The Trouble with Anna

DEBUT Griffiths constructs a standout story that follows the quirky, horse-obsessed Lady Anna as she navigates her life in the wake of her grandfather’s unconventional will. She always expected to inherit the family’s horse farm, but she discovers after his passing that she will only own it if she marries Lord Julian Ramsay, the buttoned-up brother of her best friend, Charlotte. Julian is the type to do his duty, no matter how strange he finds his potential bride, but Anna, yearning for independence, resists his advances—at least at first—until their bantering discussions turn into kissing sessions. While Julian certainly fits the mold of the brooding, dutiful romance hero readers know and love, tossing him into a relationship with someone as eccentric as Anna and adding his clever, scheming sister and grandmother into the mix makes the well-worn plot feel fresh. The story particularly shines when the action moves from the ballroom to the horse stables and, eventually, the race track.