I Thee Wed

Bradley delivers her trademark passion with a side of comedy in the fourth Wicked Worthingtons Regency (after When She Said “I Do”). Francesca Penrose is a young, promising biologist caught between two worlds: too English for the Italian side of her family, and too free-spirited for the stodgy uncle and cousin she’s now visiting in England. When Orion Worthington, another blossoming scientist, arrives to take a position as her uncle’s research assistant, it looks like the household has acquired yet another too-serious, stiffly mannered bore. But Orion is fleeing family discord of his own, trying to rise above his family’s reputation for poverty, shenanigans, and close brushes with scandal. Despite mutual resolutions to resist their lustful urges, the two find themselves driven together by the oddities of their shared household and the machinations of Orion’s delightfully and chaotically precocious youngest sister. The romance plot isn’t eclipsed by the family antics and period-accurate science (complete with a cook who keeps threatening to stew the rabbits that Francesca experiments on), and it’s greatly enhanced by the richly detailed setting and well-rounded secondary characters. This hugely fun novel is charming and delightful the whole way through. Agent: Irene Goodman, Irene Goodman Literary. (May)