The Devil Is a Marquess by Elisa Braden
Charlotte Lancaster has gone through five humiliating seasons trying to please her father by landing a husband with a title. The problem? She hasn’t had a single suiter and feels like an outsider as the extremely tall and accident prone American heiress. Just when she thinks she’ll finally be in control of her life, her father appears with news. She is to marry the extremely broke and disgraced Benedict Chatham, who has accepted the terms of their marriage agreement. Chatham is to remain sober as well as devoted for a year, and he will receive her huge dowry. Produce an heir, and that sum will be doubled. Will the seemingly mismatched couple make it through their first year of marriage unscathed, or is love in the cards for the pair?
I think this might be my favorite book in the series because I don’t know if anything will top this! Charlotte and Chatham’s chemistry is fire, but I like that it’s a slow burn for the couple. They go from a disgruntled arrangement to reluctant friends before their romantic chemistry bursts out of the fireplace. One of the things I like about them is that they start off as odds with each other before slowly becoming friends who are married. It’s interesting to see them strike up a deal and learn that there is so much more than meets the eye. The romance slowly sneaks up on the both of them, but it makes complete sense and is truly sizzling.
Like always, we follow the main couple the book focuses on. In this case, it’s Charlotte and Chatham. I knew that Charlotte would be getting her own book the second we met her in the previous novel. I absolutely loved her from the start. She’s such a great character. I love how we learn about how intelligent she is and how she’s braved each season knowing that no one is interested in her. It’s easy to identify with her low self-esteem due to how others treat her over her appearance and other things that are purely on the surface. I’m glad that she finds her happily ever after with someone who not only finds her absolutely beautiful, but also loves and respects everything about her as a person. It’s a far cry from what she’s used to and she deserves that kind of love!
Now, we’ve seen Chatham before and I was wondering when we’d eventually see him settling down in one of the books. It was really interesting to learn his backstory and see him grow as a character. We’ve known him as a scandalous and untrustworthy man, but then we learn that the person he’s been for years was born from Chatham’s need to protect himself. No one can hurt you if they can never get close enough, right? That’s him in a nutshell, but his background turned out to be quite interesting.
Plus, there’s a great cast of supporting characters. We meet some new people, and it’s very clear that some of them will get their own books in due time. I enjoyed getting to know many of them, so I look forward to seeing them again in future books. It’s also fun to continue to see characters from the previous books pop up. It’s one of the things I like about this series. We never say goodbye to the characters and we get to see how they flourish after a book is focused on them. All in all, this was an excellent read and I’m looking forward to continuing the series.
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