Lady Ophelia longs to be independent, daring and bold, but her mother’s illness has stolen the last of her creative fire. Condemned to an isolated country cottage after the death of her idealistic father, she and her mother are forsaken by family and all of society. Disappointed by those she once trusted, Lady Ophelia lovingly nurses her dying mother knowing that her own dreams of being an artist will never be realized. That is until she meets a devilish aristocrat who reawakens her desire to be wild.
Viscount Stark has never known love. Reputed to be a rebel and a rake by all, at heart he is anything but. When he meets Lady Ophelia, he is struck by her haunting presence, dignity, and honor. Will he continue to play his wicked games and risk ruining the last of Lady Ophelia’s wounded heart? Or will he dare to be the gentleman he always wanted to be and unveil a love he never thought possible?
~~
Despite the fact that I've been following Máire on Twitter for a while, Lady Wild is the first story of hers that I've read. She released this title with a special price of $.99 with the goal of raising $10,000 for hospice care in honor of her parents who she lost to cancer. With such a worthy goal and a book summary that seemed right up my alley, I had to give this a try.
Lady Wild is a short but satisfactory love story, that has enough emotional angst to make the simple plot work really well. Andrew (Viscount Stark) may have lived an outwardly privileged life, but the loveless family he grew up in has left him scarred and doubtful that there's anything else out there. Ophelia has suffered too many betrayals by those she trusted, losing loved ones to death and rejection, that acting as her mother's caretaker in her final days threatens to crush her spirit along with her dreams.
I didn't dwell much on how realistic their coupling actually was because honestly, it didn't matter. Andrew and Ophelia found in each other the missing parts of their hearts, which sounds corny but in a good romance is exactly what you're looking for. The fact that Andrew and Lady Darlington (Ophelia's mother) were also able to make a connection, even for the short time they knew each other, helped make what could have been a bittersweet ending more peaceful.
Overall Feeling - B
Series - 1) Lady Wild
