Reminder to myself. NEVER read someone else’s review before writing one of the same book. While I enjoyed Martha Waters’ To Love and to Loathe, her follow-up to To Have and to Hoax, one reviewers was so angry about a plot point that she went on about it. Frankly, I was a little appalled at the behavior of the protagonist over that issue, but it didn’t spoil the book for me.

When Diana Bourne was eighteen, in her first Season, she told Jeremy Overington, her brother’s best friend, that she was determined to marry to escape her uncle’s home. She married Lord Templeton, who left her a widow just two years later. What she’s learned is that now that she all the money, independence and time for friends, tea, and her painting, she’s bored. So, she’s willing to take on Jeremy, Marquess of Willingham, as a project.

Jeremy is a second second son who only became the Marquess after his brother’s tragic death in a stupid race. He’s a hard-worker, determined to restore his estate, but he hides his good qualities behind a facade as a cad who has had multiple mistresses, and only lives for drink and good times. Diana has known Jeremy for a long time, though, and she expects more of him. They make a foolish wager. Diana bets Jeremy will be married within a year. Then, she sets out to throw women in front of him, hoping he’ll find the right woman. But, Jeremy’s most recent partner told him he wasn’t good in bed, and wounded his pride. He turns to Diana, and, once again, they make a deal that just for the duration of his house party, they’ll be lovers so she can honestly critique his skills.

It’s obvious from the beginning, though, that Jeremy and Diana actually have found the right person, despite their sparring. And, Jeremy’s grandmother, the Dowager Marchioness, has a pretty good idea how their relationship should resolve itself. Just how much time will it take?

It’s the wit and sparring that I enjoy in historical rom-coms. It’s comments such as the one from Diana’s best friend. “It is a shame you were born a woman, Diana, truly it is. You have the emotional range of the most repressed English gentleman at your very core.”

Violet and her husband are the lead characters in Waters’ first book, To Have and to Hoax. That romance just didn’t appeal to me, and I didn’t feel as if I missed anything by picking up To Love and to Loathe. I found it satisfying, with just the kind of sarcastic comments and verbal sparring that I enjoy in a historical romance.

Martha Waters’ website is https://www.marthawaters.com/

To Love and to Loathe by Martha Waters. Atria Books, 2021. ISBN 9781982160876 (paperback), 345p.

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