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9 of 9 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
Pleasurable sequel to The Wedding Wager, September 20, 2008
This review is from: The Bridal Quest (Matchmakers) (Mass Market Paperback)
While I adore steamy sex scenes, I find that I don't miss them in Camp's books because her plots and subplots are intricate and plausible, and the sexual tension is certainly there. The Bridal Quest is the second book in Camp's four-book Matchmaker series, and I will certainly buy the next two books when they are released.
Candance Camp is a new discovery for me, and a welcome one. Although the books in this Matchmaker series certainly don't have the same sexual heat as Lisa Kleypas' Wallflowers series ( Secrets of a Summer Night (The Wallflowers, Book 1), It Happened One Autumn (The Wallflowers, Book 2), The Devil in Winter (The Wallflowers, Book 3), Scandal in Spring (The Wallflowers, Book 4) and Elizabeth Hoyt's wonderful Prince series ( The Raven Prince; The Serpent Prince' and The Leopard Prince, they do share with those series (at least thus far) a depth of plotline and character which keeps the reader interested and the pages turning. And there is one sexy scene near the end of the novel which is well worth waiting for.
The plot concerns the return to the family fold of our hero, Gideon, who was ostensibly kidnapped at the age of four, along with his mother. When he is miraculously discovered as a grown man running a gaming club in London, he has done well for himself financially, but he is rather lacking in the social graces which would go along with being the new Earl of Radbourne. Enter our heroine, Irene Wyngate, the independent-minded daughter of a now-dead drunken womanizer and bully who made her childhood miserable. Seeing how unhappy and timid marriage has made her gentle mother, Irene is determined never to marry. She is recruited by an acquaintance, Francesca Haughston (a continuing character in the series, who is a kind of high-class matchmaker) to help with Gideon's transformation to gentlemanly behavior so that he may marry an upper-class lady and produce the requisite heir.
Some reviewers have said that they find the heroine, Irene, to be a tad abrasive but I found her refreshing. Her stated reasons for staying single are very real concerns for women of her era -- they were legally nothing but property and their children belonged to the fathers. Of course, as the book progresses and she finds herself ever more attracted to the rough-edged handsome hero, Gideon, it becomes a case of "methinks the lady doth protest overmuch," but I found that realistic rather than irritating. Because her father was such a tyrant, Irene has some very natural concerns about trusting her future to a man.
The subplots concerning Irene's overbearing sister-in-law, Maura, and Gideon's equally overbearing great aunt, Odelia, are absorbing and fun. Irene gets in some great caustic lines in response to other characters' observations on her spinster status. The mystery of what really happened to Gideon and his mother twenty-seven years earlier is handled deftly, woven neatly into a plot of intensifying sexual tension between the H/H.
I like these series romances when they are done as well as this. The author has done herself proud with the Matchmaker series.
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8 of 10 people found the following review helpful:
3.0 out of 5 stars
a decent 3 star read, February 25, 2008
This review is from: The Bridal Quest (Matchmakers) (Mass Market Paperback)
The second installment in the Matchmaker series, I really wanted to be be able to say that I had enjoyed reading "The Bridal Quest" as much as I had enjoyed "The Marriage Wager." Unfortunately, while "The Bridal Quest" proved to be quite a decent read, it didn't turn out to be a stellar one and suffered from comparison to Georgette Heyer's "The Unknown Ajax."
Lady Odelia Pencully finds herself in a quandary: after more than 20 years, the missing heir to the Radbourne title has been found. Unfortunately, Gideon (the missing heir) grew up on the London streets amongst thieves and murderers; and while Gideon has managed to amass a fortune through various business enterprises, he also has, Lady Odelia claims, rather common manners. Which is why she has come to Lady Francesca Haughston for help. It is a rather well known "secret" that Lady Francesca has successfully and discretely matchmaked for others before, and Lady Odelia rather hopes that Lady Francesca can find a wife of accepted lineage to help smooth-out her grandnephew's rough edges. And while Lady Francesca is perfectly willing to help Gideon find the "right" wife, she quickly realises that Lady Odelia's idea of the prefect candidate and Gideon's might not be the same. For the lady that Gideon is interested in marrying is Lady Irene Wyngate -- a beautiful but caustic-tongued young lady who has vowed never to marry. Can Lady Francesca achieve a miracle and bring Gideon and Lady Irene together?
