The Countess Bride

Rating:
Summary: I Suggest Reading the First 2 Books First!
Review: Another sequel to the outstanding THE DUMONT BRIDE by Terri Brisbin, THE COUNTESS BRIDE picks up with Catherine de Severin, the sister of William Royce de Severin and the pawn used to control him. Now, Catherine resides with Christian Dumont and his wife Emalie. These wonderful characters from THE DUMONT BRIDE appear again in this 3rd book in the series and revisiting them in this story is a nice tie-in. Catherine de Severin sees no future for herself. Her memory is muddled and her shadowed past haunts her. Her childhood love, Geoffrey Dumont, and young brother to Christian stands to inherit a powerful title and land. Now he seeks a bride and unfortunately Catherine is unfit. As his bride selections are brought before them his heart and mind turn again and again to his true love, Catherine. As she heads to the nunnery to commit herself to God, Geoffrey has other plans, as he sees her life is in danger and throws caution to the wind to save her. Against the wishes of his family he marries her. Still, their troubles are not over. Catherine again finds herself a pawn of high powers that have controlled her life. In many ways, this characters loss of innocence at the hands of others brings more than a touch of sadness to this story. As a reader who read each book in this series with a lot of time in between the next, I highly recommend reading these books in succession. THE COUNTESS BRIDE had me referring to THE DUMONT BRIDE, which I hadn't read in well over two years ago time and time again. To thoroughly enjoy these books they definitely should be read together and would not do well as stand alone stories. THE COUNTESS BRIDE continues in the style of Terri Brisbin's other stories, which are consistently well delivered, sensual with a strong enough dose of historical backdrop to satisfy most discriminating historical romance readers.

Tara Green

Rating:
Summary: Fell Flat SO fast...
Review: This book started out great, I thought Geoffrey was a great, sexy hero, and I thought his relationship - his friendship with Catherine was sweet. For some reason, the book stumbled into boredom rather quickly, though. Also, Christian wasn't that likeable here. And it took little imagination to write this one, as it was nearly the same story as THE DUMONT BRIDE.

Rating:
Summary: Sweet, but feels incomplete without DUMONT BRIDE
Review: Though the premise is exciting and the two romantic leads likeable, the countess bride feels more like the bridging book in a trilogy than a work in of its own right.

It seems to begin in the middle: When we first set the scene, Geoff and Catherine are already in love. They have agreed to go their separate ways because Catherine is hardly a suitable bride for a count, but when Cate is threatened and circumstances grant Geoff new freedoms, they find themselves signing betrothal documents instead. Suddenly, battle is on the horizon and they must journey to see the king.

What follows is pages upon pages of vague references to a scandal that never becomes completely clear, and a lot of apologetic scenes between Hero and Heroine as they angst over whether or not to seal their union. Catherine has scandal in her history (how much, even she does not know. Though later on she remembers some of it), and Geoff knows he is making the right choice for himself, but fears subjecting Catharine to the backlash of it. Also, a lot of pagetime is devoted to the continuation of the hero's brother and sister-in-law's story, and an intrigue that's only sort of settled by the end.

Brisbin's characters are likeable and honorable, and the scenes between them are tender and sweet. The resolution we do get is very satisfying for the major romantic couple. But, the ongoing references to a treasonous plot that was barely overthrown years ago - one often implied and never explained - felt frustrating and tedious. And because our Hero and Heroine's initial courtship was "offstage," I felt robbed of some of the fun of a good romance.

Overall, this book may be an excellent centerpiece to the story of the Dumonts and their lady loves. But as a standalone novel, there are too many lose ends and too much offstage action to make it a reccommendale single read.