Megan's Reviews > Barely a Bride

The beginning chapters of this book were so promising that I was willing to overlook the awkward prologue displaying the author's inability to write child characters. While there's nothing terrible special about Griffin, Viscount Abernathy, who needs to get himself a bride and an heir before he rides off to war, there's this puppy-dog earnestness about him that is refreshing in a sea of cynical rogues and jaded rakes, and the heroine Alyssa's passion for gardening gives a fresh angle on the practical-minded beauty. The whirlwind courtship between the two doesn't feel sappy, trite, or forced, because there is this tacit understanding in each of the leads point of view that it is not actually a whirlwind romance, it just looks like one of the surface, while underneath is a match made of cool-headed rationality and expediency.

And then, once they actually marry, that narrative crumbles like old wedding cake. All of the sudden, the leads are in LOVE, truly, madly, deeply, and are heartbroken over their pending separation. Once that separation occurs, the story spins its wheels, and there is nothing to distract from how poorly the plot is put together, and how many inconsistencies in character, tone, and historical accuracy there are. For some reason, Griff's best friends decide the best way they can help their friend's lonely wife is to strong-arm the handsome, wealthy, single duke she almost married into visiting her... and then a few chapters later angrily confront him about his actions. Or Alyssa's closest friend inviting her to call her by her first name as if they have just become friends, when Alyssa WAS using her first name over ten chapters ago (not to mention Alyssa using an inaccurate title to address her in the first place). There are specific dates and details about battles, yet boneheaded errors when it comes to the social side of things, and the whole charming feel of the the first third is lost in a morass of clunky writing and directionless plot.

Then, in the last third, the author suddenly decides this is a story about PTSD, and tries to cram a whole "love heals" plot into about twenty pages. Most of this reads like the author constantly forgot to go and add scenes she intended to write. For example, Alyssa hints she will seduce her husband in the carriage... and then she doesn't. Or the Duke of Sussex says he will help her make Griffin jealous... and then he does nothing... I could go on. It all culminates with them spilling their emotional guts in the middle of a crowded ballroom, while explicitly in company with others. I kept cringing and waiting for the inevitable "but we should really go somewhere private" embarrassment to fall, but it never did.

Overall, just a mess of a book all the more frustrating because it could have been something lovely and fun.