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The Dutiful Rake
The Earl of Rutherford was used to flirting with scandal. But when an act of charity placed his charge's spotless reputation in jeopardy, Marcus knew he must do the honorable thing. There was no point in pretending he was in love. So in return for Miss Marguerite Fellowes's discretion and children, the earl offered his name and protection.
Then Marcus watched as proud Meg blossomed in London society. Meg's smile was perhaps the loveliest he'd ever seen, and the glow in her eyes made him feel wildly out of control. Tantalized by her evident passion for life, the dutiful rake soon found himself consumed by far from innocent desires....
Then Marcus watched as proud Meg blossomed in London society. Meg's smile was perhaps the loveliest he'd ever seen, and the glow in her eyes made him feel wildly out of control. Tantalized by her evident passion for life, the dutiful rake soon found himself consumed by far from innocent desires....
304 pages, ebook
First published June 7, 2002
51 people are currently reading
392 people want to read
About the author
Elizabeth Rolls
100 books123 followersWe live in the Adelaide Hills of South Australia, in a beautiful lush valley full of apple, pear and cherry orchards. We moved here a couple of years back, escaping from the city and it’s just gorgeous. The property is small, only five acres, but we have room for two small noisy boys, three dogs, two cats and several woolly things masquerading a environmentally friendly lawnmowers. Before that we lived in Melbourne, which was fun, but we always wanted to live in the country and now we do.
I’ve been married to an ex-nuclear physicist – don’t ask! for the last 17 years and we have two rowdy little boys, commonly described as “feral”. Most of our friends think we have far too many animals, and everyone knows we have far too many books.I grew up moving around a fair bit. Dad was in the army and every few years we had to up sticks and move on. I was born in England, expelled from kindergarten in Melbourne, started school in Papua New Guinea and finished school in Melbourne. After taking a degree in Music Education I taught music for several years while my husband finished his Ph.D.
How I started writing
I had the writing bug from a very early age. From the time I could read I loved writing stories. Throughout my school days I was nearly always writing something very quietly, and there were several teachers who encouraged me. One student teacher, whose name I have totally forgotten, when I was in sixth grade, as well as a couple of high school English teachers, Mrs Redman and Mrs Mackay.
I started writing my first book after I finished my Masters degree. For one thing I really, really missed my thesis. I’d enjoyed researching it, and I loved writing it. So it seems inevitable now that when I was looking for something to do in the evenings to unwind after work, I started writing again.
I’d been staying with an old school friend. Meg is a fellow Georgette Heyer fan, and she had a very large collection of Regencies on her bookshelves. Well, that was an eye-opener. I’d had no idea anyone else apart from Heyer had actually written them. By the time I went home I had an idea floating around in my brain and I sat down and roughed out some sort of chapter plan. Then I started typing. Six months later I had a story with a beginning a middle and an end which I sent to Meg. After a great deal of talking, she persuaded me to send it off to Harlequin Mills & Boon. After doing the rounds of all three editorial offices and undergoing a major rewrite and extension while I was about seven months pregnant with the second small noisy boy, it was accepted for publication and published as The Unexpected Bride.
Most of my writing friends have threatened to lynch me over that story at one time or another. Personally I envy them for having learnt an enormous amount about writing and the industry before acquiring an editor who understandably expects you to know what you are doing.
I’ve been married to an ex-nuclear physicist – don’t ask! for the last 17 years and we have two rowdy little boys, commonly described as “feral”. Most of our friends think we have far too many animals, and everyone knows we have far too many books.I grew up moving around a fair bit. Dad was in the army and every few years we had to up sticks and move on. I was born in England, expelled from kindergarten in Melbourne, started school in Papua New Guinea and finished school in Melbourne. After taking a degree in Music Education I taught music for several years while my husband finished his Ph.D.
How I started writing
I had the writing bug from a very early age. From the time I could read I loved writing stories. Throughout my school days I was nearly always writing something very quietly, and there were several teachers who encouraged me. One student teacher, whose name I have totally forgotten, when I was in sixth grade, as well as a couple of high school English teachers, Mrs Redman and Mrs Mackay.
I started writing my first book after I finished my Masters degree. For one thing I really, really missed my thesis. I’d enjoyed researching it, and I loved writing it. So it seems inevitable now that when I was looking for something to do in the evenings to unwind after work, I started writing again.
