The China Bride [Hardcover]

Mary Jo Putney (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: August 1, 2000

Award-winning author Mary Jo Putney captivated the hearts of readers everywhere with her breathtaking hardcover debut, The Wild Child. Now, in her spectacular new novel The China Bride, she has created another brilliantly moving love story, and a very special heroine--a rare beauty torn between two cultures who valiantly struggles to discover the woman she is destined to be.

Born to a Scottish father and now living in China, Troth Montgomery grew up speaking several languages and thinking of faraway England as home. Enduring life as a concubine, she never imagined that one day she would leave the Orient, arriving in bitter winter at the estate of a stranger--the brother of the man who had briefly been her husband. Kyle Renbourne, Viscount of Maxwell, had taken Troth as his bride shortly before his apparent execution in a Chinese prison. Now, as his widow, she is entitled to the home she always dreamed of but remains haunted by the memory of a dashing husband and the brief, forbidden love they shared.

Then Kyle seemingly returns from the dead. Though he has survived, his mind and body are badly wounded. He needs time to heal and retreats from the exotic wife he barely knows. Bitterly aware that she will never be a fitting English wife, Troth defiantly embraces her foreign traditions, hoping that the ancient arts of her ancestors will restore Kyle's spirit and her own battered heart. Together they embark on a miraculous journey of hope and faith as Kyle becomes enchanted with the intimate tranquillity he shares with his bewitching Troth. But before he can win back his China bride, Kyle must first face a deadly menace that has followed them halfway across the world. . . .

Written with exquisite elegance and gentle passion, The China Bride is a stirring tale of everlasting love and the power of forgiveness, by a master storyteller.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

Nineteenth-century China, England and Scotland are the settings for Putney's continuing saga of the Renbourne twins, Dominic and Kyle, begun in The Wild Child. There, Kyle handed over his unwanted betrothed, Meriel (a match arranged at birth), to his twin brother, Dominic, and escaped to Spain with his terminally ill mistress, Constancia. Ever since his true love's death, Kyle has been exploring the world. In 1832, he is in Macao. His father's health is failing, however, and Kyle plans to fulfill his lifelong dream of seeing the Temple of Hoshan, "an image of peace and unearthly beauty," then return to England to resume his duties as Lord Maxwell. Unfortunately, China is closed to all Fan-qui (foreigners) and Kyle must stay within the confines of the Canton Settlement, a narrow strip of warehouses serving as shipping point for all European and American trade companies. In order to sneak into the Chinese countryside, Kyle enlists the aid of Jin Kang, who he thinks is a young male Chinese interpreter. Jin is actually Troth Mei-Lian Montgomery, feisty daughter of a Scottish trader and Chinese concubine, who is forced to make her living by spying on "foreign devils." Kyle's rash escapade is predictably unsuccessful, as he is discovered and sentenced to death. He marries Troth (symbolically) and dispatches her to England to tell his family of his fateAwhich, of course, turns out to be different from what she imagines. In chapters alternating between Troth's experiences in England and flashbacks to her adventures with Kyle in China, Putney contrives an awkward tale, dependant for its drama on Kyle's belief that he can never love again, and on Troth's fear of rejection by Kyle's family. Though the conflict rarely grips, the sex scenes are adequately steamy, and Putney provides plenty of atmospheric details. (Aug.)
Copyright 2000 Reed Business Information, Inc.

From Library Journal

Picking up the story of the "irresponsible twin" from The Wild Child (LJ 8/99), Putney's latest historical sweeps its adventure-seeking hero to the other side of the globe and into the narrow, conflicted life of Troth Mei-Lian Montgomery, an orphaned Eurasian daughter of a Scottish trader, with dangerous, passionate, and life-changing results. A master at creating unusual, sympathetic characters in compelling relational situations, Putney takes a woman caught between two worlds and a British peer who has vowed never to marry again and sends them on a forbidden journey that not only challenges their preconceptions about life and each other but eventually brings them love as well. Smoothly integrated references to the ancient practices of tai chi, feng shui, and wing chun add interest and authenticity to this highly sensual, emotionally involving romance, which also addresses a number of women's and ethnic issues still relevant today. This elegantly written work is sure to join Putney's earlier novels in most library romance collections. Putney is a best-selling RITA Award winner and lives in Baltimore.
Copyright 2000 Reed Business Information, Inc.

