Friday, May 28, 2010

Review: Tempting the Marquess by Sara Lindsey

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 Livy – 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?

I'm convinced the men in this story have all the best lines and/or thoughts.  

Lord, anyone would think he'd never seen breasts before.

He wanted to taste every spicy, salty, sauce inch of her luscious little body and take her in every possible way he could think of.  And he could think of quite a few ways to take her,  having spent too many sleepless nights contemplating just that. 

Jason wasn't sure if he should run away as fast as possible or strip off his clothes and offer himself to her.  If the blood rushing south at breakneck speed was any indication, his body enthusiastically voted for the second option.  It also indicated that, unless he got himself under control, a body part other than his brain would soon be making the decisions. 

But love and wooing isn't all fun and games and great lines.  Olivia Jane Weston has invited herself along on her aunt's sojourn to Wales because she's fallen a little bit in love with the reclusive Marquess of Sheldon.  Livvy believes he's in mourning for his wife, and she is under the distinct impression she can snap him out of it.  Her plots and plans, while good for helping her sister Isabella snare her husband, James, are not so handy for her own benefit.

I didn't agree with Livvy's flight in the latter third of the novel.  She'd been so passionate, so straight up and down in her admittance that she cared for and desired Jason, that I wanted her to stay and confront the matter rather than escape.  Make a list of pros and cons, for goodness sake.  (Livvy is famous for her lists, and they are quite amusing.)  Alas, she didn't listen to me but not to worry -- Jason and her brother Henry were hot on her heels.

Aside from that blip in judgment, Livvy is a bold yet completely innocent heroine.  She has a tendency to babble, which can sometimes get her into trouble, and her curiosity is insatiable.  Her romantic ideals and daydream sequences match her character 100% though they don't diminish her because ultimately, through Jason, her expectations and ideals are proven incorrect.

I'm looking forward to getting to know Henry in A Rogue for All Seasons (March 2011).

(A very special thank you to Sara Lindsey, in whose contest I won a signed ARC copy of Tempting the Marquess.) 

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