Courtney Milan is the best, the very best, romance writer currently publishing, but she is not perfect and Once Upon a Marquess is a delightfully imperfect novel. Her trademark elements – eloquence, unexpected romantic moments, family politics, deciding for oneself who one will be – are here, they just don’t come together quite as successfully as they have in some of her previous efforts. The first book in her new Worth Saga, Milan is laying a lot of groundwork and she is mostly successful in establishing not only the main characters, but the necessary supporting relationships that leave the reader looking forward to the novels to come. I’d pre-order them now, if I could.
Lady Judith Worth is living in less than genteel poverty after a treasonous father and brother ruined the family name and fortune. At 26, she has held her remaining family together for eight long years through force of will and the kind of determination a general would marvel at. In her care, she has a fourteen year-old sister and a twelve year-old brother. The latter has just come home from a term at Eton, bloodied, bowed, and refusing to return. The former is somewhat spoiled and meant, I think, to come across as eccentric, but I found myself wanting either a fuller explanation for her behavior or some movement towards maturity. I assume both the reasons for her character and the growing up will be ongoing through the series.
Christian Trent, the Marquess of both Ashford and the novel’s title, comes back into Judith’s life when she requests his help. Once upon a time, they were young and in love. Once upon a time, he was asked to press the case against Judith’s brother and he did so successfully. Knowing he broke her heart – and she his – Christian wants nothing more than to do something, anything, to help the Worth family, even if it means keeping himself from Judith. He really does try, but Judith may be practical and managing quite well as head of the family, but she’s still unable to resist to the undeniable chemistry Milan has created for her leads. It handily separates itself from the “his eyes looked into her soul” fare of many genre works and, like real life couples, Judith and Christian have so much fun together and truly revel in each other’s company. Of course, their history stands in their way and Judith is determined to forge ahead on her own, but Christian is the world’s most adorable and charming tortured hero even when his quirkiness can be a bit much.
A complete summary of Courtney Milan’s catalogue, with recommendations, can be found here. Since it’s the holiday season, I’ll specifically recommend A Kiss for Midwinter as both a classic of the genre and one of my top five (three? two?) romances of all time.
Links to my other reviews can be found on my complete reading list of books sorted by author or Author Commentary & The Tallies Shameful.
I am in the middle of reading and am finding Teresa more annoying than anything. I’m enjoying it, but it hasn’t gripped me like previous books.
Everyone was too quirky. I get that we are embracing a broader range of character types but not everyone needs an assortment of affectations and issues.
…and I wanted to SLAP Teresa.
I also found the Baby Elephant conversation tough to get through.
I have to admit, Theresa’s unnamed quirkiness disorder was a turnoff for me as well.
I wondered at one point if she was meat the have particularly bad ADHD or ADD.
In her newsletter she said this is the book she’s had the most trouble with. She basically had to scrap all she’d written and start from scratch. And it sounds like from your review, you can kind of tell. I’m still excited to read, though!
It’s still way better than The Heiress Effect.
I liked The Heiress Effect! I think I actually liked it better than, gulp, Unraveled.
[shun]
noooooooooooooo this is a safe space!!!
It hurts me, too, but I just don’t see how anyone can’t adore Smite and Miranda Darling/Miranda, darling.
I liked them, I just didn’t like their story they were involved in. Also, broody damaged guys just aren’t my thing. And Smite is like, the epitome of that.
Sorry, Ashley, but we’re going to give you the side eye for your failure to fully appreciate Smite. He’s a million times better than Boring Oliver.
I honestly am not sure if Teresa was meant to be on the autism spectrum or unbelievably self-centred and spoiled. Yet she seems to have been impossible since early childhood, to the point where the awful uncle wouldn’t take them in if she was part of the deal. I agree that this is lesser Milan, but would rank it above The Heiress Effect, Talk Sweetly to Me and the Carhart duology.
Have you read This Wicked Gift? I loved it. I agree that Trial by Desire doesn’t work, but I thought Proof by Seduction had its moments although it feels like a first novel.
If they could publish a version of Heiress Effect that was just Emily and Anjan, I would buy it in a flash, especially if she bulked it up a bit. And they made a movie starring Sendhil Ramamurthy as Anjan.
I wondered if Teresa was meant to be on the spectrum, but I just didn’t feel it was addressed enough.
Yes, the novella’s lovely. Proof for Seduction isn’t bad, but even with wanting to slap Teresa into the next county, Once Upon a Marquess
It’s not even that I like Oliver more than Smite. I just like the story surrounding Jane and Oliver better (and I definitely like Jane better than Miranda) and it soured me a little against their book. I hate stories where the heroes are involved in organized crime. I should have just kept my mouth shut. I don’t want to be shunned :(
No, you are completely right, there are plot elements of Unraveled that are less than great, I just ignore them because the central romance works so well for me. It would be a terribly boring world if everyone had the same opinions. Mock shunning recinded.