The Bartered Bridegroom (Signet Regency Romance)

Rating:
Summary: The Bartered Bridegroom
Review: I liked this book despite a pompous hero and a flighty heroine.

Rating:
Summary: great characters and a hissable villain
Review: The Bartered Bridegroom is hardly the usual "comedy of manners" one expects from a Regency Romance. I am happy to say, however, that it is an engaging story of two people who have pretty much accepted the terms life has to offer, and who, with each other, find much, much more.

Lord Benjamin Whitbury and Miss Katherine Oakes meet when she, dressed as a boy, is preparing to bid farewell to her horse, Fallen Angel. It's not just her prized pet, you see, it's the symbol of everything Katherine holds dear, because she adores anything having to do with horses. In fact, The Repository, as her brothers call her because of her ability to store and recall all bits of information regarding horses, is quite skilled at calling races. Her years of dressing as a boy and actually going to the racetrack, however, are over, since she has blossomed into an undisguisable young lady.

But disguised she is, as Benjamin can barely credit his eyes. Instantly he knows, however, that he holds the upper hand in this meeting. Katherine pleads with Benjamin to keep his mouth shut and in exchange, he asks for a kiss. Keeping his options open, however, he tells her (after they've kissed) that he will hold her to granting him a favor sometime in the future. When the favor turns out to be a pretend, month-long engagement, Katherine is bewildered.

In reality, Benjamin himself is being blackmailed, by none other than Katherine's secret fiancé, Cyril Cullman, or as he is best known in Society, the First Beau. Cyril, who up until now has been helping Benjamin gain his entrée back into Society, threatens to withdraw that frail hope of ever being accepted again if Benjamin doesn't take Katherine off his hands. When Katherine tells Cyril that this is just a farce because her papa owes Benjamin money, Cyril smoothly replies that he will wait for her.

Benjamin is forced to go along with a ruse he helped create - although the brother of a Marquess, he is hardly welcomed in Society and, determined to make his own way in the world, finds rejection extended to a lack of employment offers. As he and Katherine parade around their phony betrothal, they begin to see each other beyond the ruse that they're forced to live. At the same time, they know that their time is short, and the planned quarrel that will end it all is just around the corner.

Benjamin Whitbury has got to be one of the most honorable and stoic heroes I have met in a long time. Not only does he not wish to take advantage of his brother's money, but also he lives with the consequences of his actions every day. Each snub, each rejection, represents only part of what he has lost because of what he did and he chooses to make the best of it without oodles of angst to irritate the reader.

Katherine, in the meantime, was a bit more recognizable - the Regency miss who doesn't follow Society's rules. She is puzzled by the false betrothal she must enter, and is unbelievably blind when it comes to Cyril's machinations. Her determination to make a life for herself is understandable, although she does seem a bit naïve in how she goes about it, trusting the one person who is forcing her to live a deception, even if we as readers know Benjamin is honorable.

Katherine and Benjamin find themselves gently drawn to one another despite the First Beau's manipulations and their fake spat is truly sad, which makes their happy ending all the sweeter. Aside from the extreme oiliness of the villain (I could almost hear the boos and hisses whenever Cyril appeared) and the blandness of some of the secondary characters, I found this an enjoyable story and one I can recommend.

Rating:
Summary: great characters and a hissable villain
Review: The Bartered Bridegroom is hardly the usual "comedy of manners" one expects from a Regency Romance. I am happy to say, however, that it is an engaging story of two people who have pretty much accepted the terms life has to offer, and who, with each other, find much, much more.

Lord Benjamin Whitbury and Miss Katherine Oakes meet when she, dressed as a boy, is preparing to bid farewell to her horse, Fallen Angel. It's not just her prized pet, you see, it's the symbol of everything Katherine holds dear, because she adores anything having to do with horses. In fact, The Repository, as her brothers call her because of her ability to store and recall all bits of information regarding horses, is quite skilled at calling races. Her years of dressing as a boy and actually going to the racetrack, however, are over, since she has blossomed into an undisguisable young lady.

