The Bartered Bride [Hardcover]

Mary Jo Putney (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: April 30, 2002

Cherished for her compelling stories and lush historical detail, New York Times bestselling author Mary Jo Putney brings the past to life in stories of love that arouse the mind and senses. Now, from the exotic temptations of the Orient to the ruthless grandeur of 19th century London, Putney embarks on a sweeping romantic adventure that begins with a daring act of courage.

After building a fortune amid the splendor and dangers of the China seas, American adventurer and merchant prince Gavin Elliott is sailing for London, where he intends to establish himself in the society that forced his family to leave in disgrace when Gavin was only a child. But fate intervenes on an infamous island in the East Indies when he tries to save a European woman being sold at a slave auction. By the sultan’s decree, the woman can only be freed if Gavin wins her by enduring an ancient tribal challenge that may cost him his life. Yet Gavin cannot refuse to help a countrywoman, especially one who touches his heart and soul with her indomitable spirit.

Alexandra Warren ventured to Australia as a young bride eager for adventure. A dozen years later she is returning home as widow and mother when a pirate attack separates her from her beloved daughter and condemns Alex to a life of servitude. Then a miracle arrives in the form of a steely-eyed Yankee captain willing to risk everything to set her free.

A shocking turn of events brings an unexpected alliance with her rescuer, and Gavin and Alex arrive in London as intimate strangers joined by too many painful secrets. Yet attraction and affection soon overcome the trauma of their first meeting. Until the past reaches out to change Gavin’s life–and threaten the passionate love he has found with his irresistible bartered bride.

Graced by Mary Jo Putney’s priceless eloquence, The Bartered Bride captivates the heart with memorable characters and powerful emotions that will stay with you forever.

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com Review

Setting: The East Indies and London, 1834

Sensuality: 7

Lovely widow Alexandra Warren and her young daughter are sailing from Australia to the haven of her family in London when pirates attack their ship and they are captured, separated, and Alex is sold into slavery. Six months later, Captain Gavin Elliott drops anchor at the island of Maduri and is shocked to find a European woman being auctioned in the slave market. Alex clings to hope when the handsome sea captain offers to buy her, but the ruling Sultan of Maduri has plans for Gavin and shrewdly views Alex's plight as a means to control him. Through strength, courage, and wisdom, Gavin thwarts the Sultan's plans, but after surviving the dangers of the South Seas, Alex and Gavin are faced with a more lethal threat when they arrive in London. This time, whether either of them will survive the evil that threatens their lives is anyone's guess.

The exotic locale of the East Indies contrasts vividly with polite London society in this third tale in Ms. Putney's trilogy (The Wild Child and The China Bride). The plot has enough twists and turns to satisfy the most devoted of mystery fans while the relationship between hero and heroine is complicated and the secondary characters well drawn. The author's exploration of British politics, slavery in the 1830s, and London society adds depth and texture to the novel. --Lois Faye Dyer

From Publishers Weekly

This final volume in a popular trilogy (The Wild Child; The China Bride) is a rich and realistic 19th-century historical romance. Gavin Elliott, captain of his trading company's flagship, has been traveling the East Indies since the death of his young wife and infant daughter. Alexandra Warren, too, is widowed; soon after she and her daughter leave Australia for England, their ship is taken by Malaysian pirates and she is abducted. When Gavin visits Malaysia as the guest of a local sultan, he sees Alexandra on the block at a slave auction. As soon as he sets eyes on the indomitable Englishwoman, their fates are united. After a series of trials (including wrestling a giant lizard), Gavin is allowed to bring Alexandra back to England, but their worst problems are not yet behind them. Putney knows how to create characters attractive enough to enchant readers without being too good to be true. Gavin is gallant and romantic¢he risks his life for a woman he doesn't know, marries her to protect her reputation and understands her physical reticence after her traumatic experience¢but he is not without doubts and desires. Alexandra, for her part, believes that Gavin helps her out of chivalry, but she is too gracious and too aware of her position to reject his aid. Both characters have vivid inner lives and thoroughly imagined personalities. Their union is inevitable¢this is a romance novel¢but their journey from strangers to spouses to true lovers is utterly authentic.
Copyright 2002 Cahners Business Information, Inc.

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Product Details

• Hardcover: 336 pages
• Publisher: Ballantine Books; 1st edition (April 30, 2002)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0345437055
• ISBN-13: 978-0345437051
• Product Dimensions: 9.5 x 6.3 x 1.3 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.2 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 3.7 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (30 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,830,718 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

A New York Times, Wall Street Journal, and USAToday bestselling author, Mary Jo Putney was born in Upstate New York with a reading addiction, a condition for which there is no known cure. Her entire romance writing career is an accidental byproduct of buying a computer for other purposes.

Her novels are known for psychological depth and intensity and include historical and contemporary romance, fantasy, and young adult fantasy. Winner of numerous writing awards, including two RITAs and two Romantic Times Career Achievement awards, she has five times had books listed among the Library Journal's top five romances of the year, and three times had books among the top ten romances of Booklist, the magazine of the American Library Association.

