Lady In Red

by Karen Hawkins

When a priceless treasure brings together ...W ealthy and powerful Marcus St. John, the Marquis of Treymount, must recover a lost family heirloom that is in the possession of Miss Honoria Baker-Sneed. All he needs to do is convince her to relinquish his treasure for a reasonable sum. But when he meets Honoria, he's surprised to discover she is as headstrong as she is beautiful. Two unlikely hearts ...Honoria is astounded when Marcus shows up on her doorstep and arrogantly demands a ring that is rightfully hers. She agrees to return the heirloom, but on one condition: He must sponsor her sister into society-an idea Marcus considers absolutely preposterous. Only love can decide the outcome. W hen a heated argument ensues, they find themselves in a compromising position and are forced to marry. What starts out as a marriage in name only soon becomes much more as Marcus realizes Honoria has stolen his heart. But can he prove to his wife that he is worthy of her love?

• ISBN10: 0060584068
• ISBN13: 9780060584061
• Publish Date: 25 February 2014 (first published 1 September 2005)
• Publish Status: Active
• Publish Country: US
• Imprint: Avon Books
• Format: Paperback (A-Format (178x111 mm))
• Pages: 384
• Language: English
• URL: http://harpercollins.com.au/9780060584061

Reviews

[Amanda]

3.5

Despite telling myself to attend to the vast number of unread books on my shelves (naturally, few are historical romance), I picked Lady in Red to read. But... either I'm in a critical mood or I've reached the tipping point in historical romances because some of the littlest things bothered me about this book.

Perhaps a short historical romance break is needed. *gasps* *falls over*

Anyway.

So first off. The synopsis says they -- Marcus and Honoria -- find themselves in a compromising position and are forced to marry. While this is true, eventually, they find themselves in plenty of heated arguments and plenty of compromising positions before actually be forced to marry on page 260. TWO HUNDRED AND SIXTY. That's barely 100 pages before the end of the book. And so I spent a good portion of the book wondering, "So is this it? Is this when they are forced to marry? Or this? What about this? WHY HAVEN'T THEY BEEN FORCED TO MARRY YET?"

The synopsis refers to Marcus proving his love to his wife, but honestly? It happened in the very last pages of the book (in some ways, the synopsis gives away the ending without really giving it away). And. AND. He was so stubborn about it that even as he was attempting to prove his feelings, he talked around the L word. Was there ever any reason for his being so afraid of love? Not that I could see.

Lots of silly ideas in this book -- Honoria leaves Marcus when he can't say "I love you" back to her and... you're married. You're an adult. It sucks when things don't go your way, but do you really just up and leave? How about WORK IT OUT.

Despite that, I enjoyed the whole talisman ring thread. This is obviously the last of the series, and it was cute to see Marcus's brothers all together and fawning over their wives and being terrified of Marcus. Plus, Honoria's family and their antics were amusing. I wouldn't mind checking out other books in this series.