Customer Reviews

The Bride Thief (Harlequin Presents)

5 star:		(3)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

The Bride Thief starts out at a royal wedding. The bride, a woman named Rose Linden (a waitress from California who is also a 29 year old virgin) is at the wedding reception, looking at her new husband, and isn't happy. Something feels "off". She walks outside to keep from confronting her family about her misgivings about her new husband and is kidnapped in the garden by a man named Xerxes Novros.

In the getaway car, Novros tells Rose she is not really married...the alleged husband she just wed already has a wife. The mystery wife is in a coma, being held captive by the fake husband Lars Vaxborg who is using the coma wife for her money. Xerxes plans to trade Rose for the woman in the coma, and in the meantime seduce her so he can give Rose back to his enemy as "broken goods". Apparently this will be a sharp blow to Vaxborg, who fell so deep in lust with Rose, he set up this entire fake wedding, flew in all her family to his castle in Sweden, just so he could fake wed, and bed her.

The heroine is not my cup of tea, and it was difficult to read about her. At the beginning of the book, Rose is presented to the reader as a capable, grown woman, but by the end of the first 50 pages, the reader is shown that she is naive, gullible, a bad judge of character, and she lives with an almost adolescent fantasy of what marriage should be. The character traits simply do not mesh. The goody two shoes thing simply isn't believable for any woman who is almost 30, whether she's a virgin or not. Rose came across as very immature, and in turn, that made the hero seem like he was taking advantage of someone who is clearly unable to take care of herself.

Rose speaks to Lars on the phone very soon after the kidnapping, and he admits his misdeeds, and that there is indeed a coma wife. So, very early in the book Rose knows Lars is a liar. That douses the main conflict right away. After that, Rose almost instantly forgives her handsome kidnapper Xerxes for taking her, and sets out to find the good in Xerxes, and to have him recognize it in himself. Meanwhile, Xerxes is trying to seduce her, and has admitted to Rose it is in an effort to be cruel. She even heard him say so on the phone to Lars.

Rose's inability to grasp the concept of what was happening around her was strange, definitely not normal. It may sound far fetched, but I couldn't help picturing this woman as being mentally challenged. This book would have been so much better if Rose had been a mature, world wise woman. She would have been a true match for Xerxes then. But it seems like maybe the writer couldn't make up her mind if she wanted a sophisticated 29 year old woman, or a young innocent virgin for a heroine, so she combined them both. The result is a 30ish woman with the mentality of someone too young to be considering serious relationships. It just doesn't work.

I gave the book 3 stars, because while The Bride Thief is a very flawed story, I had to find out where this book was going. I sat down and read it from beginning to end in one evening.

**ALERT: SOME SPOILER INFO**
That is the opening sentence of this book and it is exactly right...this story is a fairy tale. I found myself trying to figure out what year (or era) this story took place because it could not have possibly been in the 21st century. I won't cover the storyline since that has been done by other reviewers. Suffice it to say I did not think that the word virgin was equivalent to naive, ignorant, and clueless. I was actually looking forward to reading this since it wasn't a story about a mid-30s, 40 year old dominant hero paired with a barely out of high school heroine with a complete lack of decently employable skills. Rose is a "beautiful" (which we learn ad nauseum) woman, with no dating experience---at all. Seriously? She's that good looking and it's implied that she has zero experience with men except her family. Really? I get saving herself for marriage and the perfect man, but that doesn't preclude having friends and actually going on a date. Meanwhile, Xerses is on the hunt for his missing half-sister being hidden by her husband, Lars. Lars COMPLETELY pulls the wool over Rose's eyes and "marries" her just to get her into bed--because Rose is that beautiful.

Like one reviewer stated, the author doesn't seem to have a clear idea of who she wants her heroine to be and that quickly becomes exasperating to the reader. Then in less than 24 hours she's in love with her captor who wants to use her and discard her! The ending of the story is completely implausible. Her family raises no alarms after she's been kidnapped, she's returned to her family with no questions asked, and THEN she doesn't believe she's going to be "traded" but she gets in the car to go with Xerses anyway. Oh, and I forgot that Xerses' half-sister has been in a coma for a year with little to no care at all--and what a miracle that she's still alive!

Sad, but true, I still scanned through the book because I had to find out how this story was going to resolve itself. That's why I gave it 2 stars instead of 1 because if nothing else, I had to reach the end.

