Customer Reviews

The Counterfeit Marriage (Regency Romance)

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

 

 

Backflap:

Enchantingly beautiful Catherine Renwick had good cause to despise darkly handsome, insufferably arrogant James Pembroke, Earl of Allandale.
It was this deplorable man who on a night of wild debauchery caused Catherine to be abducted and brought to him at a country inn. It was he who took her virtue by force, and left her threatened with disgrace.
True, he now was willing to make amends by giving her his name in marriage. And equally true, she had no choice but to accept. But Catherine was sure that nothing in the world could erase her hatred for him or her horror of his embrace.
Catherine was an innocent no longer - yet she had so much to learn about love and the maddening deceptions of the heart...

I really really liked this book. I find it extremely courageous to deal with an issue that undoubtedly occurred quite often in 19th century England and deal with it in such a way as to actually interest and involve the reader greatly. The characters were both well-built and complex, yet they were honest with each other from the first. As a great hater of the 'miserunderstandings' plot line in Regencies, I applaud Ms. Wolf's attempt and success at dealing with a dark issue with such class and style.

I found it completely believable for the two characters to fall in love after such a traumatic beginning and applauded it as well! Life is full of possibilities and most of the solutions are not black and white as Ms. Wolf very cleverly shows us in this book.

This is a true love story that surmounts all and I highly recommend it.

Drunken debauchery leads to rape of a teenager. Of course the required guilt comes into play. The hero and heroine spend more time apart than together so it is really implausible that they suddenly fall in love. I know this is the romance genre but c'mon, get a little closer to reality.

This was Joan Wolf's first novel, and any writer who gets a book written & published deserves at least one star. But, in terms of plot and character development, I'd say this story really shows "first time writer" syndrome. This is a romance novel, and therefore I could NOT get over the fact that the hero actually rapes the heroine. He's not much of a hero to begin with (too rich, too controlling, and too spoiled by women). And the circumstances surrounding the heroine's rape! The heroine can't talk or scream because her throat is very sore & she's recovering from flu? And the way she's kidnapped by the hero's drunken friend, while out riding? The whole scenario just seemed too unreal and overdone.

I never believed these two people could fall in love with each other after such a beginning, and Ms. Wolf did not convince me otherwise.

I often wish for a different ending in books, but this is one where I wish the author had chosen a different beginning. Couldn't she have found another reason for a forced marriage than a brutal, drunken rape? That being said, the rest of the book is great, if you can suspend your disbelief that the drunken rapist is really a nice guy and concentrate on the development of the love story.

Joan Wolf has the incredible writing skill of turning an ugly situation -- a rape , into a beautiful and moving story of love . The suffering of both the hero and heroine in the process wrenches your heart but you would be touched by the tenderness of budding love and the satisfying conclusion. A highly-recommended read.