Unfortunately, "The Bridal Quest" bore some similarity to Heyer's "The Unknown Ajax" and I spent a lot of time comparing the two, to the former's detriment. Not a very fair, of course, and yet that's what happened. The thing is, aside from the shared storyline, there were in my opinion, a few other problems as well. Like the fact that I thought that the romance bewteen Gideon and Irene could have done with more depth, after all this was a romance novel. Both characters were well "fleshed-out" but I did think that having Irene state so stridently to her reasons why she would never marry over and over again, was a tad irritating, even if I did think that the authour did wonders with showing us the confusion that Irene felt about her feelings for Gideon. On the other hand, what Gideon felt for Irene was a bit of a mystery for much of the book -- that he desired and admired her was obvious, but love? I didn't think that that came through at all.
What worked? The entire subplot dealing with the subplot Gideon's kidnapping and the fate of his missing mother all those years ago. It was a good plot device -- a bit of mystery that enlivened the story and while also serving as an interesting way of throwing Gideon and Irene together. All in all, "The Bridal Quest" was a rather decent read -- the pacing may have been a little choppy and I did spend far too much time thinking about "The Unknown Ajax," nevertheless, "The Bridal Quest" had its moments, and really was a decent 3 star read.
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2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
Great tension, arguing, and battle of wit and wills between main characters - definitely better than the first Matchmaker book, January 14, 2009
This review is from: The Bridal Quest (Matchmakers) (Mass Market Paperback)
This book is the second in Candace Camp's Matchmaker Series and follows The Marriage Wager. My main complaint with the first book of the series still holds true here, but it wasn't as bothersome. I don't know if this is Camp's normal writing style, but in neither book does she show the hero's POV (except for once for a total of 4 lines in this one) and I find it very disconcerting. The story is told exclusively from the heroine's narrative, with small exception - the aforementioned 4 lines and we do see Francesca's (the matchmaker of the series) POV occasionally. In all of the other historical romances I've read, the story is told in third person from **both** of the main characters' - and sometimes secondary characters' - POV (for good reason!).
Camp doesn't do this; in The Marriage Wager it really bothered me because we didn't see enough of the hero in other ways so that at the end of the book I felt I still didn't really know him. She does a much better job of this in The Bridal Quest and I would happily have given the book 5 stars if it weren't for the fact that the hero's perspective is still needed. Other than that, this book is a charm and I will undoubtedly reread it.
SUMMARY:
Lady Irene Wyngate (25) is a sharp-tongued witty young woman (known by the ton as a shrew) who is very unusual for a lady of her class - she has absolutely no interest in *ever* getting married. Watching her drunk lout of a father wreak havoc in everyone's life with his whoring, gambling, and frightful rages and tempers convinced her long ago that she wanted to be under no man's rule and would remain as independent as possible for the rest of her life. She has never questioned her decision until she meets Gideon, Earl of Radbourne, for although she tries to cling to logic and remember what a boorish, arrogant, and rude man he is ... every interaction with Gideon excites her, her body comes alive when he's around, and she can't help but want to see more of his rare smiles and almost-never-heard laughs.
Gideon, Earl of Radbourne (31) was kidnapped at the age of four and grew up in the tough East End of London instead of living in comfort among the English aristocracy. He was recently restored to his family and they are anxious for him to get married; though Gideon is determined to decide on the lady himself, he is amenable to the idea and so agrees. His family asks for Lady Francesca Haughston's help, however, for they fear that it will be difficult to find a proper, young lady who is willing to marry Gideon, since despite his wealth, title, and handsome looks, he's rough around the edges, his hair is too long, he continues his involvement in his business affairs (a tradesman ::gasp::), he is far too direct, he doesn't dance well, and the list goes on. A country house party is organized and although Irene insists that she is attending in order to get her and her mother away from her horrible sister-in-law for awhile and NOT to be one of Gideon's prospective brides, Gideon is determined to change her mind ...
COMMENTS:
The relationship between Irene and Gideon is wonderful - a clash between two opinionated and strong-minded people. It's highly entertaining watching their attraction develop, despite both of their attempts to fight the undeniable chemistry between them (her caustic remarks are priceless and it's so funny when despite his anger he can't bring himself to write her off). There were several laugh-out-loud moments for me and I love the scenes when Irene finds herself defending Gideon against rude criticism despite herself and that she slaps him - not once, but twice!! This book was wonderful and the hero and heroine were perfect for each other - they're both strong, honest, intelligent, loyal, kind, and straight-forward and blunt to the point of rudeness.
Candace Camp combines a completely lovable hero and heroine (with wonderfully antagonistic - but humorous - interactions and great chemistry and dialogue), both friendly and horrible relatives, a family mystery (was Gideon really kidnapped? what happened all those years ago?), and the continually entertaining and curious relationship between Francesca and the Duke of Rochford (which will finally be resolved in the fourth and final book of the Matchmaker Series, The Courtship Dance, out February 1, 2009!!) to create a delightful historical romance.
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