The Wedding Affair (Zebra Historical Romance) [Mass Market Paperback]

I have to admit to being disappointed in this story. It had all the makings for a terrific regency/historical love story but failed on many counts. Our heroine, Felicity Merriwether, got pregnant while engaged to be married to Captain Anthony Sheridan, but he left for Spain/France in the Army before knowing she was having a baby. When she wrote to him that she was with child and wanted to come join him, he apparently bled all over her letter so could not make out what she was writing about except that she wanted to come to Spain to join me so he told her to stay in England not knowing why she wanted to come to him instead of waiting. She thought he knew she was pregnant but did not care. Soon after he finds out she married someone else while engaged to him without telling him. Tony finally comes home 6 years later and she is a widow and he is involved in a murder investigation. There really is no sexual tension between them because she, Felicity, refuses to except or understand that Tony did not know she was pregnant. She basically refuses to except his story. Which does not really make any sense - didn't she love him at one time? Was he not trustworthy enough for her to lose her virginity to? Her husband is portrayed in the book at not being a nice guy but didn't he leave her son, Tony's son not his, his money knowing he was not really his son? He was not a noble with entailed lands - a Cit really - so he could do anything he wanted with his money. Might have made more sense for Tony to return to England with Felicity and her son Charles without any funds. The story of Diana/Meg was not that interesting either. Could have been fleshed out more. One of the reasons Felicity keeps giving in not marrying Tony now was that men can be dominating and she does not wish to be dominated and her fear is related to her marriage. Well, there are 2 women in the story who seem to have happy marriages indeed so Felicity can not be so stupid to believe all marriages were like hers.

After dueling with a pair of "enchanted" pistols, that have the reputation of leading one to their true love, the tired war veteran, Tony Sheridan finds himself encountering the one woman he has ever truly loved, one he believed to have abandoned him for another. She is now a widow with a young son, who he does not realize is in fact, his, at first. Love is a secondary consideration for both of them, though. Felicity is more concerned with survival, and Tony with finding a murderer. Besides, each feels that the other wronged them.

***** This charming, slightly Shakespearean with a touch of Agatha Christy and a dash of Barbara Cartlandt book will charm readers who have followed Ms. King since her delightful first novel. The hero and heroine alike display keen wit and illustrate how love can mend the the unmendable.

Don't let the critical review turn you off. At first, after having read it, i was turned off, too, but after reading another of the author's books which I liked, i read this one and wasn't disappointed. The hero and heroine were admirable, there was good romance, there was a good stories(actually 2 or 3, romances and mystery, and action). I found quite a bit of sexual tension between Tony and Felicity. Even though it's nobody's fault because it was a rare misunderstanding that Tony was so seriously wounded that he bled over Felicity's letter, it's understandable Felicity won't accept Tony's excuse because she has to put up with all the consequences of pregnancy in a rigid society. This is understood by the fact that there are references to Felicity's husband's cruelty such as beating her and "decimating her" and when she tried to please him by increasing his business's profits, he didn't care. Yeah, the author could be more gruesome and graphic, but we as readers want to see a romance, not a history of physical abuse by the husband. And, of course, the husband would leave the inheritance to Felicity's son--why would her husband want to let society know that she had "cuckolded" him? It's just as damaging being viewed as a "weak man" who can't control his wife as being a "scarlet woman" who's given birth out of wedlock.

As for Felicity's fear of being dominated, this is understandable based on her marriage to her husband. Tony was tender to her and would never hurt her but when she married her husband, obviously he was not. You don't get over that easily after being with violent, mean men. And many men can be nice and polite in public but when the doors close, they can be selfishly brutal and in those days before women's rights, a man could beat and nearly kill his wife and that wouldn't be against the law. After her husband died, Felicity ran his businesses herself quite successfully and enjoyed the freedom of independence and security women in those days seldom had.

This is a pattern with the author (read the author's "A Midnight Clear") and i think the author's trying to convey the reality of women's non-rights in those days. It didn't stop me from enjoying her books but actually liking them because obviously just because you marry doesn't mean it's going to be happy, not unless you have the RIGHT man, and finding the RIGHT MAN is standard in ANY romance story. And to actually have heroines who KNOW HOW TO RUN SUCCESSFUL BUSINESSES AND MAKE PROFITS TO BE INDEPENDENT instead of just dying in poverty, crying all day for the hero is a refreshing change in today's romance stories.

I detest romance stories where the author makes the heroine out in the beginning as a strong heroine (like a businesswoman yet) she fails miserably at everything (like a businesswoman heroine failing to run a successful business) so that she'll look vulnerable and "worthy" of protection by the hero so that the hero can ride in and "rescue" her. Obviously, Ms. King doesn't fall into this category of detestable romance authors who will do anything to make their heroines look so much more stupid and therefore "worthy" of and in dire need of attention and protection by the hero. Not all heroines need to be stupid and fail at everything in order to get their hero. Obviously, if our society was so much like this that women failed at everything or nearly everything, how would we have women senators, women judges, women police, women soldiers, women firefighters, etc?? Even in those days before women's rights, there were strong women, women who attracted the attention of worthy admirable men. The heroine in this book doesn't need the hero as in other well-written romances because she is truly independent, yet she still feels the need for romance.