Smitten by Books

I thought long and hard before I decided to post this review. Not because it’s bad. It’s not. But because I want the reviewer to like the premise of the book. I want the book to be a book that would interest them enough to purchase themselves. As Sherry found out, this didn’t turn out to be her kind of book. But, it is a book she would have purchased on her own. She was going to purchase it when I told her I had it and asked if she’d like to do the review. She happily said yes.

I don’t think it’s her fault that the book didn’t turn out to be the kind of book that she thought it would be given the back cover blurb. And since this is something that happens to all of us, me included, I decided I would post the review, however, I did ask that she also give it a rating for those readers who like the intrigue element in their romance novels that she’s not particularly fond of.

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The Wild Marquis
Author: Miranda Neville
Publisher: Avon/HarperCollins
Pub. Date: March 9, 2010
ISBN-13: 978-0061808708
Retail: $7.99
384 pages

The Marquis of Chase is not a reputable man.

He is notorious for his wretched morals and is never received in respectable houses. The ladies of the ton would never allow him in their drawing rooms . . . though they were more than willing to welcome him into their bedchambers. Ejected from his father’s house at the age of sixteen, he now lives a life of wanton pleasure. So what could the Marquis of Chase possibly want with Juliana Merton, a lovely, perfectly upstanding shopkeeper with a mysterious past?

A moment’s indiscretion?

A night’s passion?

Or a lifetime of love?

Even the wildest rakes have their weaknesses . . .

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Bibliophiles will love The Wild Marquis—a love story set around a bookstore, one coveted manuscript, an auction, and one long held secret.

After finishing the first several chapters of The Wild Marquis, I have to say I felt I’d been sold a bill of goods. The back cover is misleading—at least in my opinion. I sat down all set for a love story from beginning to end. The wretched amoral ‘wild’ marquis, Marcus, set to seduce the heroine, Juliana Merton.

What I found instead is a story more about books. Lots and lots of books–well one book in particular. You see the heroine is a widowed bookstore owner (her husband was murdered at the beginning of the book). Her love of books is all encompassing. One day the hero arrives on the steps of her bookstore and eventually elicits her assistance in helping him bid for a book, The Burgundy Hours, which will soon be up for auction, and a book Marcus hopes will win back his family and his reputation.

Let me flesh this out for you a bit. His father is a hypocritical religious zealot who put Marcus out of the house when Marcus was only sixteen, accusing him of an unspeakable crime. Marcus took up residence (for 3 short weeks) in a brothel and from then on took the greatest pleasure living down to his dissolute reputation. But he can’t forgot—and mourns in his own way—the loss of contact he endures from his beloved little sister, who is now sixteen. With his father now deceased, she lives with their mother, who almost equals his father in her religious zealotry.

Until his sister is introduced into the story, I had a hard time continuing on with the book. I put it down several times and read other books before forcing myself to pick it back up. There is so much about this one coveted manuscript (and you’ll see near the end how this ties into the story and exposes the secret of the heroine’s illegitimate birth) that unfortunately, failed to hold my attention.

But as I said, once the sister is introduced, things got very interesting for me. Things between the hero and the heroine also get serious at this point. Prior to this, they were just lovers. Our heroine knows nothing else could come of their relationship because he is a marquis—regardless of his tainted reputation—and she is illegitimate. The stigma of her birth, she believes (and rightly so) will always stand between them if they both desire more (marriage).

Juliana is no retiring miss, but she’s not one of those intrepid heroines either, who blindly runs about foolishly risking life and limb. She lands somewhere in the middle. She’s down to earth, unpretentious and proud. She has a vulnerability and naiveté that is endearing. While she’s unapologetic about her birth, she is realistic of its limitations when it comes to Marcus and her.

The love scenes were unerringly realistic—which is good and bad in a way. Ms. Neville pens hot scenes with not even a hint of purplely prose. However, this one scene did catch me off guard because it’s so rarely done in romance novels.

Suddenly he withdrew and lay beside her, continuing to hold her close.
“It’s not going to work, is it?” he said softly.
“No,” she said, feeling a wave of inadequacy, though not sure what she was lacking.
“We’ll do it this way.”

If you missed his meaning there, he is conceding that he couldn’t bring her to climax in the manner he was attempting to do so. Of course, he eventually does, but I was so shocked that he couldn’t on the first go out of the gates, I had to reread it a couple times. It literally jerked me out of the story, but once I thought about for a minute or two, I found it oddly refreshing. Wow, real honest-to-goodness lovemaking in a romance novel. And a hero whose recovery period isn’t only five minutes. I didn’t know heroes like this existed. They surely exist in the real world. 😀

Overall, I must say, I did warm to the story and didn’t suspect the secret until Ms. Neville was ready for its reveal. If you like intrigue in your romance and enjoy the relentless search for the truth, you will definitely enjoy The Wild Marquis. If I did, I would give this book an 8. I, however, will probably start reading the first chapter of books in the book store to make sure the back cover lives up to the actual book (which I realize is not the author’s fault).

Rating: 6.5 (Very satisfactory)

Heat-Level: 4 (Hot)