Merely Married

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 mad

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.

MERELY MARRIED by Patricia Coughlin was an enchanting read from start to end. Not only was the plot line catchy, and interesting, the characters were also a delight to read about!From the beginning you read about Adrian Deveanor, sixth duke of Raven, you'll quickly realize he is definitely a one-of-a-kind type of hero. Handsome, egotistical, conceited yet still at the same time, charming, he's really a man any girl would swoon for. As his name suggests, Wicked Lord Raven, he's well known among many as one of the ton's top-rated bachelors. Wanting to escape from all the nagging mamas, he and his friends come up with a, what they believe to be, brilliant plan for Adrian; he is to marry a lady, presumably dying, that way when he becomes a widow, the ton will be off his back and give him his own space as he deals with his "grief". Well this sort of lady they manage to find, and Lady Leah Stretton is the perfect match. Lady Leah was on her way to London, to prepare for her younger sister's coming out season, but managed to fall ill upon her arrival. Soon Adrian and Leah are married with Leah being semi-conscious throughout the whole ceremony. Two weeks pass, and Adrian has his first gathering at his house, with the ton's top gossipmongers and there he spills his whole marriage, and a made-up story of how the two met and courted, but the official death of Leah is still unknown to Adrian, so as a result, he still cannot publicly declare himself widowed. But imagine his surprise, when a very alive, energetic Leah appears at his home, and plays the role of his "wife" to perfection! Woo-hoo, isn't Adrian in a fix now, for all his foolishness has caused him!!!! Soon the two come up with a plan, Leah and Adrian will play the perfect husband and wife, until the end of the season, (by then Leah hopes her sister will have found herself a husband, and by using Adrian's great status as a duke, that should come easily), in which the two will have an annulment and Leah will return to her normal life. But as usual these silly plans never work out the way one wants it to, especially when the two realize in the end that they can't live without one another. But before that happens, Adrian and Leah must come up with enough courage to share with each other, the deep buried painful past they've both experienced in order for the two of them to achieve true love... how does this happen? You simply must indulge yourself in this funny, light and enjoyable read! MERELY MARRIED is filled with hilarious dialogues, and as a reader, you can truly appreciate Ms. Coughlin's humor. Enjoy!

This book was a winner! I had it for awhile and never read it. Then one day I picked it up and couldn't put it down. It starts off wonderful right from the beginning to the end. You will definately fall in love with the characters. She wrote this book with entertainment in mind, because I was thoroughly entertained!

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.