The Marquess Who Loved Me

Muses of Mayfair #3

by Sara Ramsey

A not-so-merry widow...

The widowed Marchioness of Folkestone is notorious for her parties, her art collection, and her utter disregard for the rules. But Ellie Claiborne knows her destruction is near. The new marquess is her first lover–the man whose sculpted body and sardonic grin haunt her every time she picks up her paintbrush. If he ever returns to claim his inheritance, her heart won’t survive seeing him again.

A man determined to destroy her...

Nicholas Claiborne hasn’t stepped foot in England since watching Ellie marry his cousin. He has no use for the gorgeous, heartless girl who betrayed him, or the title she abandoned him for. But when his business in India turns deadly, Nick must return to London to uncover a murderer–and take revenge on the woman he couldn’t force himself to forget.

A love they can’t escape…

Nick hates Ellie’s transformation from sweet debutante to jaded seductress. Ellie despises him for leaving her behind. Still, the sparks between them reignite the passion that should have been their destiny. As their demands of each other turn darker and a potential killer closes in, they must decide whether to guard the fragile remnants of their hearts—or find a way to fall in love all over again.

Genres: Historical Romance, Romance, Historical, Regency, Historical Fiction, Audiobook, Ebooks

ebook

First published February 10, 2013

About the author

Sara Ramsey writes fun, feisty Regency historical romances. She won the prestigious 2009 Romance Writers of America® Golden Heart® award with her second book, Scotsmen Prefer Blondes. Her first book, Heiress Without A Cause, was a 2011 Golden Heart finalist.

Hopelessly uncool as a child, Sara has overcompensated by becoming obsessed with fashion, shoes, and #regencyworldproblems. She has great taste in Champagne, bad taste in movies, and a penchant for tiaras. She also believes in taking naps, wearing sunglasses at night, and using Oxford commas. Sara currently lives in San Francisco, California, where she can be found drinking overly-artistic lattes and working on her next Regency historical romance.

Reviews

[Dee · Rating 5 out of 5]

★★★★½

Some of the blurb about the book

A not-so-merry widow…
The widowed Marchioness of Folkestone is notorious for her parties, her art collection, and her utter disregard for the rules. But Ellie Claiborne knows her destruction is near. The new marquess is her first lover – the man whose sculpted body and sardonic grin haunt her every time she picks up her paintbrush. If he ever returns to claim his inheritance, her heart won’t survive seeing him again.

A man determined to destroy her...
Nicholas Claiborne hasn’t stepped foot in England since watching Ellie marry his cousin. He has no use for the gorgeous, heartless girl who betrayed him, or the title she abandoned him for. But when his business in India turns deadly, Nick must return to London to uncover a murderer – and take revenge on the woman he couldn’t force himself to forget.

A love they can’t escape…


It felt like I had been waiting a lifetime to read Ellie's story, I liked her right from when we met her at the beginning of the series and this book lived up to the character that had been built in the previous stories.

I loved the fact that she owned up and admitted that it was her own stupid fault that she pushed aside the man she loved in order to please her father. With many other Historical Romances the story is told that it is the parents who usually force the heroine, but right from the start Ellie admitted that she could have chosen the guy that she loved and it was a decision that she bitterly regretted ever since.

Right from the start the love that she felt for Nicholas shone from her eyes and each time she looked at him they asked for forgiveness, which understandably Nicholas refused to give and was hell bent on seeking revenge and continued to punish her. Despite breaking her heart each time Ellie took each punishment and continued to come back for more.

Sara Ramsey is a wonderful writer and I eagerly look forward to every new story and can't wait until we get Prudence's story.....So Sara please, please write faster :))

Copy kindly supplied by Spencerhill Associates via Netgalley

[Karen Darling · Rating 1 out of 5]

Ridiculous! The heroine had to do whatever the hero wanted, for four months for revenge payment, due to him being salty because when she was 19 she married his cousin instead of him.

[Nicole · Rating 3 out of 5]

OK read. One of the other reviewers mentioned that there is a rape scene in the book. That is not true.

