by Amanda Forester
Series: Marriage Mart #1
Genres: Historical Romance
Source: Publisher
Purchase*: Amazon *affiliate
Five minutes into Miss Eugenia Talbot's presentation at court, notorious rogue Mr. William Grant made her laugh, ruining her debut. To hush up the scandal, Eugenia's aunt hires a matchmaker to quickly find a suitor— anyone except the infamous William Grant—to help restore Eugenia's reputation. But amiable Eugenia shows a disturbing tendency to follow her heart, and is again caught in the company of notorious Grant. When a traitor creeps closer, threatening to ruin more than just Eugenia's reputation, her kindheartedness may be her ultimate undoing..
Take a debutante being presented to the Queen, a notorious rake, a reluctant second son who inherits the dukedom and the marriage arrangement that came with it. Then you add in a meddlesome dowager, a misled brother, and traitors to the crown and what do you get? Why tons of mischief and a tale that is sure to delight. A Wedding in Springtime is the first book in the Marriage Mart series by Amanda Forester and her wonderful characters and the action-packed plot kept me thoroughly entertained.
The tale begins when Miss Eugenia “Genie” Talbot is being presented in court. An untimely noise and a wink from the notorious rogue Mr. William Grant cause Genie to lose her composure and burst out laughing. She is ruined, simply ruined. In order to hush the impending scandal, her Aunt hires a mysterious matchmaker to quickly marry the girl off. As Genie’s tale unfolds we meet several secondary characters with stories to capture our hearts, make us giggle and add to the suspense.
Forester delivered such bright, outspoken female characters that the men of the Ton should just secede now, for these women are formidable. Genie is delightful, she really tries to please her aunt, but she is original and it’s hard to hide. She tends to say what she thinks and she is quite witty in an innocent sort of way. I adored her humorous side as she dealt with the whims of the ton. Her Aunt Lady Bremerton is one of those women who lives and dies by her social standing and at times I wanted to shoot her. Her daughter is Lady Louisa and she is the Duke of Marchford’s intended. The marriage contracts were drawn up for the first Duke and are iron-clad. Lady Bremerton is determined to seeing them honored. Lady Louisa is quite quiet but her story is a good one. My mother always said, “Watch out for the quiet ones” and so you should. Penelope is the new companion to the dowager of Marchford and I simply adored her. She dresses down the Duke when he deserves it, is sharp, observant and aids without calling attention to herself. I am hoping we get her story, I know just the man for her. *fingers-crossed* Ooo let’s not forget her grace, the dowager duchess of Marchford. She is in battle with her grandson. He wishes for her to leave the manor and retire to the countryside and of course she simply refuses. This causes some delightful banter, and mischief. A young street urchin named Jem stole my heart and is sure to steal yours too. It seems like all I’ve talked about is women, but let me assure you the book is filled with some swoon-worthy, hopelessly flawed rogue’s who you will absolutely adore, feel sorry for, occasional want to smack on the head and ultimately love.
A Wedding in Springtime had many different threads all working together to create a fun, witty, sweet, romantic tale filled with a little intrigue. The pacing is well done and I never felt the need to skim or set down the book. In all honesty, I read this in two sittings stopping long enough to feed my family dinner. The heat level is very low in this tale, the banter, tension and overall romance made it successfully without it. I giggled at the conversations between Grant and the Duke; Grant and Genie; Penelope and the dowager. The characters were fleshed out and their interactions felt genuine. Grant and Genie had chemistry from the beginning and it was such fun watching their dance. Throughout the tale, there is a threat against the crown as traitors try to steal codes and intercept messages. This aspect of the tale and how Forester weaved our young heroine into it was well done and kept me highly entertained.
A Wedding in Springtime is the perfect feel-good read for fans of clean historical romances. I am looking forward to the second book; A Midsummer Bride set to release in November of 2013.