I’d been staying with an old school friend. Meg is a fellow Georgette Heyer fan, and she had a very large collection of Regencies on her bookshelves. Well, that was an eye-opener. I’d had no idea anyone else apart from Heyer had actually written them. By the time I went home I had an idea floating around in my brain and I sat down and roughed out some sort of chapter plan. Then I started typing. Six months later I had a story with a beginning a middle and an end which I sent to Meg. After a great deal of talking, she persuaded me to send it off to Harlequin Mills & Boon. After doing the rounds of all three editorial offices and undergoing a major rewrite and extension while I was about seven months pregnant with the second small noisy boy, it was accepted for publication and published as The Unexpected Bride.
Most of my writing friends have threatened to lynch me over that story at one time or another. Personally I envy them for having learnt an enormous amount about writing and the industry before acquiring an editor who understandably expects you to know what you are doing.
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 36 reviews
December 8, 2025
Not the best, not bad either
I was in the mood for Elizabeth Rolls' brand of angst. It's repetitive and almost on the nose, but she never fails to deliver a couple of burning eyes.
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I was in the mood for Elizabeth Rolls' brand of angst. It's repetitive and almost on the nose, but she never fails to deliver a couple of burning eyes.
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January 30, 2010
In many ways a standard "Earl of Slut reformed by virtuous country mouse," I nevertheless enjoyed how Rolls played with the concept of public and private in this book.
Meg and Marc are different people than Lord and Lady Rutherford, and in writing out both their public and private characters I felt I got an especially deep view of who these people were. Their dual natures explained their many misunderstandings and kept them from growing tedious, though I certainly still enjoyed Marc's apologies for being an ass.
I did find the villain a bit too simple and the resolution with him a bit fantastic. I didn't think he or the near-rape scenario added much to the story, really.
I like how Rolls writes characters and relationships and I thought The Dutiful Rake was an interesting take on the marriage of convenience, even if the trope itself is a bit worn.
Meg and Marc are different people than Lord and Lady Rutherford, and in writing out both their public and private characters I felt I got an especially deep view of who these people were. Their dual natures explained their many misunderstandings and kept them from growing tedious, though I certainly still enjoyed Marc's apologies for being an ass.
I did find the villain a bit too simple and the resolution with him a bit fantastic. I didn't think he or the near-rape scenario added much to the story, really.
I like how Rolls writes characters and relationships and I thought The Dutiful Rake was an interesting take on the marriage of convenience, even if the trope itself is a bit worn.
May 13, 2019
Good entertainer. I really enjoyed it.
I love how they meet and the way he nurses her through her illness. The H is an absolute dream to begin with till his latent a-holeness asserts itself. And then he continues in that vein for much of the book >>angst! He redeems himself though.
Only his 'blindness' in not realizing
I love how they meet and the way he nurses her through her illness. The H is an absolute dream to begin with till his latent a-holeness asserts itself. And then he continues in that vein for much of the book >>angst! He redeems himself though.
Only his 'blindness' in not realizing
July 9, 2025
Age gap romances where the older guy is immature are always awkward reads.
Hero inherits the home of a distant cousin. He also inherits the poor relation of the distant cousin. He wants a Marriage With No Love™️ so he proposes to the poor relation. The rest of the book is spent with him shying away from his feelings and her coochie because he is afraid it will make him catch MORE feelings.
Hero inherits the home of a distant cousin. He also inherits the poor relation of the distant cousin. He wants a Marriage With No Love™️ so he proposes to the poor relation. The rest of the book is spent with him shying away from his feelings and her coochie because he is afraid it will make him catch MORE feelings.
November 30, 2009
This is the second Elizabeth Rolls book that I've read (the first being His Lady Mistress which I got free on my Kindle as part of Harlequin's 60th Anniversary Celebration).
As strange as it sounds, I think one of the things I like the most about ER's books are the one thing that frustrates other readers: the fact that her H/H could often avoid 90% of then angst if they'd just TALK to each other rather than make assumptions, internalize everything, and immediately go on the defensive whenever the other one opens their mouths.
So while yes, I may want to pull them aside and shake them sometimes for their stupidity, I have to admit it's a bit of a guilty pleasure to see a hero or heroine to get all needlessly angsty.
