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    A Delightful Arrangement
    A Delightful Arrangement
    A Delightful Arrangement
    Ebook70 pages57 minutes

    A Delightful Arrangement

    By Cecilia Gray

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    About this ebook

    Phillip has a duty to marry Francesca. He has always protected his former neighbor and childhood companion, and now that she is of marriageable age, he will give her what she needs most - a real home where she is welcome and wanted.

    Unfortunately for him....she is done with being dutiful.

    After years of being an obedient daughter to a hateful father, Francesca jumps into her first Season. Francesca is ready to dance every dance, flirt with every bachelor and snatch what she wants most - a man she loves who will make her swoon.

    Unfortunately for her...he now sees making her swoon as his duty, too.

    And Phillip takes his duties very seriously.

    * * *

    Don't miss The Gentlemen Next Door series, because sometimes a lady in need of love need look no further than next door:
    Book 1: A Delightful Arrangement
    Book 2: An Illicit Engagement
    Book 3: A Dangerous Expectation
    Book 4: A Flirtatious Rendezvous

    The complete series is available now!

    The Gentlemen Next Door Series are historical regency romance novellas of approximately 15,000-words (60 printed mass paperback pages)

    * * *

    Praise for The Gentlemen Next Door Series

    Captures your attention from the first page. – The Lady Reads @ Amazon

    A wonderful book and a great read. – Bunny’s Review

    This is a delightful story, well-written, historically accurate and intriguing. – B.S. Andrews @ Amazon

    * * *

    About the Author

    Cecilia Gray lives in the San Francisco Bay Area where she reads, writes and breaks for food. She also pens her biographies in the third person. Like this. As if to trick you into thinking someone else wrote it because she is important. Alas, this is not the case.

    She’s rather enamored of being contacted by readers and hopes you’ll oblige.

    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherCecilia Gray
    Release dateSep 21, 2013
    A Delightful Arrangement
    Author

    Cecilia Gray

    Cecilia Gray lives in the San Francisco Bay Area where she reads, writes and breaks for food. She also pens her biographies in the third person. Like this. As if to trick you into thinking someone else wrote it because she is important. Alas, this is not the case. She’s rather enamored of being contacted by readers and hopes you’ll oblige at cecilia@ceciliagray.com or any of her social media sites: http://ceciliagray.com http://ceciliagray.tumblr.com http://youtube.com/ceciliagraybooks http://twitter.com/ceciliabooks http://facebook.com/ceciliagray http://eepurl.com/fs4zk (newsletter)

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    Reviews for A Delightful Arrangement

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    • 3/5
      This is a short and sweet read. This novella takes less than an hour to read and is entertaining. Because it is a novella, there is not much opportunity for character development. If you need a romance fix and don't have a lot of time, this would be perfect. I would only recommend to adults because of sexual content.
    • 3/5
      This book was a fun, short, effortless read. However it felt rushed and would have been much better as a full length novel. It touches briefly on the past and situations of the main characters, but doesn't fully develop. I also feel that the book was only about the sexual encounter and the rest was merely the background that was rushed through in order to get to the wedding night. I hate to give bad or even mediocre reviews, but this one was just so-so.
    • 4/5
       Received through LibraryThing Member Give AwayWhen I first saw how short this story/novella was I wondered how Ms. Gray could possibly get a good romance in so few word, but she did it. It was very enjoyable. Phillip had always been there for Francesca, but he found himself having to prove he could be just a good a husband as he had been a friend. Francesca’s desire to swoon battled her desire NOT to swoon for Phillip. The interaction between the two was comical and very entertaining. They are undoubtedly meant for each other.
    • 5/5
      Francesca and Phillip have grown up as childhood friends and neighbors. So, it should come as no surprise that their fathers have arranged a marriage between them. Phillip, ever mindful of his duty as an earl's heir, is willing to marry the woman he has always liked. Theirs would be a nice, happy marriage between friends. Francesca, however, longs for more. She's determined to have a Season and wants to fall in love. She's especially looking forward to meeting someone who can make her "swoon." Phillip makes her an offer: they will keep their engagement a secret while she has the Season she's dreamed of; if she finds someone else who makes her swoon, he will "cry off," and the engagement will be over. However, Phillip has every intention of being the very one to make Francesca swoon. He will stop at nothing to prove that romance can, indeed, exist between friends. This was a short read. In fact, I read it in one sitting. It moved so quickly that I didn't want to put it down. The chemistry between Francesca and Phillip sizzles, but I liked that she didn't give in too easily. She holds out for what she wants and is rewarded in the end. Phillip is a likable hero. He is honorable, loyal, and duty-minded, but he is oh-so-romantic, too. His response to Francesca when she says, "Don't say it if you don't mean it" at the end of the novella is absolutely perfect. I can't imagine a better way to spend a couple of hours than with Francesca and Phillip.
    • 4/5
      I love this story. It was a cute, quick romance. The only bad thing about the story was it ended too quick. I would have loved a full book with these characters.

