Royal Bride

Rating:
Summary: Royal Bride
Review: It was not Joan Wolf's best book I've read, but it was exciting. From the beginning I thought that Charity was the herion. It started off good. What honest "innocent" wife will actually take back their huband after he cheated on her?? The book portrayed her as "innocent" and girlish. It was like His Highness just advantage of her good nature. He also needs to GROW UP! You can't always expect your mother to fix all you mistakes. Prince or not. But I can tell you this I though that her other book
"The arrangment" was great....

Rating:
Summary: Middle-European Kingdom
Review: Mediocre Joan Wolf romance, not as good as the Guardian or the Deception, but will satisfy whose looking for romance in written form.
"Middle-European" Prince needs British aristocratic "HEROINE" virgin to marry quickly so to qualify for country's expectations. Ho hum!

Rating:
Summary: Fairy Tale Romance Wilts Without Heroine
Review: Overall, Royal Bride is a pleasant enough Regency Period story, possessing a fairy tale quality that will appeal to many readers. However, those who prefer more depth to their romance reading may wish to look elsewhere.

Royal Bride wasn't a bad read so much as a dissatisfying one. It was a good book that could have been great if only the author had taken the story and heroine to the places they begged to go. Unfortunately, neither the characters nor the plot quite lived up to their potential.

Many readers found the beginning characterization of Charity Beaufort as a 'girl' distasteful because it hinted at pedophilia. However, in defense of poor Gus, who, at twenty-seven, can hardly be considered "old", it must be remembered that at that time in history, sons and daughters of the aristocracy were expected to improve the family fortunes through marriage at a much younger age. It wasn't unheard of for the daughters to be married off as young as thirteen or fourteen years of age -- a practice that existed even as late as the 18th century! To be fair, a female at seventeen is considered a young woman not a child, regardless of her height or bra size!

It was the author's failure to fully realize Charity's character that left a bad taste in this reader's mind. Charity seemed to be a mere bystander rather than an active participant. If she had been allowed to flourish as a woman later on, readers would have been more willing to overlook the age difference presented in the beginning. Unfortunately, too much effort was placed on establishing Charity's innocence and girlish personae in the first part of the story; not enough was focused on her transformation into womanhood in the second. Charity just didn't DO enough in this story to justify, to the reader's satisfaction, her growth from "girl" to woman.

"Royal Bride" fails on several other fronts. First, the author chose to tell her story from a kind of passive point of view. The characters Do and Say a lot, but the thoughts and emotions of the hero and heroine are never really explored. Introspection - when characters contemplate their own thoughts and feelings - is held to a minimum here which keeps the reader from connecting with them on an emotional level. Connecting emotionally with the hero and heroine is the lifeblood of the romance novel.

Second, the obstacles that confronted Augustus as he struggled with the intrigues of court were overcome almost as soon as they were introduced to the plot. Gus foiled the villain's nefarious schemes far too easily. These easy resolutions were just plain boring.

Ultimately, the story fails because Charity takes a back seat to the plot. The focus should have been on her. I wanted to get to know this intelligent, enchanting person. I wanted to watch her mature, have adventures, conquer the hero, and save the day. I needed the author to prove to me that regardless of her age, Charity had the spunk to enthrall a "battle-scarred" prince. To convince me I needed to experience the story through Charity's eyes. Unfortunately, this heroine struggles through it wearing blinders.

Rating:
Summary: Entertaining light reading
Review: This isn't the best book I've ever read by Joan Wolf, but it's still very entertaining. It reminded me somewhat of her earlier regencies. I liked Charity and Augustus and I didn't have a hard time buying their romance. Augustus comes across as a serious, hard-working prince without a lot of experience with women of his own class. When he sends his mother to explain his affair to Charity, it's annoying, but probably the sort of thing royalty did. Read about Queen Victoria and her family sometime! Charity is a bright, engaging 17-year-old girl who has been sheltered as most girls of her class were at the time. She just happens to be unusually small and dainty and not well-endowed. Some adult women are. She grows up through the course of the book. Her growing bond with Gus is believable. The villains and the plot were a bit thin and some of the supporting characters were cardboard, but it's still entertaining. Don't buy it expecting Gone with the Wind and you won't be disappointed.