An Uncommon Bequest - a Review

In An Uncommon Bequest, written by Emily Harland, Sophie's rich uncle dies and leaves her all of the books in his huge library. Not financially well off at the moment, she was a bit disappointed, but decided to make the best of it. Some of the books should be worth a lot of money, so she would sell them. While she and Lady Mary are cleaning and packing the books, Sophie accidentally drops one of them. They are astounded when money comes flying out from between the pages of the book. Upon investigation, they discover that the pages of many, many more of the books have money hidden between them.

Sophie's cousin, Jonathon, has inherited the house and the bulk of the fortune. Thinking that her might be rather upset about the hidden money and declare that it was his, she decides to keep the money and where it came from as much a secret as possible. Four years ago, she and Jonathon had shared a kiss, one which she is trying to forget, but is having a great deal of trouble banishing it from her memory. They hadn't seen each other much since then, so Sophie is sure that he doesn't like her at all.

Jonathon takes a protective watch over Sophie, even insisting to be the one to teach her how to operate a horse and carriage. He has no idea where she got the money from to purchase these things, and it is driving him crazy that she refuses to tell him.

Jonathon is horrified when all the men start clamoring for Sophie's attention. The one kiss he traded with her when they were young still burns in his memory, and oh, she is so much better looking now. How he would love for her to feel the same way about him that he feels about her. He won't tell her his feelings, though.

Sophies's entire household eats some tainted food at dinner one evening. Sophie is affected worse than any of the others, but all of them are sick in bed. Jonathon stops by and is alarmed when the entire house is dark and the doors are unlocked. He enters to find them all sick in bed and can tell the Sophie is the sickest of them all. He slips her out of her dress, eases her into bed and takes care of her. In her weakened state, she actually calls him 'my love', but doesn't remember this once she comes to . When she does recover, she is horrified to find that he is the one who cared for her and is afraid of what she might have revealed during the time she was incoherent.

A teller at the bank is the one who unwittingly tells Jonathon how Sophie obtained all her money. He is not pleased at all – that money should rightfully be his! And Sophie refuses to tell how much money was tucked away inside all those books. He is going to see his solicitor. But when Jonathon cools down, he simply decides to leave Sophia with the money.

Sophie receives proposal after proposal after proposal, but refuses each one of them. The gentlemen are all nice, she just can't bear thought of spending the rest of her life with any of them. Then there is Jonathon. He is actually encouraging these proposals! How infuriating!

After the the last proposal, the gentleman goes and talks to Jonathon and points out to him that it is time he think about marriage as well. Then this gentleman goes on to tell how Sophie needs to think about his proposal. If she accepts, that is good. She is someone he could spend his life with, even though he doesn't love her. And he doesn't think that she would get too upset about him having the occassional mistress. At this announcement, Jonathon is infuriated, though he is careful not to show it. He simply tells the man about him taking care of Sophie while she was ill and having to practically undress her. That ends the gentleman's interest in marrying her and leaves her available for Jonathon.

If you want to find out how the story ends, you will have to buy the book and read it yourself. I have provided a link to Amazon below, if you do wish to purchase this book. I received my copy of An Uncommon Bequest from the management of BellaOnline free of charge to read and review.

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