Title: The Stranger I Married
Author: Sylvia Day
Publisher/Year: Kensington Publishing Corporation 8/28/12
Length: 312 pages
Overview
Lady Pelham could not have designed a husband more suited to her needs. The Marquess of Grayson is a dear and enchanting friend and an unrepentant ladies’ man. Their union is solid; their hearts safe from one another. But every marriage has its surprises…p;
They Were Together For All The Wrong Reasons…
They are London’s most scandalous couple. Isabel, Lady Pelham, and Gerard Faulkner, Marquess of Grayson, are well matched in all things… their lusty appetites, constant paramours, wicked wits, provocative reputations, and their absolute refusal ever to ruin their marriage of convenience by falling in love with one another. Isabel knows such a charming rake will never appeal to her guarded heart, nor will she sway his philandering one. It is a most agreeable sham … until a shocking turn of events sends Gerard from her side.
Now, four years later, Gerard has come home to Isabel. But the carefree, boyish rogue who left has been replaced by a brooding, powerful, irresistible man who is determined to seduce his way into her affections. Gone is the devil-may-care companion who shared her friendship and nothing more, and in his place is temptation itself … a husband who desires Isabel body and soul and who will stop at nothing to win her love. No, this is not at all the man she had married. But he is the man who might finally steal her heart…
My Thoughts
One thing that i LOVE is old school romance – and the sense of old world courting and society. Sylvia Day has done it again in The Stranger I Married. We find ourselves wrapped up in the world of titles and expectations that need to be fulfilled in order to be considered proper.
The Plot: we are first semi-introduced to Grayson (Gerard) at a party where he’s made the decision that he’s going to usurp his friend’s mistress for his own devices. can’t blame a guy for wanting what we can only expect at this point to be quite a beautiful woman who probably has a significant level of sensuality. Next we meet Pel (Isabel) who is the mistress that is going to be usurped….she doesn’t know what’s in store for her. The story that we get wrapped up in is around Grayson’s desire to marry Pel not for a traditional marriage but because they seem to have similar needs and wants. You see, Pel has been married before, her husband is deceased, yet before he died, he had taken several mistresses which utterly broke her heart. The husband in question actually died as a result of being called out by the husband of one of his mistresses – so that just shows the kind of guy he was. no wonder she doesn’t want to marry anyone ever again. she’s content to keep a string of affair time relationships. the nice thing with Pel though is that she has morals to an extent – she won’t have an affair with anyone who’s married – so only single men….nice right? And back to Grayson, well he’s single yes but he keeps his string of affairs up in full gusto. juggling 2 women at one time actually. One being his long time love from childhood who somewhat got away.
All this together makes for a PERFECT union between Grayson and Pel – they have no expectations of love – they just knowt hat they are friends who make each other happy and they are allowing the other to maintain other relationships if that’s what they need.
this is where the issues arise though – said youth love/mistress gets pregnant (which isn’t a huge deal surprisingly) yet, said woman also doesn’t not live through the birth and nor does the baby. this has catastrophic results on Grayson (and Pel) and this is where our story picks up.
My thoughts: suffice it to say, i did enjoy the story although of course it was some what expected. what i actually appreciated the most is the way that the story was ended. i won’t tell you about that piece – but what i will say is that i wasn’t expecting exactly what happened. it was nice.
in addition to the story that we see develop around Grayson and Pel and how circumstances change EVERYTHING, there are a few others intertwined into the plot that make for nice background noise.
Sylvia Day again does a great job keeping us engaged throughout the story and true to her form, there’s an oozing sensuality and carnal feeling to this story that confirms that her stamp has been placed on the book. I just love when there’s an author that continues to deliver what you expect and then just a little more.
