Customer Reviews

The Perfect Bride (The Dewarenne Dynasty Series)

5 star:		(14)
4 star:		(10)
3 star:		(5)
2 star:		(8)
1 star:		(2)

 

 

A wonderful historical romance. This is my third Brenda Joyce / DeWarenne book, and so far my favorite, (I have also read Stolen Bride and A Lady at Last.) I really felt the love and admiration between Sir Rex and Blanch, and as they got to know each other I became so enthralled in this story I couldn't put the book down as I needed to know what happened next.

Some reviews have noted that this isnt a highly passionate story, but I believe that is because there wasn't a lot of the lusty, steamy bedroom scenes that so many of today's historical novels include. (However, there were a few steamy scenes.) This is more of a love story from the heart, not the more typical storyline of lust-that-turns-into-love.

I really have new respect for this author. After I read Stolen Bride, I wasn't sure I would ever read another Joyce book again. But I did recognize her great writing style, although I did not care for the plot of Stolen Bride. I think Joyce's talent really shines in this books. This is a believable, plausable action romance story between two very different people who are so perfect together.

This is one of the loveliest romances I've read in a long time. For once, the hero and heroine actually fall in love with one another, rather than just fall in lust, declare love, and get hitched. This is a love story. So refreshing!

The heroine, Blanche, is marvelously drawn. She is sweet, generous, mature, and truly lovely. She doesn't stamp and pout like other heroines, she isn't mean and cruel to her hero to keep the tension going, she isn't silly, she isn't stupid. She's a fantastic character.

Sir Rex is also extraordinary, to me. He truly is the tortured hero, brooding and dark, but unlike other "tortured" heroes he does not sulk or do inexcusable things and then blame them on past traumas. He is honorable and respectful and intriguing, kind and thoughtful, and very, very passionate.

I think what I like so much about this book is that the main characters are ADULTS, who act in a mature manner. And they truly respect one another, as well, and treat one another with kindness and courtesy. There's one plot point in the book where Blanche does hurt Sir Rex, but she doesn't do it out of selfishness or cruelty.

There are some problems with the book: historical inaccuracies, and there's an Other Woman of sorts in the book, which seems weird and out of place in this novel, to me. Typos also clutter up the pages. There are a few words and phrases that get repeated a little too often (people "breathe," "startle," and "cry" a lot in this novel, while "wide-eyed," and so forth) but it doesn't hurt the book for me.

But I do love this novel. Rex and Blanche are so good together, love each other so much, and are so good to one another. The plot is actually very melodramatic, dealing with hidden sons, murdered mothers, scheming maids, insanity, and combined with the bleak Cornish backdrop, it's very Gothic. It's a testament to Brenda Joyce's writing that I love every melodramatic aspect of it, and it doesn't actually feel melodramatic at all.

Wonderful novel!

After eluding marriage for eight years, wealthy Lady Blanche Harrington knows she will have to wed one of her two hundred twenty eight suitors as she muses whose counting. However with the recent death of her father she has no protection as the aristocracy of 1822 is fraternal when it comes to money. Still not one of these perspective grooms makes her heart beat; most make her heart want to stop.

Napoleonic war hero Rex de Warenne may be a hermit, who avoids society like the plague, but he likes Blanche a lot and always has; in fact before his military time he thought of courting her, but since the horrors of combat he feels she can do much better than a mental cripple like him. Still he agrees to help her make a good match. Rex is there for Blanche as she finally moves on past her mom's death while she is there for him as he finally heals from post battle fatigue syndrome. However, as love blossoms between these two friends, one must take the chance of proclaiming their deepest desire.

The lead couple makes this deep late regency romance into a powerful emotional read. All that will matter to sub-genre fans is whether the likable pair makes it together as he must overcome demons haunting his soul while she finds all others imperfect. Brenda Joyce's latest De Warenne tale (see THE MASQUERADE and THE PRIZE) is the best in a strong historical series.

Harriet Klausner

This could have been a great book - I enjoyed reading about the hero and heroine, but the inaccuracies were too many to ignore:

British aristocracy - if Blanche's father was a viscount, then she would be Miss Harrington, not Lady Blanche (only for daughters of earls, marquesses and dukes) and certainly not Lady Harrington - that is what her mother would have been called.

History - the author claims that her father died in 1822 after amassing an industrial fortune many years before? No, the railroads and cotton mills were just getting established during this time.

Come on, Brenda Joyce, do a little homework.

