The Stranger She Married

From Goodreads:

"When her parents and twin brother die within weeks of each other, Alicia and her younger sister are left in the hands of an uncle who has brought them all to financial and social ruin. Desperate to save her family from debtor's prison, Alicia vows to marry the first wealthy man to propose. She meets the dashing Lord Amesbury, and her heart whispers that this is the man she is destined to love, but his tainted past may forever stand in their way. Her choices in potential husbands narrow to either a scarred cripple with the heart of a poet, or a handsome rake with a deadly secret.

Cole Amesbury is tormented by his own ghosts, and believes he is beyond redemption, yet he cannot deny his attraction for the girl whose genuine goodness touches the heart he'd thought long dead. He fears the scars in his soul cut so deeply that he may never be able to offer Alicia a love that is true. When yet another bizarre mishap threatens her life, Alicia suspects the seemingly unrelated accidents that have plagued her loved ones are actually a killer's attempt to exterminate every member of her family. Despite the threat looming over her, learning to love the stranger she married may pose the greatest danger to her heart. And Cole must protect Alicia from the killer who has been exterminating her family before she is the next target."

***

This was a fascinating read. I wasn't quite sure what to think of it at first, but I was drawn in by the characters and the plot. And I do love a good mystery.

What made this all work was that the mystery was NOT the focus of the plot from the beginning. In fact, it didn't even come to the forefront of the story until about halfway through, when the characters realize something is up. So the story is delicately and wonderfully balanced between a romance between the leads, a marriage of necessity and the conflicting emotions that accompany it, and the mystery that takes over and makes the entire story make sense. I really, REALLY enjoyed this read, even as it made me uncomfortable at parts. I would read it again, now that I know the ending, just to see how it all worked. Cole and Alicia were fantastic characters who were well worth spending time on, and the story....oh, the story. Masterfully executed, in my opinion.

Gentle Reader Alert: There wasn't really much of concern, but I wouldn't hand it off to my 11-year-old. Definitely adult situations in there.