[P1O]≫ [PDF] Gratis An Unwilling Bride Zebra Historical Romance Jo Beverley 9780821767245 Books

An Unwilling Bride Zebra Historical Romance Jo Beverley 9780821767245 Books

Download As PDF : An Unwilling Bride Zebra Historical Romance Jo Beverley 9780821767245 Books

An Unwilling Bride Zebra Historical Romance Jo Beverley 9780821767245 Books

This review is of “An Unwilling Bride”, book #2 in the “A Company of Rogues” series by Jo Beverley.

The Story: As the book begins, a secret is revealed. This secret affects the lives of many people, most notably Lucien Philippe de Vaux, Marquess of Arden, the hero of the book, and Elizabeth Armitage, a teacher at Miss Mallory’s School for Ladies and the heroine of the book. This secret compels Lucien’s father, William, Duke of Belcraven, to force a marriage between Lucien and Elizabeth.

Beth goes to Belcraven to live with Lucien and his parents, who don’t have a happy marriage, and soon, Beth and Lucien are at odds as well, the stress surrounding their betrothal playing havoc on both of them. Beth and Lucien marry, but are basically strangers, each going their own separate ways. They eventually come together to help one of Beth’s former students, who is being forced into a marriage with the Rogues’ archrival, Lord Deveril. Beth and Lucien consummate their marriage, they have a couple of adventures and later, they have their Happily Ever After.

Upside: It’s a regency romance. The second half of “An Unwilling Bride” is better than the first half.

Downside: The first half of “An Unwilling Bride” is very sludgy. In the books I’ve read by Ms. Beverley, she has several weaknesses which show up frequently: a stiff writing style, little to no character development, an inability to create romantic chemistry between her heroes and heroines and an inability to make me, as a reader, care about her characters. I never saw the characters as more than just people in the pages of a book (or in this case, words on the screen of the computer I read the ebook on.)

Sex: Two very mild love scenes, which are far from erotic and also display the stiffness I wrote about earlier.

Violence: Lucien hits Beth during an argument; while he feels bad and apologizes and she forgives him, this did cast a pall over the book for me. Later, an “off-screen” murder with a lot of blood and an assault with a heavy skillet occur.

Bottom Line: “An Unwilling Bride” is better than the first book in the “Company of Rogues” series, “An Arranged Marriage”, but it is still far from good. I found “An Unwilling Bride” to be, at best, average.


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An Unwilling Bride Zebra Historical Romance Jo Beverley 9780821767245 Books Reviews

I've read some good Jo Beverley books and since there are so many "Company of Rogues" books, I thought there MUST be something to them - sadly not. I struggle to find anything good about this one. The hero is really handsome but that only seems to magnify the fact that the writer goes out of her way to constantly say how unattractive the heroine is. Plain no matter how she dresses or what is done with her hair and then she highlights how the heroine is so unattractive compared to her mother-in-law, her husband's ex-mistress, society debutants. And maybe that wouldn't matter if the heroine had a glowing personality, but she doesn't. Just boring and irritating characters.
Three stars perhaps do not give this book enough credit. I am basing that on my own personal preferences. This is obviously a talented author.

The author writes a lot of the story through thoughts of the characters, while I enjoy more dialogue and interaction. I never really connected with, or particularly liked the hero or heroine. They both may behave as one would in this circumstance, but I never really felt their pain. The hero had a temper, and I realize that in real life that is all too true, just not something I particularly like. The story of his beating a horse when he was a child, should have been left out in my opinion. I do not particularly like perfect hero's in fact Anne Stuart's dark hero's are some of my favorites. So it is not that the hero is too dark. It may be that Beth and Arden were a little too predictable and as odd as it may sound, it may have been too realistic.

If it sounds like I disliked the book. I did not. It is a good story and as I said a very talented author. Just not in the style I like best.

Some are upset with Arden striking Beth, and honestly I did not like that particularly but it was one small part of the whole.

As always I enjoy comments
I read all of the books in this series in paperback years ago. Some more than once. I was glad to see it offered at low cost as an ebook, as it was certainly worth re-reading. The excellent writing and vivid characterizations of Jo Beverley are on full display here. Lucien was always a questionable character to me for his oft-threatened and once enacted violence. Even more so today than when originally published, this episode shocks and alarms women. I could not give the book 5 stars because I thought that was too quickly recovered from, for both H and h. But it is a book that engages and entertains, and I am very glad to have met it again.
This is one of the strangest reviews I've ever written. I would have given this book 4 or even 4.5 stars except for it crossed the line of a subject I feel very strongly about, violence towards women. I understand the book is fiction, and even that such behavior was common at the time, but I draw the line when the H is the one perpetrating the violence against the h. Worse the entire event is glossed over as being insignificant. It is a shame really since it was entirely unnecessary, and the rest of the book was rather entertaining.
This review is of “An Unwilling Bride”, book #2 in the “A Company of Rogues” series by Jo Beverley.

The Story As the book begins, a secret is revealed. This secret affects the lives of many people, most notably Lucien Philippe de Vaux, Marquess of Arden, the hero of the book, and Elizabeth Armitage, a teacher at Miss Mallory’s School for Ladies and the heroine of the book. This secret compels Lucien’s father, William, Duke of Belcraven, to force a marriage between Lucien and Elizabeth.

Beth goes to Belcraven to live with Lucien and his parents, who don’t have a happy marriage, and soon, Beth and Lucien are at odds as well, the stress surrounding their betrothal playing havoc on both of them. Beth and Lucien marry, but are basically strangers, each going their own separate ways. They eventually come together to help one of Beth’s former students, who is being forced into a marriage with the Rogues’ archrival, Lord Deveril. Beth and Lucien consummate their marriage, they have a couple of adventures and later, they have their Happily Ever After.

Upside It’s a regency romance. The second half of “An Unwilling Bride” is better than the first half.

Downside The first half of “An Unwilling Bride” is very sludgy. In the books I’ve read by Ms. Beverley, she has several weaknesses which show up frequently a stiff writing style, little to no character development, an inability to create romantic chemistry between her heroes and heroines and an inability to make me, as a reader, care about her characters. I never saw the characters as more than just people in the pages of a book (or in this case, words on the screen of the computer I read the ebook on.)

Sex Two very mild love scenes, which are far from erotic and also display the stiffness I wrote about earlier.

Violence Lucien hits Beth during an argument; while he feels bad and apologizes and she forgives him, this did cast a pall over the book for me. Later, an “off-screen” murder with a lot of blood and an assault with a heavy skillet occur.

Bottom Line “An Unwilling Bride” is better than the first book in the “Company of Rogues” series, “An Arranged Marriage”, but it is still far from good. I found “An Unwilling Bride” to be, at best, average.