Merely Married [Mass Market Paperback]

Patricia Coughlin (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: October 6, 1998

Life for Adrian Devereau, the sixth duke of Raven, was flawless, but for one nagging detail.  Try as he did to live down to his reputation as the Wicked Lord Raven, the ladies persisted in viewing him as desirable husband material.  So he conceived a bold solution to foil them once and for all--he would marry a woman on her deathbed and adopt the role of grieving widower.  He even found a most suitable wife: Leah Stretton, overtaken by a sudden illness while journeying to London.  But with Leah's "miraculous" recovery, Adrian found himself properly wedded to a beauty as headstrong as she was healthy.  Now his only chance at freedom was playing her game.  More adept at writing about romance and adventure than living it, Leah could not permit a new family scandal to ruin her sister's launch into society.  If Adrian played her devoted husband, she would grant him an annulment later.  There was only one rule: neither of them could fall in love.  Of course, rules were made to be broken.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

Two outrageous and original characters lock horns, with unpredictable results right up to the happy ending, as Coughlin (Lord Savage) scores with another delightful Regency romance. When a drunken libertine, the Duke of Raven, comes across a well-bred young lady fallen deathly ill en route to London, he impulsively seizes on a scheme suggested by a friend. By marrying her and becoming a widower, he can use his feigned grief to free him from the annoying demands of society. He has no scruples about tricking a semi-conscious woman into marrying him, but fate, naturally, has his comeuppance in store. Leah not only recovers, she decides to take advantage of her unexpected rise in society to further a scheme of her own, and from there on, it's a game of point-counterpoint. Although the marriage of convenience is a convention of the genre, Coughlin manages to surprise the reader at every turn while keeping her protagonists both believable and appealing.
Copyright 1998 Reed Business Information, Inc.

Review

"Wicked Lord Raven"...only in a really good, really enticing, really passionate romance would a writer ever use such a name for the man who captures the heart of the lovely heroine. Well then, Merely Married is all those things and more! Patricia Coughlin has gone the distance and made my toes curl in anticipation of her next venture into romance. Raven is perhaps one of the most self-centered, egotistic, and fraudulent men every to grace the stage of romance. Not only is he compellingly handsome and beguilingly seductive, he has the heart of a wild animal and the soul of the devil himself. That is...until he marries Leah Stretton. Of course, he only married Leah because he thought her on her deathbed. She wasn't supposed to recover and insinuate herself into his every waking...and dreaming moment. Leah? Well, she's quite an interesting piece of work, too. She is only in London, pricking Raven's hide, because she desperately wants to give her little sister the greatest season she possibly can have. With Lord Raven's name blended with the endeavor, little Christiana should capture quite an appropriate spouse. Then the marriage will be annulled and everything can go back to the way it was. Annulment? You can't be serious! Lord Raven never consummating his marriage? Made a laughing stock before the entire world? There has to be another way to solve this problem once and for all. The agreement calls for getting the little sister married off adequately. That can be achieved. The plan, however, is to seduce the new Duchess into a quiet country life away from London. Can Raven pull it off without making a mess of Leah's life as well as his own? Just wait until she tells him she loves him. How the mighty will fall! Merely Married is one of the most delightful romances I have read in a while. The passion is electrifying! The story is captivating! The characters are incredible! My hat is off to Ms. Coughlin for making my heart sing and bringing a smile to my face with every page! Incredibly wicked! A lesson in seduction you will never forget! Merely Married is one of the greatest mixes of character and plot you'll ever find! Patricia Coughlin fills every chapter with passion...every page with desire! Karen Ellington -- Copyright © 110198 Literary Times, Inc. All rights reserved -- From Literary Times

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Product Details

• Mass Market Paperback: 352 pages
• Publisher: Bantam (October 6, 1998)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 055357521X
• ISBN-13: 978-0553575217
• Product Dimensions: 6.7 x 4.1 x 0.8 inches
• Shipping Weight: 6.4 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 4.3 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (40 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #243,813 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

14 of 14 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars A fresh take on an old story, December 7, 1999

By A Customer

This review is from: Merely Married (Mass Market Paperback)

Readers of romance novels have all seen the plot of this book before - two people who loathe each other are forced to marry and end up falling in love. Ms. Coughlin updates this plot by giving us wonderful, well-written, likable characters and sparkling dialog. I loved the way Adrian and Leah verbally dueled, and the way that they gradually developed respect, and then love for each other. The love scenes were great, too! I especially liked the way the author avoided endowing the hero or heroine with the unrealistic attributes that some romance authors do to their leads. There were no surprises in the story - I knew exactly where this book was going, but really enjoyed the journey!