Xeres was the Greek super rich alpha male who kidnapped Rose on her wedding day. She needed a breath of fresh air and went outside the castle, ran into Xeres and off he takes her. She's wearing her virginal white and it couldn't be more fitting for this twenty something year old virgin. I don't want to give the twist away of this story because it's pretty original and I liked it. I love when I don't see what's coming. The problem is that there is very little conflict and it drags a little. I did like Rose because she is NOT a doormat. I also hated the heroes name because in my stupid head I couldn't pronounce his name since I never heard it before. All in all the book was pretty good and I loved the ending.

I so enjoyed this book. It was a pleasant fairy tale, and I really liked the heroine, Rose. She was a nice, sweet person (I don't care for bratty or kick-a*s heroines, and I confess I love the virgin scenario, which this book has). Xerxes was a good hero, also; he started out harsh, but then you discover the good man underneath. I plan to search out other books by this author because I liked this one so much.

The Bride Thief was a powerfully written and extremely emotional romance. Their journey was a difficult one but in the end so worth all of the pain they went through to get their happy ending.

In Sensible Housekeeper, Scandalously Pregnant one was introduced to another ruthless billionaire from Argentina, Rafael Cruz and he went after what he wanted and that was his virgin housekeeper. At Rafael's birthday party, another ruthless billionaire was in attendance, Greek billionaire Xerxes Novros who also owned many properties and several private islands. In fact, he let Rafael and his mistress stay on one of them for awhile.

The Bride Thief was Xerxes and Rose's story and oh what a ruthless and determined man this Greek alpha was and a man with a plan and agenda. He was determined to rescue a young, Laetitia, a woman from his past who was believed to be in a coma and she was married to Baron Lars Vaxborg from Sweden who actually wanted her dead so he could have Rose. Lars met Rose Linden in San Francisco and was determined to marry her; so much so, he rushed her to make a decision to marry and flew her entire family, siblings and all to his castle for the wedding. Now Rose was married and scared because she wondered if she'd made a mistake. She wandered outside, was kidnapped by the Greek billionaire Xerxes and taken to his private island in Greece.

Talk about being scared because Rose didn't understand the situation and Xerxes believed her to be in on the fake marriage to Lars. It took a few days to determine that she had no idea about Laetitia. On top of that he was angry with himself because after touching her, kissing her, trying to torment her, he was angry with himself. Why? Because she was the most beautiful woman he had ever seen, he wanted and desired her. On top of that, he had made the call to Lars to make a trade.....Rose for Laetitia. He was a man of his word and he would definitely not go back on his word. However, they moved from the private island to three other destinations because his security team had sightings of Laetitia. Rose thought they were moving due to Xerxes business but that was not the truth. It all became so complicated for both of them.....the attraction, the emotions and being a man of his word, Rose would have to ask him to kiss her because he promised her back in Greece he would only do so if she asked. However, there was one thing for sure, Rose knew from what he told her, he needed no one, didn't do relationships and would never love nor marry.

Xerxes knew one thing for sure.......she made him feel at home and she was such a generous person, always doing things for others, especially her family. As she once told him "a life without faith, , without being brave enough to risk loving someone and be loved in return, was no life at all." While reading this incredible love story I could feel Xerxes soften, knew he had a past and secrets because he would not tell Rose whom or why Laetitia was important to him. Quite honestly, his secrets were shocking and I wondered and then understood why this proud Greek shielded his heart.

The ending of The Bridal Thief was quite shocking; from the trading of Rose for Laetitia due to the fact Lars divorced his first wife so he could have her back in his life. Then the brutal kidnapping of Rose by Lars, to Xerxes revealing his and Laetitia's past......it was quite moving. This stubborn and honorable man had a lot of things to overcome before he could give them their happy ever after but he did so with such flourish and style giving this couple hope, love and making their dreams come true.

I love connected stories and Sensible Housekeeper, Scandalously Pregnant and The Bride Thief were such amazing and sensual reads. I just knew Xerxes had to have a story like his ruthless billionaire rival and it was so worth waiting for and then some. Plus the fact that both of the heroines were such accepting, understanding and patient women.

Xerxes Novros is about to do more than just voice his reasons why Rose's marriage should be stopped...He's hoping to steal this beautiful wife-to-be away and whisk her off to his private Greek island!

But Rose was to be a virgin bride...and Xerxes is determined to give her the wedding night she's been stolen from. Rose is torn; pride dictates that she should refuse Xerxes his pleasure. But, secretly, she can't deny a startling truth--she's fallen for her dark, handsome captor!

A nice fast-paced read with the happily-ever-after you expect from a Harlequin Presents. I like that Xerxes the H saved Rose not once but twice from the evil Lars. Rose was a very likable h and I am glad she learned about Lars and his dubious behavior before she slept with him.

Xeres is a strongwilled hero in the story and sweeps Rose of her feet. The story is good. A nice read.