I'm a big fan of MJP, she's one of the pillars of the romance genre, and I'm always excited to find an older book I haven't read. "The Bargain" is actually a re-issue of a Regency published a decade before, and introduces and references some beloved characters from other novels. This book introduces the prematurely white-haired Scottish surgeon, Ian Kinlock who pops up in several other romances, and I loved seeing his own romance unfold. In fact, for me this secondary romance overshadowed the primary one. The premise is original, Lady Jocelyn must marry before she turns 25 or lose her inheritance, so she marries a dying soldier who gives his name in return for Lady Jocelyn providing an annuity for his only sister. However in grand MJP fashion (see, "One Perfect Rose) he is not dying, just a missed piece of shrapnel and a opium addiction... My issue with "The Bargain" is not with the hero, David Lancaster, he's wonderful, but with the heroine Lady Jocelyn. She reads as cold, even when she's being kind and generous, issues stemming from scandalous parents and an early supposed rejection, for much of the novel she is preoccupied with the Duke of Candover (Rafe, hero of Petals in the Storm, he's in the Archangel series) and it really takes away from David who is more deserving of her attention and loving her the whole time... Luckily she gets her act together, and a B rated MJP is still better than most authors on a good day...
