“The Savage Marquess” is the second book in “The Royal Ambition” series. Unlike the two previous M. C. Beaton series I recently read, the stories and characters in this series are not related or connected in any way. They are basically standalone books which where set in the same time and in the same locality where the names of places and events are the same. Read my review on the first title in this series by clicking on “Book Reviews” on the menu bar of the homepage of this blog.
The Earl of Clifton’s daughter, Ismene will be having her come-out at the London season where debutantes are paraded by their parents at balls and social gatherings in a bid to fetch a handsome and eligible husband for them. However, Ismene has not being able to make any friends due to her bad manners and her father looks for a “Poor Relation” who will act as her companion during the season to give her an appearance of normalcy.
Lucinda is caring for her sick father with no help from wealthy relatives until the Earl chooses her as companion to his daughter in exchange for paying for a physician to care for her father. She moves to London to live with the Cliftons and her life changes when she meets the Marquess of Rockingham at the first ball she attends with Ismene. Rockingham who is one of London’s eligible bachelors is a known “rake” and famous for his wild escapades and mistresses. Surprisingly. he proposes to Lucinda and she accepts as Ismene is determined to make her life miserable and constantly treat her with disdain. This is where the story starts…..
With secret plots, murder, scheming and deceit, this is an action packed romance novel. The author weaves a story which connects different colorful characters that made this a very interesting read. I like the multiple themes in the story however, I found that these themes almost overshadowed the “Romance” theme in the story, this was the only aspect I didn’t like in the book.
One key lesson learnt here is how Rockingham’s hard/cruel upbringing by his parents affected his understanding of what love was and drove him to his wild behavior and attitude. The aristocrats of those days after they had a child, handed him or her over to a nurse and then a governess who took care of the child. they didn’t even breast feed their children, it was done by a wet nurse. They were only presented to them at specific times and some of them never gave their children a hug or showed any affection as it was deemed as something beneath them. This in turn affected how these children when they became adults understood what love was and how they expressed this and other emotions. There were so many other lessons I learnt or was reminded of in this story and this made it a great read for me.
I recommend this book to everyone. I still have four more books in this series to go so let me be off!
Rating: 4 Stars
Published: January 15, 2014 by Rosetta Books
Pages: 183
Genre: Historical Fiction (Regency Romance)
Purchase @ www.amazon.com/thesavagemarquess
The Author: Marion Chesney was born on 1936 in Glasgow, Scotland, UK, and started her first job as a bookseller in charge of the fiction department in John Smith & Sons Ltd. While bookselling, by chance, she got an offer from the Scottish Daily Mail to review variety shows and quickly rose to be their theatre critic. She left Smith’s to join Scottish Field magazine as a secretary in the advertising department, without any shorthand or typing, but quickly got the job of fashion editor instead. She then moved to the Scottish Daily Express where she reported mostly on crime. This was followed by a move to Fleet Street to the Daily Express where she became chief woman reporter. After marrying Harry Scott Gibbons and having a son, Charles, Marion went to the United States where Harry had been offered the job of editor of the Oyster Bay Guardian. When that didn’t work out, they went to Virginia and Marion worked as a waitress in a greasy spoon on the Jefferson Davies in Alexandria while Harry washed the dishes. Both then got jobs on Rupert Murdoch’s new tabloid, The Star, and moved to New York.
Anxious to spend more time at home with her small son, Marion, urged by her husband, started to write historical romances in 1977. After she had written over 100 of them under her maiden name, Marion Chesney, and under the pseudonyms: Ann Fairfax, Jennie Tremaine, Helen Crampton, Charlotte Ward, and Sarah Chester, she getting fed up with 1714 to 1910, she began to write detectives stories in 1985 under the pseudonym of M. C. Beaton. On a trip from the States to Sutherland on holiday, a course at a fishing school inspired the first Constable Hamish Macbeth story. They returned to Britain and bought a croft house and croft in Sutherland where Harry reared a flock of black sheep. But Charles was at school, in London so when he finished and both tired of the long commute to the north of Scotland, they moved to the Cotswolds where Agatha Raisin was created.