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Hardcover: 320 pages
• Publisher: Ballantine Books; 1st edition (August 1, 2000)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0345433351
• ISBN-13: 978-0345433350
• Product Dimensions: 9.1 x 6.3 x 1.1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.3 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 4.1 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (41 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,761,812 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

29 of 30 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Putney reigns supreme!, August 2, 2000

By A Customer

This review is from: The China Bride (Hardcover)

Mary Jo Putney reigns supreme as the Queen of Romance! The China Bride contains all the elements that have made Putney soooooo popular. Troth is a beautiful, strong, proud heroine and Kyle is an amazingly sensitive, handsome hero, who just needs to be shown the true path to love. Troth is half Scottish, half Chinese and therefore a non-person in Chinese society. But the ways of China are dear to her because of her Chinese mother and the fact that she's grown up there. She also loved her big, brawny red-headed Scottish father, Hugh Montgomery, so her dream is to travel to Scotland and meet her other relatives. She has no idea if they will accept her or not. Kyle Renbourne is the twin brother of Domenic, who was the hero in Putney's recent novel The Wild Child. In fact, Domenic and Meriel are seen again in this book but it's really Troth and Kyle's story. The China Bride is a fabulous adventure with heartstopping suspense, tears (mine!) and the anguish of separation and rejection as well as a satisfying, book-hugging ending that Putney is famous for. Bravo! Mary Jo - you are the undisputed Queen of Romance Novels!

19 of 21 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Excellent writing, wonderful characterization, August 4, 2000

By 

Marcy L. Thompson (Sammamish, WA USA) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)    (REAL NAME)   

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: The China Bride (Hardcover)

Mary Jo Putney is a great writer. This book is quite good. The hero is believable, the heroine is extremely interesting, the story moves along nicely. The technical aspects of the book are very good, for the most part. The writing is always fluent and often graceful. The characters are well-developed and distinct.

The plot was a little weak, compared to other Putney novels, and is the reason I gave the book four stars instead of five. While the final crisis is foreshadowed (just barely), it doesn't seem to fit into the novel seamlessly. That is, the dramatic crisis was jarring in the context of the book. Additionally, there were one or two moments when the heroine acted in unmotivated ways. Interestingly, these actions were usually justified after the fact. However, Troth was a viewpoint character, so it doesn't make sense that her actions should be unmotivated when they occur, and only explained by her thoughts later.

On the whole, it was a very enjoyable book, and I recommend it to anyone who wants to read a good historical romance. But it is not the equal of the books in the Silks trilogy. I *did* very much enjoy the glimpse of an older Duchess of Candover.

11 of 11 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A Lovely, Heart-warming Historical Romance, January 5, 2001

By 

Jill Clardy "So many books, so little time...." (Redwood City, CA USA) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)    (REAL NAME)   

This review is from: The China Bride (Hardcover)

Although basically a formulaic romance novel (hero gets heroine somehow through trials, tribulations and miscommunications), The China Bride is so much richer due to the well-developed and interesting characters and thoroughly researched settings. The story begins with Troth Montgomery, half Chinese, half-Scottish bride of Kyle Maxwell, arriving in England to inform his family that he was shot and killed in a prison in China. The story alternates between present and past, with the present being late 1832 in England and the past being earlier the same year in China.

Kyle was completing his world travels in China, and was entranced by a young male translator who turned out to be a female (Troth) in disguise. She was used as a Chinese/English translator and spy on the visiting merchants, and was frustrated by her double-life. In exchange for financing her passage to England, he convinced her to lead him into the inner country where foreigners were forbidden. He was captured and taken to a prison. When he found that he would be shot to death, he impulsively agreed to marry her in a private Scottish ceremony in order to ensure her safe passage to England.

Troth returns to England and was accepted by his family, but never felt that she fit into their society. Since the book is only half over at this point, we realize that something else must happen in order for Troth to find happiness. Shockingly, Kyle returns to England and reports that he was severely tortured in prison, but not executed. Troth feels that she must release him from his commitment to marry her, since she believed he only did it out of kindness and not out of love. Thus begins the miscommunication and confusion that plagues the couple until the eventual happy ending.

The story is told on two continents and the settings are beautifully described with enriching cultural details. The inevitable love scenes are steamy but not tawdry, and both of the characters are so deserving of happiness that you really want this to have a happy ending, which, of course, it does.