The Marriage Lesson

Effingtons #3

by Victoria Alexander

LESSON #1: NEVER TEMPT A LADY

Become a bride? Never! Lady Marianne Shelton has come to London to experience life, and marriage is not part of her plan. To finance her independent future, the pretty country miss pens a series of anonymous stories. Soon they are the talk of the ton-and only she knows that her wicked hero is based on none other than bold, brash Thomas Effington, the future Duke of Roxborough.

LESSON #2: NEVER DENY A MARQUESS

Thomas has been thrust into le of Marianne's protector. When she threatens to experience life with the first willing rogue to come along, he decides the best recourse is to tutor her himself. And when he accidentally compromises her honor, he's willing to accept their only recourse: a wedding. Marianne claims she wants no part of marriage, but her intoxicating allure and disarming willingness make her irresistible. And now Thomas is determined to teach her a lesson: that true love will last forever.

Genres: Historical Romance, Romance, Historical, Regency, Historical Fiction, Regency Romance, Adult

372 pages, Mass Market Paperback

First published January 1, 2001

About the author

Librarian Note: There is more than one author in the GoodReads database with this name. See this thread for more information.

New York Times bestselling author Victoria Alexander was an award winning television reporter until she discovered fiction was much more fun than real life. She turned to writing full time and is still shocked it worked out.

Since the publication of her first book in 1995, she has written thirty-one full length novels and six novellas. The Perfect Wife—originally published in 1996 and reissued in March 2008—hit #1 on the New York Times list. Sixteen of her books are bestsellers hitting the New York Times, USA Today and/or Publishers Weekly bestseller lists. With books translated into more than a dozen different languages she has readers around the world and has twice been nominated for Romance's Writers of America prestigious RITA award. In 2009 she was given a Career Achievement Award from RT Bookclub and was named Historical Storyteller of the year in 2003. In 2008 she was the keynote speaker for the Romance Writers of American annual conference in San Francisco. Victoria credits much of her writing success to her experiences as a reporter.
Her years as a broadcast journalist were spent in two radically different areas of the country: Nebraska and West Virginia. In West Virginia, she covered both natural and manmade disasters. She was on the scene when a power plant construction accident in a small town left 52 men dead. She once spent the night on a mountain waiting to learn of the fate of coal miners trapped in a mine collapse. Victoria was producing a newscast when her husband (who worked at the same television station) and several other journalists were held hostage by a disturbed Vietnam veteran. In Nebraska, she reported on the farm crisis and watched people lose land that had been in their families for generations. She covered the story that was the basis of the movie BOYS DON’T CRY and once acted as the link between police and a gunman who had barricaded himself in his home. Her investigative work exposed the trucking of New York City garbage to a small town dump in rural Nebraska.

During her journalism career, Victoria covered every president from Ford to Clinton. She knows firsthand what it feels like to be surrounded by rising floodwaters and inside a burning building. She’s interviewed movie stars including Kevin Costner, ridden an elephant and flown in a governor’s helicopter. She’s covered a national political convention and Pope John Paul II’s historic visit to Denver as well as small town festivals celebrating everything from walnuts to Glen Miller. Her work was honored by numerous organizations including the Associated Press who called a feature about a firefighter’s school "story telling genius". It was the encouragement she needed to turn from news to fiction. She’s never looked back.

Victoria claims her love of romance and journalism is to due to the influence of her favorite comic book character: Lois Lane, a terrific reporter and a great heroine who pursued Superman with an unwavering determination. And why not? He was extremely well drawn.

Victoria grew up traveling the world as an Air Force brat. Today, she lives in Omaha, Nebraska with her husband and her dogs. Victoria had two bearded collies, Sam and Louie (named from characters in one of her books). Sam (on the left), the best dog in the world for 13 ½ years, passed away in September 2010. Louie took on the position of loyal companion and did a fine job even though he doesn't understand that kitchen counter surfing is not allowed!

Now he's been joined by Reggie, also a faithful companion.

They all live happily ever after in a house under constant renovation and the accompanying parade of men in tool belts. And never ending chaos. Victoria laughs a great deal—she has to.

