Say Yes to the Marquess
Series: Castles Ever After #2
Author: Tessa Dare
Published December 30th 2014 by Avon

Goodreads Synopsis
Your presence is requested at romantic Twill Castle for the wedding of Miss Clio Whitmore and... and... ?

After eight years of waiting for Piers Brandon, the wandering Marquess of Granville, to set a wedding date, Clio Whitmore has had enough. She's inherited a castle, scraped together some pride, and made plans to break her engagement.

Not if Rafe Brandon can help it. A ruthless prizefighter and notorious rake, Rafe is determined that Clio will marry his brother—even if he has to plan the dratted wedding himself.

So how does a hardened fighter cure a reluctant bride's cold feet?

• He starts with flowers. A wedding can't have too many flowers. Or harps. Or cakes.
• He lets her know she'll make a beautiful, desirable bride—and tries not to picture her as his.
• He doesn't kiss her.
• If he kisses her, he definitely doesn't kiss her again.
• When all else fails, he puts her in a stunning gown. And vows not to be nearby when the gown comes off.
• And no matter what—he doesn't fall in disastrous, hopeless love with the one woman he can never call his own.

Goodreads

Review
Say Yes to the Marquess is the second book in the Castles Ever After series, and sees the lovely, and abandoned, Miss Clio Whitmore inherit Twill Castle. For eight years she has been engaged to Piers, Marquess of Granville, but any time there's opportunity for a wedding, something gets in the way. Now, she's had enough of all the jeering and ridicule, and is ready to break the engagement, especially when she has a castle belonging only to her. All she needs is for Piers' brother, Rafe, to consent to break the engagement, and she'll be on her merry way. Rafe, full of guilt and shame for how he is the black sheep of the Brandon family, will not do anything that could hurt his brother any more, and will plan the perfect wedding and make sure that Clio's cold feet warm right up. Can Rafe convince Clio to wait just a bit longer, or does she know what she wants, and Rafe looks exceedingly more like it?

Clio was a fantastic character, who I really felt for. Her younger sister, Daphne, is recently married, and treats her like rubbish, finding all the faults that she can and making Clio feel she's worthless. The youngest sister, Phoebe, is so sweet, and though it's not named, seems to be on the autistic spectrum to some extent, but with Clio and Rafe she's listened to, and treated as she should be. Rafe, being a prize fighter, would be expected to be rough and a bit of a brute, but he's secretly a puppy, especially when it comes to Clio. He's always had a soft spot for her, even loving her from afar but knowing that she's to be Piers' and he was the runt of the litter who didn't deserve love for 'killing' his mother in childbirth. His father, the late Marquess, treated him like something he had stepped in, and it's affected Rafe ever since. Both the main characters had their walls and issues, but together they manage to overcome them all, and I think they may be my favourite couple in this series. I just adore them, and hope we see them in the fourth book, which is about Piers.

Dates Read:
June 20, 2020

Rating
4 Stars