What should a proper lady do when she believes her days are numbered?
Step One: Take a Lover . . .
After being told she will not survive beyond the year’s end, prim and lovely Marguerite Laurent intends to live what remains of her life to the very fullest. Though she may never know love, she will know passion—and she agrees to a whirlwind romance with a former admirer. But hours before embarking upon her grand adventure, Marguerite is abducted—by an unscrupulous rogue who boldly announces his intentions to bed and wed her before the week is out!
Step Two: Live With No Regrets . . .
Ash Courtland pulled himself up from the gutter to become a successful man of business, and now he wants revenge on his one-time partner for betraying him. Still, his enemy’s bewitching daughter is most certainly not about to surrender her innocence to the infuriating—if shockingly attractive—cad who took her captive. Yet with no more than a touch, Ash makes her tremble with desire . . . and resisting the heat of his passion could cost Marguerite her last, best chance for ecstasy.
Marguerite is someone who’s more used to dealing with the sick and dying, since that’s her job, than she is with the living. When her current charge actually recovers rather than dying as everyone thought she would, the woman insists that Marguerite stay with her until she see’s “her”. “Her” ends up being a seer who tells the patient that she will die by the end of the week. Disgusted with the whole thing Marguerite runs after the seer when she tries to leave and grabs her arm. The seer then tells Marguerite that she too will die within the year.
Marguerite is sure that this is just hocus pocus but yet she can’t seem to let it go since her previous charge actually did die! She seeks out the seer when she gets to London to try to glean more information from her. She gets what she wants but on her way out the door she witnesses a large man pummeling a smaller gentleman. Just positive that the larger man is a brute she interrupts the fight, the smaller man escapes and she ends up having words with the attacker, Ash Courtland.
During this time in Marguerite’s life she gets a letter from her father, whom she’s never met. He wants her to visit and to get to know her 2 sisters (they’d never met the father either). When she visits the first time she meets her two sisters and discovers that the father, Jack, is trying to marry the 3 girls off to bluebloods because while Jack has money he wants his entree into the ton. While leaving her father’s house Marguerite is kidnapped and discovers that the man is taking her to Gretna Green to marry her so that he can get a portion of Jack’s inheritance/property.
The kidnapper turns out to be none other than, you guessed it, Ash Courtland, who is Jack’s partner in gaming hells, a mine and a factory. He’s pissed at Jack because though he’s been like a son to Jack, Jack feels that Ash isn’t good enough for one of his daughters and refuses to let him marry one. Ash takes matters into his own hands and kidnaps one without knowing her or what she looks like even. Ash and Marguerite are quite surprised to see each other when their identities are revealed but it doesn’t stop Marguerite from trying to escape. She’s got a limited time on earth and knows from the seer that she will marry before she dies. She resists Ash at all turns because she wants to change the course of her life therefore changing the outcome and that means not marrying. If she doesn’t marry maybe she won’t die.
I have to say that though this book was a tad predictable in it’s story it was entertaining enough that I didn’t get bored at all. Marguerite was insistent on not marrying Ash and I did find it somewhat annoying at times but Ash was so persistent that I had to like him. He really had such horrid motives for what he was doing and though he never wavered from his goal he really was quite forthright in his pleas to Marguerite that it would be a good life and a good marriage. Ms. Jordan wrote the story well because I thought their relationship, really only built on the passion they felt for each other, was a good strong one. Yes, there were the typical doubts that all hero’s and heroine’s have but I very much enjoyed each event as it was happening.
I’ve not read a Sophie Jordan book before but this won’t be my last. I think there are a couple of books that are related to this one that include Marguerite’s friends but this was quite good as a standalone and didn’t feel like I was missing any info by not reading the previous books in the series.
Rating: 4 out of 5
This book releases on Tuesday, November 30 and was received by the publisher for review.
It totally looks like she's lying in a pool of blood…
lol Nope just beautiful fabric. 🙂
LOL re Chris's comment..
This does sound like a good story Tracy.. Thanks for sharing your thoughts, glad you enjoyed. 😉
Great review, Tracy. Sounds like a woman who is thinking instead of just wandering through life and letting others set her pace and her boundaries. Thanks for sharing . . .
Thank you Tracy – lovely review, but not the book for me I think… (I can't take the inclusion of the 'seer' seriously 🙂
I am, however, currently reading a historical romance – Nine Rules to Break When Romancing A Rake. I know I complain (a lot 🙂 about heroines I can't relate to…this one is so like me it's scary. I was actually crying at one point (Page 42!)
Lea – You're welcome!
Dr J – Absolutely. The poor thing didn't know which end was up but she absolutely knew that if she didn't get married things would change. But her heart got the better of her.
Orannia – The seer was a bit much but I liked it. I know not everyone would thought so…
I really liked Nine Rules A LOT – so glad you're enjoying it as well. Isn't it funny how we come across characters in books and you think – hey, when did the author get in my head? lol
I loved that page in the book when they're talking about her and she has such a light bulb moment.
I loved the lightbulb moment too 🙂