Faceless

Name: Faceless
Author: Alix James

202 pages

I have been married four months. I have never seen my husband.
When an offer of marriage arrives from a Scottish baron Elizabeth Bennet has never heard of, with terms generous enough to save her family from ruin and protect her sister from a far worse fate, refusal is not within her power. She accepts.

The marriage takes place in full darkness in her marital bedroom. The vows are exchanged in a hush. Her husband does not show her his face — that night, or any night that follows. He comes to her at supper, in the dark. He speaks to her in a whisper that never rises. He keeps a separate chamber on a floor she is not permitted to enter, and a household so quietly arranged around his absence that even the servants seem to be guarding it.

He is courteous. He is kind. He is, by every evidence Elizabeth can gather across a darkened supper table, the most intelligent man she has ever spoken with — and he will not let her so much as hear his voice.

She did not expect to love him. She certainly did not expect to begin to suspect, by degrees, that her husband is a man she once thought she knew.

FACELESS — a Pride and Prejudice variation. A marriage of necessity. A husband in shadow. A truth that cannot stay hidden forever.

A gothic JAFF Regency romance for readers who love forced marriage, a faceless husband, marriage of convenience, and slow-burn recognition that takes its time. The Darcy is the one you came for — proud, exacting, honourable, fallen first, undone by a love he had no right to ask for. The Elizabeth is Austen’s — sharp, dry, unflappable, with a mind that will not stop working in the dark. Marriage in the dark. Husband-and-wife strangers. Hidden identity. Forced proximity. Hurt-comfort. Hands found before names, trust before truth. Touch-starved hero. Witty heroine in command of the room. Secret-keeping. Gothic in its premises, Austen in its bones — the Pride and Prejudice variation for readers who want every page earned, the wit intact, and the recognition delayed until it cannot be borne a moment longer. A standalone novel.
Reader note: Faceless is a more mature variation than my usual work. It contains intimate scenes between a married couple, depicted on the page. The intimacy is integral to the story and is rendered with care, but it is more explicit than my other titles. Readers who prefer closed-door romance may wish to be aware.

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