To Marry and to Meddle by Martha Waters Published by Simon and Schuster on April 5, 2022
Genres: Fiction / Historical / General, Fiction / Romance / Historical / Regency, Fiction / Romance / Romantic Comedy
Pages: 336
Format: eBook
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Regency Vows series continues with a witty, charming, and joyful novel following a seasoned debutante and a rakish theater owner as they navigate a complicated marriage of convenience.
Lady Emily Turner has been a debutante for six seasons now and should have long settled into a suitable marriage. However, due to her father’s large debts, her only suitor is the persistent and odious owner of her father’s favorite gambling house. Meanwhile, Lord Julian Belfry, the second son of a marquess, has scandalized society as an actor and owner of a theater—the kind of establishment where men take their mistresses, but not their wives. When their lives intersect at a house party, Lord Julian hatches a plan to benefit them both.
With a marriage of convenience, Emily will use her society connections to promote the theater to a more respectable clientele and Julian will take her out from under the shadows of her father’s unsavory associates. But they soon realize they have very different plans for their marriage—Julian wants Emily to remain a society wife, while Emily discovers an interest in the theater. But when a fleeing actress, murderous kitten, and meddlesome friends enter the fray, Emily and Julian will have to confront the fact that their marriage of convenience comes with rather inconvenient feelings.
A marriage of convenience story between a seemingly scandal immune debutante and a scandal-brothed younger son turned theatre entrepreneur was delightful. As the third in a series (which I hadn’t read before) it worked well as a standalone, and made me eager to read about Emily’s friend’s stories.
I found the writing style of Waters, who I had never read, to be instantly engaging. It was fun, easy to read, and with enough of the historic details but with some unique twists that I found it well served for a Regency setting. Her characters were witty, sometimes daft about their own emotions, and the scenes were funny (not laugh out loud, but I definitely was amused). This didn’t tug hard on the heart strings or give me the stings, was relatively low angst, and I found both MCs to be likable, if not lovable. I especially loved some of the twists with Julian’s family.
Other readers criticized this book for its lack of conflict, which I take issue with because I felt there was plenty of internal conflict. But its definitely not the hand wringing angsty kind, so if you need that in your romance this book will not work for you. The marriage of convenience tension was there, just perhaps more subtle than some readers would like. On the whole, I felt there was a restraint exercised in some of the plot that maybe set some readers up for disappointment, but I found easy to read.
I will say that the trend to cartoon-ish characters on the cover does give the sense of a screwball rom com, which this maybe had earnest ambitions for but ultimately didn’t deliver. However, I still thought there was a refreshing cadence to the book that shows a tremendous promise for the series.
There was on page intimacy, some adult subject matter (mostly mentions of mistresses, gambling, debt, duels) and little violence. I thought the intimate scenes were fairly quick and not very graphic, although it was implied the MCs went at it like rabbits at first.
With a bit of Autumn backdrop, this may help you get in the mood for Fall.
I will likely give the first two books in the series a go, as the characters and romances seemed interesting. I would recommend this for readers looking for light intimacy, subtle writing and low angst.
