Forget love?

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Lord Bredon and the Bachelor’s Bible (House of Lovell #2) 
by Mia Marlowe    
         
It comes to light in this second of the series in the Lovell family, the reasons behind Teddy Bredon's continental tour, when he'd met Lawrence Sinclair.
Teddy is now an Earl, Edward Lovell, Lord Chatham.
Unfortunately, it seems the Lovell estate is in financial trouble. The way out is to find an heiress. That's where the Bachelor's sheet from Whites comes in handy. This is a handy "pamphlet entitled A Register of Ladies of Means, or The Bachelor’s Bible." It lists the current crop of debutante heiresses and their worth. To address his financial problems Edward has decided to pay court to Miss Martha Finch, daughter of a newly inducted baron.  All he has to do is satisfy Miss Finch's sponsor.
Except that sponsor is Lady Anne Howard, who was the love of his life, and the reason he was sent away from England on that tour.
A further complication is that Edward has never stopped loving Anne. But stoically, Edward understands that he needs to do his duty towards those he's now responsible for--and love for Anne has no part in that.
There were a great many moments I liked in this book.
There was a lot happening, a likely marriage,  the place of women and their financial problems in this historical time, a young woman who wants to seek her own happiness, treasonous plots, a nod to the treatment of Princess Charlotte Caroline by her estranged husband George IV. Add to this a mysterious death, and even a birth.
All of which made this a somewhat unusual read.
Despite all this or maybe because of all this, I didn't enjoy it as much as The Singular Mr. Sinclair.
Although Martha Finch and Reginald Dickey (the illegitimate, though acknowledged, son of the Duke of Hampton) actually grew on me.
Overall, a pleasant read.

 A NetGalley ARC

*** 1/2

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