A few things in particular kept this book from getting a higher rating from me.
1. The description of this book is a bit misleading. Meg didn't exactly have a "spotless reputation", though it wasn't anything of her doing. I was expecting more of the "Woe is me, my life is now ruined because I'm trapped marrying a simpering virgin" type of vibe from our Marc (our hero), but he was like "Meh. I need an heir anyway so why not?".. I guess from the description, I was expecting it to feel like it was more of a sacrifice on his part, rather than just speeding up his plans for finding a bride and siring an heir by a few months.
2. The villain -- unless I missed it somehow, ER never explains WHY he hates Marc so. I don't know if it was in an earlier book, or if it's in a later book, or if I just accidentally skipped over that part, but it was frustrating to hear over and over how they hated each other and that there was some reason that was known only to a select few as to WHY they hated each other so.
3. It never occurred to a man who has a very hedonistic reputation that in being the sole caretaker of a sick, 20something, single female (who already has a social strike against her for her family's history) that maybe, just maybe, the old hens in the town would think he was doing more than "tend her illness" if you know what I mean. Granted, his reputation was that of a "good" rake -- only carrying on with widows and married women whose husbands didn't mind, but still. He should have known immediately upon seeing that she was a young, single woman, that he would need to send for someone from the village if nobody else in the house could care for her. In the end, scandal might have been unavoidable, but I was disappointed in him that it never even crossed his mind until one of the local women very vocally turned her nose up at Meg because of it.
I do have to say that Marc's sister was a pleasant surprise. I expected her to be all hoity toity based on her earliest appearance in the book, but in the end she was actually a very lovely character :)
I also liked Marc. Sure, he had a lot of self-hate and was insecure about some of the most amusing things, but deep down he was really a good guy and even when he was being a total a**, it was more that he didn't fully think things through before speaking than him being malicious.
I really liked Meg as well. Again, as I've come to expect from an ER Heroine, she had a lot of self-esteem issues and insecurity, but she was feisty. Very feisty. It just took her a bit to be feisty about what really mattered!
I was surprised to find myself liking Marc's old mistress as well, once she stopped being catty and started being realistic. I fully expected her to be an unsympathetic character throughout, but her actions at the end fully redeemed her in my eyes.
Overall, it was a decent read. It was a bit predictable at times, with obvious foreshadowing, but on the whole, I enjoyed it.
As strange as it sounds, I think one of the things I like the most about ER's books are the one thing that frustrates other readers: the fact that her H/H could often avoid 90% of then angst if they'd just TALK to each other rather than make assumptions, internalize everything, and immediately go on the defensive whenever the other one opens their mouths.
So while yes, I may want to pull them aside and shake them sometimes for their stupidity, I have to admit it's a bit of a guilty pleasure to see a hero or heroine to get all needlessly angsty.
A few things in particular kept this book from getting a higher rating from me.
1. The description of this book is a bit misleading. Meg didn't exactly have a "spotless reputation", though it wasn't anything of her doing. I was expecting more of the "Woe is me, my life is now ruined because I'm trapped marrying a simpering virgin" type of vibe from our Marc (our hero), but he was like "Meh. I need an heir anyway so why not?".. I guess from the description, I was expecting it to feel like it was more of a sacrifice on his part, rather than just speeding up his plans for finding a bride and siring an heir by a few months.
2. The villain -- unless I missed it somehow, ER never explains WHY he hates Marc so. I don't know if it was in an earlier book, or if it's in a later book, or if I just accidentally skipped over that part, but it was frustrating to hear over and over how they hated each other and that there was some reason that was known only to a select few as to WHY they hated each other so.
3. It never occurred to a man who has a very hedonistic reputation that in being the sole caretaker of a sick, 20something, single female (who already has a social strike against her for her family's history) that maybe, just maybe, the old hens in the town would think he was doing more than "tend her illness" if you know what I mean. Granted, his reputation was that of a "good" rake -- only carrying on with widows and married women whose husbands didn't mind, but still. He should have known immediately upon seeing that she was a young, single woman, that he would need to send for someone from the village if nobody else in the house could care for her. In the end, scandal might have been unavoidable, but I was disappointed in him that it never even crossed his mind until one of the local women very vocally turned her nose up at Meg because of it.
