Review: Say Yes to the Marquess by Tessa Dare

Title: Say Yes to the Marquess

Atuhor: Tessa Dare

Publication: December 30th 2014 by Avon

Genre: contemporary romance

Rating: 5 stars!

Goodreads Summary:

Your presence is requested at romantic Twill Castle for the wedding of Miss Clio Whitmore and . . . and . . . ?

After eight years of waiting for Piers Brandon, the wandering Marquess of Granville, to set a wedding date, Clio Whitmore has had enough. She's inherited a castle, scraped together some pride, and made plans to break her engagement.

Not if Rafe Brandon can help it. A ruthless prizefighter and notorious rake, Rafe is determined that Clio will marry his brother—even if he has to plan the dratted wedding himself.

So how does a hardened fighter cure a reluctant bride's cold feet?
● He starts with flowers. A wedding can't have too many flowers. Or harps. Or cakes.
● He lets her know she'll make a beautiful, desirable bride—and tries not to picture her as his.
● He doesn't kiss her.
● If he kisses her, he definitely doesn't kiss her again.
● When all else fails, he puts her in a stunning gown. And vows not to be nearby when the gown comes off.
● And no matter what—he doesn't fall in disastrous, hopeless love with the one woman he can never call his own.

Review:

Say Yes to the Marquess is the first book of the year that I read and it set a pretty good tone because I LOVED IT and besides the fact that Clio and Rafe, the heroine and hero, were super 1000% compatible, it really came down to the fact of how feminist it was.

Clio has been engaged for eight years and her fiancé has been abroad the whole time and now she's done. Instead of being pushed aside and forgotten, she's putting herself first.

"Is there someone else?"
"Yes. There is someone else. There's me."
His eyes flashed with surprise.
"There's me," she repeated. "I've spent a great deal of time alone these past eight years. I've come to know myself and my own capabilities. I'm resilient. I can withstand a little gossip. Or even a whole lot of it. I can inherit an estate and devote myself not to its preservation, but its improvement. Because I've taken all those lessons and accomplishments that were supposed to make me the deal diplomat's wife —and I've made them my own."

Clio is so empowered and it's absolutely wonderful to read about. Instead of complaining about all the lessons on becoming the best wife going to waste, she took all those qualities and made them her own. She empowered herself. She decided to put herself first. This was before the hero, Rafe, came into the picture. This was her own doing.

Another thing thing I loved is that Rafe is a boxer, so you can imagine how much of an Alpha he is. But Clio never let him step on her dreams for the castle she inherits or anything of that sort. She didn't take any of the shit he even thought of dishing out. She just has so much power in their relationship and I loved seeing that equal dynamic! Because it further emphasized Clio's own empowerment instead of having it all go to waste once she falls in love.

There is just so many ways that a story like this could have played out and Tessa Dare chooses take the most beautiful way, by giving us a heroine who takes her fate into her own hand and not in a dramatic way but in the best way for her.

Speaking of the equal dynamic between Clio and Rafe, these two actually TALKED about their problems. I definitely think this is because Clio is empowered and smart. There wasn't ridiculous miscommunication because these characters respected each other as equals and discussed things. Can we talk about how absolutely wonderful and down right beautiful that is?

If you need other reasons to read Say Yes to the Marquess then there is fact that it's really sweet, super funny and has one of the best love scenes out there (and since I read a lot of romance, I don't say this lightly!). Rafe and Clio also had so much chemistry and they fit each other SO WELL. I'll be rereading Say Yes to the Marquess for so many years. The book, thanks to Clio, definitely put itself in my "all time favorites" shelf. More feminists historical romance, please and thank you!