Format: Paperback
Read with: Paperback
Length: Novel
Genre: Historical Romance
Series: Vallerands, Book 1
Publisher: HarperCollins Publishers
Hero:  Maximilien Vallerand
Heroine: Lysette Kersaint
Sensuality: 3
Date of Publication: January 1, 1992
Started On: March 19, 2010
Finished On: March 23, 2010

Murder, mystery, romance and politics play a vital role in one of the first novels by Ms. Kleypas. This title was previously released as Only In Your Arms. However, Ms. Kleypas later gave this book a new title and re-wrote it a little bit and voila “When Strangers Marry” came about. Though this book seems to lack certain elements which makes Ms. Kleypas’s novels hard to put down, the story of Maximilien and Lysette nonetheless enchanted me till the end.

Lysette runs away from her step father who is trying to marry her off to someone she despises for the sake of the money that would bring. Lysette encounters Max’s twins Phillippe and Justin while trying to steal something belonging to the Vallerand’s  to make her escape. Bedraggled, dirty and exhausted more than she would admit to, all fight leaves her when Max confronts her and finds the truth about her within a matter of minutes after meeting her. And it certainly helps that Max feels the sudden flare of attraction for Lysette and the fact that she was betrothed to the man who stole Max’s wife from right under his nose which makes the package Lysette presents more attractive.

With vengeance on his mind, Max sets out to seduce and marry Lysette. Labelled as the man who murdered his previous wife in a town where gossip and half-truths linger way too long, Max is surprised by the ultimate trust Lysette places in him. Inevitably Max finds himself less interested in the vengeance he set out to achieve, but rather embrace the second chance at love he has been given.

A story which could have been told better, but still managed to set my senses afire.

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