"Another masterpiece in the delightful Free Fellow League series."

Gillian Davies stares out the window of her upstairs room in the Blue Bottle Inn, feeling foolish and afraid as she awaits the husband who's abandoned her, while he, Colin McElreath, 27th Viscount Grantham, looks up from his hiding place in the alley below and knows his life has been forever changed.

As one of the founding members of the secret Free Fellow League, along with school chums Griffin Abernathy and Jarrod Sheperdston, Colin has dedicated his life to fighting the French, becoming one of England's greatest heroes. Heroism requires dedication to honor and to one's country - it also requires sacrifice.

Someone frequenting the Blue Bottle Inn is in league with Bonaparte and his network of spies. Colin's mission is to find out who this person is and stop the flow of information from England. Fate, in the form of an unknown imposter, has placed Gillian in his path. The imposter has assumed Colin's secret identity and "pretended" to marry Gillian, but Colin has done him one better. He "has" married her. It's a noble sacrifice that appeals to Colin's sense of chivalry. Every hero knows that duty means sacrificing ones own comfort for the good of someone else, especially when that someone is a "damsel in distress."

Gillian fills a place in Colin's soul that's been empty for a very long time. For the first time, he believes he has a future beyond the war with Bonaparte; that he has a reason to stay alive. Colin is Gillian's Sir Galahad. As he leaves on his last mission he says, "Galahad always returns."

Be still my heart! Read, savor and enjoy every word of this stunning third novel in the Free Fellow League series. MERELY THE GROOM is captivating, magical, enchanting and makes one rejoice in the glory of love. It's intricate, moving, intelligent, entertaining, romantic and so beautifully written it makes me grateful that another chapter is yet to come - HARDLY A HUSBAND - sure to be another masterpiece. Brava! Ms. Lee, this story is everything a romance novel should be, and then some. I loved every word.

Reviewed by Suzanne Tucker
Courtesy Old Book Barn Gazette
Posted March 10, 2004

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Summary

Colin McElreath, twenty-seventh Viscount Grantham, was about to become a very wealthy man and his new solvency had only cost him his good name, his title, his future, and his freedom. He had sold his soul to the devil. An English devil. A ruthless merchant devil. Life, as he knew it, was over.

Colin was relinquishing his Free Fellow status, sealing his fate for cash because duty required it. Because he had sworn to protect the Free Fellows League at all costs, because his father had gambled away a fortune, and because the newly created Baron Davies urgently required a respectable son-in-law for his disgraced daughter.

Colin didn't know whether to laugh or to cry at the irony. After a lifetime of avoiding society misses, he was about to marry one. His betrothed was damaged goods, but her good name and her place in society were safe.

Miss Gillian Davies was about to become a blushing bride.

He was merely the groom...