Phoebe Vale is a teacher at a girls finishing school. Shes quiet, her life revolves around her girls at the school and not glamorous at all. But shes kind and has a wicked wit. The Marquess Dryden, Julian Spenser, is an aristocrat who is cold and ruthless and surrounds himself with the best of everything including women. The scandal sheets love him and Phoebe reads about him often. A chance meeting in a haberdashery then at the school she works for has Julian intrigued and attracted to Miss Vale. Having accepted an invitation from a former student, Lisbeth Redmond, to their country estate Phoebe is excited to see Julian there. She is acting as a paid companion to Lisbeth and Julian is there to court Lisbeth, having almost agreed to her father to marry her. Julian is broke because of his late wayward father and to get the estates up and running again he needs to wed the beautiful Lisbeth for her dowry. But as the days go on, Julian finds spending time and talking to Phoebe a pleasure he hasnt found in anyone else. She bates him, she teases him and she makes him happy. After a passionate interlude Julian returns to London and hoebe is surprised to find she has been invited to London for the season by twins of the ton. Little does she know that she is being set up by the twins and a couple of male lords over a bet they made to see how long it took to make a plain jane nobody school teacher a diamond of the ton. This all hangs together fairly well if you don't look too closely. I didn't buy the whole iciness of our hero - Lord Ice no less - since said iciness is comprised of 'daring/amazing/insane wagers' etc and wanting nothing but the finest in everything which would be fairly typical of much of the ton as regency readers have come to know them. Also while Phoebe, the heroine, is a solid character I didn't buy her 'going to Africa' schtick either. But both Ice and Phoebe are well drawn so a good story over all.
What do You think about How The Marquess Was Won (2011)?
Cute book but the hero just took too damn long for me to get his s*** straight!
—amar_vani
The heroine was ugly, poor and the ton made a fool of her, not my cup of tea.
—tazzah101
It wasn't bad, I can say I liked it, but it didn't impress me in any way.
—Bettytriz
