It isn’t easy making a living as a lady’s companion when one possesses a sharp tongue and an original mind. That’s why Emma Greyson has gone through three such positions in six months. Her current post at a tiresome country house party has her bored to tears—until an extraordinary encounter with the legendary Edison Stokes leads to a secret position as his assistant.
Stokes is on a peculiar mission, searching for an anonymous thief who has stolen an ancient book of arcane potions. He suspects his quarry is among the party’s guests—and that the villain is looking for an intuitive woman on whom to test a certain elixir. A woman just like Emma…
For Emma, the new post brings unexpected passion and chilling danger. But when murder strikes, she realizes the awful truth. Unless she and Edison devise a scheme to outwit a merciless killer, she could forever lose the man of her dreams—and even her very life….
Part marriage of convenience, part spy thriller Reg Rom, part rake and companion, I Thee Wed is all action. A fast-paced historical romance that pairs two unlikely but well suited Ton fringe characters together, the novel delivers on many of the conventions but in a fresh enough way to engage from cover to cover. It is part of the Vanza Series, but I found it easy to read as a standalone title.
Somehow, unintentionally, I tend to find recurring themes in the “batches” of books piling up on my nightstand. This last month or two has been “engagements of convenience/inconvenience”. I Thee Wed isn’t solely premised on this trope, but it is enough of a plot feature that it was nice to compare it to more recent reads (An Inconvenient Engagement and Cotillion).
First and foremost, the theme isn’t used to full advantage. While the other two recent engagements of convenience books primarily relied on the theme for comedic effect, it definitely would have competed with a more serious—or at least, less rompish–tone. However, there was also a noted absence of use to further character development and really flesh out the romance. I wanted to see more “getting to know you–all about you”, and felt the author ditched this in favor of action.
More prominent, even from jump street, was the spy-like crime solving going down. The end (and villian) was a bit predictable, with a twist that felt more like a slight curve, but overall there was a steady pace of action to keep the both entertaining. Quick is a talented writer, and there are no lagging descriptive sections or unnecessary scenes.
The H/h are less rake and companion and more bastard sort of Corinthian and temporary companion. I felt like I missed parts of Emma’s backstory that would’ve made me like her more/make her actions make more sense. There was also this ongoing intuitive sensibility that was important to the plot but not really given more depth.
I also felt like I wanted to know more about Edison’s motivation to join Vanza…and honestly a bit more historical information.
Overall, Quick gives an easy, entertaining read that not without its gaps and holes, nonetheless is a new take on some very familiar hist ro themes.
4 out of 6 Action packed read, with familiar tropes
| Content Rating/Heat Index | |
|---|---|
| Mature Content |   |
| Sex scandals, mistresses, dirty talk talk of sexual violence | |
| Intimacy | |
| Not gratuitious, mostly vanilla sex | |
| Violence | |
| Fight scenes, near sexual violence | |
| Overall | |
|---|---|
| Adult subject matter and intimate scenes, albeit vanilla. Probably most enjoyable for mature audiences. | |