I do have to say that Marc's sister was a pleasant surprise. I expected her to be all hoity toity based on her earliest appearance in the book, but in the end she was actually a very lovely character :)
I also liked Marc. Sure, he had a lot of self-hate and was insecure about some of the most amusing things, but deep down he was really a good guy and even when he was being a total a**, it was more that he didn't fully think things through before speaking than him being malicious.
I really liked Meg as well. Again, as I've come to expect from an ER Heroine, she had a lot of self-esteem issues and insecurity, but she was feisty. Very feisty. It just took her a bit to be feisty about what really mattered!
I was surprised to find myself liking Marc's old mistress as well, once she stopped being catty and started being realistic. I fully expected her to be an unsympathetic character throughout, but her actions at the end fully redeemed her in my eyes.
Overall, it was a decent read. It was a bit predictable at times, with obvious foreshadowing, but on the whole, I enjoyed it.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
December 26, 2016
Book would have been so much better without the constant miscommunications. Honestly, if you know someone tried to rape your wife why would you leave her alone, in a new town knowing that the almost raper runs in the same circles as your new wife.
July 20, 2021
Ich hatte mir mehr erhofft. Story und Charaktere empfand ich als langweilig.
March 9, 2022
Like it all over, a little simplistic but a pleasant regency historical romance.
December 24, 2012
3.5 STARS
The Dutiful Rake wasn't nearly as predictable as I thought it would be and I loved the heroine, though many of the misunderstandings would have been cleared by simply talking to her husband. The secondary characters, particularly Lady Di, her husband and Jack, add dimension to the story. They embrace Meg, the heroine, in spite of the 10 year old scandal surrounding her family. It was a nice break from a few of the other historical romances I've read with a similar story line in which the hero's family goes out of their way to make his wife feel unwelcome. Elizabeth Rolls is a favorite author of mine and I wasn't disappointed.
The Dutiful Rake wasn't nearly as predictable as I thought it would be and I loved the heroine, though many of the misunderstandings would have been cleared by simply talking to her husband. The secondary characters, particularly Lady Di, her husband and Jack, add dimension to the story. They embrace Meg, the heroine, in spite of the 10 year old scandal surrounding her family. It was a nice break from a few of the other historical romances I've read with a similar story line in which the hero's family goes out of their way to make his wife feel unwelcome. Elizabeth Rolls is a favorite author of mine and I wasn't disappointed.
November 17, 2016
I love historical romances. The banter between the characters always puts a smile on your face. The writing in this was good. I would have liked a bit more about why Winterborn always went after Marcs mistresses. It never explained this. I hope there wasn't a book before this as goodreads.com has this as a standalone.
June 7, 2012
stupid couple!
July 15, 2019
Three stars is somewhat generous.
This is a fairly generic marriage-of-convenience/marriage-to-save-a-reputation story where the bride and groom love each other but don't have the guts to tell the other one how they feel, so they spend the entire book being "proud" and hurting each other's feelings.
Marcus, who's an earl in his mid-30s and a dedicated philanderer with no interest in marriage (and with weird mommy issues* which make him AFRAID TO LOVE), discovers he's inherited an estate from a distant relative. When he visits the estate, he finds a very young woman, Meg, who is also a relative of the now-dead estate owner (presumably on the other side of the family. Meg and Marcus are not actually related to each other) who has been living there as an unpaid servant for years.
Spoiler: When she was 10, Meg's parents died in a murder-suicide when her father caught his wife, Meg's mother, with a lover; Meg's father killed them both and then killed himself. No one wanted the 10-year old girl, including the miserly cousin who finally did take her in, who then treated her like garbage.
But our little Meg is a Harlequin romance pixie dream girl! She's spunky, kind, warm hearted, and brave, despite having endured her parents' horrendous deaths and shit poured on her for years, AND of course she has simple tastes (which is great when your new husband is quite wealthy; then he knows you really love him) AND she's actually beautiful with a hot body. Natch.
Because she and Marc were unchaperoned in each other's company much too long to be proper, and because she has no place else to go, and because he's hot for her (which he can hardly admit), they marry and he whisks her back to London.
And they can't get over their stupid agreement that this is a marriage of convenience and they say horrible things to each other to hide their real feelings, blah blah blah, until the last chapter of the book.
