The Gilded Web

Author: Mary Balogh
Stars: 4
Review by: BookLover
Very dragged out.  Alex is beaten by her father until she is 16, in order to make her virtuous.  Now she accepts punishments of days in her room, reading her Bible and dieting on bread and water as her punishment.  She is at a ball and goes out for air.  Two friends of Lord Eden kidnap her, thinking she is his sister, Madaline, who he believes is about to elope, and he wishes to stop it.  The next day, the other brother, Edmund, an earl, finds her tied and gagged in Madaline's bed, of course.  The honorable thing is to go to ask for her hand in marriage.  She must say yes.  But she wants to find herself and freedom before she marries.  At the end, she finds that the Earl needs her, and she consents to marriage.