    Book preview

    A Delightful Arrangement - Cecilia Gray

    A DELIGHTFUL ARRANGEMENT

    The Gentlemen Next Door Series

    by

    Cecilia Gray

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    * * *

    This book is a work of fiction and any resemblance to persons living or dead, or places, events, or locales is purely coincidental. The characters are products of the author’s imagination and used fictitiously.

    Copyright 2011 by Cecilia Gray

    Cover Image Copyright ~ Olga Griga

    smashwords edition

    ALL RIGHTS RESERVED. No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording or by any information storage and retrieval system without express written consent from the author/publisher.

    Published by Gray Life, LLC

    READ. LEARN. LIVE. REPEAT.

    * * *

    Praise for Cecilia Gray's Novels

    Absorbing...refreshing...commendable. —Kirkus Reviews

    A compelling mix of action, drama and love. —Kirkus Reviews (starred review)

    4 Stars ~ San Francisco Book Review

    This story is heartbreakingly good. —To Each Their Own Reviews

    An instant favorite! —Electively Paige Reviews

    Gray's characters are so full of life, hope and dreams, it's a pleasure to read about them. —Schenni's Book Nook

    Captures your attention from the first page. —Ed and Em's Reviews

    Cecilia has a talent for instilling warmth and weight into her characters. —Romancing the Book

    Will have you captivated from beginning to end. —Can't Put It Down Reviews

    The Couldn’t-Have-Done-It-Without-You Page

    Thanks Monica, Alix, Ingrid and Lisa for the reads. And thank you even more for never making me speak of it again.

    Monica - thank you for the sexy bits. Seriously.

    Shelley, Shelley, Shelley. I wish I could clone you and keep you in my basement. (That sounds creepy. I don't really have a basement, I swear. It's just hyperbole.)

    Most importantly, thanks to Gigi for being inspiring and super hot.

    It’s the being hot part that matters, you know.

    Chapter One

    Lady Francesca Warrington’s jaw nearly became unhinged in disbelief. Why am I not to have a Season?

    She was nineteen. Past her prime for a Season.

    Phillip had been cavorting around London and taunting her with tales of city life for years as she languished in the countryside—granted, while honoring the period of mourning for her mother. She wouldn’t have been fit for company at first. Sometimes even now, when she thought too much of her—

    But it was time. Absolutely time that she left this house and made her own life.

    She met her father’s warning glare with a supercilious lift of an eyebrow.

    She was grateful she had refused the plush chaise upon the unprecedented invitation to his library. She was horribly disadvantaged in height and did not like people towering over her. Phillip did it incessantly precisely for this reason.

    She crossed her arms in front of her chest and drummed her fingers against her cap sleeves as she awaited an answer. She would never have dared such impudence with only the Duke of Lorring glaring at her from beneath his mop of silver hair. Fortunately, Phillip’s father, the Earl of March, was also present…or as present as he could be, given the way he faded against the mahogany panels and dark spines of the duke’s arcane library collection.

    If one ignored temperament, the aging noblemen could be mistaken for brothers, given their matching sets of silver-streaked hair, patrician noses, and ice blue eyes. But they were nothing alike in temperament. Thank goodness.

    The duke gritted his teeth. You shall have no Season, because you have no need to find a husband.

    Francesca twisted the muslin fabric of her sleeve around her fingers, which tightened into a fist. No husband? Am I to remain single? Forever? Left to wither while locked inside these cold walls with him so we could see who dies of loneliness first? Unless…oh, dear Lord. You can’t send me to a convent. Although that was a lie—he could. He would.

    We wouldn’t, my dear, the earl interjected soothingly.

    Francesca relaxed her death grip as the earl’s pleasant tone smoothed her anxious brow. The earl and his wife had always been more than mere neighbors—they were the parents she never had. Her mother’s frail health had forced a perpetual state of bed rest and her father had no use for the only child cruel fate had granted him. She had spent more nights in the neighboring March home than in her own until the death of her mother three years ago had plunged the household into mourning.

    You are already betrothed, the duke said, casting a disparaging look at the earl for his kind manners.

    "I

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