A Convenient Escape by Penny Fairbanks

She’s a romantic who failed to fall in love in her first Season. He likes a friend who sees him as nothing more. When life doesn’t go how either of them planned, they strike a convenient deal.

With so many examples of true love to look up to, Miss Elizabeth Waynford is certain that her future holds the same. Her parents, grandparents, and aunts and uncles all have such wonderful love stories that have inspired her own dreams. Beth has known since she was a girl that she wanted to fall in love and marry during her first Season. Her rose-colored lenses are challenged after one Season passed and now her second Season has almost come to a close without that precious spark of love. At least she has her good friend to rely on and commiserate with about their struggles in the marriage mart—until his struggles threaten to saddle him with a miserable future. How can Beth stand by and let that happen?

Mr. Weston Quincy, future Baron of Shawberry, is in his fourth Season without any luck at finding a wife. Since his charms are more friendly than romantic, most ladies don’t see him as suitor material—including his friend, the lovely and beautiful Miss Waynford. Though he’s been smitten with her since they met, he knows she hasn’t considered him seriously. Weston is just happy that they can share the ups and downs of the Season together. His parents have other plans, though. Eager to secure the family line and confident that Weston won’t find a bride on his own, they offer him an arranged marriage to a less than pleasant woman. When Miss Waynford offers him an escape in the form of a marriage to her, Weston can’t refuse.

Together, as husband and wife, Beth and Weston must navigate a future neither of them expected and the complex emotions that come with such a lifechanging decision. Will they discover along the way that love was there all along?