My review of regency romance Her Wicked Marquess by Stacy Reid

 

 

Major spoilers in this review for The Count of Monte Cristo and minor spoilers for Her Wicked Marquess.  

 

Regency romance Her Wicked Marquess by Stacy Reid is like The Count of Monte Cristo from the point of view of Haydee.  This is both its strength and its weakness.  The Count of Monte Cristo is, in my opinion, one of the best adventure stories ever written.  It follows the  titular count as he secretly wreaks revenge on the people who wronged him when he was a youth.  At least in the abridged version I read (in this link), which I am told by people who know such things is both the best English translation and the best abridgment  -- Haydee is a fairly minor character who becomes very important on the last page.  

Her Wicked Marquess follows the adventures of Nicolas St. Ives as he wreaks revenge on people who wronged a close friend years earlier.  He meets Maryann Fitzwilliam as he is at the point of ruining the lives of the last of his victims.  Like the Count of Monte Cristo, he relies on many talents, from cat burglary to an intricate knowledge of finances, to carry out his quest.  Although the book gets a bit bogged down in the abundant sexual positions he explores with Maryann in the last third or so, it is great fun to read about his complex machinations.

At the end of the day, though, Nicolas is a vigilante serial killer.  Oh, not all his victims die -- some are merely turned into shells of their former selves.  But he acts as the police detective, district attorney, judge, jury, and executioner.  The book explains over and over again that his victims are so powerful that they will never be prosecuted by the state for their crimes, so it's okay that Nicolas takes it upon himself.  

That all makes for a good story, but I have to question Maryann's judgment, and her long-term safety.  She is completely fine with Nicolas's actions -- until they threaten someone close to her, and even then she's not really that upset.  Nicolas is a sociopath, and it seems not entirely unlikely that someday Maryann will look at him cross-eyed and then he'll set his sights on her.  Another chapter and this book could be a thriller rather than a romance.