Tempting the Marquessby Sara Lindseyreviewed by Valarie PelisseroJune 2010, 320 pages, Publisher: Signet, ISBN: 0451230442 Back Cover Blurb: While Olivia Weston loves matchmaking and romantic novels, she intends to make a suitable match. But first she wants an adventure, and when given the opportunity to visit a reclusive widower living in a haunted castle, Livvy can't possibly resist.
After his wife's death, Jason Traherne, Marquess of Sheldon, shut his heart to everyone but his son, and until now he has succeeded in maintaining his distance. But there's something about Livvy - her unique blend of sweetness and sensuality - that tempts him beyond all reason.
Though there's nothing suitable about the feelings he inspires in her, Livvy can't help falling for the marquess. But can she persuade him to let go of the past and risk his heart again?
Don't you just love books that make you laugh? There is nothing better than sitting down to a story that sounds like it will be angsty and finding it lightening your spirits. There were no villains to muck up the story, just ghosts. Ghost of insecurities and ghosts of love lost.
The first part of Tempting the Marquess is a bit convoluted with all of the familial relationships, how Livvy and Jason come to be in the same place at the same time, and Livvy's true reasons for being there. Once that is all sorted out the fun truly begins; this author has a great sense of humor. I laughed through a good portion of the book and, though I wanted to hit Jason a couple of times, the ending was just what it should have been.
Livvy has come to Castle Arlyss, Jason's home, with her Aunt Kate who is Jason's stepmother. Livvy has come to help Jason out of his mourning and coax him to live again; this is her big adventure before she settles down to a nice, boring marriage of convenience. While Livvy was rearranging the library in her aunt's home in Scotland she discovered the diary of Jason's late wife, along with clues that Jason had written for his wife leading to a hidden treasure. Livvy believes that any man who could write such poor poetry to tease his wife should not be moldering in a castle.
Livvy describes herself as the romantic in her large family, the one that is always reading novels, though she is not looking for love in her marriage. She is realistic enough to believe that the heroes in her stories do not exist in real life, and yet, that is exactly what she finds in Jason Traherne. Oh, not at first. At first he was rude and unwelcoming but only at first; it doesn't take long for Jason to fall for Livvy's generosity of spirit. The couple still has lots of complications to overcome before they can find a path to their HEA, and that journey is amusing and a little bit painful.
While Jason was a fairly typical brooding hero, Livvy was an atypical heroine and I loved that. She wasn't your typical bluestocking with her nose always buried in a book seeking out knowledge to the exclusion of all else. Growing up with a mother obsessed with Shakespeare's heroines, Livvy knows that life does not follow a book. After all, in all of the romances she has read the heroine always goes weak in the knees the first time the hero kisses her. Not so with Livvy and Jason's first kiss. There were no sparks and her knees functioned just fine, nor did they get carried away by lust - at least Livvy didn't. Jason had to restrain himself though, and it was nice to see the hero get carried away for once and not the heroine.
Tempting the Marquess is a funny, charming, sweet love story and I savored every page. The plot wasn't complicated, it wasn't full of villains, it was just a story about two people trying to overcome their preconceived notions about how they expect others to behave, and their insecurities about themselves. I wanted to rush through Tempting the Marquess and I wanted to slow down and savor it. This one is going on my Keeper shelf and I will definitely get the next book by Sara Lindsey.
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