Moonraker's bride [Import] [Paperback]

Madeleine BRENT (Author)

Product Details

• Paperback: 320 pages
• Publisher: Fontana (1980)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0006151574
• ISBN-13: 978-0006151579
• Product Dimensions: 7.1 x 3.9 x 1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 7 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 4.8 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (26 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #2,394,651 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

30 of 31 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars The Best of an Excellent Author, July 27, 2002

By A Customer

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Moonraker's Bride (Hardcover)

I first read Moonraker's Bride when it appeared in the U.S. in 1973. It haunted me. I was very, very happy to find a copy through Amazon last year and found myself re-reading it again this weekend. Madeleine Brent's books all share a common theme of young women who grow up in exotic and difficult circumstances only to be brought into English society. They are timeless, with good plots, great characters, insight into distant times and places, and sense of modesty that fits in well with the regency era. This is the second novel by this author, and is the best of the author's well-done books in my opinion.

From the moment I first met Lucy Waring in a Chinese Christian mission struggling to find an alternative to stealing to feed the 15 girl-children in her care, I couldn't put this book down. Brent's descriptions of life in turn-of-the century China before and during the Boxer Rebellion, the lives of American and European exiles, the outsider's view of English gentry life are compelling. But it is a host of extremely interesting people that I wanted to know better from the first description that draws me in each time: Dr. Langdon (why did he leave America?), Miss Victoria Prothero and her dedication to the Chinese mission after terrible tragedy, the two rival Englishmen who show up in Chengfu with a haunting riddle, the local people and their customs that seem so strange to modern western eyes. These are contrasted with English country society - the Greshams and their snobbish views, Marsh the butler who takes Lucy under his wing and trains her in society; the artistic Falcons and young Matthew, the little boy next boy. But it is Lucy Waring herself that keeps me turning pages in a book that I have now read countless times.

Lucy describes herself at 17 as having "freakish white skin, ugly round eyes, and huge feet". A foreign-devil girl who has grown up in a society that values only males, worships ancestors and hates foreigners. She contemplates selling the older girls as concubines yet her conscience places bad marks in the Recording Angel's book when she must lie to a bed-ridden Miss Prothero about their lack of money and her plans to acquire it. Imminently practical, she is a mixture of Chinese thinking and training by an English spinster. Meticulously following the rules set down by Miss Prothero she has no reference for why many of them are important.

The plot twists and turns are discovered with every page. But you stay with the novel for the characters: Lucy Waring, Nicholas Sabine, Robert Falcon, Edmund Gresham, young Matthew, Marsh, Dr. Langston, Miss Prothero Yu-lan, the Fenshaws, and the children of the Mission.

14 of 15 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars From China to the English Countryside, January 16, 2004

By 

Sires "I enjoy mysteries, historical and proc... (Chesapeake, OH, United States) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Moonraker's Bride (Hardcover)

Madeleine Brent (Peter O'Donnell of Modesty Blaise fame) wrote some really good historical adventure stories pitched toward women. Why does he succeed in making his books interesting even on repeated reading, where a lot of other authors in the same genre fail? He has great respect for the intelligence and good sense of his heroines.

Plucky and intelligent, Lucy struggles against great odds to support and protect her benefactor and the orphans they had taken in and cared for in a hostile turn of the century China. Meanwhile, events are conspiring to send her on an adventure to take her half way around the world.

This book is a delightful read.

9 of 10 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Moonraker's Bride, November 23, 2001

By 

Elisabeth A. HAuse (Bolivia) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Moonraker's Bride (Hardcover)

This book is, if not the best, then one of the best of Madeleine Brent's literary productions. The heroine, Lucy Waring,has the typical spunky, direct character and unique talents that are endowed to Brent heroines. An exotic setting,one of Madeleine Brent's trademarks, is this time a poor mission in China. The romance of the story is captivating, especially since the plot involves a marriage of convenience, which is one of the major factors I look for in my favorite romance novels (no reason in particular - I just like that kind). The mystery that is threaded throughout the book is impenetrable, puzzling, and cleverly crafted. I also enjoy how Madeleine Brent's characters all seem to be connected in some obscure way, shape or form; it allows for more guessing of what will happen. All these factors contribute to the alluring appeal of Moonraker's Bride, making it a read that I am glad I did not miss.