Book Review: The Inconvenient Marriage of Charlotte Beck

If you are looking for a humorous, light read that takes you to another time and place, "The Inconvenient Marriage of Charlotte Beck" by Kathleen Y'Barbo would be a good pick. Set in the 1800's, Charlotte is a wealthy young American socialite who is more interested in attending college than attending fancy balls, and Alex is from a prominent English family that is about to lose everything unless something happens that could save their property. Charlotte's father has a solution: sign a marriage contract that provides the money Alex needs, and gives Charlotte four years of freedom to attend college.

Both Charlotte and Alex are stubborn, independent individuals that initially resist having their futures decided for them, but finally concede to get what they want (they secretly plan on just annuling the marriage). The story line follows the typical "headstrong-girl-meets-aloof-guy" plot, both vowing to get as far away as possible from each other, then end up falling in love... There are twists and turns along the way, with quite a bit of humor, and it made the predictable tale enjoyable for an afternoon read.

If you're looking for a book with depth and character development, you probably won't find it in this book. But overall I felt the book was well-written and gave insight into the historical time period in which it was written. If you see this book for free (or cheap), it would be a fun read. I wouldn't pay retail for it, though.

* I received a copy of this book for free from Waterbrook Multnomah as part of their "Blogging for Books" program in exchange for an honest review. All opinions in this review were exclusively written by me!