Trouble at the Wedding by Laura Lee Guhrke

I really enjoyed the first two books of this series and was looking forward to this book, the final installment.

Annabel Wheaton is New Money -- and she knows it. She has a plan to escape her circumstances and it involves marrying the Earl of Rumsford, a man she does not love.

Annabel's family knows she's making the worst mistake of her life -- and they want to delay or stop the wedding, especially Annabel's uncle Arthur. He employs Christian Du Quesne, the Duke of Scarborough to talk Annabel out of the wedding.

Christian is no stranger to this kind of mistake. He made the same one years ago and it cost him his heart. Motivated by Arthur's offer of money -- and a personal need to help someone out of the same situation, Christian embarks on showing Annabel the truth about the sort of life she is marrying into.

What Christian does not realize is that, with each meeting and conversation, he is also revealing feelings that he thought he buried long ago with the death of his wife. But his old fears also resurface -- and Christian knows he cannot -- he must not act on his attraction to Annabel.

This is a story about second chances -- Annabel is eager to escape Mississippi and her old life. Her father's bequest allows her to have another chance at living a better life.

Having been hurt by a former lover, Annabel is also given another chance at love.

For Christian, he realizes that he has something to look forward to in his life. He realizes the gift his meeting with Arthur Ransom has given him -- and he decides to take it.

While Trouble at the Wedding was an enjoyable read, it was not a strong finish for this series.

There were some weak parts in the story -- (I didn't really enjoy Christian's monologues/proselytizing at the early chapters of the story about the misery of living in British society) --

I also felt the shift in the story and the tone felt a bit abrupt (and left a few loose ends -- and characters hanging without any resolution).

A question: Christian mentions the Duke of Trathen as being single in this story. I wonder if this last novel was meant to be happening concurrent to the previous novel, Scandal of the Year? Or does this happen before?