Jo Beverley (1947–2016)

This is one of my favorite novels in Beverley's Company of Rogues. I love that the hero and heroine seem so real that I want to know more about what happened to them. Their back stories are interesting and make their characters and actions understandable. I had read this before but when I picked it up lately I just had to read it again and it was hard to put down.

I think this is one of Jo Beverley's best books - maybe her best. It's a very daring book, for the genre, but not because Lucien is an alpha male with a potential for violence - that description would cover most romance heroes pretty well; certainly it's nothing unique.

No, the reason why An Unwilling Bride is daring is because instead of just picking up the old cliche (alpha male, potential for violence) Beverley decides to put it on trial: what happens when the dreamy alpha male crosses show more the thin line that most romance authors so delicately avoid? What happens when the heroine is someone like Beth, who has strong feelings about her own independence and rights? Beth is very well contextualized, but she gives the readers the opportunity to ask the one big question that almost every book in this genre ought to pose us: how can you reconcile the desire to be free and respected with the desire for an alpha male?

This is essentially what the book is about. Everybody - every mother, girlfriend, and companion - offers to protect Beth and punish Lucien for his transgressions. There is no 'tolerance' for violence and the sheer number of words devoted to the topic of Lucien's potential & actual violence should show that this is not a question of a 'wife beater' - although I think that it should be obvious that the alpha male hero and wife beating jerk are not totally apples and oranges.

I think Beverley ends up arguing that the difference between the hero and the jerk isn't that one has the potential for violence and the other doesn't; rather, it's a matter of self-discipline, nobility of spirit, understanding of right and wrong. Lucien isn't perfect, but he understands those things, and that's why he's ultimately a hero.

I don't think Beverley really dealt sufficiently with Beth and Lucien's feelings; this is probably the consequence of dealing so thoroughly with their beliefs. There's almost no steam, but the way that Beverley describes Beth and Lucien when they dance, or engage in a battle of the wits, is amazingly done and incredibly erotic.

And, of course, the book is a lot of fun - plenty of other Rogues make apperances, it's excellently structured (I think Beverley sets up the quotation from the Rape of the Lock as the premise of the novel and its inclusion is really cleverly done), very smart, and Beth is a wonderful heroine - really smart and sweet. show less

It had to be bought, the Earl of Wyvern? When you use Wyvernfriend as a username how could you resist? Then you add in smuggling, suspicion, a hunt for missing documents, corrupt servants, an amusing alchemical collection you hit a lot of my pleasure buttons.

Granted it was a pretty typical romance and some of what went on wasn't amazing but it was fun. I liked the characters, even with some of the anachronisms, and the various twists and turns kept me amused.

For all that I'm a (supposedly) modern woman, I'm a sucker for stories featuring dashing rakes and swooning damsels in distress. Heck, if said swooning is being done reluctantly, I'm even more hooked. And if the author manages to throw in some classic British humor...

An Arranged Marriage was supposed to fulfill all my above-mentioned expectations, but it somehow got derailed, and all I ended up with were lots of exasperated sighs.

Eleanor Chivenham is practically 'off the shelf' and living show more with her vile brother, who's itching to get his hands on her inheritance. As a last resort, he blackmails Christopher "Kit" Delaney (Earl of Stainbridge) into raping our heroine, lest he'd want his homosexual inclinations made public.

The next day, Eleanor is prepared to commit suicide, but Kit's somewhat guilty conscience manages to compel the earl to stop the heroine. 10 brownie points for that, and -50 brownie points for his manner of addressing the issue:

You are the woman who was…introduced to pleasure last night.

... I was going to come up with some smart-alec reply to this, but then Kit tops things with the following "weaseling out" technique:

"The fact is, Miss Chivenham..." He swallowed hard. "The fact is that it was not I. It was my brother."

On the other side of the Channel, we have Nicholas "Nicky" Delaney, younger twin brother of the Earl of Stainbridge, rumored to be the devil incarnate. And yet our hero is 'merely' a spy and a rake, but that goes without saying. Suffice to say, that when Kit orders Nicky to marry Eleanor, the latter immediately agrees despite this making his spying business quite a bit more difficult.

... and they get married. Only Nicky has to sleep with a French madam (i.e. female pimp), to get her to confess her evil plan of liberating Napoleon.
Eleanor meanwhile is trying to avoid being jealous of her cheating husband's mistress, and slowly falling in love with the guy. Luckily, Nicky is also falling in love with his young wife, but unluckily he feels much too guilty about his affair to confess to his wife.

The rest of the story is mostly made up of a lot of lost opportunities, and near love confessions, not to mention unbelievable tales of rescue. Oh and Kit making a nuisance of himself for no reason whatsoever... well none that I can think of.

In conclusion 2/5 stars for trying. show less