Confessions From an Arranged Marriage by Miranda Neville

This is going to be a million spoilers and then some so I apologize in advance.

I love the arranged marriage trope so when I saw this book in the TBR pile I gave a little squee. Then I changed my panties and got on with it. (Sorry...)

The thing about this book is that it wasn't a 5 star read because the anticipation that the author was going to fuck up the story kept me from truly enjoying it. I know tht makes no sense but let me explain.

The heroine Minerva is a bright 19 year old who wants to marry a political man and work with him for government reform. Instead she ends up being mistaken for someone else and gets almost debauched and caught by the dreaded Duke of Something or Another (Blake) whom she knows and hates because he is an idiot.

A good looking, charming idiot.

Blake can't read. He isn't stupid as such but he just can't read. Now as a modern woman reading this, I assumed he was dyslexic but back in the time the story takes place in, dyslexia wasn't common and there were no teachers specializing in it.

And then there's the one "friend" who knows Blake's secret and has been blackmailing him with it.

So that's the set-up.

So I read this utterly delightful book waiting the entire time for the author to drop the ball and have the heroine figure out the hero's secret and make it all better.

She didn't.

Not only that but, and this is so amazing and wonderful.... the heroine didn't like the sex the first couple of times they did it! Isn't that wonderful?

Anyway, I wish I trusted that the author was as skilled as she ultimately was. The book ended well but the hero still couldn't read at the end and never was going to. And that was perfectly okay.

In fact, that was better than ever.

I loved this book.