This book is definitely a 4 star. To be completely honest, I was so sure that Charles Godwin was Cousin Michael. I became so confused when reading the first and second chapters because clearly David Masters was the main character of the book. It just didnt hit me that Lord Kirkwood is Cousin Michael, as I assumed he was a fortune hunter married to the silly Sarah Linley. However, I am glad Charlotte and David are together. The story is magnificent and absolutely pleasing to read. I was looking for books in which the H/h write letters to each other and bond thru the written word. This was NOT it. It claimed to be that kind of a book, but all the letters were written BEFORE the book takes place, so I was seriously disappointed.*spoilers likely follow.* I get crabbed at if I don't state that. Which is stupid - if you don't want to read people's thoughts about the content, just read the dadgum book and leave off the review scene, already. ((O_o))The premise of the book was complicated. Charlotte and David fell in love as young people, but due to a very 'Much Ado About Nothing' misunderstanding, she hurts him and flees into a marriage with another... who conveniently dies in a duel two years later. Meanwhile, she's always wanted to open a forward-thinking school for girls, and at that point, her dead husband's 'cousin Michael' offers to help the widow by offering her a building and funds to open her school.Of course David is 'cousin Michael'. And of course she doesn't realize it.Meanwhile, his estate falls into trouble, the kind that only marrying an heiress can get him out of, so he weds one of Charlotte's students - a real sauce of a chit - who ends up dead in the bathtub with slit wrists, apparently a suicide.As if that weren't enough trouble, the man who owns the land the school is on is going to kick Charlotte out, and David doesn't want her to get hurt, so he's trying to 'help' by offering a 'legacy' that he says his wife bequeathed to the school. Charlotte dallies with him, but doesn't want to move, and meanwhile events snowball into a murder investigation (the wife didn't kill herself, after all).I liked the story. I liked David and Charlotte, very much. But this book wasn't what I wanted. And I got testy at the end, when the author started bringing in all these characters obviously from other previous stories or stories to come... it was dizzying and irritating, since only a few of them were barely shadows in the book, but suddenly there's all of these people, coming out of the woodwork in a push to read Jeffries other stuff. (Don't do that. It sucks.)So it was complex but lovely, the author was well-written but pushy, and the premise was not what I was looking for, but entertained well enough. That equates to three stars.
Do You like book Wed Him Before You Bed Him (2009)?
A perfect ending to a wonderful series!! This was my favorite "School for Heiressess" book.
—yarenvam
Not the best is series. Cousin Michael was a disappointment!
—Nickie
it was average but the plot was better than most at times
—tine
i havnt read a beek by her i didnt love!!!
—Melissa
