The Marquess Next Door by Virginia Heath : All About Romance %

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Historical Romance

The Marquess Next Door

By Virginia Heath

Buy on Amazon

TEST

I want to tell you I loved this middle novel in The Talk of the Beau Monde series, I really do. Unfortunately, after an excellent start, the story loses focus. The author introduces two lovely principal characters – he’s often mistaken for a pirate; she’s a buxom redhead with a sharp mind and an even sharper tongue – but then doesn’t give them enough plot to sustain a full length novel. Instead, tMs. Heath uses the relationship as a springboard to tackle heavier subject matter (mental illness, female agency, and postpartum depression), and the combination doesn’t work. The Marquess Next Door feels like two very different books shoe-horned together – one that’s light and flirty and fun, and one that’s dark, and deep and sobering – and the combination is a bit jarring. I liked the romance, but overall it’s a disappointing follow-up to The Viscount’s Unconventional Lady.

Hope Brookes is the middle daughter of portraitist Augustus Brookes and his wife, the famed soprano Roberta. After five years of men lusting over her body and ignoring her mind, Hope is fed up.

Perhaps one day a man would come along who surprised her? One who talked to her and not her chest. One who adored her brain and her wit and had noble intentions for once rather than entirely carnal. Every man seemed to want to skip Charity down the altar, and with the besotted Piers about to whisk Faith to the Writtle family chapel in Richmond, it seemed doubly annoying that the only place any man ever suggested taking her was to their bed.

On this night, she’s made the colossal mistake of carrying a dance card and is having a difficult time fending off the advances of Lord Hubert Harlington, a particularly dogged admirer who insists on calling her Mistress Vixen. She finally promises him a country dance if he’ll leave her in peace beforehand, and she hurries outside to escape Hideous Harlington, and any other lecherous gentleman who seems unable to take no for an answer. After making her way to the garden, she’s enjoying the quiet solitude when she hears the ominous crunch of gravel under a large boot.

The boot belongs to Lucius Nathaniel Elijah Duff, Marquess of Thundersley.

His mother was half-Spanish, the beautiful but fragile daughter of an ambitious count who was as ill suited to a life among the English aristocracy as Luke was. As a result, he had spent his childhood banished to his father’s neglected house in Cornwall with her after her mind failed and her erratic and emotional behaviour became an embarrassment. Where, much like the house, they too were largely neglected and forgotten.

But when his older half-brother suddenly died, Luke inherited everything. He’s spent the past month in London sorting through the estate and fending off the marital advances of Abigail, his sister-in-law, and he’s exhausted. Keen to keep up appearances and avoid Abigail’s displeasure, he’s accompanied her to a celebratory ball hosted by the Earl of Writtle (The Viscount’s Unconventional Lady). But after fending off the advances of more than one marriage-minded mama, he nabbed a bottle of champagne and headed outside for some fresh air. He’s slightly drunk and stumbling when he spots a beautiful, voluptuous redhead seated near the fountain at the center of the garden and sits down beside her.

What follows is your typical meet cute with a few delightful twists. Luke slurs his words to great comic effect, doesn’t recognize Hope or her family name, and has no problem listening to her complain about the parade of lustful losers who have hounded her all night. He helpfully points out all her physical attractions, and then, when the pair hear someone calling out for Mistress Vixen, he agrees to help her turn them away. Unfortunately, Luke’s way and Hope’s way aren’t quite the same thing. He kisses her (and she kisses him back!), and when Harlington spots them, Luke tells him to go away. And then Hope pushes Luke into the fountain and returns to the ball.

Friends, it’s an excellent start. Fast forward a few days. Abigail continues to press Luke for an engagement (um, yuck), and attempts a seduction. Luke moves out. And guess who he discovers when he steps out on his balcony in nothing but a towel? Yep, Hope! She’s out on her balcony – her favorite place to sit and write.

He was obviously fresh from the bath. Obvious, because he was positively soaking wet and the only thing he was wearing was the towel loosely wrapped around his waist. Droplets of water fell from his shoulder-length hair, over his broad chest and dripped off his pebbled nipples. Others trickled from his short beard to the gully formed by his impressive pectoral muscles down over his abdomen, lazily following the dark dusting of hair that arrowed beneath the folds of the towel.

YES! GET IT GIRL! Well, slow your roll. Luke teases, Hope pretends she doesn’t like it and spills her drink… and it’s all wonderfully awkward and sexy and smart. They’re neighbors! With adjacent balconies no one else can see! And they like each other! You know where this is going…

Actually, reader, you don’t. And unfortunately, instead of more teasing, naughty scenes like the one above (chock full of Hope’s acerbic wit and Luke’s gentle teasing), we get longing looks, lectures and arguments on female agency, and Luke constantly worrying about his mama. Now, in his defense, you’d worry, too. But while Hope’s character arc – she’s an ambitious novelist whose great talent is so far less visible than those of her sisters, and she’s determined to make a name for herself using her own name (not a pseudonym) in the male dominated publishing world – is compelling, the novel loses momentum whenever the author recenters Luke’s backstory. Because while it is gripping – he had to grow up much too quickly and make his own way in the world in order to save his mother from an abusive mental asylum, and has spent the past decade protecting her and building his own business – who he is now is equally irresistible. He’s a successful, self-made businessman, a newly minted marquess (his vindictive half-brother didn’t expect to die and hadn’t changed his will), he’s driven to improve the lives of those who struggle with mental health issues, he’s interested in Hope’s hopes and dreams and supportive of her ambitions, AND he’s sinfully handsome. Um, more of this guy please? Instead, the author constantly re-centers his mother’s story; it even provides the catalyst for a Big Misunderstanding, and while her story is tragic, it isn’t the one I wanted to read about! The issues raised in this novel are heartbreaking and important, but they overwhelm this soulmates love story. Then the author uses the mother’s story to tack on a COMPLETELY PREDICTABLE plot twist and villain… and it just felt superfluous.

The Marquess Next Door has many lovely moments, and our principal couple are well-matched. Unfortunately, the heavy-handed focus on mental health issues detracts from – rather than compliments – Hope’s struggles to achieve her life’s ambition and live happily ever after, and Luke’s happiness helping her achieve those goals and realizing his own destiny. It’s good, but not great, and I can only recommend it with reservations.