Rating: 
Summary: A Bargain At Any Price
Review: Alexandra Warren left England as a young bride, eager to experience the adventures of a military wife whose husband was stationed in Australia -- that far-off continent Alex thought to be a grand and romantic place. More than a decade later, she sets sail for her homeland as a widow and a mother of an eight-year old daughter, her perspective tainted by the reality of living in Australia and of losing her husband to a shockingly aggressive fever. Although theirs was not a perfect marriage, Alex still grieves for the loss of companionship.Her daughter, Katie, is a godsend in that respect. Every mother's nightmare is about to come true, however, when the ship they are traveling on is attacked by pirates off the coast of Maduri. A bitterly short battle ensues; while Alex and her daughter wait in their cabin below, the crew of the Amstel abandons ship, leaving the lone female occupants to their grim fate with a cowardly lack of conscience. Slavery is a fact of life on this island in the East Indies. After a desperate struggle, mother and daughter are separated and sold on Maduri, their disparate fates a cruel blessing. Six months later, an American sea captain weighs anchor in Maduri Harbor. Gavin Elliott has cargo onboard his ship for Sultan Kasan, ruler of this deceptively beautiful island. Kasan has plans for Gavin and his shipping company, Elliott House, a partnership of sorts the Sultan would like to form with it. A tour of the island is meant to persuade Gavin to accept the Sultan's lucrative proposition. Instead, Gavin stumbles upon a slave market where a distinctly European woman is being auctioned off. Appalled, he offers to buy the woman, only to grant the Sultan leverage in a dangerous game where more than one life is at stake. Honor demands that Gavin stay in Maduri and obtain Alexandra's freedom, whatever the cost. The price of a woman's freedom is high indeed, however. Is Gavin willing to risk his own freedom to release Alex from her damnable fate, to help erase the haunted look from her shimmering, aqua eyes? It's miraculous she has endured life as a slave for as long as she has. Clearly, Gavin must barter with the devil -- and dance to his merry tune -- before Alex's fate can be settled and her daughter found. If they need to scour the world, so be it! Emotionally fragile Alex has endured hell on earth while in captivity. Her emotional and mental scars run deep, so deep in fact that the thought of intimacy terrifies her. Mary Jo Putney executes these emotional highs and lows with achingly accurate precision. A reader shares Alex's sense of defilement and desperation, and celebrates her indomitable will and ability to endure what could easily shatter a person's soul. Needless to say, Ms. Putney's characterizations are riveting and multi-layered. Her prose is equally textured, and her plot is daringly different. A reader risks emotional devastation along with the heroine, however. THE BARTERED BRIDE is brutally intense on so many levels; it's difficult to remain unaffected by it. For instance, Gavin and Alex's first physical encounter is devastating and controversial. I've purposefully refrained from revealing more as Ms. Putney has made an obvious choice to shock and disturb her readers, to make an emotional investment in this novel impossible to avoid. Gavin's heroic behaviour is tainted somewhat by the necessity of this act. However, time heals all wounds. Alex is gradually able to overcome her past, to forgive the actions initiated by Sultan Kasan and Gavin's part in fulfilling them. Like a bad memory, the encounter slowly fades from a reader's mind, and a beautifully unfolding love story takes its place. Both Alex and Gavin are amazingly resilient, complex characters. They marry to stave off a possible scandal upon Alex's return to England, and Gavin's as well. No common marriage, this. A widower himself, Gavin is reluctant to settle for a lukewarm commitment from his wife. He's remarkably patient with Alex, though: a noble man through and through. THE BARTERED BRIDE is filled to brimming with such noble and richly detailed characters. Exotic locales, meticulous research and a haunting humanity complete this novel. Alex and Gavin have more monsters yet to face, but their bond is one that adversity can only strengthen, not destroy. Ms. Putney is an author of daring, fortitude and fearlessness. THE BARTERED BRIDE is a bargain at any price. It's an evocative and alluring love story that grief and sorrow only sharpen into stunning relief.
