An Offer from the Marquess

Necessary Arrangements, Book 4

By: Sadie Bosque

Narrated by: Sienna Frances, Timothy Campbell

It was the worst day of her life...her wedding day.

Miss Isabel Lewis is down on her luck. Previously a perfect hostess and a proper lady, lately she’s been running into one trouble after another, literally. One such unfortunate event costs her the respectability she worked so hard to earn. Now she has a choice: either marry a man she loathes, or spend her life a ruined lady.

A single father, a misbehaving child, and an unruly dog.

The Marquess of Vane is a hermit and a recluse. Having been burnt by women not once, but twice, he is determined to find a perfect, proper lady for the sake of his daughter and marquessate. No need for passion, love or even companionship. But when he runs into Miss Isabel and is forced to offer for her hand, sparks fly and promise to upturn his quiet, uneventful life.

Will they allow their passion to burn, or will their past steal their right to happiness?

©2022 Sadie Bosque (P)2023 Podium Audio

Narration

The plot is smooth and nice and it’s very authentic and real the characters are very human like not overrated

An Offer from the Marquess

This is a “marriage of necessity” story where the main characters are caught in a compromising position and forced to wed. It’s nice to see a heroine who is strong-willed, but still adaptable. I liked the way she took a problem-solving approach to the many challenges of her new life as a marchioness. I also liked that the hero was charmingly tall, dark, & grumpy, but was not the typical rake. In fact, he had limited sexual experience. The heroine is not a virgin, but has even more limited sexual experience. This puts the couple on more equal footing and allows them to gradually discover the delights of physical intimacy together.
There are two other things I really liked about this story. One is that the heroine has large, likable & protective family of brothers, some of whom are featured in other books in the series. The other is one of my favorite tropes: the hero fell in love with the heroine many years earlier (in this case when he was 15), and carries a torch for her though all the intervening years until they meet again.
It was a fun read!

It was okay

This whole series ties several of the characters together and then draws them apart. In this book, the Marquess knew the female lead many years before when he was a boy and she was about 4-5 years older. He fell hopelessly in love with her and she barely remembered that he existed. Fast forward many years, he's a widower and she's a spinster and they're compromised during a ball. She doesn't understand why he has a perpetual chip on his shoulder and she's too feather brained to remember who he is. That part was very unbelievable to me. The story progresses as you would expect and it's decent enough. It was just a bit of a disappointment after the 3rd book in the series where the chemistry between the characters was much more compelling.

Another good one

Overall, I enjoyed it. Just started to feel so frustrated for Isabel with how distrustful Vane was but thankfully once they got past that, the story really heated up and got good. I just really wanted to know if they ever had any kids together, the ending really didn't fully answer the question for me but I also like how these books touch on real issues and insecurities that happen with real life couples. Narration sounds good as usual and there were even the pleasantly surprising scenes that made me laugh out loud. Also, the voice for Stanhope is both hideous and funny but perhaps fitting for his character lol.