THE GIRL WITH THE MAKE-BELIEVE HUSBAND

A young Englishwoman travels to New York during the Revolutionary War and ends up impulsively passing herself off as the wife of an injured officer.

Cecilia Harcourt has too much bad news all at once. Her father dies and leaves her alone, she receives word that her brother, Thomas, has been injured fighting in the American Revolution, her loathsome cousin pressures her to marry him, and she stands to lose her only home if her brother doesn’t survive to inherit it. She does the only thing she can think to do—sail for America to care for Thomas. But when she gets there, she finds her brother missing and his best friend unconscious in a hospital on the island of Manhattan. Only immediate family is allowed to care for him, so Cecilia passes herself off as his wife. That’s how Capt. Edward Rokesby, second son of the Earl of Manston, came to wake up and find himself married to a woman he’d never met in person. But he does know her—and is half in love with her—just from reading the letters she sent to her brother. A head injury keeps Edward from remembering the past few months, so Cecilia’s cover is not immediately blown. By the time the mix-up is all sorted out, Cecilia is thoroughly compromised and Edward and Cecilia are thoroughly in love. This is one of those novels where the reader longs to shout at the characters to tell each other the truth already, but it is a great read nevertheless, with mystery and adventure and, yes, romance. This is the second of Quinn’s (Because of Miss Bridgerton, 2016, etc.) Rokesby novels and a prequel to her popular Bridgertons series.

Quinn's fans will be grateful she's crossed the pond for this textured look at life in New York during the 1770s.