Fortune's Bride [Mass Market Paperback]

Roberta Gellis (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: November 1, 1983

Robert Moreton loved his life and duty in the army, it was all he ever wanted. He was happy to be sent to Portugal. . .until he came across Esmeralda Talbot, shipwrecked in a small Portuguese village and in danger of being forced to marry the headman's son. Robert rescued Esmeralda, intending to send her immediately to England. Only there was no way he could do so, and to save her reputation from ruin, he married her. Esmeralda could not believe her luck. She had been in love with Robert since years before when he had danced with her at the Governor's ball in India. Married to her dream! Now all she had to do was keep him from fulfilling his promise to annul the marriage. Robert knew life was brighter and better than it had ever been before-but he had no idea why. Esmeralda did not dare hint at her passion for him, lest her too-honorable husband send her to England. How was she ever to get Robert to realize he was in love and wanted to keep her beside him forever? Publisher's Note: This book was originally published elsewhere in 1983.

--This text refers to the Paperback edition.

Product Details

• Mass Market Paperback
• Publisher: Dell (November 1, 1983)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0440126851
• ISBN-13: 978-0440126850
• Product Dimensions: 6.8 x 4.2 x 1.2 inches
• Shipping Weight: 6.4 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (4 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,708,638 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Roberta Gellis has a varied educational background--a master's degree in biochemistry and another in medieval literature--and working history--10 years as a research chemist, many years as a free-lance editor of scientific manuscripts, and more than 40 years as a writer. She is married--to the same man for over 60 years (no mean feat in these days) and lives in Lafayette, Indiana, with her husband Charles and a lively Scottish terrier called Zoe. She has one child, Mark, who teaches Rhetoric (a fancy name for expository writing) at Kettering University in Michigan. Mark is married to Sandra and they have a lovely daughter, Elizabeth.

Gellis has been a successful writer of historical fiction, publishing over 25 meticulously researched historical novels since 1964. The best known of these are The Roselynde Chronicles (ROSELYNDE, ALINOR, JOANNA, GILLIANE, RHIANNON, and SYBELLE). The series has been reprinted many times since its first appearance in 1979, most recently in 2006. Gellis has also been the recipient of many awards, including the Silver and Gold Medal Porgy for historical novels from West Coast Review of Books, the Golden Certificate and Golden Pen from Affaire de Coeur, The Romantic Times Award for Best Novel in the Medieval Period (more than once) and Lifetime Achievement Award for Historical Fantasy, as well as Romance Writers of America's Lifetime Acheivement Award.

More recently Gellis has ventured into other genres, starting with mythological fantasy (DAZZLING BRIGHTNESS, SHIMMERING SPLENDOR, ENCHANTED FIRE, BULL GOD, and THRICE BOUND). Most recently she has written historical fantasy, with a series of book coauthored by Mercedes Lackey set in Elizabethan times (THIS SCEPTER'D ISLE, ILL MET BY MOONLIGHT, BY SLANDEROUS TONGUES, and AND LESS THAN KIND). Before that she was writing historical mysteries, a four-book series set in London and Oxford in 1139 (A MORTAL BANE, A PERSONAL DEVIL, BONE OF CONTENTION and CHAINS OF FOLLY) and one set in the Italian Renaissance in Ferrara (LUCREZIA BORGIA and the MOTHER OF POISONS).

Since Gellis is one of the early addicts to electronic readers---she purchased a RocketeBook way back in 1999---it is no surprise that she was eager to get her own out of print historical romances into electronic format. Cerridwen Press (http://www.cerridwenpress.com) has published the Heiress Series (THE ENGLISH HEIRESS, THE CORNISH HEIRESS, THE KENT HEIRESS, FORTUNE'S BRIDE, and A WOMAN'S ESTATE) as well as the Royal Dynasty Series (don't ask me about that, there isn't a royal or a dynasty in any of the four books---it was a notion of a long-ago agent) SIREN SONG, WINTER SONG, FIRE SONG, and A SILVER MIRROR. Cerridwen offers a variety of formats, one of which can be read by the Kindle and for those too firmly addicted to paper, the books are also available in a very nice Trade edition (but those are rather expensive).

I'm sorry I don't have any amusing anecdotes to relate, as recommended by the Profile, but a writer's life is really very quiet. Sometimes my neighbors ask my husband what has happened to me because they haven't seen me in such a long time. Depending on his humor of the moment, sometimes Charles tells them that I can't come outside because he keeps me chained to my computer---but that isn't true. He lets me get up once in a while.

