Rating:  Summary: This is the first Joan Wolf novel I have read. Yuchh! Review: This is one of those novels that make you wonder what the author was thinking. Three quarters of the way through this novel I realized the guy in this story needed to go back to his mother and GROW up. Will I read another Joan Wolf novel? Noooo!
Rating:  Summary: Entertaining light reading Review: This isn't the best book I've ever read by Joan Wolf, but it's still very entertaining. It reminded me somewhat of her earlier regencies. I liked Charity and Augustus and I didn't have a hard time buying their romance. Augustus comes across as a serious, hard-working prince without a lot of experience with women of his own class. When he sends his mother to explain his affair to Charity, it's annoying, but probably the sort of thing royalty did. Read about Queen Victoria and her family sometime! Charity is a bright, engaging 17-year-old girl who has been sheltered as most girls of her class were at the time. She just happens to be unusually small and dainty and not well-endowed. Some adult women are. She grows up through the course of the book. Her growing bond with Gus is believable. The villains and the plot were a bit thin and some of the supporting characters were cardboard, but it's still entertaining. Don't buy it expecting Gone with the Wind and you won't be disappointed.
Rating:  Summary: boring.... Review: This story had zero chemistry between Lady Charity and Prince Augustus. Also, I agree with a previous reader that she might have been a bit young, but more importantly, she was too immature for a good romantic heroine. What is up with Joan Wolf and brides who refuse marital relations? It is totally illogical that a Prince, who would certainly need an heir, would allow a bride not to fulfill her wifely duty as his princess and bride. Also totally silly that she would be upset that he conducted a brief affair after they were married. After all, she was not sleeping with him and he was a devilishly handsome man. The Vienna intrigues were interesting but the romance was too been there, done that for Joan Wolf. I wish she would go back to her third party stories. I realize that in the 18-19 centuries, brides were generally young, but readers today are not and if authors want teenagers as brides in their stories, at least make them mature.
Rating:  Summary: A story with no chemistry Review: This was not one of Joan Wolf's better efforts. There was hero worship, but no true romance, plus who needs a story where the hero commits adultery.
Rating:  Summary: Fantastic storyline Review: With all the intrigue that went on at the Congress of Vienna in 1815 to divide the post-Napoleon Europe up among the great victors, outsiders would suspect that the superpowers would ignore the little principality of Jura. Though the final act declared Jura as a free state, the Habsburg Empire wants to annex the small country since the Austrian superpower encircles the tiny independent principality. This distinct possibility already raised by Metternich worries the Jura head of state Prince Augustus Josef Charles. He knows his nation needs a counterweight from another superpower to balance the Austrian threat. Augustus turns to England, home of his aunt, to forge an alliance. To deepen the binds with England, Augustus, with the help of his septuagenarian Aunt Mariana, seeks an English bride. Mariana arranges for Augustus to marry Lydia Beaufort, who elopes with his cousin as the wedding nears. Augustus turns to Lydia's sister Charity who actually has more in common with the Prince. What started as a regal marriage of stately convenience soon turns into a passionate love, but some agents would prefer this relationship end at any cost. ROYAL BRIDE is at its best when the story line oozes with the intrigue and danger of Post-Napoleonic Europe. The story line is fast paced and the lead couple is quite a dashing and charming duo in a Prince Rainier-Grace Kelly sort of way. Lydia is turned into a spoiled caricature, but since she jilts the hero early that does not slow down a strong historical romance that is Joan Wolf at her royal best. Harriet Klausner
Rating:  Summary: 0 if I could... Review: Wow - a Joan Wolf book with zero romance, zero chemistry, boring storyline, boring or ridiculous villans, widget of a heroine, stodgy hero, hey, maybe a ghost writer wrote this...
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