Isabelle and Alexander by Rebecca Anderson

Isabelle and Alexander are married in an arranged marriage.  Alexander has a tragic accident after only 2 month being married.  Will love conquer all?

Title: Isabelle and Alexander
Author:  Rebecca Anderson
Publish Date:  May 4, 2021
Source:  NetGalley

Publisher’s Description:  London, 1850

Isabelle Rackham knows she will not marry for love. Though arranged marriages have fallen out of fashion, hers has been settled for some time to combine the upper-middle-class wealth of her father’s coal mines with Alexander Osgood’s prospering Northern country textile mills. Though not a man prone to romantic gestures, Alexander is well-known as an eligible bachelor. His good looks have turned more than one head, so Isabelle is content to think of herself as Alexander’s wife.

However, her marriage is not what she expected. Northern England is nothing like her home farther west in the lake country. Cold, dreary, and dark, the soot from the textile mills creates a gray hue that seems to cling to everything in the city of Manchester. Alexander is distant and aloof, preferring to spend his time at the mill rather than with her at home. Their few conversations are brief, polite, and lacking any emotion, leaving Isabelle lonely and desperately homesick.

Sensing his wife’s unhappiness, Alexander suggests a trip to his country estate. Isabelle hopes this will be an opportunity to get to know her new husband without the distractions of his business. But the change of scenery doesn’t bring them any closer. While riding together on horses, Alexander is thrown from his and becomes paralyzed. Tragedy or destiny? The help and care that Alexander now needs is Isabelle’s opportunity to forge a connection and create a deep and romantic love where nothing else could.

Nervous Nellie’s nervousness necessitates knowledge of the novel. In other words …SPOILERS. *BEWARE*

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Nervous Nellie says…

This a proper romance from Shadow Mountain Press.  Proper romance means that there are no sex scenes.  No hot and bothered kissing scenes.  It’s all about relationship building.

Isabelle was fully aware of the arranged marriage thing before she entered into the agreement.  What she expected was not what she thought she’d get.  Her marriage was a fairly distant one.  I’m not sure what drove Alexander to such lengths to not take the offered friendship and support of his new wife.  I guess that’s the answer maybe found in the history of the time.

Just because this is a proper romance doesn’t mean that there is no emotion.  There’s plenty of emotion and growth.  A woman learning to navigate in a world that she is not used to, with a whole army of people she doesn’t know.  At that time, there wasn’t much respect for women and their thoughts.  I could understand Isabelle’s reaction when Alexander started to warm up.  It was nice but when tragedy struck, it struck hard.

I got to hand it to Isabelle.  She was far stronger than she gave herself credit for – fighting for her husband and trying to build an impossible relationship.

I give this book a solid 4 stars.

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