Regency romp

To Love and to Loathe (Regency Vows #2) by Martha Waters          

⭐️⭐️⭐️

A bet, a house party, a philandering Marquess, and a not so Merry Widow. Lady Diana Templeton had fought battles with handsome rake and scoundrel Jeremy Overington, the Marquess of Willingham, since she was a child. Their latest scrimmage is a bet that Diana takes with Jeremy that he’ll be married before the year's out (even if she has to parade every young woman she knows before him, or have him caught in a compromising position.) 

A disgruntled remark thrown at Jeremy by his last mistress as he disappeared from her life had him reviewing his performance as a lover. Meanwhile, determined never to marry again the widowed Diana is wondering if she should indeed take a lover. When Jeremy inquires about her openness to a liaison between the two of them, there’s an emphatic No! and a reconsidered Maybe!

All the marks of an excellent regency romp, with a wonderful grandmother to the Marquess who was so delightful I'd wished she'd been even more front and center, a rather desperate single woman who frequently strikes the wrong note, and whom Diana sees as the perfect opportunity for her to win her bet with Jeremy, and friends whose lives have visceral ups and downs.

I’m a tad nonplussed by Diana’s terrible maid Toogood. I can't decide if she's the perfect maid for Diana or if she have other uses. But as Diana muses, "It was refreshing to know exactly what one’s help thought of one, rather than having to guess."

And then there’s Diana’s painting abilities, a well kept secret.

There’s a whole lot thrumming along in the background, various relationship circling around, the buzzing so busy that it runs the risk of impinging  on the main story in a distracting sort of way.

A pleasant romp with some great lines that never quite achieved the peaks it sought, or even ought.

An Atria Books ARC via NetGalley 

Please note: Quotes taken from an advanced reading copy maybe subject to change