Hazel Stillman has a keen mind and a club foot. With no hopes of an advantageous marriage, she devotes herself to her chosen profession as a teacher at a girl's school. Duncan Penhale has a brilliant mind, but his spectrum disorder makes social interaction difficult. Hazel and Duncan share an uncle (though there is no blood relationship since Duncan was an adopted nephew), the same Uncle Elliot who is determined to help all his nieces and nephews find true love. He offers each of them the fondest wish if they are able to find and marry a suitable spouse. He didn't anticipate that they would confer and decide to marry each other just to get the inheritance. Fearing that they were missing the point, Uncle Elliot adds one more requirement, they have to live together a full year, acting as husband and wife, before they inherit. At first they share a house, but not much else, but as they come to enjoy each other's company, despite their peculiarities, their pretend relationship begins to feel much more real.
Here is another in the Mayfield Family Series. I have enjoyed the books in this series because the main characters learn to overcome their own shortcomings and hangups to make their match work. I love the message that two people who are willing to be nice to each other can learn to love each other. Kilpack does a good job of making Duncan sympathetic, even though he is not neurotypical and showing how Hazel could fall in love with him. She also shows how Duncan learns to recognize and show his love for Hazel. It was a refreshing read after the heavy Irving Stone book. (2021, 320 p.)
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