Rating: 
Summary: Great Romance with Humor...
Review: Adrian Devereau, Duke of Raven, is thirty-one, handsome, rich and titled, but still unmarried. And that's just the way he likes it. Nicknamed the Wicked Lord Raven, he capitalizes on that reputation to remain single. But the young ladies and their marriage minded mammas are all trying to reel him in, and change his wicked ways. So he concocts a scheme to keep the women at bay, and earn him some peace. He will marry a woman on her deathbed, and play the part of grieving widower after she passes on. It didn't take long to find the perfect candidate. Leah Stretton was traveling to London when she became critically ill, and wasn't expected to live through the night. But when his new bride appears at his home healthy, beautiful and headstrong, he finds he must go along with her wishes. Leah would not allow a scandal to ruin her sister's chances of finding a suitable husband in London. So if Adrian will play the devoted husband in public, she'll grant him an annulment after her sister is safely wed. The only hitch in her plan comes from the unintentional challenge Leah issues to Adrian. She proposes the basis for their annulment will be the lack of consummation of their marriage. Adrian will never allow society to think the Wicked Lord Raven couldn't bed his own wife, so the challenge of seducing Leah begins. However, in the end, the real challenge may be for Leah to melt the wall of ice surrounding Adrian's scarred heart. This is the first novel I've read by Ms. Coughlin, and it looks like she has mainly written Silhouette and Harlequin series books to date. I did find one other stand-alone title by her, "Lord Savage", which I believe I'll try to find. This was an enjoyable read and I was pleasantly surprised. The story was original and fresh with an added bonus of humor. Adrian and Leah were interesting and well developed characters. Definitely a keeper that I recommend without reservation.
Rating:
Summary: Wonderful!
Review: Adrian Devereau, the duke of Raven was a confirmed bachelor and a rake. Unfortunately, women did not see him as being a confirmed bachelor but as a challenge, a wealthy, young healthy challenge with a great title. So Adrian happened upon Leah Stretton on her 'death bead' he thought that he had found the perfect solution. He would marry this woman on her and go home a widower, and off limits to marriage minded chits at least until his time in mourning was up. Fortunately for Leah she did not die. It was at a Ball that Adrian found out that his wife lived and here is were the delightful story between these two people begins. MERELY MARRIED was a delicious romp and definitely a fun read.
Rating: 
Summary: Love this book!
Review: I almost wanted to give up reading romances....because the authors I once favoured are getting boring. Then, when I was idly browsing in a bookshop, I found this book! The heroine Leah for once was not one innocent whiny little girl but a lady who is an authoress of children's books and an artful romantic. She aims to have the best for her sister, and cajoles Lord Raven to help her. Lord Raven, on the other hand, actually wants to be a widower (to protect himself from the marriage mart!) marrying Leah without her consent while she was sick in bed. A page turner with dry humour and some heart wrenching moments of self-discovery....U would want to read this...
Rating: 
Summary: likable heroine but a disgusting hero
Review: I bought this book because I liked the summary and because it got good reviews. I was quite disappointed by it. It started out nicely and amusingly enough but then the hero turned out to be quite digusting in his "care for nothing" and egoistic attitude. He did not deserve such a nice, charming and intellegent woman falling in love with him. Furthermore,there were more sexual details in this book than I like in a regency.
Rating: 
Summary: Same old story
Review: I bought this book because of the RITA award and excellent reader reviews. I was so surprised to find it completely predictable and trite. I don't mind if Romance novels follow the same worn plot - in fact, their very predictability is comforting. I do mind if they lack any originality, however. I found the conversation dull and unrealistic. There was no spark of passion. I did not understand the motivations for the characters at all. They were so weighted down with pathos and past injuries that I could barely keep myself turning the pages. My favorite regency romance is Whitney My Love - the same old plot but with humor and complex character development.
Rating:
Summary: Delightful!
Review: I devoured this book. Loved every word of it!
Rating:
Summary: Humorous Fun!
Review: I enjoyed Adrian's brash outlook at life and the humorous consequences that followed. Leah consistently showed admirable courage at the blows she was dealt, and displayed even stronger will when it came to her untrained yet highly successful seduction of Adrian. I found both characters lovable and the entire read was great!
