The Wedding Challenge by Candace Camp

Series: Matchmakers Series Book #3
Genres: Fiction / Romance / Historical / Regency
Pages: 333
Goodreads

The Wedding Challenge is book three in the Matchmaker’s Series by Candace Camp. I have thoroughly enjoyed this series. The Duke of Rochford’s younger sister Lady Calandra should have had many suitors knocking down her door; but her brother the Duke’s dark glares have kept them away. Now in her third season, Callie is fascinated by a dark and handsome stranger that she meets at a masked ball. “A man stood leaning against one of the pillars that marched along either side of the room. He looked negligently at ease, his arms crossed, one shoulder to the pillar. He was dressed in the style of a Cavalier, his wide brimmed hat pinned up on one side and with a sweeping plume on the other. Soft leather gloves with wide, long gauntlets encased his hands and lower arms. His fawn breeches were tucked into soft boots that were elegantly cuffed just below the knees, and slender golden spurs hung at the heels. Above his trousers he wore a matching slashed doublet, bare of any ornamentation, and over that was a short round cape, tied casually at the neck and caught on one side behind the elegant thin sword hanging at his waist. He could have stepped from a painting of the nobles who had fought and died for their doomed king, Charles I – elegant, and whipcord lean and tough. The dark half mask that hid the upper portion of his face only added to the air of romance and mystery that hung about him. He was glancing about the room, his expression arrogant and faintly bored. Then his eyes met Callie’s and stopped.” I appreciated the notion of love at first sight between Callie and Bromwell, but Camp puts a darker aspect in play by bringing up a treacherous past between the Earl and the Duke. Once Bromwell learns that Callie is the Duke’s sister his darker plans are set in motion.  

Overall, I liked this book but I did struggle with understanding the character of the hero the Earl of Bromwell. Camp rarely gives us his point of view so he comes across mysterious and sometimes hard to understand. There are several steamy scenes in the book.