12 of 12 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
Well worth reading - a further instalment in Oliver's series, August 3, 1999
By A Customer
This review is from: An Inconvenient Wife (Signet Regency Romance, 9484) (Paperback)
As a stand-alone book, this is an enjoyable tale of a cynical, embittered rake who has vowed never to marry, and the marriage he finds himself forced to make as a result of being caught _in flagrante_ with the wrong lady.
As another episode in Oliver's Seven Corinthians linked books, it is even more worth the purchase. The Marquess of Monroyal first appeared as an intriguing and in some ways likeable figure in 'An Unsuitable Match,' and it is good to see him getting his own story. Monroyal, Hawkhurst and the other two men in 'An Unsuitable Match' were new characters in the series; none of these had appeared in Oliver's previous books, though earlier characters reappear in both 'Unsuitable Match' and 'Inconvenient Wife.'
What puzzles me about Monroyal, however, is that at the start of this book there is reference to his feelings for the Countess of Mansfield, and his attempt to run off to Paris with her. However, as readers of 'Miss Drayton's Downfall' and 'Lord Gresham's Lady' will be aware, the person who offered to run off with Cassandra Mansfield was the Marquess of Gresham. It's unclear, therefore, whether Oliver got her characters mixed up and hadn't realised that she had given Monroyal the same 'back-story', or whether she liked Lord Gresham so much that she decided to duplicate him in Monroyal.
Still, regardless of that, this is a book you'll want to read again, particularly in conjunction with the others in the series.
I can't tell whether Oliver has continued this series since; this appears to be the most recent I can find, but there are other characters who have not yet had their own stories, most noticeably 'Sweet Willy' Hampton. Anyone know?
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8 of 8 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
An entertaining and enjoyable read., June 15, 1998
By A Customer
This review is from: An Inconvenient Wife (Signet Regency Romance, 9484) (Paperback)
I'd rate this book in the top 20% of American-authered Regencies I've read - in general American Regency romances are not as authentic and lack the attention to detail of contemporary British-authored Regencies. However, Patricia Oliver appears to be a more conscientious writer than most and this particular book was amusing, entertaining and kept me interested until the end. I'd certainly recommend it.
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3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Caught in a trap of his own making!, April 29, 2000
This review is from: An Inconvenient Wife (Signet Regency Romance, 9484) (Paperback)
When Robert Monroyal, depressed at seeing so many of his close friends - all once rakehells like himself - now married, bets ten thousand pounds that he will never marry, he never imagines that scarcely a couple of weeks later he will find himself forced to marry a woman he barely knows, the daughter of a man he despises, who hates his guts and whom he believes to have trapped him. And yet from these inauspicious beginnings....
Robert Monroyal first appeared as the cynical, sneering friend of Guy Hawkhurst in An Unsuitable Match, and very much merited a book of his own. And Oliver did him proud! He's not, of course, quite the arrogant, cruel man he appears to be, but he is seriously troubled and in need of a good woman. However, he certainly doesn't intend that Pamela should have any role in his life. Instead, he sends her away to his country estates, planning never to visit her.
However, he reckons without his siblings, his step-mother and even Pamela herself.
A great read!
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