One of my favourite series is returning, Marth Waters’ Regency Vow series, and I could not be happier. With Sanditon and Bridgerton premiering at the end of March, there is no better time to get lost in a hilarious and entertaining Regency romance. (And hopefully we will all be close to, if not enjoying Spring, and can read outside!) Without any further adieu (the perfect theatre segway), let’s look at To Marry and To Meddle by Martha Waters!
Thank you to NetGalley for providing an eARC in exchange for an honest review.
To Marry and To Meddle, Martha Waters
Lady Emily Turner has been a debutante for six seasons now and should have long settled into a suitable marriage. However, due to her father’s large debts, her only suitor is the persistent and odious owner of her father’s favorite gambling house. Meanwhile, Lord Julian Belfry, the second son of a marquess, has scandalized society as an actor and owner of a theater—the kind of establishment where men take their mistresses, but not their wives. When their lives intersect at a house party, Lord Julian hatches a plan to benefit them both.
With a marriage of convenience, Emily will use her society connections to promote the theater to a more respectable clientele and Julian will take her out from under the shadows of her father’s unsavory associates. But they soon realize they have very different plans for their marriage—Julian wants Emily to remain a society wife, while Emily discovers an interest in the theater. But when a fleeing actress, murderous kitten, and meddlesome friends enter the fray, Emily and Julian will have to confront the fact that their marriage of convenience comes with rather inconvenient feelings.
Why You Should Read This…
There are few books that I look forward to for an entire year; To Marry and To Meddle is one of those books. Waters has done the somewhat difficult, and written a group of fascinating and intriguing women who have radically different stories but have the most heartfelt friendship. This particular book focuses on Emily who has somewhat been in the background of the first two novels, and the wait for her story has been totally worth it.
Emily is a badass, and is intelligent. While I feel like we have gotten a decent understanding of Julian as a character in the previous books, Emily felt like a bit of a mystery prior to this. However, TMATM more than makes up for it. My favourite parts of the story are whenever Emily is at the theatre, because although it is Julian’s domain and theoretically not somewhere a lady should be, she owns it.
While I did receive the ebook of this from NetGalley, I will be getting the audiobook on 5 April when it releases, as I always do. These are some of my favourite audiobooks, and I’ve relistened several times!
Note: I read this in January when I had Covid, and it was one of the only things to cheer me up and let me mentally escape! And I read the first book of this series in February 2022 and had a horrific headcold (not Covid…)l, and it also was the only thing to help then, as well. They have healing properties!
If you want to read the first book in the series, you can find To Have and To Hoax here!
And you can find the second book, To Love and To Loathe here!
Will you be picking up To Marry and To Meddle by Martha Waters?
Cheers,
The Historian
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