Nicole Reads A Lot

The premise of this book was refreshing; so often, Recency books seem to downplay the extreme classism that existed during this time period. Nobility and the untitled members of the ton really did look down on those whose money was recently gained by trade or commerce. Even those families that needed the infusion of cash and traded their good/titled/old names for money often considered themselves better than the spouses whose money enabled them to continue to move in good society. I appreciated that this was a major point in this book, because too often, authors of these types of book like to pretend that beauty, or wit, or any quality intrinsic to the female protagonist is enough to change centuries of widely held beliefs about people not of the ton. So I liked that not everybody was won over by the plucky, rich-but-outside-of-the-highest-society Talia.

Actually though, when you come down to it, Talia wasn’t all that plucky. I think she’s the type of character that other romance authors subtly disparage when they say that their female protagonist isn’t some shy, retiring miss. Talia is all of these things, and she’s not boring. I think it takes more effort to make a quiet character interesting, and although I worried that Talia was just too good for Andrew, she was never dull.

Talia was able to win over people with her sweet nature and sincere efforts to improve the lives of her tenants. She was a simple, charitable person whose ruthless father was determined to buy his daughter’s, and therefore his own, entree into high society, no matter the cost. He didn’t care that the groom he’d procured for his daughter was marrying her only for her dowry. And when that man ran away with the money, instead of possibly learning from his past errors, Talia’s father then forced the runaway groom’s older brother to make good on his brother’s promise. Family loyalty is a theme that is repeated throughout this book in many ways: a child’s duty to her father, a brother’s duty to his brother, and a husband’s duty to his wife.

Andrew was a total ass for the first half of this book, and if this had been a different type of novel, it would have served him right if Talia had decided to stay in France with Jacques (who was pretty delicious, if you were willing to overlook his tendency to engage in espionage). Harry was a terrible person, and while I suspect that he’ll get his own novel at some point, although what he really needs is swift butt-kicking immediately followed by a date with the guillotine.

The title, blurb, and the cover of this book all work to undermine what actually occurred in it. The cover is so generic as to be useless, and the title is obviously wrong; even when Andrew sent Talia away, she never stopped being his wife. I guess we could be pedantic and say that all married women are brides for one night, and then after that they’re just wives, but I’m fairly certain that this isn’t where whoever came up with this title was going with this. So, anyway, bad title. And the blurb? I don’t see where Talia did much in the way of “demanding.” She wanted out of France, and was always going to go with Andrew, even without understanding how their relationship would be any different this time around.

There’s nothing new about the territory covered this book, although it’s perhaps more amusing than one would suppose it to be. It’s a decent read if you’re looking for something quick with a good amount action, but doesn’t do much to distinguish itself from the tens (hundreds?) of romance novels published each year that take place in this same time period.