Reviews

[İlkim · Rating 4 out of 5]

Gayet akıcı ve eğlenceli bir tarihi aşk hikayesiydi. Elime alınca akıp gitti gerçekten, karakterler de gayet başarılıydı. Diğer kız kardeşleri de çok merak etmekteyim.

[Carrie Olguin · Rating 3 out of 5]

This story would have earned an additional star if it wasn't for the Heroine's inconsistant mental thought processes. For the first half of the story she doesn't believe in love, doesn't believe it lasts, using her parents' example of why she will never marry - a love match which led to her mother dying unhappy and her father turning away from his family to drink and gaming.

In the second half of the book, she falls in love with the hero but refuses to marry because he's not in love with her.

Huh?

Why is she holding out for something she doesn't beleive in - everlasting love? By the end of the book, she hasn't learned anything about the meaing of love and hasn't consciously changed her mind that love can lead to anything other than pain and unhappiness.

Instead, the hero learns a lesson he didn't need. He's lived with happily married couples in his family and know everlasting love can be obtained and realizes he could find that with her.

So even though the action was entertaining and amuzing (the ending has some farcial, funny stuff), the heroine's thoughts were unrealistic, illogical and absurd. Many places in the second half of the book felt like a reach to make the required word count. Frustrating to read at times.

[Monique Takens · Rating 3 out of 5]

Ik heb de Nederlands talige uitgave gelezen : Liefdevolle lessen - Candlelight Historische roman 799
Amusant maar volkomen onrealistisch aangaande het gedrag van Marianne . De gedeelten die romantisch moeten zijn komen eigenlijk alleen maar stupide over .
Dit verhaal krijgt maar net 3 sterren omdat ik het toch wel met plezier gelezen heb .

[Sibel Gandy · Rating 4 out of 5]

3,5 / 5
Thomas'ın yaptığı salaklıkları okumak eğlenceliydi 😆

[Melis · Rating 4 out of 5]

İyi güldürdüler beni :)

[tacitus · Rating 1 out of 5]

The writing is fine, but the character development is non-existent and the heroine is entirely unrealistic for the era. She's basically a well bred, intelligent gentle-woman who miraculously decides to becomes a adventure seeking harlot at the drop of hat, and with apparently no consideration of the nasty social repercussions that would occur in that era. I do not use the word harlot as a moral judgement, but merely as a term to describe her behavior. She PLANS to throw herself at as many men as she pleases until she has gotten the "experiences" she wants. Loose might be a good modern term, but the term at that time would have been harlot or worse.

In the end, I disliked the story because it was unrealistic, and realism has to be a good cornerstone of historical romances. If one isn't going to bother doing the research and writing realistic historical characters, one might as well just write contemporary romance where anything goes.

[Arzu · Rating 3 out of 5]

Ben historical romanlarda kadın karakterlerin 21.yy daki kadınlara taş çıkarır biçimde cesaretli ve atılgan olmasını o dönemden uzaklaşmak olarak görüyorum. Kitapta ilk öpüşmeleri falan bana geçmedi üzgünüm ama yazım dili güzeldi okur muyum diğer kitapları? Okurum. Eğer hist romanlarında 21.yy kadını gibi birilerini seviyorsanız okuyun 🦋

[Jess · Rating 3 out of 5]

After the two other paperbacks that I tried and failed to read, it was a relief to find this readable. Nice enough book that I remember nothing about days after finishing it. That's it, that's the review.

[Carmen · Rating 4 out of 5]

It was a lesson I had to learn. A lesson of life. A lesson of love.
And in the end, a marriage lesson.

[Laura · Rating 2 out of 5]

I am certainly getting more harsh in my romance novel star rating. This book was not bad, but it was slightly boring in my giant pile of sordid romances.

I picked it up based on the inside cover blurb and found it very divorced from what actually happens. Having a heroine who doesn't care about virtue and sees sexual adventures as an exciting experience she wants without marriage was a bit of a breath of fresh air, but she quickly becomes like every other heroine who wants a love marriage. (I am so sick of the final third of a book being the heroine going "he wants to marry me, and he totally does all these wonderful things for me, but he won't say he loves me out loud WAHHHHHH")

I believe I may need a romance novel break.

