How to Marry a Marquess by Stacy Reid

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Title: How to Marry a Marquess
Author: Stacy Reid
Series: Wedded by Scandal #3
Published by: Entangled: Scandalous
Release Date: August 14, 2017
Format: ebook
Pages: 262
Genres: Historical Romance
Source: Overdrive
Reading Challenges: Lenoreo's 2023 COYER Chapter 1, Lenoreo's 2023 Diversity Reading Challenge
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My rating:

Blurb:

Lady Evie Chesterfield is a darling of the ton who refuses to become engaged. She's been desperately in love with her brother's friend, Richard Maitland, Marquess of Westfall, since forever. But the dark, dangerous marquess only sees her as a friend and refuses to marry any woman. When circumstances change and Evie has no choice but to take a husband, she decides to convince London's most notorious gentleman to marry her by seducing the scoundrel.

Richard Maitland decided long ago that he wanted nothing to do with love. So when the gorgeous, off-limits Evie asks him for lessons in seduction, Richard knows he's playing with fire. Despite Richard's determination to protect her from his dastardly reputation, he is tested at every turn by his need for the infuriating, but enticing, Lady Evie. Before too long he is faced with making an impossible choice…

My Review:

4 stars — Yay!  This is getting even closer to the Ms. Reid I fell in love with in her Sinful Wallflowers series!

I will admit that while I loved certain parts of Evie, there were other times that she left me confused.  I thought she was a good representation of someone who carried so many of the attitudes and behaviors of the ton merely because it was all she knew.  But it could not be easy to just throw aside a lifetime of rules that were just how it was, so I guess I did appreciate her struggle to some degree.  And she really did push back in her own way, just by maintaining her friendship with Richard, but not without absorbing some of the hurt at times.  I will admit I think I’m glad I didn’t read book 1 yet, b/c it sounds like Evie was not a great friend in that book, and I might have had a harder time connecting with her in this one.

Richard could be immensely frustrating holding on to his hurt and mistrust without giving Evie a chance.  I loved how his life changed and he went after his new goals full bore without thought to the consequences to his standings…but I hated that he didn’t give Evie the chance to do the right thing just because her experiences up to that point were different and more sheltered.  BUT.  But.  While it did take him just a bit long for me, his epiphany (with the help of a few others) was fully realized and his turnaround believable.

I was a bit uncomfortable with the beginning of their friendship given their age, but it’s hard to get myself in the mindset of an age where girls were “marriageable” so young.  I think it helped that they were genuinely friends for those first few years.  It helped develop a connection between them that weathered the back and forth of their foray into the steamier side of things.

This one was chock full of the horrors of the poor in that era, and the horrible disparity of wealth, and lack of empathy from the upper class.  And while things have definitely improved, there is still just a crazy disparity of wealth in the world that breaks my heart.  It was nice to see this topic being broached, I find it fascinating (in a car accident kind of way).

So yeah.  Definitely feeling that pull of this author’s writing more and more, and I can’t wait for book 4.