Review: Her Wicked Marquess (Sinful Wallflowers #2) by Stacy Reid

Print Length: 400 pages

Publisher: Entangled: Amara (December 29, 2020)

From Goodreads.com:  Miss Maryann Fitzwilliam is too witty and bookish for her own good. No gentleman of the ton will marry her, so her parents arrange for her to wed a man old enough to be her father. But Maryann is ready to use those wits to turn herself into a sinful wallflower.

When the scandal sheet reports a sighting of Nicolas St. Ives, the Marquess of Rothbury, climbing out the chamber windows of a house party, Maryann does the unthinkable. She anonymously claims that the bedchamber belonged to none other than Miss Fitzwilliam, tarnishing her own reputation—and chances of the dastardly union her family secured for her. Now she just needs to convince the marquess to keep his silence.

Turns out Nicolas allows for the scandal to perpetuate for his own reasons… But when Maryann’s parents hold fast to their arranged marriage plan, it’ll take a scandal of epic proportions for these two to get out of this together.

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My Rating: 3 stars out of 5

Let me start off by saying that I enjoyed much this novel. I especially enjoyed the banter between Nicolas and Maryann, and watching them turn into friends. I definitely saw chemistry between the two as they learned more about one another, and as they realized that neither of them was exactly the person they presented to the rest of the world. 

And I really liked how despite their desires for one another, they refrained from acting upon it immediately. Yes, there are some pre-marital shenanigans that happen, but these things happen later on after the two have spent a good deal of time with one another playing chess, and in one instance learning how to pick a lock. 

 However, this was not the light-hearted romance that the blurb would lead you to believe. 

In fact, the blurb doesn't even divulge the fact that there is another pl0t-line to this story. One that at times overshadows the romance, and could possibly be triggering for some readers. And that is Nicolas' revenge against the men who long ago harmed a girl he was in love with. 

Now, I think it's worth mentioning that the reasons behind his thirst for revenge, while  understandable to a point, are dark and brought up often. There also seemed to be some parts of Nicolas that were in contrast to the other. He makes it a point to repeatedly talk about how young he was when he told his first love they couldn't be together. He uses his age to justify asking her to wait for him to convince his parents of their match. But then he doesn't take the fact that the men who purported the heinous crimes against her were also the same age he was - not even the man who did not actually touch her, but also did nothing to stop the others. That not only cast doubt on his logic on the whole, but also when the big twist was revealed at the end, caused me no end of confusion. If one person was able to forgive another so easily, why couldn't Nicolas? There was also a scene involving Maryann, a shove and a carriage that when looked at on the whole seemed out of place. 

On the whole, if you can overlook the dark aspects of this story, then I think a lot of people will enjoy it. 

DISCLAIMER: I received a complimentary copy of this novel from the publisher. This has not affected my review in any way. All thoughts and opinions expressed in this review are 100% my own.

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                                                        Her Wicked Marquess is available from Amazon.com