he’s going to marry. It comes to a point where he can no longer keep up the lie. He has to find a lady to present to them.

As fate would have it, Lady Stacey happens to be in the right place at the right time, and he manages to convince her to play along with his scheme. In return for playing the part of his betrothed, he will secure safe passage for her and her mother out of London. But as time passes on, he begins to wonder if there’s more to their ruse than meets the eye. Will their deception bloom into a love that is real, or will it be as make believe as it was when they met?

If interested, you can get your copy here:

If anyone has any questions about this series or any of the Regency characters, feel free to ask. 🙂