22 of 26 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Love it - Made me laugh, couldn't put it down!, February 28, 2000

By 

"funnylove" - See all my reviews

This review is from: Merely Married (Mass Market Paperback)

I wasn't sure about this book since it is the first of her book I have read, bit I ended up staying up until 2 a.m. to finish the whole book in one sitting. The book was fast-paced (can't stand the books that goes on and on in describing scenes and depicting the inner thoughts of the characters) and extremely funny. However unreal some reviewers may think, it is extremely entertaining. For me, Romance novel is suppose to be unreal and fun... and this one was. Loved the part when Leah showed up at Raven's house unexpected. All the interactions in public were written with lots of humor. I laughed at Raven's reaction to his two friends - they were both rather funny also. The part that he tried to seduce Leah by pretending to be a painter made me laugh. Leah was strong and optimistic - not a meek and whininig person. Raven can be a bit much to take, but is really touching in his own evil way. Although the story is predictable (aren't all romance novels?), I look forward to another from the author.

9 of 9 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Witty, charming, clever. What more can we ask from an author?, February 7, 2008

By 

J. Lesley "(Judy)" (Midsouth, United States) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)    (TOP 500 REVIEWER)    (REAL NAME)   

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Merely Married (Mass Market Paperback)

Adrian Devereau, the Duke of Raven, is not just a rake and a scoundrel. He is REALLY a rake and a scoundrel. He is handsome, extremely rich and unmarried. All qualities fervently sought by young women, girls and their mothers as prime husband material. And they want to take him on as a "project", to reform him. Adrian, however, has had one horrendous experience with a woman he was in love with and vowed never to be used by a woman again. So far he has managed to keep himself out of the clutches of any mother intent on seeing her daughter married to his title and his money, and as an afterthought, to himself. When one of his friends tells him about the "Plimpton Solution" he seizes upon it as a way to satisfy all his worries. And as fate would have it, a potential "Plimpton Solution" female seems to fall right into his life. Surely this is a sign? Plimpton married a woman only to have her die very soon after the marriage. His problem was that he actually had come to love his wife and truly grieved when she died. All the members of the ton left him alone to deal with his grief. Therefore, no matchmaking. When Raven learns that a woman has been given refuge in the rectory,which just happened to be the home of his friend Will Grantley, he decides to have Will perform a marriage service and his other friend, Sir Colin Thornton, can draw up all the legal papers. Since all three are very much influenced by how much they had been drinking throughout the evening at the local pub, this seems like a very good idea at the time. After all, the apothecary said that the woman was dying.

Except that she didn't die. Leah Stretton not only survived, she got Will and Colin to tell her all about her new "husband". She decided to use the situation to her advantage and therefore, made a very spectacular entrance into Adrian's home during a dinner party he was giving in order to convince the biggest gossips in town that he was well and truly married but that his wife was unwell and staying in the country. Leah has a proposition to make to the Wicked Lord Raven. One which will give them both an opportunity to end up with what they want. Of course the trouble is, they both actually want quite different things.

I was enthralled by this book. It was witty - the conversations between all the characters in the book were smart and humorous. Not just the two lead characters were given this treatment by the author. Ms Coughlin had me laughing and chuckling and smiling over dialogue between Adrian, Leah, Will, Colin, and the best depiction of household staff I've come across in quite a long while. This book is also clever. It takes a plot which has admittedly been done many times before and makes it fresh by giving the reader a hero and heroine who seem to delight us in not acting as we expect them to act. It is charming because no matter how "wicked" the Wicked Duke is, we see him begin to change, in very small steps but sure steady progress is made.

I absolutely fell under the spell of this authors work. She writes in a style which was refreshing for me. No cloying sweetness for the heroine, no mistresses for the hero. No feisty bluestocking who must have her way and best the man at everyting but a woman with a purpose and the intelligence to know how to get from point "a" to point "b" by being honest and going in a straight line. Hip - hip - hooray!!!