There are historical romances that are actually historical and there are historical romances that say, “The hell with history, these people are gonna be unchaperoned ALL THE TIME and we’re throwing in a magical cat.” How To Manage a Marquess is one of the latter. It’s a fun book, and I enjoyed it, but if you like realism in your historical romance then stop right here and go read something else. Godspeed.

I’m not sure I fully understood the plot of How to Manage a Marquess but in fairness to the book I had quite a week so I pretty much just picked up the book at random intervals, muttered, “There’s a magical kitty…huh,” and staggered off to my next thing. It’s also the third book in the Spinster House series and presumably the previous books provided more setup. There are a lot of side characters, but the protagonists are Nate (Marquess of Haywood), and Anne Davenport.

As I understand it, the whimsical village of Loves Bridge (no apostrophe) is home to Spinster House, a house in which one village spinster at a time may reside. Why one at a time? I don’t know. The house has a new vacancy and three women want to fill it: Anne and Anne’s friends Cat and Jane. They have to draw lots to win the house. Anne hopes that Cat will take herself out of the running by marrying Marcus, the Duke of Hart. However, Marcus’ cousin, Nate, is desperate to prevent this union. Also, naturally, Cat wins the draw so Anne is left in the lurch – although keen eyed villagers point out the Cat takes her sweet time moving in and Marcus seems to like her a LOT.

This is a problem, because the original owner of Spinster House placed a curse on the Hart family. All Dukes of Hart die before their heirs are born, unless they marry for love. Nate’s mother lost her father to the curse and she is convinced that her parents loved each other and that therefore love will NOT break the curse. On her deathbed she begs Nate to protect Marcus and keep him from marrying, “even if you have to put off marrying yourself.” So, no pressure. Nate finds himself in the position of the overprotective helicopter parent of an adult over whom Nate has no actual authority, which drives both Marcus and Nate up the wall.

Meanwhile, Anne has run her widowed father’s household for years but her father is about to remarry. It’s quite clear that Anne’s father and fiancee both hope to get Anne out of the house once they wed, and it’s clear that if Anne stays the situation will be terribly awkward, but unless she gets into Spinster House, she’s stuck. The fiancee turns out to be lovely, but there’s simply no way to make the situation an enjoyable one (especially since the fiancee is roughly the same age as Anne).

In the The Great Gatsby, Daisy tells her friends Nick and Jordan that she’s going to set them up: “I’ll fling you together! I’ll lock you up accidentally in linen closets and push you out to sea in a boat!” In How to Manage a Marquess, everyone is Daisy. Anne and Nate are invited to the same places and placed in adjoining bedrooms with connecting doors. They are placed in charge of small children who inform them frequently that they should just get married and who wander off leaving Anne and Nate alone. They are permitted, nay, encouraged, to spend hours alone on long walks and so forth. Even a semi-magical cat, Poppy, keeps herding them into secluded gardens. The only people who don’t want Nate and Anne to get married are Nate and Anne. I joined in the ranks of those who don’t see what their problem is.

Anne doesn’t want to marry Nate because she thinks he doesn’t love her. However, they have great make out sessions, and get along well. Modern marriages have been founded on less, much less Regency ones. If Anne marries Nate she is guaranteed to have hot sex and a household of her own, which she craves. I respect a dedicated spinster and rather hope that this series winds up with a happy woman joyfully occupying the house along with Poppy the Cat. However, clearly, Anne doesn’t actually want to do this, so why she doesn’t marry Nate is beyond me.

Nate can’t marry Anne because of the curse. However, why is the curse a problem? Nate isn’t directly affected by the curse. He can have an heir and live to be a hundred. The implication is that Nate has to physically be at Marcus’ side at all times to prevent him from being ensnared, and this would keep him away from a wife of his own. Nate’s extreme actions are somewhat believable because of the scene with his dying mother, which is intense. He’s understandably traumatized by her dying moments. Still, I don’t see how he can possibly prevent Marcus from ever marrying if that’s what Marcus wants. Staring disapprovingly at Marcus is just another job, albeit a futile one.

For two people who don’t want to get married, Nate and Anne sure make out a lot. I couldn’t figure out why Anne and Nate keep ending up in passionate embraces, sometimes nude. It’s unfortunate that these scenes are always from Nate’s point of view, which is always, “No, I mustn’t…wow, she’s really hot…OK, better quit now before she gets pregnant” while Anne veers from “I’m going to fling myself at Nate and make passionate overtures in a partial state of undress” to “I won’t get married.” It’s confusing. A lot of romances are built on the notion of people with great chemistry trying and failing to resist each other’s charms, but this one is especially awkward in its execution.

Despite being baffled by the most important aspects of this book, I found some aspects enjoyable. Anne’s development from someone who acts like a pouting teenager at the thought of her father’s impending marriage, to her more vulnerable expression of the fears and losses that this marriage brings, to her compassion towards her new, very young stepbrothers is well done. The two stepbrothers, who had an abusive father, are terribly realistic: the fact that they are too good to be real is an actual plot point with Anne hoping that they will feel safe enough to be naughty in the future. They are terrified that they, or their mother, will be violently punished for any misdeed and need reassurance and consistency.

The dialogue is brisk and amusing. The scenes involve a bucolic village, glamorous parties, and lovely scenery, making the book’s setting a pleasant place to hang out in. The portrait of life in a small community in which everyone knows everyone’s business is funny and clever, as seen in this chain of information:

Remember the stout, bespectacled woman we saw when we were walking back to Cupid’s Inn? She’s the village dressmaker. She’s also Mrs. Bingley’s – our housekeeper’s – cousin. She must have told Mrs. Bingley, who told Mr. Bingley, who told my father.

Having lived in a small town, I can vouch for this chain of information as being 100% legit.

As I mentioned, I read this during a stressful week and it cheered me up. I could not have dealt with angst, which is fortunate, as this is an angst-lite book. It falls in the category of what I call “Soap Bubble Romances,” which is to say that it’s light, it’s pretty, it makes me happy for a brief while, and I forget about it the minute it’s over. It takes considerable skill to write a decent soap bubble and if you are too stressed or sick or tired to take in anything substantial, this book might cheer you as it did me. However, if you want pesky things like historical accuracy or consistent behavior in characters, this will be a bit too airy for you.