Review: 2.5 Heroine is just too stubborn
Rating: 2 out of 5
Date: 06 14, 2014
Eliza Terribury is a heroine who I liked for most of this novel and then she becomes someone I really didn't admire at the end of the novel.  For this reason, Rebel Marquess does not merit above 2.5 stars.Eliza has a mamma who has high ambitions for her daughters.  She wants them to make excellent matches and her mother has always wanted to add Michael Gerard, the Marquess of Rutherford as one of her son-in-laws.  She has been unsuccessful but her machinations are well honed by time youngest daughter Eliza s on the marriage mart.Eliza never wants to marry she only wants to publish her romantic novels.  She has never had any true romance herself but has a pretty active imagination.  She fears a husband will not allow her to write and feels he will stifle her life. Michael knows he will marry one day but he is in no hurry and he certainly does not want to marry into the Terribury family.Unfortunately Eliza and Michael are caught in a compromising position and they agree to a pretend engagement.  They both do not want to marry and they figure they will find a way to escape the betrothal at a more opportune time.Eliza really likes Michael who is witty and charming.  Still she stubbornly keeps her mantra of "I will never marry."  Eliza is at heart a romantic yet does not really believe in romance and the power of love and acceptance.  She writes of love but cannot recognize it in her own life nor can she understand its life altering power.Michael is emotionally smarter that Eliza.  He makes a mistake here and there but of the two, he is much more willing to change his course when love takes hold of his heart.  He is a passionate man and an honorable one too.Eliza is afraid to change her path but even worse she is rash and her actions have devastating effects on the people she loves.  It's hard to believe a smart woman can be so oblivious about her hurtful actions toward her leading man and her family too.  I liked Eliza through most of this novel but by the end, I really stopped caring for her.  Her behavior was hurtful in the extreme to Michael and I never felt she was overly sorry for hurting him so deeply or showed enough remorse.