Rating: 
Summary: Did Joan Wolf really write this book?
Review: I'm a great admirer of this author, and absolutely love the books she has written in first person. However, Royal Bride, written in third person, is not even the same caliber as "The Guardian." The cardboard characters were extremely disappointing, although the basic story plot held intriguing promise. The hero does uncharacteristically idiotic things and the heroine, while supposedly so smart, is incredibly passive. It's almost as if the writer dusted off an old manuscript of a very early, unpublished attempt at writing regency. As an avid consumer of romance, I buy her books without even checking inside the covers because I've been so satisfied with her writing. I'm very confused and disappointed. I hope Ms. Wolf will go back to writing in the first person at the high caliber we expect.
Rating:
Summary: Was this Young Adult?
Review: Is Joan Wolf writing Young Adult books now? If so, the book was not labeled properly...Was this a first draft? No where in this story is there any real romance or excitment between Lady Charity, our teenage bride, and our hero, Prince Augusuts, who, for some odd reason, allows his bride the freedom not to sleep with him. Huh? A Prince who needs an heir? Not one of Joan's best efforts.
Rating: 
Summary: Royal Bride
Review: It was not Joan Wolf's best book I've read, but it was exciting. From the beginning I thought that Charity was the herion. It started off good. What honest "innocent" wife will actually take back their huband after he cheated on her?? The book portrayed her as "innocent" and girlish. It was like His Highness just advantage of her good nature. He also needs to GROW UP! You can't always expect your mother to fix all you mistakes. Prince or not. But I can tell you this I though that her other book
"The arrangment" was great....
Rating: 
Summary: Excellent
Review: Joan Wolf's latest book is an extremely good read. I couldn't put it down. The story line was original, and the characters interesting. I have loved all of Wolf's romances and this one is one of my favorites. Also in regards to the critic who didn't like the age of the heroine, she was in fact 18 before she and Gus had sex and if you don't like young heroines, you are reading in the wrong genre. i personally hate when histoical romance authors place 21st century characters into an early 19th century setting. if you want to read about people in their late 20's and 30's falling in love read a contemporary romance.
Rating: 
Summary: disappointing
Review: Let me begin by saying that I love Joan Wolf novels. It pains me to admit that this one fell short of her usual mark. While interesting at the outset, I found this heroine to be weak and the hero a little overbearing. "Royal Bride" reminds me of books I've read that date back about 10 years or more, when it was en vogue to have a very young heroine whose character was somewhat molded by the hero. That's not my cup of tea, but it may work for others. At any rate, this was not Wolf's best work. If you want her best stuff, find one or more of the following: The Pretenders, The Gamble, The Guardian, The Arrangement, or The Deception. All of those are excellent books, unique in part because Wolf chose to narrate them in the first person, from the heroine's perspective--very entertaining!
Rating: 
Summary: Middle-European Kingdom
Review: Mediocre Joan Wolf romance, not as good as the Guardian or the Deception, but will satisfy whose looking for romance in written form.
"Middle-European" Prince needs British aristocratic "HEROINE" virgin to marry quickly so to qualify for country's expectations. Ho hum!
Rating:
Summary: Fairy Tale Romance Wilts Without Heroine
Review: Overall, Royal Bride is a pleasant enough Regency Period story, possessing a fairy tale quality that will appeal to many readers. However, those who prefer more depth to their romance reading may wish to look elsewhere. Royal Bride wasn't a bad read so much as a dissatisfying one. It was a good book that could have been great if only the author had taken the story and heroine to the places they begged to go. Unfortunately, neither the characters nor the plot quite lived up to their potential. Many readers found the beginning characterization of Charity Beaufort as a 'girl' distasteful because it hinted at pedophilia. However, in defense of poor Gus, who, at twenty-seven, can hardly be considered "old", it must be remembered that at that time in history, sons and daughters of the aristocracy were expected to improve the family fortunes through marriage at a much younger age. It wasn't unheard of for the daughters to be married off as young as thirteen or fourteen years of age -- a practice that existed even as late as the 18th century! To be fair, a female at seventeen is considered a young woman not a child, regardless of her height or bra size! It was the author's failure to fully realize Charity's character that left a bad taste in this reader's mind. Charity seemed to be a mere bystander rather than an active participant. If she had been allowed to flourish as a woman later on, readers would have been more willing to overlook the age difference presented in the beginning. Unfortunately, too much effort was placed on establishing Charity's innocence and girlish personae in the first part of the story; not enough was focused on her transformation into womanhood in the second. Charity just didn't DO enough in this story to justify, to the reader's satisfaction, her growth from "girl" to woman. "Royal Bride" fails on several other fronts. First, the author chose to tell her story from a kind of passive point of view. The characters Do and Say a lot, but the thoughts and emotions of the hero and heroine are never really explored. Introspection - when characters contemplate their own thoughts and feelings - is held to a minimum here which keeps the reader from connecting with them on an emotional level. Connecting emotionally with the hero and heroine is the lifeblood of the romance novel. Second, the obstacles that confronted Augustus as he struggled with the intrigues of court were overcome almost as soon as they were introduced to the plot. Gus foiled the villain's nefarious schemes far too easily. These easy resolutions were just plain boring. Ultimately, the story fails because Charity takes a back seat to the plot. The focus should have been on her. I wanted to get to know this intelligent, enchanting person. I wanted to watch her mature, have adventures, conquer the hero, and save the day. I needed the author to prove to me that regardless of her age, Charity had the spunk to enthrall a "battle-scarred" prince. To convince me I needed to experience the story through Charity's eyes. Unfortunately, this heroine struggles through it wearing blinders.
Rating:
Summary: sort of creepy
Review: Prince Augustus needs a bride and settles for the beautiful Lydia. Unfortunately, she does not want to marry him so he ends up marrying her younger sister, Charity. Charity is a young girl who is described as a child in the story plus tiny, flat-chested, can't come up to the grooms shoulders, etc. What an awful story. Why would a worldly handsome Prince fall for a child? And if he did, he would be arrested today. What sex appeal would he find in her? The writing was way below par for Ms. Wolf. I, like another reviewer, realize that many girls were married at a younger age than we find acceptable today. However, people from that time did not bath, wash their hair much, had bad teeth and skin (imaine how infrequently they brushed their teeth - and no listerine) and, gee, they must have smelled pretty bad. Those elements are never included in these regency stories either. So, to all Regnecy writers - I accept younger bride stories, but leave teens alone and I won't comment on the reality of living back then really being deleted from your stories.
Rating:
Summary: Sweet Story
Review: Royal Bride is a very sweet, romantic story. I particularly enjoy the fact that the writer bothered to develop a real substantial relationship between the two... and the relationship between the two is just too cute & sweet. i loved it. i loved how the the two grow & learn from each other and that the mistakes they make along the way are pretty realistic. too many romance writers out there do nothing but build up sexual tension and fail to build up the relationship between the two. while sexual tension is always a good thing it's so much more satisfying when the relationship isn't so superficial or superficially written or glossed over. a very satisfying read!
Rating:
Summary: Is this really Joan writing?
Review: This book seems to have fallen victim to the Harry Potter school of writing - pretend your audience is 11 years old, and the book will be very popular. I really don't remember Joan Wolf writing for young adults before. I couldn't even get half-way through the book. Dialogue, descriptions, and characterizations were ludicrously simple. Please sample the book before you buy! Maybe they published a first draft by mistake?
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