The Marquess of Mischief is the interesting story of Christopher Anglesey, the fifth Marquess of Banbury, and Lady Diana Lawrence. Christopher is an agent of the crown. Diana is a bright and beautiful young lady. She is blind due to a carriage accent six months ago. The romance between Christopher and Diana develops slowly and is threaded through a story of, threats, and revenge, rumors of a plot to assassinate the Prince Regent. The characters are great. We have an understanding hero (one of my favorite parts is when Christopher takes Diana fishing), a brave heroine, a dangerous and persistent villain, and a wonder horse named Bandit. Entertaining and exciting story with a wonderful ending.

I loved the premise of this book. Blind girl gets HEA. The book started out fast, but kind of got bogged down a bit. The conversations tended to be stilted, like they were reading from a script with no emotion. I loved the rescue as well! Overall, a very entertaining read, a couple of laugh out loud moments, and love wins!

"The Prince Regent's life has been threatened. He requested your help on this."
As an agent of the crown, Christopher knew this was to be his top priority, finding the villains.
But first he had to visit Lady Diana, after the ordeal last night.

Blind from a recent carriage accident, Diana was determined to keep positive and attended the balls and outings her mother requested she attend with her. Unfortunately, she had been almost taken advantage of before her Christopher, had come to her rescue. As a friend of her brother, she had known him a long time.

Intrigue, suspense, villains and a slow burning attraction drives this entertaining story and I could not wait to see what would happen! Anna always creates characters and stories that pull me in and keeps me reading late into the night! Cannot wait for more from this series! Excellent!

The Marquess of Mischief by Anna St. Claire is, at its core, a sweet romance. Christopher Anglesey, the fifth Marquess of Banbury was at his club when he overheard a conversation about attacking a young woman, and maybe even her friend. Christopher was going to be at that ball this evening, but he had no idea who the man making the threats was. He would keep his eyes open. At the all his sister, Lady Catherine was right by the side of her friend, Lady Diana Lawrence, who, earlier in the year, had been in a carriage accident that had left her blind. Christopher was watching the ball when all of a sudden he realized he couldn't see Lady Diana. He immediately rushed to the terrace where he found her pinned to a wall, he skirts around her neck and a man about to ravish her. He landed a solid punch to the man and help Diana straighten herself. His friends arrived and one went to get Diana's family as Christopher arranged for their carriage. When he went to check on her the following day, he discovered she had mostly recovered. She was a strong young woman. He liked that. The oddities continued for Diana and Christopher felt more drawn to her every day.

This was a sweet romance, aside from the threats and intrigue. Christopher managed to protect Diana as he planned outing for her in which she was able to use her other senses, since she was blind. She was both appreciative and attracted. Fortunately, her maid, Rose, had a tendency to nap, so she and Christopher were able to get to know each other more quickly than they might have. Diana was a strong young woman and she refused to give up hope that one day she would see again. She fully employed her other senses, which made her observations much more accurate than that of most sighted people. As they battled an unknown foe, their relationship grew. It was moving and beautiful to watch as they fell in love. I enjoyed every moment of it.

I was invited to read a free e-ARC of The Marquess of Mischief by Dragonblade, through Netgalley. All thoughts and opinions are mine. #netgalley #dragonblade #annastclaire #themarquessofmischief

I requested this because the premise sounded like something I would enjoy -- I adore historical romance, especially when spies are involved -- but unfortunately the writing style made it unenjoyable. For many people that wouldn't be a problem, I know, but writing style is one of the most important characteristics of a story to me, and I cannot enjoy a story where I find the writing style to be grating.

In this case, the writing is a bit stilted and comes off sort of monotone, as all the sentences are roughly the same length. The story moves quickly, but at a remove as everything is told rather than shown. Too little time is also spent on any event, giving situations such as a lady being nearly ravished the same import as a quick conversation with a servant.

Also the characters are always guffawing and bellowing and hardly ever simply say anything, and Christopher's driver is also named "Goforth" which strikes me as excessively silly.

My only real problems were with the writing style and not the plot, and while I found them insurmountable I'm sure plenty of readers would be able to look past them and enjoy the story.

*Thanks to NetGalley and Dragonblade Publishing for providing an e-arc for review.