Rating:
Summary: Puntey never disappoints
Review: Gavin, the owner and captain of a shipping line, first sees Alexandra when she has been put up for sale as a slave on an East Indies island. Alexandra, who has been captured as she returned to England, is desperate to escape, but is surprised when Gavin tries to interviene on her behalf. The ruler of the island refuses to sell Alexandra to Gavin, but instead offers a deal where Gavin must complete five trials. If he succeeds, then Gavin and Alexandra are free to leave, but if he fails, Alexandra is free but Gavin must spend the next ten years acting as a commercial trader for the ruler. After a rather interesting and imaginative beginning, Putney kept me wondering where she was going to go next, but managed to wrap everything up in a timely and interesting fashion. Overall, she kept up with my expectations as a faithful reader. A few issues were oversimplified, such as recovering from being a slave, but as this is a romance novel, I didn't expect too much more than what she provided.
Rating: 
Summary: A little dry, but still good.
Review: I agree with other reviewers who discussed the lack of written emotion in this novel. In fact, I considered it as I read it and noticed that as the novel progresses, so to the characters and the emotions. Alexandra Warren first meets Gavin Elliot while she is a slave in the East. She was captured by pirates, seperated from her daughter, and sold into slavery. Gavin Elliot lost is wife and child and has spent his life on the sea making a name for himself in the shipping industry and meets Alex just when he is about to make some very large changes in his life. From the moment they meet their lives are changed forever and they are thrust into an adventure more rich than any I have read about before. From freeing Alex from slavery to arriving in England there is never a dull moment. However, from the beginning of this book it is obvious that both will have to overcome tremendous obstacles, emotionally and physically in order to make their relationship work. Due to their circumstances they are required to do things in a more backward fashion than one is used to reading about. Therefore, the book progresses slower and more delicately...but no less enjoyable. All in all, THE BARTERED BRIDE is a novel filled with adventure, history, and a lesson in the gift of learning to love and trust, even when you did not think it possible. No couple deserved a "Happily Ever After" more than Alexandra and Gavin.
Rating: 
Summary: Left me wanting something else
Review: I am usually a huge fan of Mary Jo Putney but this particular book left me wanting more. One of the issues is that the first chapter is actually near the end of the story. This sort of tells you what things are leading up to. This for some reason really annoyed me. Another issue was that while the book was unabridged by tape 5 I found myself skipping parts that seemed to have no bearing on the story as I thought it was dragging on and on and not going anywhere fast. In this story you learn about Alex who was taken prisoner (along with her daughter) while sailing home from Australia to England. Along comes Gavin 6 months later and sees Alex up for auction at a slave market in the East Indies. He tries to buy her but the Sultan know what he wants and makes him win her instead, yes the last item in the game is easy to figure out is going to happen. Then they find her daughter and eventually get married along the way there is fires, murders, dishonesty, brutal rapes, unexpected inheritance, deception, an almost hanging etc... I still recommend the book but I wouldn't put it on my top 10.
Rating:
Summary: Great Expectations Unfulfilled
Review: I must say that I agree with the previous reviewers who expressed disappointment in this latest effort by Mary Jo Putney. If I had never read any of her previous works, then I might have rated The Bartered Bride more favorably. Compared to the average romance novel, this one is not so bad. However, having faithfully read and loved her previous books, I found this one to be just "fair to middling" in comparison and deserving of only three stars at most. It is competently written, but it lacks soul, much like a pianist who can strike every note in a piece of music correctly and yet never stir the heart to "feel" a song. The story is driven by a rather far-fetched plot involving white slavery, rape, torture, pirates, kidnappings, rescues, "Survivor"-type games of skill, a forced marriage, arson, attempted murder, a sensational trial and a hanging. Amidst all of this excess, the poor characters get lost in the shuffle and emerge as long-suffering victims who would rather dwell in the tragic past than move on with their lives. The most unbelievable part of the story comes at the end when the hero, a peer of the realm, is convicted of murdering his wife based solely on the perjured testimony of a "shifty-eyed man who looked like a thief." Is it really credible that members of the House of Lords in the mid-nineteenth century would take the word of some sleazy street dweller over that of one of their own, particularly when our hero has the backing of his wife's noble family, one of the most powerful in England? Not bloody likely, as the Brits would say. I could have perhaps overlooked the plot contrivances if the hero and heroine had been a little less self-absorbed and predictable, but, alas, it was not to be. Mary Jo Putney is capable of truly wonderful writing, and I hope that with her next book she introduces us to some entrancing, real people who have a heart-felt story to tell, rather than relying on exotic locales and convoluted plots to carry the day.