[Julianna · Rating 3 out of 5]

Review provided by The Hope Chest Reviews (http://www.thcreviews.com)
"3.5 stars" The Marriage Lesson is a light, breezy Regency romance that is the third book in Victoria Alexander's Effington Family & Friends series. It's a fairly entertaining book that has some sweet romantic moments, but in general, I tend to prefer my romance to have a little more depth and substance in both plot and characterizations. There just wasn't a lot going on in the story in the way of action or intrigue. The conflict is all of an internal nature with both the hero and heroine either fighting their feelings for one another or being oblivious them. I thought perhaps there would be a tense moment or two when the truth came out about the heroine being the author of the infamous Country Miss stories, but overall it was pretty anti-climactic. There's a lot of repetition in both themes and dialogue, which I believe is supposed to be cute or funny, but for the most part it didn't affect me that way. There were a few humorous moments that made me smile, but overall for me, this was more of a slightly above average story than a great one.

Marianne is the sister of Richard, the hero of the previous book of the series. She's the oldest of his sisters who are still unmarried, and a bit of a bluestocking. She's an avid reader, who wants to experience the adventures, which up until now, she's only read about in books. For that reason, she has no intention of marrying and has come up with a plan to earn some money to fund her independence and travel plans. After submitting a sample of her writing to a local publication, Marianne is hired to write a series of stories that become known as The Absolutely True Adventures of a Country Miss in London. She bases the stories on her own experiences with a little fiction added in for excitement, but soon her own life is almost juicy enough on it's own without the extra embellishment. Her stories become the talk of the ton, while she navigates the perilous waters of love and the marriage mart. Marianne begins to fall for her brother's best friend, who is essentially her protector while her brother is out of the country. Since she has no intention of marrying, she doesn't feel that there is any reason to save her virginity and decides to indulge in physical intimacy. She finds a lot of that in Thomas's arms, but it isn't enough to entice her to marry him. Although her mother died when she was young, Marianne is still old enough to remember how unhappy her parents seemed even though they supposedly were a love match. Marianne is an incredibly stubborn young woman. While I understood her desire to have Thomas declare his love for her, it drug on a little too long for my taste. I also couldn't help wondering a bit about her being so insistent upon love, when her parents were supposedly in love and still ended up unhappy. There were times when I felt like she could have simply communicated with Thomas a little better to perhaps spur him to give her the reassurance she needed instead of drawing it out so long. She also seemed rather unaware, because Thomas's elaborate schemes did nothing to stir her belief in his feelings for her. I don't think many men would have gone to such lengths just to get a woman to marry him and not be in love with her.

Thomas is the oldest Effington son and heir to the dukedom. While his parents and Marianne's brother are out of the country, he's been left in charge of Marianne and her two younger sisters, a duty which he initially resents. He simply wants to find them husbands as quickly as possible to get them off his hands, so that he can concentrate on finding a wife. He thinks he wants a woman who is biddable and demure and nothing like the headstrong Effington women, so even though he's physically attracted to Marianne, he thinks she'll never do. However, the more time he spends with her, the more he enjoys bantering and talking with her. When she threatens to learn about physical intimacy from someone else, he can't let that happen, so he eagerly embraces the opportunity to give her “lessons.” What begins as heated kisses, soon turns into a whole lot more. I did admire Thomas for offering marriage after their first time making love, but of course, he doesn't offer love along with it. Thomas is said to be thirty-three years old, but to me he came off as younger and more immature. A fair bit is made of the fact that he writes poetry, albeit bad poetry, but we're only treated to his inept verses once in the entire story. Also a great deal is made about him being a rake, but other than slightly overindulging in drink a couple of times and of course, “ruining” Marianne (after which he proposes anyway), his behavior isn't all that rakish. He is, however, something of a dim bulb. I had a hard time believing how incredibly dense he was when it came to understanding what Marianne wanted from him and even recognizing his own feelings. He comes up with these elaborate plans, some of which were admittedly rather amusing and/or romantic, but he fails to do the simple thing of saying, “I love you.” I can get on board with a hero who fights his feelings for a while as long as he has good reasons, but one who is as oblivious as Thomas simply isn't all that endearing to me.