[*MariaA* · Rating 5 out of 5]

The dress Nick had sent wasn’t a
dress — it was a fitted bodice and a floor-length skirt as
seductive as anything she had seen in paintings of the East.
The skirt fastened with a drawstring, the bodice with little
hooks down the front

—She didn’t break eye contact as she walked toward
him —He leaned back and clasped his hands behind his
head. “If you paint yourself looking exactly as you do now,
I’ll give you a hundred pounds.”
Yes, she saw lust there — saw how
his eyes flickered to her hips, then to where her navel
peeked above the waistband of her skirt
“Do you not like it? Only the highest class of woman
could afford such attire. I would have brought you a sari
instead, but you would probably spend a week trying to
deduce how to wrap it.”
“I have
dreamed of you like this for a very long time. And if I
want to spend all night looking at you, I will.”

[Shauni · Rating 3 out of 5]

As a first time reader of Sara Ramsey I must say she caught my attention. The Marquess Who Loved Me is the third book in her Muses of Mayfair series and really has an emotional punch.

Each of the ladies in her series are artists in some form or another, an actress, a writer, a painter.. things that while might be ok for drawing room fun are NOT acceptable for careers. Of course this is 1814 NOTHING is acceptable for women to have for careers.. at least not "proper" women.. It's bad enough that men of the upper class dare to dabble in "trade" but the women.. I don't think so.. just sit there and look pretty...Sara Ramsey's women don't accept that and fight back. They choose to break the mold. Sure I know it is all politically correct in today's romance novels to write the women this way.. But one has to wonder about the women who really did defy conventions.. What was their plight? I am sure they suffered greatly for their decisions.. I don't usually write about those thoughts.. but I love an author who can make me think them.. Good Job Sara..

Ellie Claiborne fell in love as a young naive girl.. She honestly thought that her father would see that she loved Nick and would allow her to wed him. After all he was the heir to a Marquess.. only trouble was Nick's father not only married into the merchant class, he worked in *gasp* Trade *gasp*. Consequently he was quite wealthy but not really acceptable to society.. Ellie on the other hand came from nobility and her father was a father of the time.. looking to match her for political, financial and yes social reasons.. No tradesman was going to get his daughter. Consequently while Ellie truly loved her Nick she married his cousin, the Marquess because her father demanded it of her. Honestly what else was a girl of the times to do?

Nick Claiborne, loved Ellie with a passion.. when she turned away from him, using his working class background as an excuse and married his cousin he was broken. When said cousin died just three days after the wedding.. and Nick inherited he saw a means to get revenge.. Leaving a broken and lost Ellie in the clutches of the side of the family he despised he left England.. with a plot for revenge boiling in the background..

Ten years later Nick is back!! Ellie is turning thirty and has created a lifestyle that will keep her on the edge of polite society.. not quite cutting her off but allowing for her to become not quite proper enough for anyone to want to marry. Her father can not use her again.. she has also grown.. she gets what she did, how her choices ruined what could have been a happy life.. Now Nick is back and his revenge is positively Machiavellian.. And Ellie learns that once again she can not trust a Claiborne.. Even Nick's brother who has been Ellie's "friend" and financial advisor these past ten years is in on the plot..

But Nick has more to worry about than revenge... Someone is trying to kill him and it's someone close by. Either a member of Ellie's house party or someone that is close enough to know what is happening.. Ellie and Nick have to learn how to work together.. they have to learn how to get past the anger and decide on what they want..

This is a story about regrets and second chances.. not about finding lost love but rather falling in love again. These two characters may share a past but the decade that separates them has forged them into new people.. in a way better people.. But two people who can make a go of it if they choose to.

A great book that treats us to glimpses of characters from other books and teases us with the leads of the next one. But it's not a pleasant book.. it's exciting, intense, compelling and inspiring but NOT pleasant..

Shauni

This review is based on the ARC of The Marquess Who Loved Me provided by netgalley

[Linda · Rating 4 out of 5]

Arc courtesy of Net Galley and Word Press.


Nicholas Clairborne the Marquess of Folkestone returns to England and Folkestone estate after 10 long years in India looking after the family business intrests and trying escape the hurt and pain of loosing his Ellie . The pain and bitterness would not have been so bad had he not lost her to a title and the money that this cousin Charles could provide as the Marques of Folkestone at that time. Nick has spent 10 years dreaming of his revenge he will take out upon Ellie and though he returns to Folkestone for other reasons he might as well exact his revenge.

