Dramatic opening scene! God, I wish the author had drawn out the supposed adultery scene. This could have been incredibly tumultuous!
Ugh! The author seems to be content to just use surface writing. I can feel myself willing this book to be better.
Very choppy scene changes. One minute I'm with Julian then boom I'm with Miranda. I never was able to become engrossed or get to know characters because I was bounced around so much.
Julian going North to look for a French spy was totally irrelevant and tagged on. There was never any real explanation for this aspect of the story. I kept thinking "what the hell is going on?" Authors, the readers do have some intelligence and need somewhat believable reasons, which you, the author, then CONTINUE to write about for why the characters are doing the things they are doing and why they are at places they are at.
The ending was completely abrupt; Hey everyone is happy again! Whoo-hoo! No silly need to resolve the past. I mean Julian only DIVORCED Miranda (in the year 1801 mind you) thinking her a total slut, left her to be disowned by her family, thrown in the street, and to raise his child. Nope a simple "hey sweetheart I was young and lacked self-esteem" works for me!
The aspects of this story, husband thinks his wife cheated on him/divorces wife/husband spends seven years in army/wife if disowned by family/wife raises ex-husbands child, are so compelling but the author did a total whiff. There is no depth, feelings, or emotions truly expressed here in the writing. There were elements in this story to create one hell of a book but the author only managed to give us readers the surface. The two main characters, Julian and Miranda, for all their life drama are utterly forgettable because of the lack of insight, personality traits, or profundity to who these people are. Somebody please take this stories elements and do them justice. I wanted soooooo much more from this book!
This book wasn't a total fail and received a C- from me solely because there was so much promise to the actual backbone of the story and the hint, just a hint (insert disappointed sigh here) of utter complete heartbreak and redemption. Oh and it is a super fast read! So if you would like to be simultaneously hopeful and disappointed give this one a go.

C- ( )

October 1801: Newlyweds Miranda and Julian Grosvenor are set up and driven apart by an unscrupulous older "friend" of the young and inexperienced Julian. Angry and hurt, Julian shuts the door on his wife, and within 15 minutes has put orders in motion to buy himself an army commission, and to divorce his wife for her apparent adultery.

April 1808: Major Lord Julian Grosvenor, now Marquess of Sterling, has sold his commission due to a serious leg wound, and returned to London but finds it boring and empty. He decides to ruralize for a time and along his batman/valet retires to a minor estate which he hasn't visited in years. Almost immediately he encounters his former wife and makes a number of discoveries which rock his world and his concept of himself. Lady Miranda, too, has truths she must face, as the two of them put the past to rest, live in the present, and determine the course of their futures.

It takes a lot of storytelling to make Julian's early rejection of Miranda sympathetic enough for us to like him, but Pickens is up to the task, and she even brings us along to the point where we can see that Miranda shares some fault in the rupture of their marriage. My greatest objection to this work is in regard to the military end of the backstory. If Julian Grosvenor had bought a commission it would not have been a majority. I think the highest commission that could be initially purchased was a captaincy, or perhaps a lieutenancy. The Peninsular War did not begin until 1807, nor was Wellington on the Peninsula until the summer of 1808, therefore those details are colorful but impossible. I found it distracting. All the same, I enjoyed the tale. ( )

A regency romance that starts out with a big misunderstanding and separation. A little too predictable. Grade: C+ ( )