There are several secondary characters in The Marriage Lesson who go on to get their own books in the series. Next up, in The Prince's Bride, is Marianne's sister, Jocelyn, who seems to mainly be looking for a title and money. I haven't quite decided what I think of her yet. Sometimes, she seems sweet, but other times, she seems a little shallow. She gets paired with Thomas's friend, Randall, Viscount Beaumont, who is seen at the beginning and the end of this book. Also Thomas has two other friends, Pennington and Berkley, who become the heroes of their own books, Pennington in book #6, Love with the Proper Husband, and Berkley in book #8, The Pursuit of Marriage. Pennington seems like he might be interesting. Berkley has a bit of a romantic streak in him. However, he seems as dim if not dimmer than Thomas, so I'm not sure how I feel about him as a main hero. It also appears that book #11, Let It Be Love, is probably a next generation book, featuring Thomas and Marianne's son as the hero.

In most cases, I either enjoy a book from start to finish, or it may begin a little slow, but pick up momentum as it goes along. The Marriage Lesson felt pretty consistently slow-paced throughout, due to not a lot of import occurring. I actually found myself somewhat drawn in at the beginning, but the further I got into it, the more my interest started to wane. There were certain scenes that entertained me, so it wasn't a chore to finish. But at the same time, there were scenes where the characters frustrated me with their stubbornness and inability to see what was right in front of their faces. Overall, The Marriage Lesson was a decent read, and I'll probably continue with the series for now. But in general, I prefer my romances to have a little more depth and a little less breeziness.

[D'ale lui Damian · Rating 4 out of 5]

Thomas, viitorul duce de Roxborough, se vede în ipostaza de a-și însuși responsabilitățile de cap al familiei, ca urmare a plecării mamei sale în America. Până aici toate bune și frumoase, numai că se vede nevoit de a fi tutore surorilor celui mai bun prieten al său, care culmea este căsătorit cu sora sa. Adică trebuie să le facă debutul in societate, cum era la vremea aceea, si să le găsească și posibili soți.

O întâlnire în biblioteca casei în miezul noptii schimbă destinul, perceptiile ducelui, dar si ale Mariannei. El este hotărât să o căsătorească, iar ea este decisă să fie celibatară tot restul vieții. Oare spre ce se îndreaptă încăpățânarea acestor?

Cred că mai multe ar trebui să descoperiți dacă parcurgeți cartea!

Și am aflat si ce înseamnă *cavalcadă* ! Nu știam ca reprezintă o plimbare a mai multor persoane călare.

[Senem Elmas · Rating 3 out of 5]

Ben olsam, o aradığı şeye macera demezdim.

[Neria_Luce · Rating 5 out of 5]

Thımas çatlak Marianne ondan çatlak. Uzun zamandır bir historical da bu kadar gülmemiştim.

[Morgan · Rating 3 out of 5]

3.5 stars

[Judy · Rating 5 out of 5]

The 3rd book in the Effington series brings us to Gillian's brother, Thomas and Richards 3 unmarried sisters, Marianne, Jocelyn & Rebecca or Becky as she prefers. Henry the dog has also joined them at Thomas's family home in London. His mother was to sponsor the girls for the season but his folks were off in America as Richard and Gillian were there to see what they owned and she became with child.

Marianne accidentally hears Thomas talking to a friend about getting the girls married off quickly so he can find his own wife. She does not want a husband and her sisters want to enjoy a few seasons unmarried. Marianne only wants adventure in her life.

To earn money she starts writing a weekly column called the True Adventures of the Country Miss. It quickly becomes popular and she uses some daring life lessons to make it exciting.