Roberta Gellis

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

13 of 14 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Looking for a Regency set in the days of Cintra and Corunna?, July 28, 2002

By 

bookjunkiereviews (India) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Fortune's Bride (Mass Market Paperback)

There are not too many Regencies that include in gritty detail the forced march to Corunna ordered by Sir John Moore, and the horrors that took place during that march. If you loved Marjorie Farrell's Red Red Rose or Georgette Heyer's The Spanish Bride, and you want to read a romance set in the slightly earlier days of the Peninsular campaign, try FORTUNE'S BRIDE. It comes after the Heiress series (The English Heiress, set just before the Reign of Terror in France; The Cornish Heiress; and the Kent Heiress) and characters from these three books appear or are mentioned in FORTUNE'S BRIDE.

The hero is Robert Moreton, the youngest son of the Earl of Moreton, who is army-mad, so much so that although his loving parents try to enlist him on Sir John Moore's staff, he decamps to India to fight with Arthur Wellesley at Assaye and follows this particular star to South America and then the Peninsula. As one of the favored staff officers, he has many privileges but also many responsibilities, including the duty of collecting as many transport animals (mules and horses) as possible from the Portuguese countryside. It is on one such collecting expedition that Moreton finds an Englishwoman apparently being held hostage in a Portuguese village. Well, she is not really being held hostage, but the headman would like her to marry his son.

Esmeralda Talbot is of good family, but she has been socially isolated both from British society in England and Ireland, and from British society in India. Her father was an odd unpleasant man packed off to India where he amassed a fortune but lived as meanly as possible. This style of living however has given Esmeralda (or Merry as she was once called) a backbone and the ability to put up with tough conditions. That is fortunate, because firstly she has to live with an unpleasant father, and then to cope with a shipwreck and his subsequent death in an isolated Portuguese village (when Portugal is under French occupation), and then to ward off the attentions of the headman's son. Robert Moreton rescues her from this sordid situation but he must marry her to preserve her reputation. Their marriage, he assures her, will be one in name only.

Esmeralda rapidly makes herself at home in the British army, winning the approval and admiration of Wellington's other young staff officers both for her ability to cope with difficult circumstances and for her ability to talk reasonably about military matters. She follows her husband around Portugal and then after Wellington has been superseded, into Spain with Sir John Moore. At some point, the marriage is consummated. Robert is convinced however that his wife is not in love with him, and he is not of course in love with her. [There is an almost-farcical scene with Colborne, a name known to lovers of Peninsular Regencies, where he is assured otherwise].

The couple travel into northern Spain with an assorted retinue - Esmeralda's maid and her husband (Robert's servant and groom), a young Portuguese boy Carlos, two mules, and for sometime, even a dancing bear. The retreat to Corunna is devastating not just for the British army's morale, but nearly for Esmeralda and her retinue. She is sent off to Robert's family in London, quaking that they do not want her and worried about Robert. Will Robert's family accept her? How will Robert react to her secret? Will he survive the rear-guard action? And, if he does, will Esmeralda be able to return to the Peninsula and follow the drum with him? The mistakes Robert and Esmeralda make in their relationship and in other dealings are perfectly reasonable ones.

This book is not a typical Gellis romance, in that there are many many historical figures (military types, mostly) who crop in very realistic situations. The book has two maps which are useful in allowing us to follow the hero and heroine on their travels. For those looking for a more substantial romance set in the Peninsular Wars, try this book.

Rating = 4.7
Recommended = Very Highly.

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars when great writing and great history come together, April 22, 2008

By 

TX reader - See all my reviews

This review is from: Fortune's Bride (Mass Market Paperback)

This is one of my all-time favorite books--I had to buy another copy a year or so ago because my original library-bound one had finally stated to shread pages---I love merry Merry and honorable Robert--and the story of Wellington's campaign in Spain and Portugal against the French is great including how the British army almost managed to lose the war thorough its wrong-headed selections of "better" men...

I just wish there was a market for this type of historical writing and Gellis was doing this instead of her mysteries...and romances--not the same quality at all and such wasted talent...

5 of 8 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Excellent and Memorable, November 17, 2000

By 

Shon (USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Fortune's Bride (Mass Market Paperback)

This is my first Roberta Gellis book and I am hooked. The characters were well written with a background rich with historical detail that was not overwhelming. It is good to find an author that one can read to enjoy and learn from. I highly recommend this book and I am currently looking for her backlist. I had heard a lot of good comments about Ms. Gellis and it is good to see that the comments are indeed true. If you see this book, hang onto it because it is on my keeper shelf.