![\"\"](\"https:\/\/marykingswood.co.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/10\/seduction.jpg\")
A fine read – why have I never come across this author before? There\u2019s a lot of sex in it, but it\u2019s appropriate for the story and the characters.<\/p>\nA fine read – why have I never come across this author before? There\u2019s a lot of sex in it, but it\u2019s appropriate for the story and the characters.<\/p>\n
Here\u2019s the premise: Marina Winslow is the old maid of her family, at twenty-six, but when Justin Ransome, the Earl of Mortenhoe, calls on her brother to agree terms to buy his family\u2019s old home from him, Marina finds herself unexpectedly on the receiving end of a very determined courtship. The reader is under no illusions about the reason for this. Marina\u2019s brother, Charlie, wants to sell the house to Justin for as high a price as he can get, but he also wants to marry off the spinster of the family. So the deal is money and marriage, or no house. Marina can\u2019t resist the charming, handsome Justin, so married they are and off to Knightshaye, gambled away by Justin\u2019s father to Charlie\u2019s father some twenty odd years ago, and now restored to its original owners.<\/p>\n
But the house and the entire estate has been let go to rack and ruin, the tenants are surly and suspicious and the servants are new and unsure of themselves. It\u2019s quite a challenge for the newlyweds, and Marina now knows the truth of her whirlwind courtship, let slip by her stupid brother. How can she ever trust Justin, knowing how easily and glibly he deceived her? The two tiptoe round each other, trying to find an accommodation, Justin hating the secret he\u2019s promised not to reveal to Marina, and she coming to terms with what looks like betrayal, which includes a seeming lie regarding an old flame of Justin\u2019s who married someone else. It\u2019s made even harder for her by their rampantly enjoyable sex life, and the inconvenient fact that she\u2019s fallen in love with her husband.<\/p>\n
So there are rows and apologies and the usual, just like real life. Eventually, things come to a head, and the old flame\u2019s machinations push Marina over the edge and she does something pretty stupid. Why not actually *talk* to your husband, dear, instead of assuming and ricocheting off the walls? Happily, Justin has realised belatedly that he\u2019s in love with his wife and not only goes after her, but dares her to put their marriage on a different footing. The ending is pitch perfect and absolutely lovely. Sigh.<\/p>\n
I do have a few quibbles. Firstly, in the marriage scene, there would be no veil and definitely no kiss, and they would sign the register before walking down the aisle (just as brides do today!). And no, you could not get an annulment for non-consummation, not in England, anyway. I was amused by Marina ordering service a la russe for their intimate dinner for two, as being less intrusive than service a la francaise. Service a la russe involves the butler and footmen serving each individual dish as a separate course, so they\u2019re constantly in and out, whereas service a la francaise means plonking all the dishes on the table at once. With a single course and no removes, the servants aren\u2019t needed at all, which is just like a normal family meal in most households. But that\u2019s a trivial detail.<\/p>\n
None of my quibbles stopped this being a terrific read. I loved Justin, and Marina is (mostly) sensible and likable. Five stars.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
A fine read – why have I never come across this author before? There\u2019s a lot of sex in it, but it\u2019s appropriate for the story and the characters. Here\u2019s the premise: Marina Winslow is the old maid of her family, at twenty-six, but when Justin Ransome, the Earl of Mortenhoe, calls on her brother […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[111],"class_list":["post-5687","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-review","tag-allen"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/marykingswood.co.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5687","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/marykingswood.co.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/marykingswood.co.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/marykingswood.co.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/marykingswood.co.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=5687"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/marykingswood.co.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5687\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":5691,"href":"https:\/\/marykingswood.co.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5687\/revisions\/5691"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/marykingswood.co.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=5687"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/marykingswood.co.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=5687"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/marykingswood.co.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=5687"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}