* Another spoiler: The reader is given the impression that Marc' mother must have been unfaithful, but it seems it really wasn't the case. Instead, she died in childbirth when Marc was 15, and his father was so devastated that Marc decided he never wanted to love someone that much.
One more thing: One guy in the book is a rapist; he violently attacks Meg on her wedding night leaving her with bruises and a swollen lip. Marc interrupts the attack but then lets the guy go BECAUSE HE DOESN'T WANT IT TO EMBARRASS MEG and then the guy keeps showing up and harassing her in London. THIS WAS HORRIBLE. Why doesn't she tell him off? It takes WAY too long for that jackassery to be resolved. Ugh.
This is a fairly generic marriage-of-convenience/marriage-to-save-a-reputation story where the bride and groom love each other but don't have the guts to tell the other one how they feel, so they spend the entire book being "proud" and hurting each other's feelings.
Marcus, who's an earl in his mid-30s and a dedicated philanderer with no interest in marriage (and with weird mommy issues* which make him AFRAID TO LOVE), discovers he's inherited an estate from a distant relative. When he visits the estate, he finds a very young woman, Meg, who is also a relative of the now-dead estate owner (presumably on the other side of the family. Meg and Marcus are not actually related to each other) who has been living there as an unpaid servant for years.
Spoiler: When she was 10, Meg's parents died in a murder-suicide when her father caught his wife, Meg's mother, with a lover; Meg's father killed them both and then killed himself. No one wanted the 10-year old girl, including the miserly cousin who finally did take her in, who then treated her like garbage.
But our little Meg is a Harlequin romance pixie dream girl! She's spunky, kind, warm hearted, and brave, despite having endured her parents' horrendous deaths and shit poured on her for years, AND of course she has simple tastes (which is great when your new husband is quite wealthy; then he knows you really love him) AND she's actually beautiful with a hot body. Natch.
Because she and Marc were unchaperoned in each other's company much too long to be proper, and because she has no place else to go, and because he's hot for her (which he can hardly admit), they marry and he whisks her back to London.
And they can't get over their stupid agreement that this is a marriage of convenience and they say horrible things to each other to hide their real feelings, blah blah blah, until the last chapter of the book.
* Another spoiler: The reader is given the impression that Marc' mother must have been unfaithful, but it seems it really wasn't the case. Instead, she died in childbirth when Marc was 15, and his father was so devastated that Marc decided he never wanted to love someone that much.
One more thing: One guy in the book is a rapist; he violently attacks Meg on her wedding night leaving her with bruises and a swollen lip. Marc interrupts the attack but then lets the guy go BECAUSE HE DOESN'T WANT IT TO EMBARRASS MEG and then the guy keeps showing up and harassing her in London. THIS WAS HORRIBLE. Why doesn't she tell him off? It takes WAY too long for that jackassery to be resolved. Ugh.
March 19, 2018
It started off so well! This book has a lot of exclamation points! There are also… a lot of ellipses. The heroine is occasionally a little fool! (I am not sure why I think of this as the archetypal Harlequin category epithet… but I do!) It was nonetheless a pleasant read… I think… although the hero and heroine spend a lot of time in their own heads! Reaching conclusions and thinking things about the other one!
And then we reach the wedding night. (It’s graphic behind the spoiler cut, be warned.) and yeah, I just couldn’t read that. So that was the end of reading this.
And then we reach the wedding night. (It’s graphic behind the spoiler cut, be warned.) and yeah, I just couldn’t read that. So that was the end of reading this.
March 30, 2022
3.5 stars!
I am very impressed, indeed! This is my first time reading Rolls and I love her writing style and syntax. The story kind of lost itself in all the misunderstandings that could have easily been resolved though. Very à la Judith McNaught.
I then went through her backlog to see if she'd written anything else to my taste and I think I can find a running theme. It seems Ms. Rolls loves Earls and impoverished women =)) Literally all Earls and Viscounts and all the women are poor and downtrodden. What is going on?!! Which settles it: this will be the only book by her that I read, lest I drive myself insane.
I am very impressed, indeed! This is my first time reading Rolls and I love her writing style and syntax. The story kind of lost itself in all the misunderstandings that could have easily been resolved though. Very à la Judith McNaught.
