Thursday, April 5, 2018

Lady in Waiting (The Reluctant Brides #1) by Marie Tremayne



I often go through phases with my romance novels.  For about a month I’ll read nothing but romantic suspense.  Then I’ll switch to regency romances.  Then I’ll switch to weird romance novels from the 90s where consent was entirely a grey area.  Then I’ll take a break with some contemporary for a while.

I have been on such a wonderful regency roll for the last week or so and I’m enjoying it immensely.  Lady in Waiting by Marie Treymane, featuring a high society woman posing as a maid in an Earl’s household, is just another book in a long line of fabulous writing and entertaining characters.

Blurb: When Clara Mayfield helps her sister elope, she’s prepared for the scandal to seal her fate as a spinster. What she doesn't expect is to find herself engaged to the vile Baron Rutherford as a means of salvaging her family's reputation. Determined not to be chained to a man she loathes, Clara slips out of Essex and sheds her identity: she becomes Helen, maid at the Earl of Ashworth’s country estate. After all, below stairs is the last place anyone would think to look for an heiress…

William, Lord Ashworth, is attempting to rebuild his life after the devastating accident that claimed the lives of his entire family, save his beloved sister and niece. Haunted by memories of what was and determined to live up to the title he never expected to inherit, William doesn’t have time for love. What he needs is a noble and accomplished wife, one who can further the Ashworth line and keep the family name untarnished…

From their first encounter, the attraction between them is undeniable. But Clara knows William is falling for Helen, a woman who doesn’t even exist. The question is, if she reveals the truth about her identity, can she trust the broken William to forgive her lie and stand by her side when scandal—and the baron—inevitably follow her to his door?

Review: This is the sort of drama I positively love.  Sure, I’m partial to crime and murder, but there’s something really exciting about someone pretending to be someone they’re not.  I’ve read a few romance novels featuring men pretending to be someone else, but this is the first romance novel where the heroine is the one hiding her identity.  Every time Clara kept up the pretense of Helen, servant girl, exhilaration licked at my veins creating a flicker of heat that, by the end of the book, had me near panting with anticipation.

Clara ran away from her wedding, but that doesn’t make her weak.  In fact, she’s stronger than many women of her time… even of this time.  I don’t believe there are many women who would give up their status in society to work as a servant in someone else’s household, even if their husband-to-be was an abusive asshole.  Clara is kind, thoughtful, adventurous, and scrappy.

She’s the perfect match for the brooding William whose traumatic past has left him unable to be in society for any length of time. He is temperamental, intelligent, and head over heels for a servant girl he can never have.  At least, not in the way he wants.  I’m usually a little over gloomy men, but there was something about William that drew me.  Maybe it was the fact that his brooding wasn’t unwarranted, but rather completely understandable.  He was so human and leaped off the page to grab my heart.  I’ll be thinking about him for a while.

I absolutely loved them together.  William could hardly hold himself together around Clara and Clara had a hard time keeping up her façade in front of him—she’s far too outspoken for a house maid, one of the things I truly enjoyed about her.  When they came together time after unavoidable time I nearly squealed with delight.  Forbidden pleasure is the best sort, you know?

I can tell that Marie Tremayne’s series The Reluctant Brides is going to be one of my favorites yet.  There is nothing better than delectable romance, especially when it’s written with such talent, such passion, such vigor.  Regency fans will delight in The Lady in Waiting.  It’s out now, so click here to download it!

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