If you wanna be my marquess
by Merry Farmer
My review:
“If You Wanna Be My Marquess” is the second book in the That Wicked O’Shea Family series from Merry Farmer. You definitely need not have read the first one in order to enjoy this one, although I can tell you that the first book in the series was also excellent. This author has a talent for combining wonderful characters along with things that are funny, serious, passionate and entertaining. The results are easy-to-read stories that keep you smiling and turning the pages.
This story features Colleen O’Shea is the 2nd oldest of the 4 unconventional sisters. She is smart and imaginative one, enjoys reading gothic novels, lodes the very idea of the restriction placed on women within marriage, and is fiercely determined to remain independent. Widower Lord Benedict Boleran agitates her simply by his existence. He is a neighbor, friend to her brother and her cousin, and too handsome for her own good. Colleen is sure he’s a boring, close-minded beast. She ends up overhearing a conversation between Lord Boleran and her cousin and is confused by it. How confusion turns to outrage when Benedict refuses (justifiably) to tell her details about it.
Benedict turns out to be none of the terrible things she thought of him – In fact, he’s actually the furthest thing possible from being close-minded. Colleen matures, Benedict gets to experience love, and Colleen’s brother Fergus successfully and sneakily helps one more sister find a husband. This story contains dragons, pirate treasure, nefarious robbers, a meddling old woman, intimate explorations, great secondary characters and lots of spying. It’s really a delightful escape into a few hours of pure (and not so pure) entertainment.