3.5 stars ***Spoilers***
This is my first book by this author and at first I was very impressed-especially the whole walking in on the hero scenario and I do like that she she tossed in unusual obstacles for the hero and heroine to overcome-however, unusual in this case doesn't save this book entirely. First, I don't tend to like perfect people-which is what Blanche was striving for, I guess. She doesn't gossip, she never thinks ill of anyone and so on. Admirable, yes-also equally annoying. I also loved the emotional angst that the hero was initially set up to have in the story. But his heartbreak and circumstances takes a back seat to Blanche's more boring issues of suppressed memories. I mean, after so many flashbacks, the significance of what she was going through just became annoying. While I can see why a person of that time would fear society viewing them as being 'mad', I didn't follow the other threads of illogical thinking of marrying someone else as if that would solve the problem. And why run to London under the watchful eye of the ton instead of just quietly going mad in the country with less prying eyes? Or to even think a woman of that time would go off have a baby and hand it off to the father without anyone being the wiser-seemed unbelivable and more of a modern woman's thinking-especially given her station.
Plus, I think Anne got the rough end of the stick-one could easy write this story through her eyes and make her a very sympathic character indeed. But those few points isn't why I'm giving this book a less than stellar review. The main problem for me and this novel is the pacing. Somehow I was fooled into thinking this was going to be a very hot, heated and passionate book. A woman with no emotions hooking up with man overflowing with it? All right-let the thawing begin. However, after the intial tyrst with Rex and Anne, the reader is waiting an eternity for a single kiss-let alone some forbidden midnight renedevous-and there were several opportunities. Instead we get to watch a mindnumbing courtship between two people who are constantly worried about offending each other. Every other page one is apologizing for this or that to the point I feared my eyes would permanently be rolled to the back of my head. But what also saves this book from getting an incredibly low grade despite my tendency to skim was the good writing. It is obvious that Ms. Joyce is a talented writer and you begin to suspect this is just as off book for her as opposed to you constantly being subjected to two boring people with no real conflict seperating them. I would give this author another try in the future.

I'm surprised to see some of the bad reviews of this book, but I guess you can just chalk it up to different people having different tastes. I LOVED this book. This is the third book I've read from Joyce's de Warenne family series (having read Cliff's story and Devlin's story), and it is by far my favorite. I have to disagree with the other reviews that claimed that this book was passionless. It might not be the soft porn that some romance novels are, with torid and graphic sex scenes in every chapter, but there is a definite sexual tension between the main characters from practically the very beginning, which leads to actual sexual encounters (tender, but full of passion) in the last third of the book. This book delves deeply into the emotions of both characters, which is why I cared so much for them. That's the type of romance I'm looking for when reading a novel, not a book full of nothing but "pounding flesh and quivering thighs." Not everybody will agree with me on that, however, which is why I say it is a matter of personal taste.

I found myself wondering why I keep buying her novels when I get frustrated with her writing. I like her plots, and characters. However, her writing is very immature. There's so many times where someone "cried out." During a conversation? It got so...dramatic. The dialogue was sometimes annoying too. Also, just the way she writes is so...high school. I don't know if I'm going to buy another one of her books. I keep telling myself "Maybe this one is good, maybe this one will be a gem," and blech. Nope. I like the storyline, but not the writing. It could have been told better, and more professional.

Another thing: why were all the heroines in this series blond?

I could not get into the story from the first page, when the author states that a merchant's daughter was totally accepted by the ton due to the fact that the viscountancy was granted so long ago that everyone had forgotton. If her father died at 62, it must have been granted about 20 years before unless he made a fortune in manufacturing as a teen. Daughter of a viscount is not "Lady Harrington" (title only of a married woman) or even "Lady Blanche", have to be a daughter of at least an Earl. Also manufacturing fortunes were not made that early, much better to have her father been an East Indian Nabob.

Book would have been better set seven years after Crimea when some of the actions, woman staying unchaperoned at a unmarried non related male's house for over two weeks, for example, was not even commented on by the neighbors or anyone else. Most regency's would have her considered ruined after 1 night in such a situation.

Then having the hero when asked what he was drinking at his club, to ask for a Cabernet!!!!!. That is an American name for wine, never used in the 19th century.

Also being knighted for war service maybe, but a grant of property for service in the Napoleonic wars? No way. And what was the second son of a loving and rich earl doing being poor. Something would have been settled on him, most likely a minor property.

Plot was ok and characters interesting, but a real lack of conflict or villans made the book suffer.

I have waited for Rex's story from the first and perhaps my anxious anticipation was the reason for my deep disappointment. He had all the makings of being the most captivating hero with the most intense story of all the De Warenne's. However, it all fell flat. The first half of the book drew me in well enough but by the middle I was already sick of hearing "Sir Rex" repeated over and over again (She even refuses, after they're married, to call him by just his first name. So annoying and not at all romantic in my mind) and I had already started doubting the strength of the heroine's character and love. She was the stupidest girl and so weak! Ugh. Not at all right for Rex. Yes, he needed to have someone who would need him to "save" her but Blanche's problems weren't even something he could do anything about. He could only stand by and offer support while she waited for her post-traumatic stress disorder to "work itself out". Her decisions were questionable and her love never fully realized and displayed. Plus, the story was anti-climatic and slow moving. And the author's inconsistencies and lack of research were telling in parts (still don't know if Blanche was 27 or 28). I was invested with Rex due to the previous De Warenne novels and even still liked him in this one but never really believed or invested in Rex and Blanche as a couple. I think Joyce was simply lazy with this story and wrote it too quickly and without giving it its proper due. To readers who haven't picked up a Joyce novel yet...don't start with this one! You'll never visit her again and she is, I promise, usually worth it.

This story was a great love story. Rex was so great with Blande when everyone thought her mad. He was there when no one else wanted to go near and even if she was truely mad I think he would have stayed with her anyway. It was good to finally get to see what each of their past was like. I had been wondering ever since The Masquerade about Blanche and over the past few De Warenne novels about Rex. I didn't like that Blanche had to call Rex, Sir Rex all the time. It just seemed so unformal. If you are not one for gory type things this might not be the De Warenne novel for you. The flash backs are very gruesome and I didn't like it that much but it did give you a view as to why Blanche had blocked everything out. Rex you felt so bad for him not being able to let society ever know he had a son. Overall it was a great romantic story of love knows no bounds. I give this four stars.