But disguised she is, as Benjamin can barely credit his eyes. Instantly he knows, however, that he holds the upper hand in this meeting. Katherine pleads with Benjamin to keep his mouth shut and in exchange, he asks for a kiss. Keeping his options open, however, he tells her (after they've kissed) that he will hold her to granting him a favor sometime in the future. When the favor turns out to be a pretend, month-long engagement, Katherine is bewildered.

In reality, Benjamin himself is being blackmailed, by none other than Katherine's secret fiancé, Cyril Cullman, or as he is best known in Society, the First Beau. Cyril, who up until now has been helping Benjamin gain his entrée back into Society, threatens to withdraw that frail hope of ever being accepted again if Benjamin doesn't take Katherine off his hands. When Katherine tells Cyril that this is just a farce because her papa owes Benjamin money, Cyril smoothly replies that he will wait for her.

Benjamin is forced to go along with a ruse he helped create - although the brother of a Marquess, he is hardly welcomed in Society and, determined to make his own way in the world, finds rejection extended to a lack of employment offers. As he and Katherine parade around their phony betrothal, they begin to see each other beyond the ruse that they're forced to live. At the same time, they know that their time is short, and the planned quarrel that will end it all is just around the corner.

Benjamin Whitbury has got to be one of the most honorable and stoic heroes I have met in a long time. Not only does he not wish to take advantage of his brother's money, but also he lives with the consequences of his actions every day. Each snub, each rejection, represents only part of what he has lost because of what he did and he chooses to make the best of it without oodles of angst to irritate the reader.

Katherine, in the meantime, was a bit more recognizable - the Regency miss who doesn't follow Society's rules. She is puzzled by the false betrothal she must enter, and is unbelievably blind when it comes to Cyril's machinations. Her determination to make a life for herself is understandable, although she does seem a bit naïve in how she goes about it, trusting the one person who is forcing her to live a deception, even if we as readers know Benjamin is honorable.

Katherine and Benjamin find themselves gently drawn to one another despite the First Beau's manipulations and their fake spat is truly sad, which makes their happy ending all the sweeter. Aside from the extreme oiliness of the villain (I could almost hear the boos and hisses whenever Cyril appeared) and the blandness of some of the secondary characters, I found this an enjoyable story and one I can recommend.

Rating:
Summary: Often boring, hard to keep my interest up
Review: This book begins with Katherine Oakes being discovered, disguised as a boy, in a horse's stall by the horse's new owner, Lord Benjamin Whitbury. It's a good opening scene, and there's some sparky dialogue and even a tiny bit of sexual tension. And then... it gets boring.

Katherine is secretly engaged, but her fiance, Cyril Cullman, wants to escape from the entanglement. (He knows her father will never agree. Why not use that as his escape-route?). So he inveigles Lord Benjamin into a wager, the forfeit being that Benjamin must betrothe himself to Katherine. (Why doesn't Benjamin refuse to accept the wager and tell Katherine's father everything? Especially since he tells her father everything anyway!).

So Benjamin takes the wager and deliberately loses, giving up the last £500 he has in the world. (Why has he just bought a race-horse if he's that broke? How on earth is he paying stabling and feed fees, let alone wages for trainer and jockey?). And so he becomes engaged to Katherine - whose acceptance of the temporary betrothal makes no sense to me, nor does her very quick guess that Cyril is somewhere behind it. The 'clue' she's given doesn't seem to suggest that at all.

Desjardien's nicknames for her characters are also something of a turn-off - Cullman as the 'First Beau'? Katherine as 'The Repository'? And quite why the impoverished nobody son of a knight should have become such a desirable person in Society is never explained, and is quite unbelievable. Even Benjamin's own disgrace isn't that believable in the circumstances. He's the brother of a Marquess, and his family has not disowned him. Powerful people could usually rescue the reputations of their family members, at least publicly; would less exalted members of the Ton really dare to give the cut direct to a Marquess's brother?

I'm not inclined to seek out any more by Desjardien.