...love him, dislike him!

Married to a Rogue (Classic Regency Romances #9) by Donna Lea Simpson 

The thing is I thought Lady Emily Sedgely was magnificent and loved Belle. Baxter, Marquess of Sedgely, however comes across as so Mr Darcy gone wrong. The fact that he had this passionate relationship with his wife, is presented as a determined man with a mind of his own and yet allows his mother to make his wife's life miserable just doesn't ring true. He is left looking foolish.

Connecting these two different sides of his personality is difficult. A proud and pigheaded man, a man of 'uncertain temper' whose actions have brought about his own, and his wife's suffering, and the hiatus in their relationship. Yet in his unguarded moments of acknowledged love for his wife, and in the protection he shows towards his gamine mistress Belle, we see a different person. 
Is Baxter a rogue? He doesn't come across like that to me. More a stubborn and wilful man who knows his due. I took a dislike to him from the moment, after a two year absence on the continent, he 'spat' out that his lady wife had grown fat. It was hard for me to actually come to like him. He certainly had a lot of redeeming to do!
Etienne Marchant is just too convenient as the villain with more strings to his bow it seems than a violin.
There are heaps of half hints about various people like Lessing, Belle, Marchant and May.
Each one of them to all intents and purposes is a full story waiting to happen, and to me it seems that 'Married to a Rogue' is the clearing house, or maybe the hub, through which they all pass.

A NetGalley ARC