Historical romance is a pretty hit or miss genre for me. Courtney Milan is an author in that arena who I generally like, because her books often focus on less-represented groups of people, she does a lot of research, and I’ve just enjoyed what I’ve read from her so far. The Marquis Who Mustn’t both annoyed and delighted me, so let’s get into why.
First, I guess we’ll talk about what I liked. This book had a couple of opportunities to really lean into some tropes/plot beats I don’t like (the Big Misunderstanding and the Third-Act Break-Up) but faked me out on them instead. For the most part, the characters communicated and behaved like rational adults, although some of my annoyance came from the fact that certain issues that could have caused a break-up were just sort of hand-waved away. I felt like there could have been a good middle ground, where things were properly addressed.
I also really enjoyed the pottery aspect of this book, and as with a lot of Milan’s books, reading her research notes on this in the back was almost as much fun as reading the book itself.
As an incredibly cynical demisexual, I especially appreciated that this book didn’t have insta-lust, and that both characters were described in realistic, rather average-looking ways. They do of course come to find each other attractive, but other than an over-emphasis on how TALL Kai is, there wasn’t a lot of tedious focus on each other’s looks and bodies.
The pacing was good, the supporting characters were entertaining, and I bought the HEA. I think these are two characters who have what it takes to try to build a life together.
Now to get into what I didn’t like.
There is a thing I have noticed in romance, and seen other reviewers complain about as well, where the characters’ jobs and interests are mere window-dressing, either because the author thought it would be a fun, quirky (or trendy…) theme for the book, or that it offered a convenient way to get the characters together (or a built-in excuse to keep them apart). It’s a big pet peeve of mine, because if I pick up (to make up an imaginary example) a book about a woman who runs a corgi rescue following in love with an enby who works at a glassblowing studio, then I am expecting corgi antics and glass facts, and if I don’t get sufficient amounts of either, I’m going to feel ripped off.
Kai’s meticulously-researched pottery skills are integral to the plot. But Naomi’s driving desire to take ambulance classes (which seemed to be a historical version of first aid class) served as an excuse to create a fake engagement scheme, before immediately becoming a complete non-entity. We only very briefly see her attending these classes, through Kai’s eyes, and the skills she learns only play an incidental role in the resolving of a conflict in the third act.
This was not only disappointing because it would have been fun to learn some things about old-timey first aid, but it also seems to send the message that as important as taking these classes was to Naomi, ultimately it’s less important than TWU WUV. Thankfully, at least, she doesn’t have to give up her dreams to have love, but they don’t get a lot of on-page focus.
My other complaint is that the first couple of chapters, setting up the fake engagement and Kai’s decision not to tell her something important, were so. incredibly. clunky. Like if this had been my first Milan, I would have DNF’ed the book right then and there, and never made it to the much more well-written remainder of the book.
Over all, the good aspects of this book outweighed the bad, and I enjoyed reading it. But I don’t think it was one of this author’s better books.
CWs/TWs: This book has explicit on-page sex. There’s also some period-appropriate sexism and racism, but not from our main characters and their nearest and dearest. There’s significant mention of one character being abandoned as a young child as well.
Format and Source: I read this as an ebook from the Seattle Public Library.
Book Bingo Prompts
Brick & Mortar: Grumpy Protagonist. This felt like a bit of a grumpy/sunshine pairing to me. Kai has some reticence and is trying to hold the people of the village at arm’s length, although we also see moments of wit and kindness. He doesn’t stay grumpy for long, which is good, because despite being a grump myself, I don’t have a lot of patience for grumpy love interests.
Current Bingo Challenge Progress
Nook & Cranny (Card 1): 2 out of 25 prompts complete. 0 bingos.
Nook & Cranny (Card 2): 1 out of 25 prompts complete. 0 bingos.
Brick & Mortar: 5 out of 25 prompts complete. 0 bingos.