Nick arrives the night of Ellie's grand masquerade ball and has to don a face mask since he did not come in costume ;which suits well with him even the better to shock Ellie, oh and is Ellie ever shocked, hating him for leaving her, marrying Charles she did to protect him and never stopped loving him, but she hates him for leaving , for not fighting for her,Nick hates her for turning him away, for not turning away his cousin Charles , these two hate each other or try to anyway except their love for one another never truly allows the hate to take full hold. Ellie can not believe Nick's revenge, she has been living over the means of her trust fund for the past 10 years unbenounced to her, she has actually been living off of funds provided by Nick and his pedestrian business that she used to drive hm away s many years ago, and Nick's brother Marcus has kept all the notes for him t the tune of 40,000 pounds, her choice she can be his to submitt t his every whim and dream he has ever had of her in and out of the bedroom or face being publicaly ruined.The sensual attack he engages in wreaks havoc on them both and creates a danger to them both just as much as the attempted murder to Nick, which he has now brought to his Ellie's door and placed er in danger also.

These two put each other through the sensual wringer but when the murder tries again they join forces to find the villain and continue to play their sensual game of her submission to his fantasies a night which are more dangerous to their hearts than a bullet from the murder .

Wonderfully engaging characters and plot line, some great sensual scence and secondary character development left me looking forward to the next book in the series !

[Amanda · Rating 2 out of 5]

2.5 stars

After this, it's pretty clear that second chance romances (at least ones that involve bad blood, bitterness and stubborn people) will never be my cup of tea. Although here at least, Ellie and Nick finally did, eventually, swallow their pride and past hurts enough to COMMUNICATE and realize that they still loved each other, despite everything. They stopped living in and agonizing over the past and came to accept and love the people they had each become in the intermittent years apart. This was very important.

"You aren't the girl I loved when I was a boy. You don't see the world as a parade of beauty. You don't trust, you don't confide, you don't laugh, you don't let yourself hope...
But I'm not the boy you loved, either. I don't give a damn what you've done these past ten years, or how many lovers you've taken, or why none of your friends can tell me anything of substance about you. All I know is that I want the woman you are, not the girl you were."

Unfortunately, there were still some things that left me cringing and dampened any regard I may have developed once these two got their shit together. The main one being Nick bartering Ellie's 'debt' to him for sex. That's just gross. I don't care how her rejection years ago shattered him, there is no excuse for treating someone you supposedly once loved that way, NONE. Thankfully he doesn't 100% go through with this harebrained scheme but still, eww. It also made it super difficult to enjoy any of their sexual encounters with this brand of fuckery looming overhead.

I did really come to love flamed-haired Ellie though, and enjoyed her interactions with Lucia (my pistol shooting queen!) and Prudence (baby girl!) especially. The intrigue surrounding the attempts on Nick's life kept me interested and helped distract me when his lame revenge plot (will we ever escape revenge plots???) was getting too annoying to tolerate. So this was a definite improvement from the previous book, but ultimately not a favorite.

[Elena · Rating 1 out of 5]

Wow, this is the first rapist hero I've read in years. I hoped the romance genre was past that horrible phase, but apparently not. This is the kind of shit that makes me want to become a romance novelist, just so I can contribute to the small (but growing! I think and desperately hope) group of romances that don't make me want to stab something in feminist rage.

[Feminista · Rating 3 out of 5]

Rating: 3.5 out of 5.

[Helena · Rating 2 out of 5]

2.5 stars!

[Peyton · Rating 2 out of 5]

Ugh. The hero is disgusting. I kept hoping he wouldn't go through with forcibly prostituting the heroine, but nope. He did. What kind of pathetic, sad, small, man plots revenge for a decade just because they were dumped?

[Elyse · Rating 4 out of 5]

The Marquess Who Loved Me features a jilted hero and a heroine embittered by love.

Ellie and Nick were young lovers with stars in their eyes. Nick was the son of a disgraced nobleman and Ellie the daughter of some seriously snooty aristocrats. Desperate for her father's approval, Ellie abandons Nick and marries his cousin, the Marquess of Folkstone. Broken hearted, Nick moves to India and makes a fortune in trade.

The story opens with Nick returning home five years after his cousin's sudden death. He is now the Marquess, and wealthy to boot. Ellie found no happiness in her marriage (or her search for parental approval). She hides within a crowd, throwing lavish parties, becoming the toast of the ton.

Nick has devised a scheme to get revenge for being jilted. Ellie's business manager is Nick's brother, Marcus. Marcus borrowed money from Nick's estate to fund Ellie's lifestyle--and now she ows him 40,000 pounds. Nick demands she become his mistress for a period of several months in order to pay off her debt.

