Amanda
Written on Mar 21, 2015
A couple weeks ago, I was looking for new books to read, cruising through Amazon's recommendations, and consulting Goodreads to see what I've read and liked. (Goodreads is my bookish memory.) I'd picked up the prequel novella to this series, Dancing with the Duke, as a freebie and had enjoyed it enough to be curious about the full-length novels.
The novella held potential, but I'm not particularly sure it was fully realized here. I wanted more of the characters in the prequel, and that holds true for Loving the Marquess. I think the problem was that we missed some of the reactions and thought processes of the characters. We "see" everything that happens to the characters, but we don't necessarily get to experience it with them.
That said, I did like Louisa. Nicholas -- the Marquess in question -- is kind of an ass at the beginning, marrying her, then informing her afterward (and after he'd almost had sex with her, then got up [not that way; he was already up] and left) that he wanted someone else to father the heir.
I just... o.O I mean, I can logically understand his reasons for doing so, but dude. DUDE. Louisa didn't deserve any of it, especially after everything she'd been through to support her family. But whatever. She deals. And she deals with it much better than Nicholas does.
As for Nicholas's illness... it was definitely taken in a direction I didn't expect, though it does make total sense given the context. I will say that certain things were said enough times that I knew, with each new mention of it, that it couldn't be the actual reason for the illness. Not sure if it was over play on the author's part or if I'm just that good at seeing through red herrings.
Loving the Marquess was a quick, fluff read, but sometimes, that's all you need.