Rating: 
Summary: Going back to what was!
Review: I opened the book and read the Prologue entitled The End Game dated Autumn 1835 Place The Tower of London Gavin Elliott is being held for trial, he is accused (falsely, of course) of killing his wife Alexandra. Then we go to Book 1 of the previous year.. 1834 and I threw the book on the table...
I cannot tell you how much I dislike reading this kind of story.
Why do I want to re-live history? Why not let the trial prove he was falsely blamed for this.
I enjoy Putney's stories and this series especially, but I cannot abide reading past history.
Will I read it eventually? That I cannot tell you right now.
I just absolutely wish that writers would NOT write a story this way..
What I will probably do is go to the further chapter and read the ending.
How can reading this now bring us to a conclusion? He already knows who framed him. Will rehashing the past make the trial come out differently? NO! So I am expected to read how he was duped and then finally back to the present read how he was acquitted of the crime. It makes me shudder to think of it.
I won't even watch movies that do this type of story. I can't say it enough time How much I dislike the type of story. So let me shut up.
Rating: 
Summary: Disappointing
Review: I'm a big fan of Mary Jo Putney, having most recently finished the China Bride (which I heartily recommend), but this book seems contrived to me. There are so many plot devices: kidnapping, slavery, frigidity, surprise pregnancy (not giving much away, most of this is on the flyleaf) that the characters have to work hard to move the story ahead. Usually her work is so finely textured and the characters richly defined, but this work seemed shallow. Read it, but buy it used...!
Rating:
Summary: action-packed historical romance
Review: In 1834, American sea merchant Gavin Elliot sets sail from The East Indies for London after making his fortune in trade. He plans to reestablish his family name previously disgraced among the aristocracy. On his journey to England, Gavin stops at the island of Maduri where Sultan Kasan surprisingly orders a personal visit from the sea captain. While there, Gavin learns that English widow Alexandra Warren is held in bondage after her ship was captured by pirates. Alexandra's eight-year-old daughter is either dead or incarcerated elsewhere. Though he knows not to intercede, the honorable Gavin challenges Kasan to play Lion's Game in which his loss means two decades of servitude, but a victory frees Alexandra. Of course, Gavin has never played before while his opponent is a pro in this deadly encounter. THE BARTERED BRIDE is an exciting, action-packed historical romance that never slows down until the tale is completed. The story line is loaded with a taste of an exotic 1830's environment that provides a fresh outlook to the audience. The lead couple is a courageous duo though the odds of Gavin defeating Kasan in the Lion's Game seems greater than Douglas-Tyson and would have been kept off Vegas and White's books. Still Mary Jo Putney continues to provide a vast panorama of an intriguing bygone era by placing her romances in unique locals. Harriet Klausner
Rating:
Summary: What Has Happened to Mary Jo Putney?
Review: Mary Jo Putney used to be one of my all time favorites because her characters who had depth. Like many readers, I reread books because I fall in love with the men and women. In "The Bartered Bride," Mary Jo picked an interesting plot, full of possibilities, but it was boring! It had no magic, no zing! Although there was plenty of sex, there was no passion. I found myself not caring about either of the protagonists. I knew I was supposed to feel sympathy for them and suspense at the various trials the hero underdoes, but I didn't. I read the first 60 pages and just scanned the rest of the book. It was almost as if this novel was written by the numbers by an author who was herself not particularly interested in her characters but had a contract to fulfill. Writing is a magical process and for the last couple of Mary Jo's books, the magic has been missing.
Rating:
Summary: Disappointed Again
Review: My favorite Mary Jo Putney books are about characters fighting their own flaws(Rake and the Reformer). Once again, she's given us a depressing story about characters fighting extraordinarily evil and appalling circumstances, being victimized in excruciating detail.Like "The Spiral Path", the reader is more depressed than entertained(I guess for our own good),and is given descriptions of sex rather than romance.About the only saving graces are that the book is a bit short, and the dour Michael Kenyon makes just a brief appearance. I guess I'll just go back and pull out my tattered copies of her earlier paperbacks.
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