Another winner from Martha Waters. Emily and Julian enter into a marriage of convenience which slowly turns to love with lots of fun along the way. There is heat, passion, chemistry, sarcasm and witty banter.
This story is a little steamy and a whole lot of fun!
I received this ARC from Atria and NetGalley in exchange for my honest review.

I’m loving this series and this one was defiantly the best yet! I love her characters and their development through the series. It’s cute and funny and a perfect light read to get you out of a slump! Don’t sleep on waters!

Martha Waters is one of my all-time favorite historical romance writers. She has a way of bringing comedy into the mundane, making feminists out of society ladies, and developing relationships that make you swoon. It’s impossible to not read any of her books without a huge grin. To Marry and To Meddle was absolutely fantastic. I loved the evolution of Emily from the timid debutante we precariously met, to the married woman who takes control of her life and goes after what she wants. This was a quick, fun read and I hope to see more from Waters set in this world.

“…in a marriage of convenience, love would be the most inconvenient surprise of all.”

When Julian and Emily decide to marry (he for respectably, she for freedom from her parents machinations) they grow from acquaintances to friends to lovers to being in love.

To Marry and To Meddle is a well written, comforting story of two people navigating being newlyweds while also falling in love with each other.

If you like this series by Martha Waters you will enjoy Emily and Julian’s story.

"To Marry and to Meddle" is the third book in the Regency Vows series by Martha Waters. In this book, rakish Lord Julian Belfry needs a wife to make him and his business seem more acceptable to the British ton. Lady Emily Turner is trying desperately to find a more suitable match than the one her parents seem insistent on. Since Julian and Emily are already friends anyways, Julian proposes that they marry, all while understanding that theirs is not a love match. Along the way, their friendship grows deeper and they start to realize that there may be actual feelings developing.

I really enjoyed the first two books in this series, but this one was just not as fun. I skimmed through some sections, and the chemistry wasn't as evident between Emily and Julian. Thanks to NetGalley for the ARC. All opinions are my own.

A delightful Regency romance with one of my favorite tropes: the marriage of convenience.
Lord Julian is proud of his theatre, the Belfry, even if it caused him to be disowned by his father. To help his theatre become more respectable, he decides to marry Lady Emily Turner. She’s the height of respectability and a beauty in the bargain. Her family is also under financial obligation to the owner of a gaming hell. Julian will take care of her father’s debts and he’ll get the perfect wife for his purpose.

But his marriage to Emily isn’t at all what he expected. She wants to be involved in the theatre. She saves ugly kittens. And she makes him feel protective (especially because her parents are the WORST).

I seriously enjoyed every single line of this story. I also loved seeing characters from the first two books of the series. A little steamy and a whole lot of fun!

#curtain

To Marry and to Meddle by Martha Waters is a great historical romance that is the third book in the equally enjoyable The Regency Vows series. This series just gets better and better with each book!

I have enjoyed the previous two books in this series, so of course I wanted to read the third. I think it is the best yet!

Emily and Julian are “outliers” in Regency England. Both are in sticky situations that present as societal expectations that are at odds with their respective desires for their own lives mixed with challenges added due to imperfect family situations. Both find solace in one another and their business proposition leads to a marriage of convenience. They both think that will end it there….

What they do not expect is for complications to arise…externally and also between one another…can it all be sorted right?

Emily and Julian are fantastic. There is heat, passion, chemistry, sarcasm, banter, and sticky situations that made me laugh out loud. I couldn’t help but cheer them on as they navigated society, family, friends, and the blossoming romance between one another.

Another great book by Ms. Waters!

5/5 stars

Thank you NG and Atria Books for this wonderful arc and in return I am submitting my unbiased and voluntary review and opinion.

I am posting this review to NG only at this time and will post it to my GR, Bookbub accounts closer to publication and my Amazon, Instagram, and B&N accounts upon publication on 4/5/22 per publisher request.

3.5

i have to say this is the first i’ve read of this series but i liked it! didn’t have to wait too long for the plot to get set into motion. fluffy for sure but i appreciated that the conflict wasn’t too heart-wrenching.

