Review - Much Ado About Marriage by Karen Hawkins

Get your history books ready! This Elizabethan-set romance draws extensively on the politics and events of the period, namely mid-1567, to add conflict. A quick refresher on the history of Elizabeth I and Mary Stuart goes a long way in understanding the intrigue in the story.

Our hero and heroine, Lord Thomas Wentworth and Miss Fia MacLean, are caught together in a scandalous situation and must try to navigate their way through the repercussions. Fia wants nothing more than to get to London and find a way to have her plays performed. Thomas is a spy whose goal is to not bring shame upon his family name. They both struggle to overcome their own backgrounds to find their way to each other.

The romance between the hero and heroine felt contrived at times. It seemed disjointed, as if some scenes were written before and disregarding scenes that had come previously. The hero’s treatment of the heroine ran the gamut from red-hot to icy, and it was hard to believe that such a strong, self-possessed heroine would stand for such treatment, and indeed still be attracted to the man.

This book sets up the origin of the curse from the MacLean curse series and introduces the amulet for the Hurst amulet series. As such, it leaves many questions unanswered. The reader never truly meets the famed White Witch or learn exactly what the circumstances were that drew down her ire on clan MacLean.

Overall, Much Ado About Marriage is worth the read, but is not the most compelling work by Hawkins.