Reviewer: Rowena
Loving Lady Marcia (House of Brady, #1) by Kieran Kramer
Series: House of Brady #1
Publisher: St. Martin's Press
Publication Date: August 28th 2012
Genres: Historical Romance
Pages: 368
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Series Rating:

In the House of Brady, three very lovely girls have hair of gold—and hearts to match—but finding a match among the gentlemen of London is one comedy of errors that could bring down the house…

Marcia Gets Schooled…

Of the three Brady sisters, Lady Marcia has always seemed the girl most likely to lead a perfectly charmed life. But after a handsome cad breaks her heart, she swears off love and devotes her life to teaching girls at a private school. In spite of her family’s wish for a London debut, Marcia is happy where she is—until terrible news sends her back to the Brady clan…and into the arms of an unexpected suitor.

On The Subject Of Love

A dark and dashing earl who knows Marcia’s past, Duncan Lattimore is surprised by what a fascinating and independent woman she’s become. Marcia, too, is surprised—by the fiery attraction she feels for Duncan. But why—why—must he be the brother of the scoundrel who broke her heart? Why must Marcia’s rival at school forbid her from seeing him? How can this lady possibly resist this fellow—when they know that it’s much more than a hunch…?

I was drawn to this book because it’s the historical Brady family, how could I not want to read this book? This first book in the House of Brady series is Marcia’s book. Marcia is first introduced in this book when she’s traveling to Ireland with the two Lattimore brothers. She’s almost sixteen years old and she takes quite the fancy to the younger Lattimore brother, Finn. The older Lattimore brother just inherited his earldom and has a lot of things on his mind. Making nice with the young woman that they’re traveling with is not one of them. Marcia takes quite the offense to Duncan (the older Lattimore) and his neglect in proper manners toward her but let’s it slide because the younger Lattimore returns her crush.

On Marcia’s sixteenth birthday, she’s with Finn and she’s in love and he makes her the happiest sixteen year old on the planet until she wakes up the next morning and is thrown from cloud 9 and falls flat on her face, back on planet reality. With her heart broken, Marcia has no choice but to move on.

Fast forward all of these years later and Duncan Lattimore is once again thrown into her world. Of course, this doesn’t make Marcia happy at all. She holds him responsible for crushing her young and in love with his younger brother Finn’s heart. Duncan, on the other hand is happy to see her as he’s got a few years under his belt at the helm of the family title and he’s got a son that he can dote on. He’s got a family. He may not have a wife but he’s got a son and a house full of servants that dote on him and his son. His life is good and when he meets Marcia on the street, she’s grown into a beautiful woman and Duncan wants to reacquaint himself with her.

Seeing how far Marcia came from the first time she met Duncan to all of those years later made for some interesting reading. She went from being that starry eyed young woman who was in love with the man of her dreams and ready to run away and get married to the headmistress of a school who is a realist through and through. Watching as Duncan removed those walls around her heart was cute.

I really liked Duncan. He was such a strong and solid presence in Marcia’s life and I wanted to hug him close and give him the family he longed for. There were times when I didn’t think Marcia was good enough for him because when things got bad, she ran and that bothered me. I understood her mistrust of him at first because all she had to go on before she learns the truth about Finn is Finn’s word and she was in love with him all those years ago so why wouldn’t she believe him? But when things between them progressed and they were friends and she knew where his head was, and she shied away from him anyway? I wanted to wring her neck.

There was plenty to enjoy in this book. From the Brady family (they had me laughing quite a bit, especially young Cynthia) to seeing Alice and even Tiger to Duncan’s son, Joe. They all added fun to the story and I really enjoyed getting to know them. I loved that the Brady family embraced Duncan and his son and I loved how they were there for Marcia when she finally came clean about what happened to her back in the day. There were times when I wanted to wring Marcia’s next though. When she becomes engaged to Duncan and all that madness that followed that? I wanted to kick her in her teeth but when the end came, I forgave her. How could I not?

Overall, I’m not at all mad that I read this book. I enjoyed the way that the story unfolds and I enjoyed getting to know the different characters. I’m mighty curious to see who’s story will be next and I will most definitely be reading it too.

Grade: 4 out of 5

This book is available from St. Martin’s Press. You can buy it here or here in e-format.