Personally I've never understood the revenge-sex theme. It's a little squicky and reeks of exploitation. In this case it more or less works becauses Ellie really wants Nick, and they wind up in bed prior to the arrangment. This is one of the sexier regencies I've read, so if you like steamy scenes it should be an auto-buy.

The whole mistress thing starts to unravel when Ellie and Nick realize they still have feelings for each other. Add to that a little mystery--someone is trying to kill Nick. It's a sexy romp, with a little intrigue, and it's refreshingly set away from London (a country house party).

Recommended for lovers of sexy regency hijinks and revenge plots

[Nightwitch · Rating 4 out of 5]

Once again, great book, stupid title. Ramsey does a great job showing the intertwined relationships not only of the hero and heroine but of their respective families, friends, and dependents, and gives them great depth without sliding into that familiar romance novel treacle. Even people who love each other don't always like each other, after all. As in "Heiress Without a Cause" she takes a familiar romantic plot but does a great job making it seem realistic and, in this case, manages to remove a lot of the creep factor. (The hero blackmails the heroine into becoming his mistress.) The suspense plot was just a distraction, frankly - the solution came out of nowhere, the characters actually had the wrong solution briefly, and it seemed to be forgotten for chapters at a time.

My biggest problem would actually be that Ramsey creates this sprawling world with intertwined characters and things happening in the background and, just like real life, only gives us glimpses into those things - so in this book, for example, it's clear that Marcus and Lucia have a thing for each other, and Lucia has a mysterious past - but rather than having a secondary romance which is explained and resolved, Ramsey introduces the characters and hints at their conflict, then reserves their romance for another book. Her novels don't feel self-contained, which is a big problem for me... especially since the sequels don't even exist and she's moved on to a new series. Given the deficiencies in plotting, frankly I think Ramsey could have done better by getting rid of the suspense plotline and throwing in a complete secondary romance.

[Tracy Emro · Rating 5 out of 5]

I really enjoyed this story - I have had it in my "might read" folder for months. I put it there based on the reviews I read. I am sorry I did that!! I liked the first two books I the series and saw a few reviews saying this book was not as good as those and was disappointing - so I relegated it to the maybe pile - I wish I hadn't

Nick and Ellie were great leads, they both had regrets and Nick was bent on revenge. They both had to face their past and their feelings before they could have their happy ending.

We got to see Madeline, Ferguson, Alex and Prudence - love them!

If I had any complaint it would be the relationship between Marcus and Lucia was vague and was left in limbo. Hopefully, their story will conclude in the next book.

[Alicia · Rating 4 out of 5]

I really liked the main characters and the story of how they came to be where they were, but the endless repetition of the dilemma and closing most chapters with a paragraph reiterating the dilemma got very irritating. It read as though it had been written in instalments and we were expected to forget that Nick is more muscular now than he was 10 years ago between chapters. With a good hard edit it could have been one of my favourites.

[Kimberly]

10/10/15 - free on Kindle

[MaryD · Rating 3 out of 5]

Kind of "steamy" scenes.

[Kelly G (Now Accepting Book Boyfriend Applications) · Rating 5 out of 5]

🎧AUDIO REVIEW🎧

So far this has got to be my favorite of the series! I have loved Ellie since her part in the very first story! And I had been hoping that her story was going to be a second chance with her first love. The fact that Nick has come back after 10 years and wants revenge for his broken heart was to be expected. How he thinks he will be getting his revenge, well you can see what will happen from the start! You already know that he won't be able to keep it just sex.... he was in love with her before and he will be in love with her again....funny how these Hero's like to think that they can harden themselves to people that they have already loved (and probably still do if they are so angry STILL that they want revenge). But this was a great one. And there was a suspenseful element to it that had me questioning who the bad guy was! Narration was great, as it has been for the other stories as well.

Story 🌟🌟🌟🌟🌟
Spice 🔥🔥🔥🔥
Swoon 😍😍😍
Angst 💔💔💔
Narration 👏👏👏👏👏

[May Kathryn · Rating 4 out of 5]

I love the way you lie historical version, anyone?

It has the usual sexy,steamy signature this author has. But I am not sure what to think of our hero, Nick here, who came back to England after receiving a couple of life-threatening situations and felt that it may be related to his recently acquired title. Coming home also means that he has to face Ellie, the woman who broke his heart. He was hell-bent on getting revenge, but decided to pursue sexy, dirty schemes instead and they lived happily ever after.

