Lawson’s review of My Wicked Marquess by Gaelen Foley
Historical romance released by Avon 30 Jun 09

Gaelen Foley’s first book with Avon starts off a new series. The Knights are not in this series anywhere, so don’t hope for any appearances of those characters. Instead, this book starts off a series centered around members of a notorious club in London, the Inferno Club. Things are not what they seem however, and the intrigue, secrets and lies start to pile up in this first installment.

The first time the reader meets the hero and heroine of the story they are on opposite sides of the street. Daphne Starling is on her weekly trip to an orphanage she supports and is in need of rescue from the local street gang. Out of the building across the street a man stumbles out, drunk, and draws the ruffians off. Daphne learns later he is Max St. Albans, Marquess of Rotherstone, and though she realizes that he was feigning drunkenness, he was coming out of a brothel, which she doesn’t approve of.

Max is a member of the notorious Inferno Club and back in London after a long tour of the continent. His real purpose for his travels was as an operative for a secret order that fights the evil machinations of another even older secret order. Now that Napoleon has been defeated and the Prometheans are weakened, Max has come home to London to find a bride and on the list provided by his solicitor, Daphne’s name makes Max curious. Though Daphne has a sterling reputation, she’s been subject to recent gossip as a jilt.

Max begins his pursuit of Daphne, partially to irk his childhood nemesis Lord Albert Carew but mostly because she brings light to his dark and dreary double life. As Max methodically works to get Daphne to marry him, Daphne tries to show Max love, caring and the meaning of an equal partnership in a relationship. Each has their personal battles to fight and the lies keep stacking up and threaten this new relationship more than either thought possible.

Instead of addressing the characters first I’d rather talk about the story. For many that subscribe to the conspiracy theory idea that there are secret societies that are really running things and there’s a war going on behind the scenes that few really know about, this story will be right up your alley. Not only is Max a spy, in the James Bond 20th century sense, but his secret society, the Order of St. Michael, was founded by crusaders. The story about the centuries long struggle between the two societies would fit in really well into the adventures of Dr. Robert Langdon, but it’s too much of a historical stretch for this reader.

Both Daphne and Max are pretty stereotypical leads. She’s the saint of the ton who’s the subject of vicious gossip because she bruised Lord Albert’s ego by rejecting him. She knows everyone and is well liked in general except for the snobby few that believe the jilt gossip. She wants to marry for love and has a doting and indulgent father and a petty stepmother who wants her out of the house. Daphne also is pretty oblivious to things that don’t really revolve around her such as her father’s finances and her familial duties.

Max feels he’s never been loved and just wants a wife to give him heirs. When Daphne’s caring inspires him to go after her he tries to get all her love without giving any in return. While keeping his work for the Order secret, he lies to her continuously and it takes way too long before he comes clean. He thinks he can manipulate people to do what he wants all the time and everything should go along with his plans. Again, it takes him way too long to see that philosophy doesn’t work, especially with a wife around.

I’ll most likely read the next book in this series, because Foley is a writer that I keep hoping can live up to The Duke, but the last few have come up way too short in comparison. The spark of what Foley is capable of is evident in the telling of the stories of the Order versus the Prometheans and the lead up to the next book in the series at the end, but it just shows how notably absent that style was in the rest of the book.

Grade: D+

  Summary:
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To restore family honor the Marquess of Rotherstone faces his most dangerous mission—finding the perfect bride . . .
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To London’s aristocracy, the Inferno Club is a scandalous society of men no proper young lady would acknowledge. But though they are publicly notorious for pursuing all manner of debauchery, in private they are warriors who would do anything to protect king and country.
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The Marquess of Rotherstone has decided it’s time to restore the family’s good name. But as a member of the Inferno Club, he knows there is only one way to redeem himself in Society’s eyes: marry a lady of impeccable beauty and breeding, whose reputation is, above all, spotless.
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Someone quite unlike Daphne Starling. True, she’s temptingly lovely, but a jilted suitor has nearly ruined her reputation. Still, Max cannot resist her allure—or the challenge of proving London’s gossips wrong. He would do anything to win her hand . . . and show that even a wicked marquess can make a perfect husband.
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Read an excerpt.