title: How to Tame a Willful Wife (Shakespeare in Love)
author:  Christy English 
description: When Anthony Carrington, Earl of Ravensbrook, agrees to marry an old friends daughter to save the man from crushing debt, he expects to gain a quiet, biddable young wife. What he gets instead is Caroline Montague, a stallion-riding, knife-wielding young miss who makes up in bravado what she lacks in experience. The stage is set, then, for a classic tug-of-war between a hero and a heroine who both suffer from explosive tempers and stubborn temperaments. Billed as a retelling of The Taming of the Shrew, this tale has a bit too much angst and too little levity for it to be considered a true retelling. A bigger issue is the books mood, which seems more in keeping with the medieval historical novels English has penned in the past (The Queens Pawn, 2010; To Be Queen, 2011) than with the Regency-era romance its supposed to be. Still, English clearly enjoyed crafting a capable heroine who is less shrew than spitfire and pitting her against the autocratic and unyielding Anthony and does so with entertaining results. --Taina Lagodzinski
zlib_text: 
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  To my wonderful sister,
  
  Diane Coulter,
  
  The second time around for this Baby
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  Thus in plain terms; your father hath consented
  
  That you shall be my wife . . .
  
  And, will you, nill you, I will marry you.
  
  Now, Kate, I am a husband for your turn;
  
  For, by this light, whereby I see thy beauty,
  
  Thy beauty, that doth make me like thee well,
  
  Thou must be married to no man but me . . . .
  
  —Shakespeare,
  
  The Taming of the Shrew
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  1
  
  Julien St. Clair, earl of March, flicked a careless finger over her white
  belly, lay back on the large canopied bed, and gazed beneath half-closed lids
  at the dancing patterns cast by the firelight on the opposite wall. He felt a
  sort of lazy satisfaction that, for the moment, relieved his boredom.
  
  "I have pleased you, my lord?" She twined her fingers in his fair hair, her
  own body languid from the pleasure he had given her.
  
  "Of course, Yvette," he said, annoyed that she disturbed the silence he
  wanted.
  
  There was a flash of ange