The Soldier's Bride (Signet Regency Romance)

Rating:
Summary: Loyalty and determination can work things out
Review: The Soldier's Bride is one of those sometimes exasperating romances where everything is backwards except the fact that the couple must overcome their problems to get together in the end. The romantic couple gets married, have a child while apart, and then work on learning how to live with and love each other.

Lisbeth Barlow and Lord Thomas Kepley get married quickly in the first few pages so that he can avoid an arranged marriage that he is being pressured into before he goes off to war. Ten pages into the book, it is almost two years later, Lisbeth is raising her young son, and Thomas's family has cut off her funds due to the fact that the child does not bear the Kepley birthmark.

Now the couple is struggling to repair a relationship which could have grown from their initial attraction. Instead they have to deal with his mistrust, her pride, and family problems still driving them apart. Throw in the Frenchman bent on revenge and Lisbeth and Thomas have a great deal to work through before they can make a happy marriage together. There are many touching scenes of the couple working to confront their problems together and discovering new facets of each other's character.

I've given this book to a 3+ rather than a 4 because so much time is spent locked in the `she must be lying'/'he won't believe me' dilemma without any sign of either party considering the situation as a puzzle rather than a show of bad faith on the other side. Even so, a good story.

Rating:
Summary: Loyalty and determination can work things out
Review: The Soldier's Bride is one of those sometimes exasperating romances where everything is backwards except the fact that the couple must overcome their problems to get together in the end. The romantic couple gets married, have a child while apart, and then work on learning how to live with and love each other.

Lisbeth Barlow and Lord Thomas Kepley get married quickly in the first few pages so that he can avoid an arranged marriage that he is being pressured into before he goes off to war. Ten pages into the book, it is almost two years later, Lisbeth is raising her young son, and Thomas's family has cut off her funds due to the fact that the child does not bear the Kepley birthmark.

Now the couple is struggling to repair a relationship which could have grown from their initial attraction. Instead they have to deal with his mistrust, her pride, and family problems still driving them apart. Throw in the Frenchman bent on revenge and Lisbeth and Thomas have a great deal to work through before they can make a happy marriage together. There are many touching scenes of the couple working to confront their problems together and discovering new facets of each other's character.

I've given this book to a 3+ rather than a 4 because so much time is spent locked in the 'she must be lying'/'he won't believe me' dilemma without any sign of either party considering the situation as a puzzle rather than a show of bad faith on the other side. Even so, a good story.

Rating:
Summary: Such a lot of anger and angst
Review: This is the first book I have read by April Kihlstrom and I did enjoy it. Not the usual sort of Regency fare, it is somewhat darker than many and there is a lot of anger and hurt for the H/H to work through. I think that the scenario the author presents of a man returning home after a long and somewhat inexplicable absence to a wife he doubts who has presented him with a son he disputes was very good and the author utilises the emotions and problems arising very well. The hero, Lord Thomas Kepley seems, on the surface to be unreasonable and hostile in his dealings with his wife, Lisbeth, upon returning from a somewhat implausbile absence and she, in turn, sometimes seems to avoid dealing with his misgivings in a mature way. And yet, despite all of this, I do think both behave in a manner that is most probably in keeping with the manners and mores of the time in which they act out their story.

This novel explores the results of real and supposed infidelity and turns upon the keeping of secrets. The kidnapping of the heroine is a little stagey but it allows the author to expedite the resolution of the various questions hanging over the main characters.

I think Kihlstrom writes well - although I have nothing to compare this book with - and my curiosity has been piqued. I now want to read the first two stories in the trilogy particularly as in the closing chapters the story of one of the previous heros is resolved in a most unusual way.

All in all a book worth reading. There is a lot of anger in this book; there is a reluctance (in modern eyes perhaps) for people to communicate effectively and trust each other yet the reactions of the H/H ring true for me. Lord Thomas is likeable but frustrating yet it is easy to see why Lisbeth loves him and never shows any desire to do other than mend their marriage.

Rating:
Summary: an excellent read
Review: This is, beyond doubt, the best installment in the Barlow sisters trilogy, and (in my opinion anyway) the best Regency romance novel that April Kihlstrom has ever written. I'm not going to go too much into the plot outline, because reading everything that occurs in this splendid novel for yourself, is a definite must. Briefly however, Lisbeth Barlow, the youngest of the Barlow sisters, is unhappily contemplating her return to the country, when Lord Thomas Kepley asks her to marry him. A soldier, Lord Thomas is all set to return to the Peninsula, when he is ordered by his father to marry the daughter of a family friend. And this, Lord Thomas is unwilling to do. So he decides to bilk his father's guns by marrying Lisbeth instead.

The Barlow women have a family belief that when they look into the family locket, they will see the face of the man that they will find love and happiness with. And when it is Lisbeth's turn, the face she sees is that of Lord Thomas. So that when he asks her to marry him, she agrees. Little do Lord Thomas and Lisbeth expect however the furor that their impetuous behaviour will cause. Lord Thomas's family refuses to acknowledge the marriage, and when Lord Thomas returns to the war, the unpleasant atmosphere in London causes Lisbeth to remove to the country, where she gives birth to a baby boy. Twenty months go by before Lord Thomas returns home to find Lisbeth living in virtual penury along with her aunt and his infant son. The bitter experience of war coupled with his family's insidious whisperings as well as the lack of a family birthmark causes Lord Thomas to doubt that the baby is his. However, Lord Thomas is resolved to make this marriage work. And so he and Lisbeth decide to put the past twenty months behind them and begin again. But can they brush aside the fact that Lord Thomas believes that Lisbeth played him false and that the boy is not really his own?

I liked this novel because the plot had a great deal more substance to it than one generally gets from a Signet Regency novel. (And I'm not talking about the spy-subplot dealing with Lord Thomas's war experince). Lord Thomas and Lisbeth have a lot to work out together in order to make their marriage a success (not counting the whole issue of whether or not Lisbeth's baby is Lord Thomas's son), and April Kihlstrom does a wonderful job of characterizing all the difficulties that the pair face. Both husband and wife have to find a way to deal with each other and Kihlstrom depicts both their mistakes and their triumphs evenly. I also think that Lisbeth Barlow is one of the strongest and most resilient of Regency heroines. Left alone and destitute, she still manages to make enough money for her and her son and aunt to live on. And when faced with her husband's refusal to accept that her son as his, she does not breakdown into maudlin tears, nor does she retreat or loose hope of making him accept that the boy is his. It's difficult indeed not to admire her and root for her to succeed. And I liked the manner in which Kihlstrom resolves the manner of the missing birthmark without resorting to the pat 'everyone-forgives-each-other-and-lives-happily-ever-after'.

"The Soldier's Bride" is a really good read, and even if the subplot involving Aunt Margaret and the mysterious locket could have done with a little fleshing out, I'm still recommending this romance novel as an excellent read.