Review: The Marquess in Her Bed: A Steamy Historical Regency Romance Novel

The Marquess in Her Bed: A Steamy Historical Regency Romance Novel by Olivia Bennet
My rating: 1 of 5 stars

Olivia Bennet's "The Marquess in Her Bed" was predictable and poorly written, much as her last several books have been. Her first few books showed promise, but in my opinion her writing has really gone downhill since then. All of her recent books seem to involve an "insta-love" plot, and I'm starting to think she doesn't know how to write anything else. It would be nice to see some kind of relationship development between the main characters so that I can actually believe in their HEA!

Beyond that, there are a ton of run on sentences, typos, and words missing or misused in the text (e.g. "reveal" instead of "revel" at 57% in the Kindle edition; confusion between "its" and "it's" at 71%). Also, the main characters in this book were strangely obsessed with geometry, which I found to be incredibly annoying. I wasn't even a quarter of the way through the book before the author had already exceeded the number of times I want to hear geometry discussed in a romance novel. If I wanted to read about math, I would have chosen a different type of book entirely!

Finally, but most critically, there were many things about the plot that were either historically inaccurate, didn't make sense, or both. First of all, why did the Duchess feel the need to order new furniture for the family's country estate in order to prepare for her daughter's debut into Society? Her daughter Isobel's debut should have taken place in London during the Season, and she should have been presented at court at the same time. I could see why that might necessitate the purchase of new furniture and decorations for the family's London townhouse, but not for the country estate. Had the plot been based on preparations for a house party or something similar, it would have made a lot more sense.

Second, it would not have mattered whether Nicholas and Cecelia married before or after Isobel's debut because Isobel still could have been ruined by the potential scandal. If they wanted to eliminate any possible risk to Isobel's reputation, they would have had to wait to announce their own engagement until after she was safely married. Otherwise, even if she were already engaged, Isobel's fiance could have decided to call off the engagement because he didn't want to be associated with such a scandalous family.

Third, despite what Nicholas thought and whatever promises he made to Cecelia, it would have been impossible for Cecelia to just keep working in her father's carpenter shop after they were married. She would have had to take on some duties as his wife eventually, especially after his parents were gone and Nicholas became the duke. Wouldn't it be better for Cecelia to learn about those duties from his mother in advance? Unless Nicholas planned to hide out in the country for the rest of his life, never take up his seat in Parliament, and never introduce his children into Society, Cecelia would need to know at least a few basic social skills, such as organizing the seating for a dinner party based on precedence. Without those, she'd be a miserable failure as a hostess, and she and her children would be complete outcasts from Society no matter their titles.

Overall, I'm really not sure why I am still reading Olivia Bennet's books, or any of the ones published by Cobalt Fairy. Am I not reading the same books as everyone else? I can't figure out how they all continue to be rated so highly on both Amazon and Goodreads.

*ARC provided by the author/publisher via BookFunnel. All opinions expressed are my own.

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