I then went through her backlog to see if she'd written anything else to my taste and I think I can find a running theme. It seems Ms. Rolls loves Earls and impoverished women =)) Literally all Earls and Viscounts and all the women are poor and downtrodden. What is going on?!! Which settles it: this will be the only book by her that I read, lest I drive myself insane.
August 31, 2018
After reading one of Elizabeth Roll's recent books which I liked a lot, I got tempted into reading her back list. After reading a few I have realized that though her books are well written, they essentially have one story. One disillusioned rake, one impoverished but gentle younger girl, an inconvenient marriage, one villain, lots of misunderstandings and a hea ending. This book wasn’t any different. This book has Lord Rutherford, who needs to marry for his estate and Meg a poor relation who is forced to marry him.
February 26, 2020
Marcus and Meg
I really loved this book. The plot was engaging, the characters likeable and the romance....red hot. Marcus and Meg find themselves unexpectedly forced to marry when her reputation is in jeopardy. Despite their intense attraction Marcus makes it clear this is not a live match and for both lead independent lives from each other. But when Meg blossoms in London society, Marcus is forced to realise that his feelings for her innocent wife runs deep. Highly recommended
I really loved this book. The plot was engaging, the characters likeable and the romance....red hot. Marcus and Meg find themselves unexpectedly forced to marry when her reputation is in jeopardy. Despite their intense attraction Marcus makes it clear this is not a live match and for both lead independent lives from each other. But when Meg blossoms in London society, Marcus is forced to realise that his feelings for her innocent wife runs deep. Highly recommended
August 24, 2019
Really enjoyed this one, a fabulous read, excellent well-developed characters, with surprises, great antagonist. Regency romance
March 23, 2020
Ein schöner Regency-Roman mit kleinen Irrungen und Wirrungen und ohne großartigen expliziten Sexszenen, schön zum Entspannen.
April 29, 2015
2.5 Stars
This book was just okay. I was annoyed by the main characters. I don't usually mind the "misunderstandings" storyline but found myself annoyed in this one. They were just stupid. I found the whole Marc/Lord Rutherford, Meg/Lady Rutherford annoying as well. And I cringed every time Marc called Meg "little one." She wasn't a small woman so that, to me, was in reference to her age. And calling your wife "little one" while in bed is just creepy. Thank goodness it wasn't said often.
I found the scene in the beginning where Marc is trying to get her out of her drenched clothes while she's struggling to stop him a little disturbing. Yes, he was doing it for her own good, she had just been sick and had been walking in the rain, he wasn't doing it in a lascivious manner. But if she's struggling, you don't restrain her and continue to undress her, you walk out of the room and let her take off her own damn clothes.
I also didn't like that we don't find out why Blaise has a problem with Marc, or why he goes after every woman Marc has been with. And Henrietta didn't get what she deserved after what she planned.
I gave this one more star because I enjoyed the ending and the secondary characters. Jack, Di and Toby were great in the story.
This book was just okay. I was annoyed by the main characters. I don't usually mind the "misunderstandings" storyline but found myself annoyed in this one. They were just stupid. I found the whole Marc/Lord Rutherford, Meg/Lady Rutherford annoying as well. And I cringed every time Marc called Meg "little one." She wasn't a small woman so that, to me, was in reference to her age. And calling your wife "little one" while in bed is just creepy. Thank goodness it wasn't said often.
I found the scene in the beginning where Marc is trying to get her out of her drenched clothes while she's struggling to stop him a little disturbing. Yes, he was doing it for her own good, she had just been sick and had been walking in the rain, he wasn't doing it in a lascivious manner. But if she's struggling, you don't restrain her and continue to undress her, you walk out of the room and let her take off her own damn clothes.
I also didn't like that we don't find out why Blaise has a problem with Marc, or why he goes after every woman Marc has been with. And Henrietta didn't get what she deserved after what she planned.
I gave this one more star because I enjoyed the ending and the secondary characters. Jack, Di and Toby were great in the story.
November 3, 2016
Started reading this and after about 3-4 pages, I realized I had read before, but I was enjoying it so much, I read it again!
