Rating: 
Summary: The Bartered Bride
Review: THE BARTERED BRIDE is worth every penny. I couldn't put it down. If you haven't read WILD CHILD and CHINA BRIDE be sure to check them out. Each book stands alone, and all are exquisitely written exciting adventures I know you won't want to miss. Mary Jo's books are some of the best ever written. If you've never read this author please start now...you are going to love her!THE BARTERED BRIDE, the final book in the bride trilogy, is going to thrill readers, as it is beautifully written, highly dramatic, and a real page-turner. Set against the exotic backdrop of the East Indies it fills the senses with sights and sounds of the Orient in the first part of the book and then moves on to England's aristocracy in l835. Gavin Elliott, an American Yankee, who has built Elliott House, is quite a businessman and adventurer who wishes to rescue a European woman sold at a slave auction on the island of Maduri when he is visiting a sultan. Alexandra Warren had been on her way home to England from Australia with her young daughter after the death of her husband when pirates struck the Dutch ship she had been on kidnapping her daughter and separating them, and then making a slave of her. It was only when she encountered Gavin in the slave market and called out to him that she had any chance of survival and of finding her beloved daughter. Since being a slave, things have happened to Alexandra that would test the heart and soul of any woman. She and Gavin have shared much together in this trying time and have become friends. Hating to seeing this beautiful, courageous woman hurting so after a shocking event Gavin marries his bartered bride and they arrive in London as intimate strangers bound with many painful hurts and deep secrets. I can attest first hand that this book holds you in its grip and never lets go.
Rating: 
Summary: Exciting adventure with emotional depth
Review: When returning to England from Australia, Alexandra Warren's ship is attacked by pirates and she is separated from her daughter and sold into slavery. Her constant rebellions lead to her being resold where she is sighted by handsome American merchant Gavin Elliott. Elliott can't stand by when a 'woman of his own people' is enslaved and agrees to undertake a deadly challenge to save her... Author Mary Jo Putney writes a compelling and emotionally powerful novel filled with action and adventure. THE BARTERED BRIDE is strongest when set in Indonesia... Putney handles the emotional damage done by Alexandra's captivity and brutalization perfectly... The English component of THE BARTERED BRIDE is still fine adventure. Still, the motivations for Alexandra's kidnappers to hold her alive seems stretched. For me, this reduced the emotional impact of the adventurous ending. Minor quibbles aside, THE BARTERED BRIDE is an exciting and emotionally compelling story--and a fine addition to the Putney series of east/west romances.
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