 "It was an okay read" | 2008-11-20 |
| - Reviewed By User: A3M3W5GV0HIQK4 |
Merely Married takes the time honored plot of a forced marriage and throws in a twist here and there. It works and it doesn't. The characters are well developed with full backgrounds but for a book that is touted as being very clever, the characters, especially the heroine, are almost humorless.
Adrian, the Duke of Raven decides one drunken night he must escape the matchmaking ton. He does not want to really be married but being a widow will buy him time away from match making matrons. He marries an unconscious sick Leah Stretton thinking she is at death's door. After his wedding he returns to London leaving his wife with a friend believing she will pass away soon.
He is absolutely stunned when Leah shows up at his house weeks later fully recovered introducing herself to his friends as his wife. Leah has a plan of her own, it is to stay married to Adrian until her younger sister has her come out and marries, and then she wants an annulment. In the meantime publicly they are to be the adoring couple.
Adrian agrees to the scheme but does not want the annulment. He would like to be married and stow his wife somewhere outside of London so he can carry on with his libertine ways. So begins a game between the two of one-upmanship. Leah plans to thwart her husband's seduction and does so pretty well by tweaking his ego. Adrian fell for her ploys rather quickly and Leah is almost smug in her victory. Adrian has a few tricks up his sleeve too.
Both characters have wounded backgrounds which affect their present actions. Adrian was horribly used by his former fiancé. Her actions were really despicable. Now he is afraid to love. Leah's mother cuckolded her husband and had other lovers. She was banished for this and Leah's father punished his daughters by never setting eyes on them again. Leah has somewhat romanticized her mother but does not want to be like her either.
The dialogue is best when these two discuss their past because there is real emotion between them, even if it is negative. There is no laughter between them, no real moments of shared mirth. Most of the humor is directed at one character getting the better of the other.
For a woman who prides herself on her logic, Leah has some real ups and downs with her emotions. It was almost as if she were lying to herself in the beginning of the novel. Fortunately, she realizes the importance of honesty for the last third of the book. Adrian was pretty consistent with his emotional barriers. When they came down it was quite moving. This novel is almost a four star read. Nice plot and some heartfelt dialogue but missing sincerity in the beginning of the story.
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 "Charming......" | 2008-05-02 |
| - Reviewed By cristaw222 |
Merely Married follows a very much "done" plot line, but is very unique in it's characters making it a strong and memorable book in my opinion.
The strength of this novel lies in the character of Leah. She is sweet without being too angelic, strong without being aggressive, and witty without being annoying. She is what really makes this book for me. Raven is your typical wounded rakish male who has sworn off love. How Leah goes about "getting to him" is what makes this novel so unforgettable. Their dialogue is so engaging, and how Leah matches wit with him is so funny. I smiled throughout this novel.
The weakness of the novel is that it sort of "fizzles out" near the end. There is this weird "irony" that occurs that I just didn't really like, get, or find necessary. I would've believed these two were meant for each other without it.
Overall, the first 2/3's of the book make it worth your time and a very enjoyable couple to read about. |
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 "Witty, charming, clever. What more can we ask from an author?" | 2008-02-07 |
| - Reviewed By judylesley |
Adrian Devereau, the Duke of Raven, is not just a rake and a scoundrel. He is REALLY a rake and a scoundrel. He is handsome, extremely rich and unmarried. All qualities fervently sought by young women, girls and their mothers as prime husband material. And they want to take him on as a "project", to reform him. Adrian, however, has had one horrendous experience with a woman he was in love with and vowed never to be used by a woman again. So far he has managed to keep himself out of the clutches of any mother intent on seeing her daughter married to his title and his money, and as an afterthought, to himself. When one of his friends tells him about the "Plimpton Solution" he seizes upon it as a way to satisfy all his worries. And as fate would have it, a potential "Plimpton Solution" female seems to fall right into his life. Surely this is a sign? Plimpton married a woman only to have her die very soon after the marriage. His problem was that he actually had come to love his wife and truly grieved when she died. All the members of the ton left him alone to deal with his grief. Therefore, no matchmaking. When Raven learns that a woman has been given refuge in the rectory,which just happened to be the home of his friend Will Grantley, he decides to have Will perform a marriage service and his other friend, Sir Colin Thornton, can draw up all the legal papers. Since all three are very much influenced by how much they had been drinking throughout the evening at the local pub, this seems like a very good idea at the time. After all, the apothecary said that the woman was dying.