Marcus needs to find a wife and decides to get a practical wife who he can lead his own life and she pretty much lead her own life after he gets heirs. He has to go out of town to settle an estate in which he has become heir to and find Marguerite there very ill with the flu. As there is noone to nurse her, he takes this job and even helps her with all her personal needs. There is a scandal because he does this and her reputation is ruined. He offers her marriage. He is very "kind" with Marguerite and she has total trust in him. When they return to London, he changes and becomes hard and aloof so she does the same. Also, on their wedding night Marguerite is almost raped by an enemy of Marc's who always tries to get whatever woman Marc is involved with.
Marcus needs to find a wife and decides to get a practical wife who he can lead his own life and she pretty much lead her own life after he gets heirs. He has to go out of town to settle an estate in which he has become heir to and find Marguerite there very ill with the flu. As there is noone to nurse her, he takes this job and even helps her with all her personal needs. There is a scandal because he does this and her reputation is ruined. He offers her marriage. He is very "kind" with Marguerite and she has total trust in him. When they return to London, he changes and becomes hard and aloof so she does the same. Also, on their wedding night Marguerite is almost raped by an enemy of Marc's who always tries to get whatever woman Marc is involved with.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
May 26, 2013
I really enjoyed this book. Marcus is a strong, handsome rake who fears love because he fears losing it. His mother and father had a loving relationship and wanted more children and she died in childbirth. Crazy I know, but he fears losing love so much he avoids it altogether and denies his desire to be loved also.
Meg is so innocent and sincere one might think she'd be boring but she is quite the opposite. Instead she is refreshing. Because of her ignorance and his fear they spend quite a few pages seriously misunderstanding each other. I was just about to call it more than enough when the author worked it out between them.
There is also a bad guy who carries a grudge against Marcus and tries to end their happily ever after. I'm wanting to read more by this author.
Meg is so innocent and sincere one might think she'd be boring but she is quite the opposite. Instead she is refreshing. Because of her ignorance and his fear they spend quite a few pages seriously misunderstanding each other. I was just about to call it more than enough when the author worked it out between them.
There is also a bad guy who carries a grudge against Marcus and tries to end their happily ever after. I'm wanting to read more by this author.
June 9, 2014
This is the second book I've read by Elizabeth and I'm neither disappointed or ecstatic. IMO, this book and another of her own, His Lady Mistress, do have some similarities, I do think that Meg from this book was a stronger character than Verity from the other ( they both have a similar upbringing though Meg's did seem a little less harsh), however the use of misunderstandings was used heavily in both books as was the male leads' fondness for second guessing his wife.
I do like these novels, in fact, HLM is a favourite of mine (I love the angst) but they seem to be too similar in a way. if I read another book of Elizabeth's, I hope it moves away from this scenario amd explores something different.
I do like these novels, in fact, HLM is a favourite of mine (I love the angst) but they seem to be too similar in a way. if I read another book of Elizabeth's, I hope it moves away from this scenario amd explores something different.
October 30, 2014
SPOILER Not the best written book in the world. The plot is confusing, they seem to spend the entire book arguing with a hasty reconciliation at the end. For such an evil "bad guy" blaise ends up as a let down, if the kidnapping had been longer, maybe letting them get away first a good chase would have improved it. The characters are very underdeveloped. marc swings so wildly I would expect him to be diagnosed with some form of bipolar. generally this book was an overall meh.
September 22, 2011
I liked this book better than some others I've read. I knew the ending was coming but the way she wrote it it wasn't predictable. Nice epilogue. Didn't feel like the story just ended. Two very stubborn characters.
July 30, 2014
More of a 3.5*. Liked the book for the most part, but felt like there was too much drama. Will have to read more by this author, as this was the first I read. Need to see how I feel about the next one I read.
September 4, 2017
One of my favorite Regency Romances! It is kind of average, I guess, not very original, but it is written so that the characters come to life, and you are so intrigued by what will happen to them next!
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July 12, 2025I'm not going to leave a full review, but I wanted to warn readers that the book contains an on-page sexual assault by the villain of the story. I didn't expect such a detailed scene, so I wanted to make sure future readers were aware!
May 23, 2010
Ive discovered a new author and determined to read all her books. They are very well written and the storyline are all about romance.
September 10, 2010
2.5. The middle was so annoying I almost stopped reading.
January 16, 2011
It was a cheap book on Kindle and I needed something to occupy my time. It wasn't a great book but it was a good romance that I did enjoy.
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