it! Fun, romantic amp a small twist at the end,
Not just the typical historical romance,
I definitely recommend to anyone who likes the genre,
This is going on my keeper shelf! Fresh and different and delightful, like all of Chris's regencies! This book was a real grabber.
One of those kind I couldn't put down, and it was so original! It's about an actor who is portraying the role of someone else offstage in his relationship with his new wife.
Both he and his wife are trying congame the con man to retrieve the money that the con man schemed out of her family.
I gave it four instead of five because I would have preferred a little more descriptive "bedroom time" between the two after this gradual building of sexual tension from the start, especially since it took them about a month to finally consummate their marriage.
I also don't care for the title I would have called it something like, "The Actor's Wife" or something similar to indicate more of what the story was about.
I don't think Ms. Merrill will ever disappoint me, This was quite a good read, the story very different from your traditional Regency book and still a lovely romance.
I didn't give itbecause the ending was a little flat to me, but otherwise it was good and quite entertaining.
.stars
As a fast paced novella would've been much better! Lord Kenton is surprisingly happy to be lured to a moonlit gazebo, held at gunpoint by the delectable Cynthia Banester and forced to marry her.
The only finger he's had to lift is the one that's caressed the neckline of her dress, She's claimed a titlehe's secured a fortune, There are just two problemshe's not the real Lord Kenton, and she's not rich! Bound by their own deceptions, Cynthia and Jack decide to make the best of a bad deal.
They may not have two coins to rub together, but consummating their vows proves deliciously satisfying, I thoroughly enjoyed sitelinkTwo Wrongs Make a Marriage it was like a Regency episode of Hustle! or Leverage if you're on the other side of the pond.
Jack Briggs, an actor, has been employed by a reclusive nobleman to pretend to be his son, marry an heiress, restore the family fortune and possibly beget an heir before faking the son's death and returning to his previous life on the stage.
Cynthia or Thea is thought to have money, but in reality, her father has been swindled out of twentythousand pounds, so Thea needs to marry money.
The story starts very unusually with the heroine pulling a pistol on the hero in order to make sure he stays with her long enough for her to be compromised and thus forced to marry him! She doesn't know that he's more than willing or that he's not who he she believes him to be he doesn't know she has no money.
. . complications are bound to ensue,
Jack is a truly gorgeous hero, He's a real loveable rogue, with a great sense of humour and mischief, but with an innate vulnerability that he usually covers up.
Thea has been very 'properly' brought up, in an attempt to blind society or at the least, make it forget that her mother was once a celebrated actress.
She spends most of the book being embarrassed by her mother, who is very open and unguarded, and does her best to appear aloof, to be a very correct viscount's wife.
Thea is naturally hurt when Jack's deception is revealed, and that, added to her innate distrust of actors, causes her to withdraw from him.
But it's clear that they're well matched their verbal sparring is very well done, and although 'proper', Thea can give as good as she gets.
Jack is determined not only to repair Thea's fortunes, but those of his patron, the Earl of Sprayne, who is being blackmailed by his brother, Warde.
And Warde is the man responsible for ruining Thea's father, so Jack will be able to kill two birds with one stone.
Once Jack's plan is complete, he has only to leave Thea a rich widow, . . but of course, it's not as simple as that,
There was a lot of humour in this story, as well as some real lumpinthethroat moments and an interesting and sensitive handling of the reasons that left Sprayne open to blackmail.
Recommended.
This is a review of an ARC I received courtesy of Harlequin and Netgalley
I thought this was going to be a silly Harlequin historical romance and I'd end up not liking it, but it honestly pulled me in, sat me down, and made me care about Jack and Cynthia making it work.
It was still rather silly, but the amusing kind of silly instead of the rollyoureyes kind, and it was definitely a fast read as I finished it in one night.
The premises were good because it seemed a different typ of regency romance, one were theheroine leads, but in the end she was too selfassumptious and I couldn't stand her anymore.