Rating:
Summary: This is a Keeper
Review: I gave up on this book after about 80 pages. The characters' behavior made no sense to me. First, let's take our hero. He marries this girl who's supposedly on her deathbed so that he can then play the mourning widower and get some relief from the matchmaking mamas. I was willing to go along with this, but it stretched credibility because a) at the same time he's also actively working to make himself an outcast from society, which would solve that problem, and b) why didn't he just avoid the "respectable" balls like the average commitment-shy regency hero? Then, when his irate, recovered wife shows up in London, he's not the least bit repentant about what he's done. And THEN, the same day he agrees to stay married to her for a season and then get an annulment, he tries to seduce his new wife....And finally, since he wants to have sex with her, he hits upon the idea of staying married to her, but just keeping her at some country estate so that he can basically act as if he's single while in London - which is the same thing he could have done with the average deb, so why avoid marriage in the first place? He acts like a spoiled adolescent who's incapable of thinking through his actions or considering anyone else's feelings. By the time I got to this point in the book, I don't WANT the couple to get together - no woman deserves this creep, no matter how silly she may be...which brings us to our heroine. She's less irritating than our hero, but not by much. Her purpose in coming to London is to launch her sister Christiana into society, and she blackmails the Duke into staying married for the season since being the sister-in-law of a duke will give Christiana that extra edge when it comes to snagging a husband. Now, I don't know about you, but I just can't imagine making this big of a sacrifice for a sibling. She seems obsessively fixated on her sisters' success, almost like Christiana is a daughter instead of a sister, but I can't believe there's a big enough age gap between them that she acted as a mother to her sister. (The book never said how old the characters are, but didn't give out any of the cues books tend to give when the heroine is more "mature" - so assuming early 20's, this puts her at 4 or 5 years older than her sister, tops.) And never mind that she and her sister lived in the back of beyond somewhere and have no connections, she had no doubts about their ability to successfully enter society, even before her marriage. And never mind that she believes that passion/love will destroy her life if she ever gives into it, she's still willing to support her sister in her search for a husband. And finally, there's her attraction to the Duke - it's the old "I hate you but I'm helplessly drawn to you anyway" thing which just doesn't work for me. I just don't find it believable that a character can be attracted to someone just because she likes the way he looks, while disliking every single thing about his personality. So, my advice to you is to skip this book. If you're looking for a funny regency-era historical, try Julia Quinn. For a book with a "deathbed marriage gone wrong" storyline that actually WORKS, read Mary Jo Putney's The Bargain.
Rating: 
Summary: stupid people acting senselessly
Review: I gave up on this book after about 80 pages. The characters' behavior made no sense to me. First, let's take our hero. He marries this girl who's supposedly on her deathbed so that he can then play the mourning widower and get some relief from the matchmaking mamas. I was willing to go along with this, but it stretched credibility because a) at the same time he's also actively working to make himself an outcast from society, which would solve that problem, and b) why didn't he just avoid the "respectable" balls like the average commitment-shy regency hero? Then, when his irate, recovered wife shows up in London, he's not the least bit repentant about what he's done. And THEN, the same day he agrees to stay married to her for a season and then get an annulment, he tries to seduce his new wife....And finally, since he wants to have sex with her, he hits upon the idea of staying married to her, but just keeping her at some country estate so that he can basically act as if he's single while in London - which is the same thing he could have done with the average deb, so why avoid marriage in the first place? He acts like a spoiled adolescent who's incapable of thinking through his actions or considering anyone else's feelings. By the time I got to this point in the book, I don't WANT the couple to get together - no woman deserves this creep, no matter how silly she may be...which brings us to our heroine. She's less irritating than our hero, but not by much. Her purpose in coming to London is to launch her sister Christiana into society, and she blackmails the Duke into staying married for the season since being the sister-in-law of a duke will give Christiana that extra edge when it comes to snagging a husband. Now, I don't know about you, but I just can't imagine making this big of a sacrifice for a sibling. She seems obsessively fixated on her sisters' success, almost like Christiana is a daughter instead of a sister, but I can't believe there's a big enough age gap between them that she acted as a mother to her sister. (The book never said how old the characters are, but didn't give out any of the cues books tend to give when the heroine is more "mature" - so assuming early 20's, this puts her at 4 or 5 years older than her sister, tops.) And never mind that she and her sister lived in the back of beyond somewhere and have no connections, she had no doubts about their ability to successfully enter society, even before her marriage. And never mind that she believes that passion/love will destroy her life if she ever gives into it, she's still willing to support her sister in her search for a husband. And finally, there's her attraction to the Duke - it's the old "I hate you but I'm helplessly drawn to you anyway" thing which just doesn't work for me. I just don't find it believable that a character can be attracted to someone just because she likes the way he looks, while disliking every single thing about his personality. So, my advice to you is to skip this book. If you're looking for a funny regency-era historical, try Julia Quinn. For a book with a "deathbed marriage gone wrong" storyline that actually WORKS, read Mary Jo Putney's The Bargain.
Rating:
Summary: Best thing I have ever read. Could not put it down.
Review: I have been reading romance for the past 12 years (everything from Barbara Cartland to Jackie Collins). I own every book ever written by both Jude Deveraux and Johanna Lindsey, and the romance of Patricia Coughlin is so much more original. I have a new favourite author.
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