Sarah M. Eden - The Kiss of a Stranger

When Crispin, Lord Cavratt, thoroughly and scandalously kisses a serving woman in the garden of a country inn, he assumes the encounter will be of no consequence. But he couldn’t be more mistaken— the maid is not only a lady of birth, she’s the niece of a very large, exceptionally angry gentleman, who claims Crispin has compromised his niece beyond redemption. The dismayed young lord has no choice but to marry Miss Catherine Thorndale, who lacks both money and refinement and assumes all men are as vicious as her guardian uncle. 

Trapped between an unwanted marriage and a hasty annulment, which would leave his reputation tainted and Catherine’s utterly ruined, Crispin begins guiding his wife’s transformation from a socially petrified country girl to a lady of society. Their unfolding relationship reveals encouraging surprises for both of them, and privately, each of them wonders if theirs may become a true marriage of the heart. But their hopes are dashed when forces conspire to split asunder what fate has granted, and as a battle of wits escalates into a life-threatening confrontation, will it be possible for Crispin and Catherine to live happily ever after?

Comment: I got interested in this book because it would feature an apparent marriage of convenience trope, sort of. Usually, I tend to like the historicals with this premise.

This story begins with Crispin, lord Cavratt, trying to escape the attention of miss Cynthia Bower, who has pursued him relentlessly during the Season and the only sudden way he finds to do it is to kiss a stranger, whom he assumes to be a servant. However, the woman is actually miss Catherine Thorndale, the niece of a gentleman, who sees this and immediately demands he marries her. Crispin is a man of honor and he feels like he should do it so the reputation of the young woman isn't doomed but they determine they might have an annulment soon after. There are some legal glitches to overcome, though, but more than that, Crispin starts to like the company of his new wife, even though she is shy and scared to speak her mind. Can it be that this accidental kiss might turn out to be the best decision of his life?

The element I liked the most in this novel, which was a novelty for me since I had not read anything else by the author, was the simplicity of the story. There are no dramatic or exaggerated details, nothing out of the ordinary. The plot and the characters are succinct and appealing and the focus is only on how the main characters will fall in love and how quickly can they realize it.

It turns out, not that quickly! I mean, I'm glad they don't rush into a relationship just because of how they came to be together and this is a closed door romance, we barely even see them exchanging looks, much less anything else, but there is pace and there is slugging out until something is obvious. After everything is set up and the protagonists see themselves in such a situation, I thought we would have a sweet and romantic development into eternal love but I've found this to be less amazing than I imagined.

It is true there's a bit of problem to deal with, especially related to Catherine's uncle and his terrible personality and goals, but I kind of hoped the main characters would be a bigger focus of things. I'm happy they took their time to want to be with the other and their relationship was mere courtesy and friendship at first, but for this to be a more convincing romance novel, I think they should have shared more scenes and, mainly, more scenes where they weren't talking out of turn.

I say this because they often assumed something the other was thinking and that lead into more miscommunication. I understand Crispin was attempting to not pressure Catherine into something she might not want and she isn't the assertive type of person who would want answers, but while this was acceptable at first, when they were still debating whether this marriage could be a good thing or not, it started to feel too repetitive and slow the more the story advanced.

Apart from this, I actually liked the characters, they are genuinely good people and the interactions with secondary characters believable. I wish they could have had more scenes dealing with friends out of balls or social environments, as well as more scenes between the protagonists in domestic settings, perhaps that could have helped enhancing the sensation they were becoming closer. I think the author could have done a better job in portraying the emotions they were feeling and the inner monologues more complex to make me care more for them as a couple.

The plot regarding the uncle was a also a bit confusing at times, I wasn't always certain about the uncles' motives - his goals seemed obvious - because soon he would say one thing, then would say another, but as an antagonist, he seemed to only be present in "convenient" moments of the story, and some sequences didn't feel very fluid or natural. There are also other secondary characters who act as antagonists to the main couple, sometimes it felt a bit juvenile how they were made to act, so that we could have an obvious comparison between everyone.

I know it might seem as if I didn't like this much, but I did like the story and the simplicity of the story, it's only that in such a type of story, the things I'd prefer changed seem even more glaring by contrast. In the end, all was well as it should and I liked the writing style enough to want to read the next story in this series. I hope it might be better in the details I wish this had been.

Grade: 7/10