#netgalley

I really enjoyed both To Love and To Loath and the Have and To Hoax so I was very excited to read To Marry and To Meddle. I was actually worried that my expectations were too high but I can safely say that it was not an issue -- I absolutely loved this book.

From the marriage of convenience trope, to Emily finding her voice, to the cat shenanigans, the book had enough to keep me engaged and laughing in between steam and serious parts.

I really hope this is not the end of the series because despite not previously considering myself a fan of historical romance, I adored this series and need more!

It’s not that I disliked this, but the story just seemed to lack a real arc. Nothing of climactic note ever happened, and the protagonists did not ever seem at odds enough to warrant a storyline. No one had to overcome anything of particular consequence, and for that reason this felt a little listless. It also felt far-fetched even for this genre and series.

Another fabulous book by Martha Waters. Its' got everything I love - witty banter, regency romance, lots of heat, so much wit.I enjoyed a marriage of convenience plot. I liked the spark between Emily and Julian and these two were a cute pair to watch grow and accept their feelings. A must read for historical romance fans.

A special thank you to NetGalley and Atria Books for an ARC in exchange for an honest review. Atria Books

Martha B Waters is back with this outrageously fun + witty romp to add to her Regency Vows series! A lovely and happy historical romance, this book captivated me from the first page. Lady Emily and Lord Julian find themselves in a marriage of convenience that benefits them both- Emily the freedom to escape her family's controlling ways and Julian the proper wife that society expects to help improve his theatre's reputation. Together they tackle the expectations of their families and society, find ways to revitalize his theatre and deal with one pesky albeit darling kitten. Much to their surprise (but no one else's) along the way their marriage of convenience turns into something more. I simply adore the author's writing style- her characters are fresh, sassy and hilarious while her love stories are steamy and swoonworthy. No one writes banter like this author I swear! It's off the charts original, quick and charming while I found the pacing of the story to be perfect. I truly couldn't have loved this one more. Reading this effervescent and joyful novel was like enjoying a bubbly glass of champagne in the sunshine.... with a cat curled up in my lap. Thank you so much to Atria and Netgalley for my copy.

My favorite of this series, so far. Emily is a proper society lady whose father’s gambling debts have kept her from marrying. When Julian, the disinherited second son and owner of a slightly scandalous theater, proposes a marriage of convenience, she agrees. He’ll pay off the family debts, she’ll help him win over the aristocracy by making his theater more respectable. But their arrangement only works as long as no inconvenient feelings (like love) are involved.

Thanks to Netgalley, the publisher, and the author for the ARC to review. All opinions are my own.

This book was just delightful, and it was exactly what I needed to read right now. I loved the way Julian and Emily's relationship developed, and I especially loved the side characters of Emily's friends. I hadn't read either of their books, but I'm definitely going to go back and do that.

"She felt as though she'd been living in a cage for her entire life, and Julian had opened the door."

With a tarnished reputation, proclaimed bachelor Julian needs a solution to attract more people to his theater, the Belfry. Enter society gem Emily, prim and proper in every way, able to weather the scandal that has surrounded her family in recent years. When Julian and Emily concoct a marriage of convenience that benefits both of them, whatever could go wrong?

I love this series by Martha Waters, but I have to say this is my favorite one yet. Each book just keeps getting better than the next! Waters has a way of making her historical romances feel fun and fresh. I could not stop reading this one and devoured it in less than 24 hours. I simply could not put it down.

After the most unromantic proposal in the history of proposals, Julian and Emily cultivate the most fun marriage. Even though they have an unspoken arrangement and each serves a purpose for the other, once they spend more time together, they start catching feelings and realizing that marriage isn't half bad. I loved that they had no lies between each other and treat each other with respect. They don't play games, which causes the marriage to take both by surprise. I was obsessed with their witty banter and their chemistry was on fire. They call each other on their crap, always pushing the other to be the better version of themselves.

