Title:  What A Lady Requires
Series:  The Eton Boys Trilogy (book 3)
Author:  Ashlyn Macnamara
Genre:  Historical Romance
Published:  February 24, 2015
Source:  NetGalley

Story Blurb:

Unlike every other proper young lady, Miss Emma Jennings views marrying well as little more than a means to an end. Such a merger would provide her industrious father with social credibility, and Emma with a chunk of her vast inheritance. Emma’s practical views are shattered, however, when her father ties her to the fabulously handsome ne’er-do-well Rowan Battencliffe, a man she loathes on sight—from the smile that promises all manner of wickedness to the way he ogles her with those striking blue eyes.

Deep in debt, especially to his wine merchant, Rowan figures the sooner he gets his finances in order, the sooner he can go back to doing what he does best: burning through ridiculous sums of cash. Which is why Rowan agrees to marry the merchant’s daughter, a prim and proper woman with delightful curves and an ample dowry. But Emma seems to think it’s her business to reform him! Their marriage is a tinderbox—and it’s just too tempting to resist playing with fire.

Read on for my thoughts on What A Lady Requires.  No true spoilers, promise.

#1 reason to love this novel – that cover.  Mmm mmm mmm.  Okay, I’m good now.  🙂

What A Lady Requires is the final novel in The Eton Boys series.  Now we have Rowan’s story.  Rowan has not had an easy spot among these friends, at times he has been his own worst enemy.  At this point, Rowan’s very best friend is his wine bottle – an expensive friendship indeed.  Which brings about his need to marry.

Emma has always known that she would be married off.  It was, after all, a common practice to marry a merchant’s daughter with a huge dowry off to a member of the ton who needed a cash flow boost.  She just wished that she could be seen as more than a ways to an end.  She knew numbers, she could bring about profits – if she had been allowed to.  Instead she was regulated to the endless nonsense of tea cups and ballgowns.  How tedious.

It was unfortunate that Emma first comes across Rowan at his drunken best (or worst).  Her already low hopes for a successful marriage dropped through the floor.

Emma is Rowan’s hope is so many ways, if only he will really see her worth.  This novel is about Rowan’s redemption in so many ways.  He has a long way to travel back to the man he showed that he could be.  But with Emma’s ability with numbers he may just finally understand what happened and how their life together could be everything he needed.

Misunderstandings abound in this novel – one of the main ones surrounding Emma’s address.  Once this couple begins to work through the misunderstandings that have plagued them they being to see each other as more than an ends to a means.

I enjoyed What A Lady Requires very much.  It helps to have read the earlier novels in this series – but this book did stand on it’s own, with a bit of back story sprinkled throughout.  I’d give it a 4 outta 5 on my rating scale.  It was a fun read with two entertaining people who belong together, they just have to get there.  🙂

*I received an e-ARC of What A Lady Requires from the publisher and NetGalley in exchange for an honest review. That does not change what I think of this novel.*