Every book makes a visit to Grandmother's week long house party as well.
*sexual situations

[Sara · Rating 3 out of 5]

So mostly it was fine. Not fabulous, but good. I had some problems that kept me from liking it more.
Issues:
1)There was great build-up towards the end, and I was quite hopeful, but then the end was the same stereotypical cliche/stupid/overwrought/eye-rolling ending that I hate.
2)The tertiary character of the newspaper publisher caught my fancy way more than the hero ever did. True, the hero was appealing enough, but again I ask: WHY is it unacceptable for the heroine to end up with Cadwallender the gorgeous funny newspaper publisher who makes a decent living? It's like, if you're not a titled nobleman, you can't be a hero in a regency romance. (As the heroine often says, "Piffle.")
3) A moral of this story turned out to be that travelling is useless and anyone who wants to have adventures and be independent needs to either accept on their own that those things are stupid, or have their personality forcibly changed. And that is not the sort of moral I appreciate.

[Kerry Allen]

Quit at 85%.

Hiring some dude to pretend to be a rapist so you can play the savior is UNACCEPTABLE and NOT AMUSING.

I choose to believe this asshole dies horribly in the remaining pages and Marianne goes on to have a marvelous life and never thinks of him again.



This is a really good example of something that will make me Never-Again an author. Sometimes a vast philosophical gulf opens between an author's "This is an okay action for a protagonist in a romance novel to undertake" and how I expect anyone with the capacity for reason and a shred of human decency to behave. Once I know an author cannot reliably provide reason and decency in the characters I'm supposed to be rooting for and the precedent has been set that I may end up wishing horrific death upon one or both of said author's protagonists, I'm not wasting any more of my time.

[♡PıNaR DeğiRmeNci ♡ · Rating 5 out of 5]

Evlilik Dersi
Victoria Alexander
Çılgın bir kitap 😂😂😂 bazı yerlerinde kahkaha attım. Thomas neydi öyle😈 kız ise tatlı bir şeytan😄 komik eğlenceliydi bazı yerlerinde ise hadi artık desem de oldukça ilginç bir yazımdı. kız kardeşlere bayıldım arkadaslara bayıldım kisacasi karekterler muhteşemdi. Kızın aşırı macera peşinde olduğunu söylemesi fakat macera olarak sadece Thomas ile uğraşması komik geldi😋 diğer yönden Thomas karekteri çok iyiydi . Erkek karekterin muhteşemlikten çıkarılarak normal şekilde olması çok çekici geldi bana😄 özellikle şiirleri 😛 kisacasi kitabı beğendim❤

[Elaine · Rating 3 out of 5]

The story was ok, nothing special. It dragged a little. The heroine was very annoying at times, she was also a bit inconsistent, because at first she doesn't believe in love, and then that's all she wants. The hero didn't stand out in either good or bad. The best part of the book was the bad poetry (at least in my opinion). Some parts of the story were very funny and some part were quite boring.
I enjoyed it but I probably won't be reading it again.

[Quinn · Rating 2 out of 5]

It was alright - kinda cute - but then she went all mushy which kinda made the story go bleh

[Irma *Irma The Book Whisperer* · Rating 3 out of 5]

3.25

After boring The Husband List, this one is again a good choice of a book. I really had a lot of fun time reading it.

[crazy1bad]

I hated the h and really liked the H. The h was so stupid I can't believe I finished this book. If I was the H I would ruin her reputation so much that she would be forced to leave this planet. I didn't get it why the H had sex with her, how could he even get an erection (maybe that's why she tried to get him drunk). He just should have written to her brother about her plans about ''learning'' life, the H had no responsibility for the h's actions. When the h wanted to have sex he should have let her go to find some other man to use for that. There was nothing attractive about the h, she was bold, stupid, ungrateful, egoistic, spoiled, snobbish, boring and thought she is better and smarter than anyone else. She would be perfect in a brothel (the only thing she learned about life was having sex), not in a mansion as a duchess.

Btw, it's mentioned that the h's family was poor and lived in a country but instead of feeling relieved that they now can afford a better life with no worries, calming down from the stress, learning etiquette maybe and being in the aristocratic society she dreams about adventures (if you're smart you know that adventures can be dangerous), traveling (even now it can be dangerous for a woman to travel alone, don't forget about sex slavery and rape). So I'm wondering, how come she had time to dream about those things, read romance books and become that unrealistic while her family was struggling. Or was it the money that changed her approach to life?

