First Season / Bride to Be

by Jane Ashford

[stacey_is_sassy]

Vastly different stories.

Ninny…

First Season is the first book in this historical regency duo. I enjoyed the first part of this story where we meet Anabel, a widower, her children, Mum, cousin, friend Christopher (who wants more) and her love interest Charles. A love triangle…I was not expecting it to go on as long as it did. It ended up being the main part of the story. Ninny, I mean Anabel, comes to London on the urging of her mother. Considering she was married and had 3 children, she is very innocent (stupidly so). She falls in lust with Sir Charles with his dandy clothes and thinks his rude and insulting behaviour is funny. Christopher has been a friend for years and the person Anabel counts on to help her in most situations. Basically she uses him.

So Anabel is a user, self-absorbed, neglectful of her children when Sir Dandy comes a calling and a weak person who can’t say no.

Lose Anabel and this story would have been a whole lot better. I loved Anabel’s mum, children – William, Nick and Susan, cousin Georgina and Christopher.

No sexy times, just a few kisses that left them breathless.

Onwards and upwards, lets hope the next one is better.

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Their crossroads lead them to each other.

How can two stories written by the same person be so vastly different? Bride to Be ended up being witty, charming and full of adventure and intrigue. The heroine, Emily, meets Richard under very unusual circumstances when Emily saves Richard’s life. Richard thanks his rescuer and moves on thinking that was the end of their tale. Both of them seem to be at a crossroad in their life, but have no idea that their paths would cross again soon.

Emily lives with her eccentric artistic parents. Her parents had been brought up in well received and respected families but broke from tradition to elope. Emily’s father Alasdair is an opinionated artist who befriends criminals while her mother Olivia paints whatever she likes…even nudes. It’s obvious that Emily loves her parents, but it was also obvious that she has played an almost parental role to get the family out of scrapes throughout their travels. She craves normal. She likes the idea of someone else making decisions and taking over the burden. Olivia’s sister is a Duchess and has offered to sponsor Emily for a season in London. Life’s a whirl for Emily with dress fittings and instructions, but she can’t get the handsome and rugged Richard off her mind.

Richard has been on an adventure…not one of his own choosing. He has spent 11 months away from home surviving in a jungle…literally. He was on a voyage to the West Indies when his ship foundered off South America and he ends up on a deserted island surviving on bugs or whatever he managed to catch. He was eventually saved but with no money, he had to seek employment working on a ship, to make his way back home. All of this had changed him, taking him from being a “pink of the ton” to an almost savage man. At the time he meets Emily, he is on his way home to his mother and still trying to work out who he has become and what he will make of his life.

I loved seeing Emily and Richard form a team to work out the mystery of the accidents that kept befalling Richard. There is humour, anger and passion between these two and we can clearly see the connection forming. All of the additional characters held integral parts and kept the story flowing smoothly. The mystery was intriguing and even though I worked some of it out, there was still part of it that surprised me at the end.

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In conclusion…First Season was a drag for me and left me completely disappointed. I couldn’t bring myself to give more than 2 stars. In Bride to Be I was hesitant to get too involved as I was almost resigned to a DNF because of First Season. Luckily I talked myself into persevering and not long into it was completely invested and intrigued. I even stayed up well past midnight trying to finish it. It left me on a high, gave me intimate scenes (that First Season lacked) and a connection with the characters (that First Season lacked). Bride to Be was a good 4 star read. Averaged out I can’t give the duo any more than 3 stars.

I received a complimentary copy of this story via Netgalley in exchange for an honest review.

To buy from Amazon - http://amzn.to/1M66DFx