Her favorite reading is great stories, but in a pinch she'll settle for the backs of cereal boxes. She's delighted that e-publishing can now make available books that have been out of print.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

14 of 14 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Some good parts, but overall, it needs some work., February 28, 2007

By 

Rebecca Huston "telynor" (On the Banks of the Hudson) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: The Bartered Bride (Mass Market Paperback)

I like books that start off with a bit of a bang. This one certainly does.

In the Tower of London, an adventurer is awaiting trial for the murder of his wife, whom he loves quite dearly. For Gavin Elliot life on the seas and dry land has been a long series of hairbreadth escapes, and winning the love of not one, but two women. Now he's lost everything.

We get the heroine, the blond and beautiful Alexandra Warren in the middle of a pirate attack in the East Indies. Recently widowed, and with her young daughter, Katie, in tow, she's seeking to return to England and her family. But captured by pirates from a close by island, not only is she separated from her beloved daughter, she is subjected to a life of horrors.

Noted romance author Mary Jo Putney gives us another entry in her "Bride" series, with the title in this one coming from the events surrounding Alex's captivity by the decadent Sultan Kasan. The Sultan offers Elliot a choice -- to rescue Alex he must win at the challenges of the Lion's Game, or help the sultan build a merchanting empire. The fact that the sultan uses piracy to terrorize local shipping is a little matter here as well -- and Elliot has pressing business in England over a touch of revenge. How he manages to outwit the Sultan and rescue Alex and her daughter makes for one of the more entertaining sections of the novel.

Returning to England, our two main characters have managed to make a marriage of convenience, but further troubles await in persistant would-be lovers, a pack of in-laws (mostly characters from previous Putney novels that I found to be distracting), and that murder charge that the novel opened with. While I don't mind flashbacks as a plot device, sometimes it gets annoying. To the author's credit, her handling of the old tried-and-true "captured by pirates" storyline is here told in an inventive style, and kept my interest until the end of the novel. Both of the characters have emotional baggage that they cart along with them, and Putney handles the sensitive issue of rape and abuse in a dignified manner, much different than the usual "forcible seduction" that's a stock in trade of bodice rippers.

The bad part of the novel is that the villains are pretty much stock characters here, with only the Sultan being at all interesting (enough to make me wonder if Putney was setting him up as a future hero in a forthcoming book), but the others are pretty much one-notes. The really bad part is that the novel could have been more interesting if the extra characters had been cut out -- I kept getting distracted and bogged down with the little tidbits that Putney kept tossing here and there. Still, it's an interesting read for those of you who like their romance novels with plenty of adventure, and Putney has a deft touch in her writing style. Even the erotic bits are tasteful, and that's rare thing to find these days.

11 of 11 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Sad but heartfelt love story!!, November 27, 2004

By 

J. Brennan (Pittsburgh) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: The Bartered Bride (Mass Market Paperback)

I am with those that do not like to start out going backwards when I read - I prefer to read beginning to end. However in spite of that fact Putney creates a truly emotional read with her story of Gavin & Alex. When Alex is captured and enslaved early in the story you truly wonder how she will come out of it not permently scarred. How fortunate she is that Gavin Elliot comes along and becomes her protector and rescuer - He truly is the kind of man women are all looking for. I mean he has only even had one woman in his life - unique to these stories for sure. It will take much patience and trust between this couple to ever find true happiness though. And their horrors do not end with the islands of the East - when they return to London they still have demons to fight. Of course when a couple fears they have lost each other for good that is when they realize the love they have long felt. This is truly a wonderful love story!!

9 of 9 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Definitely *Not* a Light, Fluffy Romance!, December 4, 2004

By 

ellejir "ellejir" (Virginia, United States) - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Bartered Bride (Mass Market Paperback)

Mary Jo Putney is never afraid to tackle more complicated issues in her historical romances (i.e. alcoholism in "The Rake" and depression in "Veils of Silk"), and she takes on some doozies in "The Bartered Bride"--slavery, rape and its aftermath.

The heroine, Alexandra Warren, is a young widow who is traveling back to England from Austrailia with her young daughter when their ship is attacked by pirates in the East Indies and Alex is sold into slavery. Six months later, Captain Gavin Elliott is visiting the island of Maduri and sees Alex being sold in the local slave market and attempts to buy her freedom. The Sultan of Maduri refuses to let him, recognizing that Gavin's concern for the English slave woman may be a way to control the independent Captain. Gavin must risk his own freedom and even his life in a series of tasks known as "The Lion Game" before the Sultan will agree to release Alex.

Gavin is about as decent a guy as you will ever find in a historical romance and Alex is a *very* strong heroine. The story is complicated and the situations heart-wrenching as Gavin tries to help Alex recover from the abuse that she endured as a slave and resume her life. This is definitely *not* light, fluffy romance, but it is different and interesting and very well-written for the most part. (The boiler-plate last minute rescue scene at the end was a bit over-dramatic for my taste, but was fun to read if a bit predicable.)

A well-written book about a complicated subject with a wonderful hero and strong heroine.