Mariel Grey: A Gentleman’s Surrender

Call her a romantic—or a fool, Lady Monique Cathdon is determined to marry for love. After watching her parents tolerate an arranged betrothal, life seems too short to be wasted on keeping up appearances.

After all, what’s the point of having a heart if one refuses to follow it?

With a smile the devil himself might be proud of, James Stanton is not what her mother would call a matrimonial prospect. Still, there’s something about the young man that sends Lady Monique’s heart thumping around her chest, and silences her voice of reason.

Unfortunately for Lady Monique, the stakes are high, and young ladies of the ton make for very poor gamblers. Especially when James Stanton is on the hunt for revenge, and won’t let an innocent woman—or his own passionate desires—get in the way of righting past wrongs.

Mariel Grey is a new author for me, and this book was hot of the presses in January.  The second book in a (to date, at least) series of two, A Gentleman’s Surrender is all about the sins of the father and how they threaten love.   I didn’t read the first book in the series, and found this one functioned great as a stand-alone title.

Stanton has been largely raised in the U.S., and has done well for himself. Returning to England, he sets about restoring his family’s London home…apparently as part of a broader scheme for revenge.

Although he doesn’t have a title, he is rich, hot and charming…so immediately welcomed into the ton with open arms.  He is also immediately drawn to the lovely Lady Monique, daughter of a Duke, and surprisingly unwed Incomparable.

With her family’s fortunes rapidly reaching dun territory, Monique is feeling the pressure to wed.  And although her mama wants her to marry a peer of the realm, she can’t seem to resist Stanton.

The book is a fast read, and well written, with a good sense of the period and some nice historical details.  The characters are interesting, and the slow revealing of the deep dark family secrets is enough to want to turn the page.  I think the H/h have a nice, slow reveal of their characters and although the falling in love bit was a bit fast for my total buy-in, I don’t think this was a weak point (more of personal preference thing).  They do fall in love in a much more era-appropriate fashion, so from that perspective it got my thumbs up.

Stylistically more of a mass market than a trad. Reg Rom, its fairly clean (no detailed intimate scenes) although there some kisses and a  few other off-color references that make it skirt the line between clean and not.  There are the obligatory balls, park rides, dinners, clubs that give it that Regency flavor.  The only hiccup was the dialogue was a bit on the nose and tottering close to the modern vernacular that I had a couple of cringe moments, but that was forgiven as the rest of the novel was a great mix of action, character development, and description.

I was a little thrown off by the cover because of the gown, but the book is indeed set in 1804….so don’t let that fool you either.

Although I am not sure it’ll go directly into the re-read stack, I thoroughly enjoyed this Reg Rom and would recommend it particularly for readers who like the mass market modern sensibilities but could do without the sex scenes.

4.5 out of 6 Well written clean-er Reg Rom with some modern genre sensibilities, good character development and some intrigue

Content Rating/Heat Index
Mature Content
Sex out of wedlock, complicated relationships
Intimacy
A couple of kisses
Violence
Not really

Overall
Not much in the intimate action, but enough suggestive and off-color content that might be off putting to those preferring their romance squeaky clean.

*A free electronic copy was provided by the author in exchange for a review.  No other compensation was provided.