The Bargain by Mary Jo Putney

The Bargain is an expansion and rewriting of The Would-Be Widow.

To keep her fortune, a beautiful heiress impulsively weds a penniless officer dying of wounds received at Waterloo. But when the blasted man hasn't the grace to die, she suddenly finds herself with a healthy, vibrant husband who wants to renegotiate the terms of their bargain -- and ultimately possess the heart of his bewildered bride.

I expected this book to be four or five stars in the early chapters. Sadly, it hit a brick wall and went from fun fluffiness to angsty drama around the halfway point. The second half of the book took me nearly twice as long as the first because I kept putting it down.

I can always count on Mary Jo Putney for an entertaining read. In this book, Jocelyn has a deadline to marry by the time she turns 25, or she won't get her inheritance. Her father made the stipulation upon his death because he knew Jocelyn would never turn to marriage willingly. Something in her past just made the whole idea an inconvenience at best, repulsive at worst.

Well, now that the wars with Napoleon are over, Jocelyn comes up with a brilliant, if ethically amoral, idea. Marry a dying major so she will be a widow by the time the deadline is up. Everything goes to plan, until the dying major's irate and protective younger sister show up. Oh, and then there's the fact that the captain doesn't die.

I think it's Putney's heroes that make me love her writing. Here we have David, who is very good at what he does, killing people efficiently to save his own skin. But the hardships of war didn't dull his sensitivities toward a Jocelyn, beautiful woman who shies away from marriage the way a horse shies from a snake. He might have been a major, but David is a wonderful beta hero who kept me smiling and wishing he were real so I could take him home to meet my mother.