About Kimberly
Kimberly is a coffee loving book addict who reads and listens to fictional stories in all genres. Whovian, Ravenclaw, Howler and proud Nonna. She owns and manages Caffeinated PR. The coffee is always on and she is ready to chat. BlueSky | Facebook | Instagram
kimbacaffeinate
doesn’t every little girl?
thegeekyblogger
I love the royals! I watched Diana’s wedding back in the day –we did as a family 🙂
kimbacaffeinate
What a wonderful story..love like that is special.
junemanning
I am not married but one of my favorite weddings I ever attended was my grandparents 50th Anniversary wedding renewal 🙂 They were both still so in love that it was inspiring. They continued to love each other & be best friends up till my grandfather passed away, & my grandmother misses him daily (as do the rest of us).
kimbacaffeinate
good luck Natasha!
Natasha
Sounds like a great read!!
I haven’t been to any weddings since I was little and I have not gotten married yet, so I don’t really have any wedding memories.
Thanks for the chance to win!
kimbacaffeinate
I agree Heather!
Heather
I loved this one, it was just so fun to read, and I liked that it was pretty clean. Sometimes you just need a nice, romantic read that makes you smile. Book Savvy Babe
kimbacaffeinate
you are welcome, thanks Aurian:)
Lily B
oh I have been wanting to read this one, sounds so wonderful.
Alright here is a story, my wedding. My husband thought he had this really cute idea while we were shopping for extra things for the wedding and saw this ring bearer pillow for a dog, and kept telling me how cute it would be if our pug carried the rings. Well I saw pictures online from a wedding who have done this and it was kinda of adorable so I finally caved right… big mistake. The girl who took the dog wasn’t paying attention. My husband attached the rings too lose and they came off and got lost in the grass somewhere in the field. No one told me this so I am sitting in the car waiting for this wedding to start when suddenly I see people running around back and forth like chickens with their heads cut off..so i am like, okay whats the delay… and then my uncle comes to tell my father but not ME and I realize then and there that the dog lost our wedding rings. They had all the guests, including the catering crew, the dj, and the priest searching the field for our rings. They couldn’t find them for the ceremony, but we ended up getting rings borrowed from two of the strongest and longest marriages, which was a sweet symbol. So while we were greeting our guests after the fact, my husbands uncle found the rings!! and the priest had us say I do with them as well 🙂 the comment was, “I don’t think I ever seen anyone get married twice in one day” so its was funny in the end.
Lily B
hehe I think so. My wedding guests still talk about it two years later 😉
kimbacaffeinate
Oh My Goodness Lily…that is a great story…and one you will share with your children and their children!
Melissa (Books and Things)
Sweet! I need a sweet romance about now. Haven’t read one in a while. Plus I can’t resist a hopelessly flawed rogue whom you swoon! 😀 WIN!
As for the wedding… let me just say: I was a brides maid, bridezilla (who didn’t want to decide on anything instead of controlling everything but wanted the perfect wedding), brides matron from hell, hot weather/no air conditioning. Not fun. 😛
Erin F
Thanks for the fun post! Ummm… no weddings really stand out for me. Just that I was sick of them by the time I was 16. I’m the youngest in my extended family and all of the cousins got married when I was between 12-16. You can only light candles/do the guest book/pass out cake so many times!!!
Aurian
O this sounds good, thanks Kimba, adding it to my wishlist.
Barbara Walker
Worst wedding story for me is easy – I was a bridesmaid in my brother’s wedding. Our dresses were horrible contraptions of stays, lacings and crinolines paired with 4″-heeled shoes. It was late June, it was over 100 degrees, the church wasn’t air conditioned and they had no fans. We all had water bottles hidden in the flowers at the altar and the poor little mini bride and groom had to strip down midway through. And there were bees during the pictures. We laugh now, but oh boy.
Debbie Haupt
Thanks Kimba for the great review 🙂 from the looks on the cover they need to plan a wedding lol