I adored Emily in the first two books, but her character came alive in To Marry and to Meddle. Constantly under the thumb of her controlling family, Julian's proposal gives her the freedom to discover her authentic self, without judgement. Ever a people pleaser, I loved watching Emily's transformation finding her own voice, on her own terms. Her clever nature despite her prim and proper upbringing was absolutely refreshing and I loved how she was so different from other women of the ton. All she wanted was love, acceptance and a sense of belonging and I was rooting for her the entire book.

Julian is an absolute jokester and hides a tender heart under his dreadful rakish reputation. I loved him so much! His sweet teasing of Emily was endearing and I loved how he pushed her buttons just to shower her with affection. His lovable bickering with his siblings brought a layered dynamic to his backstory. Julian continued to surprise me at every turn throughout the book. Craving the approval of his father, he was stubborn to a fault, but once he finally let Emily in, I fell in love with him right alongside her.

I will forever stan with Cecil the kitten! Hands down, the best character in this book. Cecil's comedic timing was impeccable and he brought a smile to my face every time he was on the page. I was absolutely laughing out loud every time Julian interacted with Cecil.

A huge thank you to Atria for the advanced copy of this book. I am obsessed and loved it so much. All the stars, all the feels! This book is beyond perfection!

To Marry and To Meddle publishes April 5, 2022.

It's official -- I'm a Martha Waters stan. I loved her first two books, To Have and To Hoax in particular becoming a comfort read during the pandemic. She's absolutely knocked it out of the park with the third installment in this series.

This book is incredibly funny; Waters has a voice and a sense of comedic timing to rival Tessa Dare, the queen of the historical rom-com. And it's also quite sweet, as well. The heroines in the first two books in the series are larger-than-life characters, and while Emily has always been a willing participant in their shenanigans, she's certainly overshadowed by them. Here, Emily has the opportunity to explore who she'd really like to be, all the while tenderly supported by Julian.

I love a loud, brash heroine who knows what she wants, don't get me wrong. But of course there's room for, and I wonder if more people might be seeking this out right now, a heroine who's doing the quiet work of truly understanding herself and her desires. In going on two years of pandemic isolation, I think many of us have likely had the space to do the same: to evaluate who we've been and for whom we've been that person and why, and where our real wants and needs lay. Julian does this work for himself, too, but it's particularly poignant to watch a woman evaluate how she's been a pawn to a role in society and decide how she'd like to wield her power going forward.

I've had a huge soft spot for Emily and Julian since book 1, and Waters couldn't have given them a more perfect story. I'm eagerly awaiting watching the rest of the friend group fall in love now: Penvale and West & Sophie of course, but now I wouldn't mind a book for Julian's brother Robert, and maybe a holiday novella about Julian's friend Bridgeworth and the love notes he leaves on his wife's dressing table? I love this world Waters has created, and this wild and witty friend group, and I can't wait to spend more time in it in the future.

A super fun marriage of convenience between a a theater owner from an aristocratic family and a nobly-born lady trying to escape the match her family made for her. This book had me yelling at the main character for all the best reasons! It's immediately apparent to the reader how much they care about each other but they refuse to admit it. The banter from the author's previous books remains but with an added element of protective hero and heroine finding herself. Both characters genuinely want the best for each other and support each other through it all which is very swoon inducing.

This book is a fresh, fun take on a marriage of convenience. I appreciate Martha Waters' use of language and witty dialogue. The familiar characters from her previous novels get their own spotlight in this story, adding to her previously established universe and leaving the reader wanting more details and hoping there's another story left to tell. Emily and Julian's story warms your heart and will leave you smiling.

Martha Waters is a marvel! I knew I was going to love Julian and Emily, and she absolutely did these fabulous characters justice! The banter was delightful, the inclusion of characters from previous novels was expertly done, and the family dynamics were on point. (Also I knew I was going to love Julian and his swoon worthy forearms, but can I just say that Cecil absolutely stole the show for me? Meow!). I will recommend Martha Waters to everyone who will listen!
Fingers crossed we get a novel with Sophie and West next!

I liked the previous books in this series, but this one felt boring. The relationship between the two main characters wasn't exciting. I was never on the edge of my seat, eager to keep reading.