Review: Tamed by the Marquess

Tamed by the Marquess by Scarlett Osborne
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

I find it nearly impossible to believe that this book, "Tamed by the Marquess," was written by the same person who wrote the first two books published by "Scarlett Osborne". The writing style and tone are completely different from those of the previous books, the plot (mostly) makes sense, and, most importantly, the author seems to have a better grasp on the history of the Regency period. That isn't to say that the historical details in this book are perfect, however; for example, the author's information on how divorce worked during that time is completely wrong. It wouldn't have been as easy to obtain a divorce as the author seems to think, even for a duke such as the one featured in this story. Christopher, the Duke of Gresham, would have had to petition Parliament to pass a Private Act/Bill of Divorcement, which could have taken years to obtain, in order to legally dissolve his first marriage and be allowed to remarry.

As for the book's plot, while I found it to be a major improvement on "Ms. Osborne's" last two efforts, there were still some things that didn't quite make sense to me. For example, how did Mr. Coleman end up back in the courtroom to be arrested at the end of Joanna's trial? After his testimony, he made a point of asking the judge to be excused to return to Gresham Manor because the duke's "illness" had required him to take on so many of the duchy's responsibilities. When exactly did Mr. Coleman return to the courtroom? Why didn't he remain at the estate to ensure that no one interfered with his plans for Christopher's demise? Also, how is it possible that Dorothy knew nothing of her father's plans? The Colemans seem to have planned everything else together, so it seems unlikely that she wouldn't have been in on that aspect of the scheme as well.

In addition, the central romance between Joanna and Christopher didn't work very well for me because the main characters were apart for so much of the book. It was tough to believe that their childhood connection was strong enough to last through all those years apart, especially when one considers that they were only "in love" with each other for a single summer. It also seemed strange to me that Joanna never came to resent Christopher, even a little, for all of the struggles she experienced as a poor, unwed single mother. They both seemed very naive and gullible to me, even at the very end of the book when they were much older and presumably should have been wiser.

At any rate, this was a relatively entertaining story and I liked that it was different from most of the other historical romances I've read because it featured a gypsy ("Traveller") main character. I also liked some of the secondary characters, particularly Joanna and Christopher's daughter, Hannah, and Christopher's cousin and heir, Rowley.

One final note: I have to say that it will be interesting to see what the next "Scarlett Osborne" book is like.  Will it be a return to the hot mess of the first two books or something more along the lines of this one?  Generally speaking, I don't know what to make of these books being published by Cobalt Fairy.  Am I the only one who has heard rumors of ghostwriters being used?  It would make sense given their push for each author to release a new book every single month.  I can't imagine how difficult it would be for any one person to keep up with that kind of writing schedule!

*ARC provided by the author/publisher via BookFunnel in exchange for an honest review.

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