Read time: 2 minutes
After her father’s death and her brother’s disgraced exile, Judith Worth is tasked with caring for her three younger siblings and keeping the family name in good, if socially lowered, standing. When a challenge to her hard won domesticity arises, there’s only one person she can turn to for help–the Marquess Christian Trent, who happens to be not only her scorned first love but the man whose testimony was the cause of her family downfall.
(Somehow, the latter doesn’t matter as much as it should. It should really matter, though.)
Usually this is where I scold you all about how romance is all the same and we read it for the setting and characters, but this one is a bit different. The Victorian setting is vividly rendered and the cast of characters are lovingly created but the romance itself is…kind of odd? I could not figure out why these two like each other. Sure they have cute banter and matching neurodivergencies, but there are glaring issues of the main guy’s righteous betrayal and addiction to laudanum hanging over this couple that just aren’t discussed enough to feel resolved.
That said, I still enjoyed this. Courtney Milan excels at writing relationships that aren’t romantic, and that’s the best thing about this book. Judith’s stalwart but imperfect care for her siblings, including her autistic-coded sister, is really beautifully done. So is her friendship with a local who has no idea she was once a Lady. Neurodivergence, poverty, addiction and even a pretty horrifying human trafficking subplot are also handled well, if a little glibly at times. Milan has a way of creating communities that are so interesting to read about that they can overshadow the romance, but I can’t be mad at that, even if does make the spicy scenes feel a little out of place when they happen(and when they do, they’re almost clinically frank.)
It feels strange to recommend a romance novel for everything but the romance, but hey, there’s a first time for everything.
Continued sobriety and buckets of cat toys to Once Upon A Marquess.
(Fellow readers, this wasn’t the spiciest romance I’ve ever read, but if you want spicy diverse romance look no further than this booklist. It’s part of the Equal Opportunity Bookshop, where I curate booklists for and about everyone. If you buy a book there, I get a commission, and that commission keeps this website going, and with what’s left over, I buy books, then I review those books and then I tell you about the bookshop and vicious cycle achieved! Thank you in advance for contributing to it, or visiting your local library and doing the same. Now, go and read something good! Peace!)
Equal Opportunity Reader 