Except that she didn't die. Leah Stretton not only survived, she got Will and Colin to tell her all about her new "husband". She decided to use the situation to her advantage and therefore, made a very spectacular entrance into Adrian's home during a dinner party he was giving in order to convince the biggest gossips in town that he was well and truly married but that his wife was unwell and staying in the country. Leah has a proposition to make to the Wicked Lord Raven. One which will give them both an opportunity to end up with what they want. Of course the trouble is, they both actually want quite different things.
I was enthralled by this book. It was witty - the conversations between all the characters in the book were smart and humorous. Not just the two lead characters were given this treatment by the author. Ms Coughlin had me laughing and chuckling and smiling over dialogue between Adrian, Leah, Will, Colin, and the best depiction of household staff I've come across in quite a long while. This book is also clever. It takes a plot which has admittedly been done many times before and makes it fresh by giving the reader a hero and heroine who seem to delight us in not acting as we expect them to act. It is charming because no matter how "wicked" the Wicked Duke is, we see him begin to change, in very small steps but sure steady progress is made.
I absolutely fell under the spell of this authors work. She writes in a style which was refreshing for me. No cloying sweetness for the heroine, no mistresses for the hero. No feisty bluestocking who must have her way and best the man at everyting but a woman with a purpose and the intelligence to know how to get from point "a" to point "b" by being honest and going in a straight line. Hip - hip - hooray!!! |
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| "Great Romance with Humor..." | 2004-03-20 |
| - Reviewed By klpepsi |
| Adrian Devereau, Duke of Raven, is thirty-one, handsome, rich and titled, but still unmarried. And that's just the way he likes it. Nicknamed the Wicked Lord Raven, he capitalizes on that reputation to remain single. But the young ladies and their marriage minded mammas are all trying to reel him in, and change his wicked ways. So he concocts a scheme to keep the women at bay, and earn him some peace. He will marry a woman on her deathbed, and play the part of grieving widower after she passes on. It didn't take long to find the perfect candidate. Leah Stretton was traveling to London when she became critically ill, and wasn't expected to live through the night. But when his new bride appears at his home healthy, beautiful and headstrong, he finds he must go along with her wishes. Leah would not allow a scandal to ruin her sister's chances of finding a suitable husband in London. So if Adrian will play the devoted husband in public, she'll grant him an annulment after her sister is safely wed. The only hitch in her plan comes from the unintentional challenge Leah issues to Adrian. She proposes the basis for their annulment will be the lack of consummation of their marriage. Adrian will never allow society to think the Wicked Lord Raven couldn't bed his own wife, so the challenge of seducing Leah begins. However, in the end, the real challenge may be for Leah to melt the wall of ice surrounding Adrian's scarred heart. This is the first novel I've read by Ms. Coughlin, and it looks like she has mainly written Silhouette and Harlequin series books to date. I did find one other stand-alone title by her, "Lord Savage", which I believe I'll try to find. This was an enjoyable read and I was pleasantly surprised. The story was original and fresh with an added bonus of humor. Adrian and Leah were interesting and well developed characters. Definitely a keeper that I recommend without reservation. |
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| "This is a Keeper" | 2003-02-07 |
| - Reviewed By Anonymous |
| I just loved this book; started off with a bang, lots of humor, great dialogue. I had a friend who is another lover of romance read it and she said it would be one she'd read again as well - a great read. |
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| "Totally original" | 2002-03-12 |
| - Reviewed By la-layl |
| The Duke must count as the most self-centered, self-absorbed and arrogant man I've read of in a romance, unless he was the villain! He needs to get rid of match-making women and he comes up with the perfect solution, marry a dying woman, she dies and he adopts the 'grieving widow' act: He lives his life happily, women don't bother him any more, the bride is dead... As it odd as it may seem, he somehow manages to find the perfect woman. Leah is very gravely ill indeed.. dying.. her younger sister will be left penniless and homeless.. on her death-bed, she agrees to marry the Duke and the first part of his plan is accomplished. A while later, Leah miraculously recovers and shows up in London with the aim of marrying off her younger sister Christina. The Duke finds himself cornered and stuck. he cannot annul the marriage because that will look very bad on his record.. and his plans are going up in flames.. In the country, his plans tumble further and further when he finds himself attracted to the lovely Leah who finally admits that she loves the arrogant Duke... Wonderful, original, different, entertaining. Definitely a book worth reading, and keeping. Prepare for a thoroughly enjoyable time with Leah and Adrian. The characters are very well developed and they are always behaving and talking true to type. The plot original and the dialogue... what can I say? |
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