The Reluctant Bride — Beverley Eikli

Finalist for the Australian Romance Readers Association's 2013 Favourite Historical Romance Award

Emily Micklen has no option after the death of her loving fiancé, Jack, but to marry the scarred, taciturn, soldier who represents her only escape from destitution.

Major Angus McCartney is tormented by the reproachful slate-grey eyes of two strikingly similar women: Jessamine, his dead mistress, and Emily, the unobtainable beauty who is now his reluctant bride.

Emily's loyalty to Jack's memory is matched only by Angus's determination to atone for the past and win his wife with honor and action. As Napoleon cuts a swathe across Europe, Angus is sent to France on a mission of national security, forcing Emily to confront both her allegiance to Jack and her traitorous half-French family.

Angus and Emily may find love, but will the secrets they uncover divide them forever?

Beverley won the Choc Lit Search for an Australian Star competition with The Reluctant Bride.

Shortlisted for the 2012 Australian Romance Readers Award for her novel Rake's Honour

Finalist in the 2011 Australian Romance Readers Awards for her novel A Little Deception