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Book Review-When The Marquess Met His Match by Laura Lee Guhrke

by | Oct 17, 2017 | Book Reviews | 8 comments

Book Review-When The Marquess Met His Match by Laura Lee Guhrke

Book Review-When The Marquess Met His Match by Laura Lee GuhrkeWhen the Marquess Met His Match by Laura Lee Guhrke
Also in this series: How to Lose a Duke in Ten Days, Catch a Falling Heiress, No Mistress of Mine
Series: An American Heiress in London #1
Published by Avon on October 29th 2013
Genres: Historical Romance, Regency Era
Pages: 389
Format: eBook
Source: Library
Goodreads
Amazon
three-stars

What happens when a carefree, disreputable, stone-broke bachelor is forced to find a wife in a hurry? He hires a matchmaker, of course. What happens when the matchmaker doesn’t want to help him? Well, that’s when the fun begins…

Nicholas Stirling, Marquess of Trubridge, loves his life just as it is: dissolute, scandalous, and deuced good fun. His father, the Duke of Landsdowne is not amused, and when he cuts off Nicholas’ trust fund, the fun-loving marquess is forced to find an alternate source of income—in other words, he has to marry an heiress.

Every new-money American heiress knows Lady Belinda Featherstone is the key to social acceptance. Once a new-money nobody herself, Belinda discovered first-hand how heartbreaking the game of love and matrimony could be after a reprobate British earl married her for her money. Now a respectable widow, Belinda has become England’s most successful matchmaker, guiding young American heiresses through the hazards of the London season and helping them to find husbands worthy of them. To her mind, the Marquess of Trubridge is nothing but a fortune-hunting scoundrel and she has no intention of allowing him to charm his way into any American girl’s heart, including her own.

When The Marquess Met His Match is a story that begins the An American Heiresses in London series. Now I have not read this series in order, but that is alright, but I was really eager to finish this series up and read Nick and Belinda’s story. I will admit that this is probably not my favorite book of the series, though I really did enjoy it quite a bit just not as much as some of the other books in the series.

The story sets off when our hero goes in search of the infamous matchmaker, Belinda, to find him a match. His father has cut off his funds completely and he needs to find a rich heiress in a hurry. But when he arrives and asks for Belinda’s help, she brutally turns him away. Through a series of events, they come to an agreement, that Belinda will find him a wife if he will stay away from one of her other “customers”, a young woman who is close to finding a match herself until she meets Nick. Belinda doesn’t care very much for Nick, she has heard everything she can hear about his “rakish” reputation, and has no inclination to actually help out a fortune hunter. But as Belinda starts to work more with Nick, she begins to see that he isn’t the man that she assumed he was. She starts to see the real man….a man that has honor and integrity and has had to bear some horrible abuse from his father, a man worthy of her love.

I will say that there was many part of this book that I really enjoyed. I love the quick witted bantering that forms between Nick and Belinda. I loved the supporting characters that really add some laughter and spice to the story. We have our villain (Nick’s father) who tries everything in his power to bring Nick down. Then we have the tender filled romance that slowly develops between Nick and Belinda. But there was one downer, our heroine. I really had a difficult time liking her, especially in the beginning. She gets pretty self righteous and judgemental on Nick. And yes I guess you could say he is a fortune hunter technically. But its not like he was going to use the money he gained from a good respectable marriage to go gambling or keep up his “rakish” ways. In fact, we see how responsible he feels for the tenants and innocent people who are depending on him. So I really had a hard time seeing how much Belinda is always putting him down and never believing in him until the end. Now this is where we see our hero go out of his comfort zone, and work on something that is fulfilling for him. Where he goes from just being a member of the Ton….to actually working his way to achieving something that could benefit many….all on his own merits and not because he marries a young lady or gets back in the good graces of his father. We see how demeaning the father is toward his own son and it was pretty appalling to see here. My heart just broke for our hero, who has had to deal with such a horrible father who has taken pretty much everything he has cared about away from him out of spite. We do see how strong our hero actually is because of this though.

The romance that builds between them is slow going though. Of course they do have some solid chemistry and sparks and boy the way they like to verbally become entangled is a sight to see. But the actual development of their romance was slow going. It was really until the later half of the story that we see their romance really take a solid turn in the right direction.

 

 

About Laura Lee Guhrke

From the publication of her very first historical romance, Laura Lee Guhrke has received numerous honors and critical acclaim for her novels and her writing style. She has been honored with the most prestigious award of romance fiction, the Romance Writers of America Rita Award, and she has received additional awards from Romantic Times and All About Romance. Romantic Times has proclaimed her, “One of the most natural voices in historical romance to be found today”. Her books routinely hit the USA Today Bestseller List, and Guilty Pleasures has been honored with the Romantic Times Award for Best European Historical Romance of 2004. Among her publishing credits are twelve historical romances, including her latest, And Then He Kissed Her, now available from Avon Books.

Laura is currently hard at work on her thirteenth historical romance for Avon Books. She has also written articles for various publications, including the Romance Writers Report, The British Weekly , and the Irish-American Press.

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8 Comments

  1. Melliane

    I haven’t tried this author but why not? I like slow romance

    Reply
  2. Nick

    You know I love a good slow burn romance, but if it takes too long, then I get annoyed and frustrated because I’m reading a HR for the romance. I’ve heard good things about the author, but maybe I won’t try this one.

    Reply
  3. Michele H

    I’ve skipped around in this series too and need to read this one. Nice to hear the hero makes the story worthwhile–I do tend to fall for tortured heroes–and that the bantering is fun. Lovely review!

    Reply
  4. Blodeuedd

    Hmmm, but then I do like it when it is slow building

    Reply
  5. Jenea Whittington

    I like the slow burning type romances, but if it takes tooooo long, I begin to lose interest in seeing if they finally get together or not. This sounds like a good series though. Glad you were able this one for the most part.

    Reply
  6. Quinn's Book Nook

    Yeah, Belinda does seem kind of difficult. I really want to read this author, but haven’t yet. What’s your favorite book by Guhrke?

    Reply

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