Rules of Attraction (Governess Brides, Book 3) [Hardcover]

Christina Dodd (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: 2001

From Publishers Weekly: The third installment of Dodd's Victorian-set Governess Brides series (Rules of Surrender, Rules of Engagement) sputters off to a slow start as a jilted husband and his runaway bride rehash old grudges. Hannah Setterington, head of the Distinguished Academy of Governesses, is lured to Lord Raeburn's Lancashire castle with promises of a position on the lord's staff only to find that Raeburn is really Dougald Pippard, the commoner she married when she was only 18 years old. Dougald has waited nine years to exact his revenge on Hannah, and he's more than pleased to engage her services as a companion for his dithering aunt Spring in the hope that Hannah will eventually bend to his will. Despite the obvious sexual tension between the couple, readers will find little relief from their mean-spirited bickering until their first sizzling sexual encounter. A subplot involving a murderer who's intent on disposing of the castle's newest lord provides some additional thrills, and Aunt Spring and her bubbly friends are a comic delight. Although Dodd has an ear for dialogue and a skillful hand, her fiction is a troubling mixture of romance and hostility. While her many fans are sure to enjoy this one, readers who prefer a less brutal courtship should pass.Copyright 2001 Cahners Business Information, Inc.

Product Details

• Hardcover: 374 pages
• Publisher: Avon 2001/01; Book Club edition (2001)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0739415808
• ISBN-13: 978-0739415801
• Product Dimensions: 8.3 x 5.7 x 1.2 inches
• Shipping Weight: 13.6 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 3.6 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (50 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #2,312,920 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Chat with Christina via Facebook and Twitter, and even better, join her mailing list to have her news delivered right to your inbox! http://christinadodd.com/lists/?p=subscribe

Readers become writers, and Christina Dodd has always been a reader. She reads everything, but because she loves humor, she likes romance best.

A woman wants things like world peace, a clean house, and a deep and meaningful relationship based on mutual understanding and love. A man wants things like a Craftsman router with attachments, undisputed control of the TV remote, and a red Corvette which will miraculously make his bald spot disappear. So when Christina's first daughter was born, she told her husband she was going to quit work and write a book. It was a good time to start a new career, because how much trouble could one little infant be?

Ha! It took ten years, two children and three completed manuscripts before her first novel, CANDLE IN THE WINDOW, was published. In the twenty-two years since, her novels have been translated into 25 languages, won Romance Writers of America's prestigious Golden Heart and RITA Awards and been called the year's best by Library Journal. Christina Dodd herself has been a clue in the Los Angeles Times crossword puzzle (11/18/05, # 13 Down: Romance Novelist named Christina.) Publishers Weekly praises her style that 'showcases Dodd's easy, addictive charm and steamy storytelling.'

Christina's 2011 releases include TAKEN BY THE PRINCE, #9 in the Governess Brides series, and in the tradition of Nora Roberts, a new romantic suspense series starting with SECRETS OF BELLA TERRA and REVENGE AT BELLA TERRA.

Christina Dodd is married to a man with all his hair and no Corvette, but many Craftsman tools.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

15 of 16 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars not my kind of 'hero', March 12, 2001

By 

tregatt (Portland, Oregon) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Rules of Attraction (Governess Brides, Book 3) (Mass Market Paperback)

.... "Rules of Attraction" is an all right read but it is not one of her better efforts either. Actually, I haven't exactly warmed to this entire trilogy (The Governess Brides Series) and that it primarily because of the 'heroes' in all three books. The heroines, Charlotte, Pamela and Hannah were all so spunky and intelligent -- characters that you actually would like to know in real life and have as friends; but the men! They were all so childish and arrogant. I really couldn't see what any of these splendid women saw in any of the 'heroes'. As for "Rules of Attraction," I didn't wonder at Hannah leaving Dougald at all (Hannah left Dougald nine years ago because she felt unloved and undervalued). His charge that she should have persevered in their marriage and tried harder to talk to him and to make him see her point of view, struck no chord with me. In fact when he finally admits (in the last few chapters of the book) that their marriage probably wouldn't have worked back then because they were both too young and stubborn, all I could do was snort in derision. What saved this book for me was Dougald's three dotty aunts, who are not dotty at all, but merely a bit eccentric and overlooked and (again) undervalued by their male relatives. They are a riot!

In general I have enjoyed most of Christina Dodd's novels, and I definitely will read her next one. I just hope that she goes back to writing about the kinds of heroes that made her earlier works so memorable.

20 of 23 people found the following review helpful:

1.0 out of 5 stars OH, WAS I DISAPPOINTED!, March 13, 2001

By A Customer

This review is from: Rules of Attraction (Governess Brides, Book 3) (Mass Market Paperback)

Let me begin by saying I have read all of Christina Dodd's novels, but "Rules of Attraction" is a total clinker. She is one of my favorite writers and has given me many hours of pleasure. Because of that history, when I read "Attraction," I kept telling myself it would get better. It never did. From the time that Hannah meets her husband, from whom she has run away years before, he is abusive and threatening. Other novelists have portrayed such dark men, but the levening agent is their deep love for the heroine. It has been almost a formula: the love and attraction of the hero must be greater than his hurt and hostility . Ms Dodd ignores this balance and throughout the novel Dougald is potentially violent in his cruelty, both past and present. Lacking this balance, I kept waiting for that "ah ha moment" when he realizes what an abusive husband he has been to Hannah and his true repentance. That never really happened, except weakly. After he blames her entirely for the end of their marriage, after he still continues to employ the servant who caused this break up and who still is hostile to Hannah, after he threatens to take all her savings for the past years, he then demolishes her by telling her that he was sexually using her, that he did not love or respect her. Somehow, after weeks of abuse, Hannah senses that Dougald is doing this to protect her from a murderer, in an attempt to drive her away. Before this truly awful moment, Hannah still is sexually attracted to Dougald and they become intimate, without any real affection between them. In the past, I have loved Dodd's love scenes, some of which have deftly balanced the hero's force with his restraint and concern. Ms Dodd's magic was entirely missing in this novel and I advise you NOT TO BUY IT.

9 of 9 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Don't miss this one!, March 24, 2001

By A Customer

This review is from: Rules of Attraction (Governess Brides, Book 3) (Mass Market Paperback)

Remind me not to start a book by Christina Dodd until I've got lots of time. I read this book in the grocery store check-out, at my in-laws, while I was waiting for my kids to get out of school. I finally got time to myself after the kids went to bed, and was up until midnight finishing it. Dougald was the darkest hero I've read of Dodd's, but he was so focused on Hannah it was hot and sexy beyond belief. I need ice!