The Bride Says No (Brides of Wishmore, #1)

by Cathy Maxwell

[Berls]

This review appeared first at Fantasy is More Fun.

The Bride Says No was a book club selection that I ended up loving. After finishing The Bride Says No, I almost immediately picked up copies of the other two books in the series.

As much as I like Victorian historicals, I'm a sucker for the regency era. So already The Bride Says No was at an advantage. And even though the story was somewhat predictable, I loved the characters and breezed through The Bride Says No in just a few sittings.

When we meet Aileen, she's leaving her small Scottish town and her sister Tara for London to spend a season in search of a groom. She's young and idealistic, planning to find love and return home happy. We skip ahead several years, to a new Aileen - one who has lost her belief in love. We don't know all the details off the bat, but my heart immediately went out to her. Its so relatable - even if you haven't been burnt by love, I think most of us know something about disappointment as we grow older and dreams don't quite work out the way we would have liked.

I so wanted Aileen to find happiness, especially as I got to know her. She's a genuinely good person, so incredibly self-sacrificing. You see it in the way she cares for her sister, the things she would give up, and the way the servants care for her. She's not weak either - the things she's lived through could have crushed a weaker woman (in ANY time, but even more so back then) but she's remarkably resilient.

I admit, I got really fed up with Aileen's sister Tara. How Aileen could be so incredibly selfless and have such an incredibly selfish sister confounded me for a while. But as The Bride Says No unfolded, I started to understand Tara better and, while she's not my favorite character YET, I did see growth and see the potential for lots more as the series progresses. Like her sister, Tara is a strong woman and that quality could take her a long way yet.

Maxwell is a contradiction of sorts. On one hand, he behaves very much like I would have expected of a Regency Lord. And yet he's an illegitimate son - raised and treated as a bastard until he made his own way in the world. He has a lot he thinks he needs to prove and marrying Tara is the next step. Too bad she doesn't love him - hence the title The Bride Says No.

I really enjoyed seeing this tangled web get messier and messier, wondering when and how it would fix itself. It was a fun romance and it ended on a bit of a twist, so I'm eager to see what happens next!