As mentioned, this doesn’t lack the sexy parts that I like from the series, but I cannot understand the hero his moods shift from hot to cold in a snap and there are moments I find it so damn immature. Nonetheless, my familiarity towards the series and the narrators style has made this an easy read, thus I can put those apprehensions aside.

I am off to the last book of the series. Here’s me wishing that it would be wrapped up with a beautiful bow as I reach the last chapter!

[Tonileg · Rating 3 out of 5]

Second chances historical English romance with two childhood sweethearts find love finally after long voyages, deaths in the family and some revenge.
Marchioness of Folkestone, Lady Ellie Claiborne is miserable, she is chic, beautiful and very popluar in the ton London society, but she love her chance at love when Nicholas Claiborne hopped on a boat to India instead of kidnapping her and marrying her in Scotland.
Sometimes people are really dumb when they are young and in love. Actually, we're all very very dumb, blind and stupid when we're young and in love.
I liked this story, I'm glad they go rid of the ridiculous revenge plot quickly and into a death threat mystery.
342 pages and kindle freebie
3 stars

[Megg]

Dnf at ~20%

I normally would write much if anything for something I dnf-ed so soon but this is a reminder to myself to not pick this up again.

After finishing book 1 in this series, I immediately skipped book 2 because I wanted to get to Ellie’s book. I read the description and while I have a hit or miss relationship with second chance romances, I felt immediately drawn in.

Unfortunately as the hero starts to enact his “revenge” my skin was literally crawling, I cannot bring myself to continue to listen because I cannot stand Nick.

This isn’t a particularly unique form of revenge but for some reason this went way past unlikeable into straight up creepy territory and I felt such a visceral reaction against Nick I don’t want to spend anymore time with him thank you.

[Dennis · Rating 5 out of 5]

Another fiesty Historical Romance

This I another fiesty Romance in the Muses of Mayfair series and I enjoyed it a lot, this one is a second-chance-at-love romance and it has a fine HEA at the end. In the story there is someone who is trying to make sure that Nick dies and who that is revealed just before the end and it was unexpected. I enjoyed reading this book and I recommend it to others.

[Wendy Tavenner · Rating 5 out of 5]

A beautiful story of love and hate, revenge and admiration! Ellie lost the love of her life Nick 10 yrs ago when she wanted her fathers love and married her loves cousin. Nick left and Ellie became a widow 3 days after marrying him.
A decade later Nick returns for not only revenge but to find out who wants him dead! A story about finding each other again!!

[Sadia's Virtual Bookshelf · Rating 4 out of 5]

Amazing plot line.

Very different from the other two books. This book had a bit of suspense and thriller in it unlike the other two previous books.

Loved the writing style. I loved that fact that Ellie was portrayed as slightly different from Amelia and Madeline, because she didn't had a scandal on her part that stopped her from wanting to get married.

[Stacy · Rating 2 out of 5]

The climax in this book and the last, comes out of the blue. The murder is not a character in the story, so it’s almost like the whole story takes place, they figure out who is attempting to murder them, but it had very little implications on their thoughts or feelings before and after, they kill him, and go on with the story. It like an interlude.

[Carôle Ceres · Rating 2 out of 5]

I really didn’t like this one.

This is darker than the previous 2. Immediately sexual and absolutely ludicrous plot. I found nothing to endear it to me. I listened to the audiobook version of this title, read by Emma Powell, not as well delivered as the previous 2, but she didn’t have much to work with in my opinion!

[Sofia Currin · Rating 4 out of 5]

I actually really enjoyed this book and the plot too. Well... The plot was a little iffy but it all worked out in the end I guess. The characters were cute and sweet and didn't fall in to the usual trope of past lovers with revenge schemes. I was pleasantly surprised by that.

[Angela Whitmore · Rating 5 out of 5]

Regency romance

Regency second chance romance/enemies to lovers, with murder (attempted and actual) and mayhem. Characters from earlier Muses of Mayfair stories pop up to provide the comic relief.

[A. Reader · Rating 3 out of 5]

I liked the story. It was everything you expect in a Regency romance, but I was disappointed by the 'climax' of the drama. The lead up was good, but did not satisfy. However, I was happy to read Ellie's story.

[Tori · Rating 3 out of 5]

Not the best of the series. Another reviewer mentioned a rape scene that’s not true!! Found it to be very internal dialogue heavy and bogged down in the characters always being caught up in the past.