His Convenient Marchioness by Elizabeth Rolls

July 24, 2018
"We must remember that art is art.
Well, on the other hand water is water isn't it?
And east is east and west is west.
And if you take cranberries and stew them like applesause
they taste much more like prunes than rubarb does.
Now uh...now you tell me what you know". - Groucho Marx

http://www.elizabethrolls.com/
Sometimes my quotes don't have anything to do with the story, I just like the quote.

I don’t know why Elizabeth Rolls isn't one of my auto-buys; what a fine writer. In His Convenient Marchioness, we have and older couple, with a slight age difference. Giles, the Marquess of Huntercombe has just turned 50 and Lady Emma Lacy is 32. Giles, or Hunt as he is called, has lost his wife and children. His younger step-brother has also just recently died and he is in need of an heir. He doesn’t really want to get married, but his sisters have persuaded him to start looking. His sisters, by the way, have actually, very strongly encouraged him to look for a mate. He has spent most of his life not rubbing his sisters the wrong way, they are rather strong-welled and very annoying. He is a nice guy and doesn’t want to cause too much trouble with anyone. Emma, our heroine, is a widow with two young children, one ten – Harry, one six – Georgina. Be warned these two children are adorable.

Hunt and Emma encounter each other in a book store and fall instantly in lust with each other. Hunt at first considers making Emma his mistress, but eventually decides she should be his wife. He’s very practical about the whole thing. He needs a wife and she fits the bill. His proposal is sort of like, Hey, why won’t you marry me and save me the trouble of looking for a wife. Pretty romantic. At first, she is surprised by the proposal, but after she is threatened by her father-in-law, she turns to Hunt for help. It is at this point that Hunt turns into a super hero. He solves allll of the problems. You got an evil father-in-law who is trying to take your children away from you – Hunt will solve the problem. You got someone who is trying to kill your eldest child – Hunt will solve the problem. You got a marriage that must happen fast – Hunt’s your man. You got a scandal that must be diverted – you guessed it – Hunt, Hunt, he’s our man! But if Miracle Man Hunt persona is a stretch and he seems to solve all the impossible situations, this was a wonderful book.

I loved Georgie and Henry. They were portrayed as real children. They fought, they scrabbled, they tricked each other, but they protected each other and comforted each other. The chemistry between Georgie, Henry and Hunt was well developed. The romance between Emma and Hunt had great pacing. Hunt’s proposal was in the beginning of the book, so we are treated to a marriage of convenience. And, this marriage of convenience was written really well.

Hunt does not want to love anyone again. He lost his wife and children all at the same time from smallpox. He just cannot be hurt like that again. But we know he is fighting a losing battle. It isn’t long before he’s falling for Henry and Georgie. And, then Emma. It was a pure pleasure to watch this marriage of convenience turn into a love match. There was even a great dog in this book, Fergus. Who doesn’t like a dog and kids?

There were also some great supporting characters who showed up. I’m assuming a number of them were from previous books, which I suppose I’m going to have to read now. I also suspect Emma’s brother-in-law will have his own book.  There were some creepy villains and Hunt’s awful sisters. This book had a bit of everything.

Overall, if you want to read a very good marriage-of-convenience story I recommend this one. Both Emma and Hunt are honorable, nice people and this book was a pleasure to read.

Time/Place: Regency England
Series: Lords at the Altar
Sensuality: Warm/Hot