Reviewer: Rowena When the Marquess Falls by Lorraine Heath
Series: Hellions of Havisham #3.5
Also in this series: Falling into Bed with a Duke, The Earl Takes All, The Earl Takes All, The Viscount and the Vixen
Publisher: Harper Collins, Avon Impulse
Publication Date: March 14th 2017
Pages: 128
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Series Rating:
The long-anticipated and utterly extraordinary tale of the Mad Marquess that proves love truly does last forever
The Marquess of Marsden always follows the rules. Expected from birth to adhere to decades of tradition, he plans to marry a proper young woman from a good family. But when a beautiful, and completely unsuitable, woman snags his heart, he begins to realize that to get what you want, sometimes you have to break the rules.
Linnie Connor dreams of the independence of running her very own bakery. And while she may be allowed to be a marquess’ childhood companion, the baker's daughter never ends up with the handsome nobleman. Determined to achieve at least one of her dreams, Linnie makes plans to leave her sleepy village for London, intent on purging him from her heart. And yet, when an invitation to the Marsden annual ball arrives, she can't refuse her one chance to waltz in his arms.
It will be a night that stirs the flames of forbidden desires and changes their lives forever.
Lorraine Heath did something with this story and I wasn’t even aware that I wanted this story until I picked it up for review. You see, this story is about the Mad Marquess of Marsden. The crazy man that walks the moors because he swears that his wife’s ghost is there with him. For three books, we’ve seen Marsden as an eccentric aristocrat who is just waiting for death to come so that he can reunite with his loving wife, Linnie.
This was a different sort of romance in the sense that we know what happens to the main couple later on and that casts a slight shade on the romance in this one but I don’t even care because Lorraine Heath did a great job of telling Marsden and Linnie’s story. While I was reading this short story, I wasn’t thinking about what is to come for these two. I was just enjoying the story of two best friends falling in love and finding a way to be together.
Linnie was everything that I was hoping she’d be from the descriptions of her from the other books in this series. Goodness, if only Locke had gotten to know his mother because she was freaking awesome but as awesome as it was to get to know her, it was Marsden that I was happy to get to know all over again. A young Marsden was a hunky piece of yumminess and I loved seeing him before he went mad for love of his wife. I also really enjoyed seeing Ash and the twin’s parents as well. All in all, this was a short bunch of sweetness that I loved from beginning to end. In the short amount of pages included in this story, I laughed and I even cried a little bit because gah…it was good stuff. You guys should definitely read this one. It’s the perfect ending to a fabulous series. I totally recommend!
4 out of 5
oh I just love this author and really need to catch up on this series. I have heard that Heath really packs the emotional punch with this one especially quite wonderful because its a novella.
This was a great novella that made me cry because of what I know about this couple but also because of how the heroine felt she wasn’t worthy of the hero. Lorraine Heath is a great talent in historical romance. This was so good.