Alex Deveril wins Chloe Herveaux in a drunken card game and marries her the same night. When he wakes the next morning, he's befuddled by his new bride, and the two decide to seek an annulment. Chloe just wanted out of her brother's house while Alex was upset by the marriage of his mistress.
Meanwhile, Prince Rupert needs to find the traitor who is disrupting the war with France, so he enlists Alex and his friends.
It's rare to find a historical romance that takes place in the time of Cavaliers and Roundheads. The court of Charles II should be fertile territory for romance writers, but I haven't found many books from that period. Stella Riley fills the gap admirably. She weaves in history adroitly from the great London plague to the fire that burned down most of London in 1666.
Alex and Chloe are wonderful together. She's one of the few who will stand up to his temper, and their arc is just lovely. The setting is detailed and very interesting with various Court personages appearing at times.
Though an earlier time period than Georgian, it has the feel of a Georgette Heyer book It's a great story and I heartily recommend the read. ( )

This was my second Stella Riley, and while I loved the Black Madonna (my first) in the end, the beginning was so heavily historical with so many characters I am not sure I could have done it without the buddy read.


For this, I decided to change course and use a narrator and read along or just listen. I also buddy read this one, but fell in love with Alex (according to my buddies, maybe this is unusual) immediately. I was also engaged in the book immediately. In fact, the way the storyline and romance was paced I absolutely adored...until about 75%. Then I got a little impatient. We did get to know and see so many nuances in the characters it ultimately didn't matter, but I was left feeling this was heavily historical fiction (and great at that) with a side of romance.


The more accessible nature of this novel, however, left me appreciating Riley's gorgeous writing, and her subtlety in building characters. The romance is, indeed, built in moments and precious few at that, but the characters are all so lovely it doesn't matter. This all reinforces that while I believe Riley is a complete force-such a strong storyteller- I have to be ready to read her and for the pacing to be heavily grounded in real life and not fantastical romance.


Despite all this, the romance is built in moments and through characters which I love, with the heaviest bits backloaded. the last 6% holding the majority of it, and the last 15% nearly all of it.


In the end, I haven't discussed that I adored Alex and Chloë and the secondary characters as well or why. Alex is an impertinent, self-aware, difficult jackass. Of course, this means I love him. He also has a sense of responsibility, isn't a hedonist, and is ultimately kind-hearted and moral. In Chloë, he met a woman who was witty yet innocent, demanding yet forgiving, and who also did not rest or give in to indulgent self-wallowing. She realizes her love for Alex is unrequited and likely to remain so in one of my favorite parts of the book, and rather than wallow, she accepts it and moves on ultimately, this strength and matter-of-fact manner make her a lovely, smart, and grounded match for Alex. Throw in her unassuming manner and she's just a delight.

The narration is excellent, and I'll gladly pick up another Wyndham... Or Riley/Wyndham... Because it's a great combination. ( )

The year is 1666, the setting Oxford. The monarchy has been restored, and the English Civil Wars have come to an end. Alexander Deveril, long-time soldier and Cavalier, dispossessed of his ancestral home by a scheming cousin while off fighting for his king, finds that his lady love intends to wed another, more affluent man. In a state of drunken rage, he wins the hand of half-French Chloe Herveaux in a card game with her brother, and the two find themselves unexpectedly married. Determined to eventually annul the marriage, they nevertheless remain together and head to London, where Chloe dabbles in becoming a shipping merchant and Alex becomes caught up in an assignment to track down the traitor and spy sabotaging England's naval campaigns against the Dutch. Their growing attachment to each other plays out against the backdrop of dramatic historical events, culminating in the Great Fire of London...

Originally published in 1983, and recently revised and rereleased, The Marigold Chain is the fifth novel I have read from British author Stella Riley, and the second, after A Splendid Defiance, that was more historical adventure with romance, than romance novel per se. I didn't love it quite as much as A Splendid Defiance, but I did find it very enjoyable. Alex is a mercurial character, sometimes appealing, sometimes obnoxious, and Riley captures him in all his ambiguous glory. Chloe is also an interesting character, falling in love with her husband almost from the start, but remaining interested in her widening circle of friends, and in her own activities. Perhaps one of the reasons their story didn't speak to me as strongly as that of Justin and Abigail, in A Splendid Defiance, is that there is very little of Alex's perspective, until the very end of the book. I suspect that this was done to build tension, as Chloe's feelings are disclosed to the reader early on, but it left me with the feeling that there was something missing here. Apparently Riley's story here owes much to Dorothy Dunnett's Lymonde Chronicles, but being unfamiliar with those books, I cannot comment, save to say that perhaps I should track them down. As for this, I would recommend it to anyone who enjoys historical fiction and/or historical romance. ( )