Never a Gentleman / Eileen Dreyer / 462 pages / R. T. Reviewer's Choice Award

Diccan Hilliard is one of Drake's Rakes, young gentlemen loyal to the English king and Wellington.  His enemies have drugged him and dumped his unconscious body in the bed of young English woman, Grace Georgianna, daughter of a deceased army general.  She, too, had been drugged.  The enemies hope to discredit him as they are sure he will not marry her as she is known for her plain, unattractive countenance and her remarkable height.  He confounds his enemies by marrying Grace, unwittingly putting her in danger and the path of the Surgeon.