The Captain's Christmas Bride Burrows, Annie

Captain Alec Dunbar needs a wife — fast — to claim his inheritance. Lady Julia Whitney needs an escape from scandal and a suffocating ballroom. So when Alec crashes through a window mid-party and literally lands at her feet, she makes him an offer: a marriage of convenience, no questions asked. What starts as a desperate bargain becomes something neither of them planned for. Annie Burrows writes Regency romance with wit and warmth, and this one's got the tropes done right: forced proximity, grumpy-meets-practical, and two people who thought they'd settled for safety discovering they want the whole messy, terrifying, wonderful thing. If you love marriage-of-convenience plots where the slow burn actually burns, or you're looking for a cozy historical escape with genuine chemistry, this delivers.