The Perfect Crimes of Marian Hayes

This book has the best meeting ever!

Rob attempts to blackmail Marian via letter, and they begin a fairly hostile but also flirtatious correspondence. After countless letters, Marian follows Rob, drugs him, ties him to a bed, and leaves him there. In the normal course of events, this wouldn’t lead to love, but Rob is charming, and Marian appreciates his criminal tendencies.

This book is driven almost entirely by external conflict because Rob and Marian’s personalities fit together almost perfectly from the very beginning. 

This book starts as an epistolary—except for its blackmail letters. And, well, the person blackmailing is not particularly good at it.

Rob—his name and profession—is the son of a French woman who happened to be married to a young duke at the time of his birth who left France and ignored his mother altogether. The duke went on to marry again…and again. Thus, Rob is now blackmailing the last duchess, Marian, who married the duke for the reasons one might marry a duke, namely, money.

In a last-ditch effort to maintain her cash flow—as she has a sick father who… show more.

Looking for another historical romance that flies in the face of tradition? The Perfect Crimes of Marian Hayes begins with the title character murdering her husband, the duke. Right from the start Marian takes her destiny into her own hands. Needing a little help from the highwayman, Rob, doesn’t make Marian weak. In fact it’s her strength (and prickliness) that Rob loves the most. Watching these two learn to lean on each other is perfection. This book is number two in a duology. It can be read as a stand-alone but the story makes a bit more sense if you… show more.