A NIGHT OWL REVIEWS BOOK REVIEW | Reviewed by: Terri
Marguerite Laurent is the child of her mother’s lover. After her mother dies, she is sent to a boarding school which abused its students. She’s never met her father. To make her living, Marguerite sits with people dying, trying to make their last days as pleasant as possible and help their families in their time of grief.
When one of her clients recovers, Marguerite is shocked. This has never happened. This client calls in a psychic to learn of her new found future, only to be told she will be dead before the week is out. Everyone is shocked at this statement as the woman seems to be in perfect health, even the doctor said so. However, the woman does strangely die giving the psychic some credit. This fact really scares Marguerite as she was told she would not live out the year!
Sure that she must have misheard, Marguerite goes to the psychic house to ask again about her future. Unfortunately, she is told the same thing making Marguerite need to rethink her future. She doesn’t want to die before having a lover. And as the prediction says she will marry before dying, that is not going to happen.
During the same time period, Marguerite’s father has requested her to come to his house to meet her two half sisters. She has no desire to meet her father but her sisters are a different matter. She will stop for just a short time to meet them.
At that meeting, Marguerite learns that their father plans on marrying them off to penniless peers in the hope of elevating his status. Marguerite wants nothing of this plan and quickly leaves the house, only to be kidnapped!
Ash Courtland is Marguerite’s father’s business partner. When he heard of the scheme to marry off daughters, he requested the opportunity to also wed one but was turned down. He doesn’t want all of his hard work to go to some worthless peer and comes up with a plan to kidnap one of the daughters and take her to Scotland to wed. He figures a week is long enough to get the girl to agree.
Though drawn to Ash and in other circumstances she would love to wed him, Marguerite doesn’t dare. She begs to be allowed to return to the city. She makes every effort to escape. Nothing seems to work. Instead, she finds herself falling in love and fighting against her own desires.
Can Marguerite take a chance? Can she do something to change her future?
This historical romance, set in 19th century England, has an excellent story.
The characters are unique. Ash is not a peer or born wealthy. Instead, he has risen from the gutters and will fight to keep what he has worked so hard to achieve. He isn’t in trade but owns gambling hells. His background and morals are shaped by events that gently raised Brits would have no idea about. Marguerite has seen what happens when you love someone. Her mother would leave her at the drop of a hat, if her father requested her to come to him. She knows what it is to have to support yourself and to be on your own. No simpering miss in Marguerite!
Psychics or seers were believed during this era. Many, upper and lower classes, would seek these people out. Many educated people knew that they were false but when someone gave consistent view of the future that then played out as told, it was hard to discount what they were saying. For Marguerite to believe, she had to see for herself that this woman had some true power.
Marrying daughters up in society was an excellent way for those of the lower class to move themselves into a higher position. For Marguerite’s father to gather daughters he ignored for years to do so, actually was bettering their lives as well. Marguerite’s sisters did not come from a life of leisure so looking to leave what they had behind was a step up.
I enjoyed this slightly different historical. I loved that the peers weren’t the heroes. I enjoyed reading about a segment of society that is usually ignored or only briefly mentioned. I felt the characters come to life and found their struggles entertaining. Trying to figure out who was going to win the battle over marriage became fun and I wasn’t sure who was really going to win.
Don’t forget, Marguerite was to die within the year. Does she or does she figure out how to avoid such a fate? You’ll have to read her story to get the answer and even that answer isn’t what I expected!
Dec 01, 2010 | 9780061579233
5 - Rare Top Pick | 4.5 - Top Pick | 4 - I Liked It | 3.5 - Enjoyable | 3 - OK | 2.5 - It just didn't click
Book Blurb for Wicked Nights With a Lover
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.
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