[Veronica · Rating 3 out of 5]

Questo libro dopo una buona quantità di libri che non sono riusciti minimamente a colpirmi, è stato un soffio d'aria fresca. Sia chiaro, non è una storia eccelsa e ci sono diverse cose per cui mi rifiuto di considerarla tale però è stata anche una piacevole sorpresa: per una volta la protagonista non è poi così idiota e facilmente abbindolabile, anzi direi che ha un minimo di sale in zucca anche se non è stata fedelissima al suo stesso credo riguardo al matrimonio. Il protagonista maschile è il tipico cliché che ritroviamo in ognuno di questi libri: seduce e viene sedotto, si innamora ma rifiuta di ammetterlo, cerca di liberarsi della protagonista ma al tempo stesso la tiene al suo fianco ... un eterno tira e molla condito da scene spicy e romanticherie, e stratagemmi assurdi e ridicoli. Spesso leggendo mi sono ritrovata a pensare quanto tutta la situazione andatasi a creare fosse poco veritiera e un po' traballante per il periodo storico in cui è ambientata. Ammetto però di averlo trovato piuttosto divertente per cui tre stelle.

[Miriamgreen · Rating 5 out of 5]

entirely engrossing and entertaining
Alexander seems to provide a special genre that dips towards Heyer in its provocative and biting dialogue that is not laugh out loud. it provides a consistent smile with an essential portion of passion throughout. the characters are delightful and they will all get their own stories. those that cannot appreciate her wit give poor ratings. it seems i had read this quite some time ago, i.e. when trump was elected and my brains dissolved and began reading only regency romances. despite this reread it remained a sparkling entertainment. We all have regency genres we appreciate. Alexander is one of my favorites.

[Cait M · Rating 3 out of 5]

Average rating because the main characters were not for me. Particularly the heroine Marianne. She's not TSTL, but she is way too headstrong and self-centred to realise how the world works. Honestly, I'm surprised I didn't DNF.

The number of times they were together while she was enjoying her "lessons" without a pregnancy storyline occuring was a miracle.

The hero Tom was a bit of a dud too. He tried hard, in the end, to convince Marianne to marry him, but of course, he couldn't just say he loved her, which would have resulted in her immediate capitulation. SMH.

This book contains descriptive love scenes.

[Mindy Bowen · Rating 5 out of 5]

A Laugh Out Loud Romance

I really needed a good read & this gave me one. I've been unfortunately stuck in a rut with the books I've chosen to read Every book seems to be filled with so much angst that I find myself wanting to throw my Kindle due to the absurdity of the hero\heroine problems. This book gave me a funny, sexy, humorous story that gifted me (& my Kindle) a reprieve from that. Also absolutely loved the Hero Thomas. What can I say....I have a soft spot for rakes. Now I'm off in search of more Victoria Alexander books.

[Golden Time · Rating 2 out of 5]

I was thinking on giving it 1 star because the story is kind of predictable of same old formula... Those knowing grandmother, strict aunt, mischievous sister(s), and overly stubborn heroine who doesn't want love because of her parents poor examples.

But the silliness of the hero and the other three men made me chuckles, and embarrassed with their antics and failed plans. Therefore 2 stars to that.

[☆İpek☆ · Rating 5 out of 5]

Ahhh bu kitap okuduğum en eğlenceli kitaplardan biriydi. Harikaaaa.
Karakterlere bayıldım. Olaylar, kurgu çok güzeldi. Kitabın dünyasında yaşamak çok isterdim. Thomas ve arkadaşlarına o kadar çok güldüm kii. Çok tatlılar. Bitmesini istemiyorumm. Sevgili yazarı ayakta alkışlıyorum. Çok güzel bir kitaptı. Marienne ile aynı yaşta olan bir genç kız olarak umarım bende bir gün kendi 'Şair Soyguncum' ile tanışırım. 🥰😄

[Robin · Rating 4 out of 5]

Lady Marrianne longs for adventure in her life, not marriage or to be subjected to a stuffy, overly attractive protector. Thomas vows to find a husband for her as quick as he can, especially since he can not resister her himself. To ensure her adventure continue, Marianne seeks certain "lessons" from Thomas. Boy are they lessons. Hot for teacher. Great story, clever ending.