THANKS TO NETGALLEY AND HARLEQUIND FOR THE PREVIEW Also on sitelink blogspot. com
Hello again, I'm back with another book, Todays selection is Two Wrongs Make a
Marriage by Christine Merrill, I'm going to start off with what the story is about:
Cynthia Banester needs to marry a wealth member of the ton to help her family get out of their financial crisis, so why not trap the ever so handsome Lord Kenton into marriage.
A simple comprise would not do, so why not have make sure you get compromise by gun point, Make sure the job is done and right, Sounds simple, right.
However, there is only one problem with this situation that she doesn't know he's not the actual Lord Kenton, but an actor by the name of Jack Briggs.
Jack task is simple, marry a wealthy young lady and bring her back to meet the Earl of Spayne once they are married.
What can go wrong Well, a lot,
Here's what I thought of the book: It was alright I mean the beginning showed such great promise.
Come on, she forces him to marry her by gun point, If that doesn't scream must read, I don't know what does, Although the book had potential to be great, the storyline just dragged for me, I truly struggle with both characters, I really wanted to love the book, because it was different, Yet, the story wasn't for me, So, you can check this story out and see if it works for you, If you get a chance to read it and love it you can tell me I'm wrong, I'm ok with that, because everyone is entitle to their opinion,
So, I will talk to you later and happy reading,
eARC provide by NetGalley This book was really good and Lord Byron has a cameo at the end no I will not be taking questions at this time.
This review also appears on my blog at sitelink thegoldenruleof. blogspo
I've read a couple of Christine Merrill's books and I've loved each one, so I assumed that I would like Two Wrongs Make a Marriage.
And it didn't disappoint, This book was so good, It hooks you in immediately and doesn't let you go,
I liked the premise of this book, It's a new one. You don't often see the heroine forcing the hero to marry her at gun point, And it was very well done,
I had mixed feeling about Cynthia, and they were my one problem with this book, My first impression of her was good, She was tough enough to use gun force to get what she wanted, But, then it went awry, Cynthia places huge importance in honesty and that's admirable, But she was selfrighteous about it, and that bothered me, For example, she gets all angry when she finds out that Lord Kenton isn't really Lord Kenton, but she also liedshe lied about her family's financial state to avoid losing his hand in marriage.
Doesn't that seem a little hypocritical, And she gets all stuck up about lying to the antagonist even though it's to get her family's money back.
I understand morals, but I don't like it when a person is selfrighteous and condescending to those her don't share his or her morals.
It really irritates me. And that whole thing caused her to be quite mean to Jack throughout the book, but I didn't think he deserved it.
And she looks down on her mother because she used to be an actress, Parts of it were understandable, but not as far as Cynthia took it,
Does that mean I hated her No, Because, towards the end, she has a change of heart, She becomes more likable. I still didn't go crazy over her character, but it did keep me from disliking her, So, she turned out to be an okay character,
But everything else in this book was wonderful,
Jack was amazing, He was very sweet and hilarious, Despite all his attempts to convince himself otherwise, you can really tell how much he cares about his "father", the Earl of Spayne, and Cynthia.
He was utterly charming, and I totally fell for it,
All the other characters were great, Cynthia's mother was interesting. She was always fun to have on the page, Just because the actress left the theater, doesn't mean the theater left her, The Earl of Spayne was surprisingly deep for a secondary character, He has secrets that he's kept from almost everyone, and each one is surprising, He was a nice character, The antagonist De Warde, was thoroughly villainous, I had fun hating his guts,
The plot held several interesting twists, The book literally starts with Cynthia holding a gun at Jack's head, and that level of interest continues right to the end.
The ending was perfect. It had a little twist to it, The ending actually managed to surprise me,
Two Wrongs Make a Marriage is excellent, Other than one problem, I loved it, I would recommend it to any lover of historical romance,
/
Thanks to Netgalley for a copy!
,