An Unsuitable Bride (Blackwater Brides) [Mass Market Paperback]

I really like the writers writing it is solid and well written. Her descriptions flow and it feels you are right there with the main characters. However, great writing is not the only thing that makes a book great. The premise of the story is fascinating. Three brothers must find wives that are "fallen women" in order so the brothers can inherit a fortune from their uncle. So our hero Peregrine is the last one so far to look for a bride, and he might just find her in our heroine Alexandra. Our heroine has been befallen by probably the most awful circumstances a rich woman could have befallen at that time period. She has been disinherited by her father, due to his divorce with her mother. Now Alexandra and her sister Sylvia are left penniless in a cruel world that offers no other security for women at that time. Therefore, they concoct a plan to get their money back from their cousin Stephen who now holds all their fortune. Alexandra converts herself into Miss Hathaway a hunchback ugly librarian so she can stay in her house and steal the funds necessary that were promised to her and her sister. A rightful cause, not many things a woman could do those days especially once she is left penniless by her own father.

Therefore, our basic stories are very fascinating the setting is interesting and overall the story is very solid and believable at least to me no matter how contrived it is. However, I had major problems with the book that is why I am giving the book three stars. First of all I felt, that there was not enough tension between the main characters it was dry. It seemed that the longing was only coming from our hero, but even that seemed only as a mild interest and pique (because after all she's a mysterious girl that pretends to be a hunchback librarian). There was not enough genuine tension or passion between them for me to really like the book and consider it romantic.

In addition, it was silly for the author to make our heroine and hero so uninteresting and boring. Our heroine although in the back on the book we are told she is smart and independent, does not at all act smart or independent. She acts childish all of her tries to be defiant from our hero completely fail and seem ridiculously contrived and silly. So this supposedly educated woman has no sense at all it seems. Our hero on the other hand is not much smarter either he seems to have no interests, no life, or business his whole life revolves around endless parties. Moreover, as the case in this book he just seems to spend his time obsessing over our main heroine, who was not interesting at all in my opinion. So he follows her and he tries to figure out the mystery of this Miss Hathaway so badly since he is so intrigued by her. Again, lack of chemistry and tension between the characters made it so unnerving it seemed neither of them were interested in each other at all.

Overall, this book has an interesting premise and interesting backgrounds of the characters. It was written well and it is a good read for a brief beach read. Nevertheless, will you find ultimate "Notebook" type of romance and tension here? No you will not. This is not an awful book by all means but it is not the greatest, and definitely worth the read. I did not like it however; I am not disappointed that I read it.

Yellow Rose

I wanted to love this book, becaue it finished off a good series. Unfortunately, I didn't. First of all, there was zero chemistry between the hero and heroine. Then, there were a couple of smoldering looks and he's in love? Really? On top of that, the story feels contrived, like the author had to finish the series but didn't know how.
All in all, if you read the first two books, you'd be better off saving your money and imagining that Peregrine does his part. Because, SPOILER - in the end, you're not really sure that the old uncle changed his will in time or not.

The story of the last brother to marry an unsuitable bride was disappointing. As I was reading it I felt that the author, Jane Feather, was just filling in the rest of the story to "get it out of the way." Not as good as the first two books in the trilogy.