ISBN: 0821777904
Publisher: Zebra Books
Release Date: Oct 2005
List Price: $5.99

Reviewed by Sandra K. Moore

M

arriage of convenience stories are ultimately about the death of expectation. Both parties go into the relationship with one set of expectations -- this is a marriage in name only, both parties will "behave" in society and do whatever they want in private, neither will attempt to put a hold on the other -- and end up surprised. The road to love and passion is usually long and arduous; the hero and heroine are filled with trepidation at their slowly growing feelings; a series of trials brings out the best in both and they finally see each other for who they really are.

AN IMPROPER PROPOSAL was an excellently executed marriage of convenience story in this vein, so I began reading ONE GOLDEN RING with my own feeling of trepidation. Would Ms. Bolen be able to pull off another such story? Would it pale in comparison to AN IMPROPER PROPOSAL?

I should have known better than to ask. ONE GOLDEN RING attempts a much more difficult scenario and pulls it off with grace.

Lady Fiona Hollingsworth, who was jilted by her beloved Edward in THE COUNTERFEIT COUNTESS, faces a new challenge: her brother is being held for ransom by Spanish bandits and her family's fortune has been lost. Only a desperate action can save her brother's life.

That action is to propose marriage to Nicholas Birmingham, a stockbroker rumored to be the wealthiest man in England. Nick has long admired Fiona from afar, but his common birth and shady past have prevented him from attempting to move in her circle. To say he's shocked by her offer of marriage in exchange for the twenty-five thousand pounds needed to save her brother would be to oversimplify the emotional complexity of the proposal scene.

Fiona doesn't approach Nick Birmingham as a shining star of society deigning to speak to the likes of a lesser being. Instead, she approaches him as a businesswoman. Thus, in the framing of her proposition, she speaks to Nick as an equal, regardless of their stations. Nick, on the other hand, has been raised to be a gentleman and finds himself and his brothers, as Fiona's delightful friend Trevor tells her, "Too good for women of their own class and not good enough for women of our class."

Nick is therefore acutely aware of their unequal positions and declines her offer though he hates doing so. Nick is, at heart, an acquirer of money and possessions, but his wish to acquire Fiona, whom he considers to be a model of feminine perfection, grace, and breeding, is held in check only by his strong disinclination to marry a woman who will come to hate him in a loveless marriage. Nick is a man accustomed to denying himself what he most desires, and his desire to have Fiona as his wife is no exception. And no matter how the sparks might fly between them, he believes she's still in love with Edward.

After an initial balk, they marry. It takes all of two paragraphs for them to realize just how sexually compatible they will be, and that promise bears out the first night of their marriage.

At this point the story could have fallen into a disheveled mess lacking any sort of tension, but Ms. Bolen skillfully plays the erotic against the emotional as she chronicles the relationship. Wonderful secondary characters play out subplots that act as foils and obstacles to the main plot. A very surprising turn of events, which I won't reveal here, creates a tiny rift between Fiona and Nick that, compounded by other rifts, grows wider with each passing page.

This novel has a couple of large surprises that further the action, but also a refreshing number of small ones peppered throughout. These small surprises are the kinds of revelations where we say, "Ah! So that's why!" whenever we encounter them. As a result, there's never a dull moment in the story, and never a time when one's attention wanders.

ONE GOLDEN RING is a rare treat: a highly sensual novel with a solid emotional foundation. A story about two people who have little in common but passion can be easily mishandled, but Cheryl Bolen has once again put her skill and intuition to the task. ONE GOLDEN RING is a terrific novel, full of emotional complexity, layered storylines, and an eye for the difficulties of people caught in the no-man's land of society's expectations.

Sandra K. Moore has been a technical writer, poet, martial arts student, and software product manager, occasionally all at the same time. She writes for Silhouette Bombshell.