Order from a Major Online Bookstore
Ultimate Book Price Comparison Engine
Save Your Time And Money
| AnyBook4Less.com | Order from a Major Online Bookstore |
|
| Home | Store List | FAQ | Contact Us | | ||
| Ultimate Book Price Comparison Engine Save Your Time And Money |
||
 |
Title: A Devilish Husband (Zebra Regency Romance) by Alana Clayton ISBN: 0821771000 Publisher: Zebra Books (Mass Market) Pub. Date: October, 2001 Format: Mass Market Paperback Volumes: 1 List Price(USD): $4.99 |
Average Customer Rating: 1.33
Rating: 1
Summary: I would agree with the reviewer below..
Comment: except that I would also give this book a 1 star (the lowest rating). The villain(s) are so stock/stereotypical that I had to force myself to finish. Jared's patience with the evil stepsister and her father seemed completely out of place, as did the heroine's patience with them. Also, the heroine's relationship to her stepfather was completely unclear, as was the fact of how she ended up under his guardianship. If you can puzzle out her family relationships to the evil Beatrice and her father, you are either wiser than I am, or a far more patient reader. I cannot recommend this book to anyone, unless you are willing to settle for the most hackneyed plot, and the most hackneyed characters (including the oh-so-sacrificial heroine).
Rating: 1
Summary: worst regency ever?
Comment: What has happened to great regency writing? Where are the editors? Where is originality? Where is romance? "A Devilish Husband" is yet another marry-for-revenge to get back at your Dad story, and is perhaps the most unromantic regency I have ever read.
In order to get back at his Dad for stealing the woman he was going to marry, Jared Moreland has been living a life of debauchery to embarrase his Dad. What? Let us see - ruin YOUR life to humiliate your Dad? To further test the limits of readers patience, Jared, still hurt two years after his Dad marries his intended, and after his Dad tells him to marry, plans to marry below his station, just to annoy his Dad and refuse to give him the heir the father wants. His friends, while they were drunk, pen a note to the father of Beatrice Crawford, a man who is a gambler and of little social standing, to ask for her hand in marriage. However, Beatrice was already married so Crawford substitutes his stepdaughter, prim and quite Cassy, in her place. Even after Jared finds out what his friends did, he does not care. He will marry her anyway as it does not matter who he marries, just as long as she is someone his Dad will not approve of. Of course, Jaren does not tell Cassy that theirs will be a marriage in name only. Cassy, while figuring out she is his second choice to Beatrice, still wants a family and to try to make the best of her marriage.
I have rarely read a regency with such a lout as Jared in which the author expects us to root for him. Not only does he inform Cassy after their marriage that there will be no children (she will forever be a virgin?), he leaves her to her own devices once they are in London. She knows no one in London except her maid. No one. What a creep. He tells her they are to go their own way in all matters. Eventually, Drew, Jared's friends, comes to meet her and takes her under his wing to bring her around and introduce her to society. When Beatrice is widowed and moves in with the couple in London, Jared uses her for a scandalous flirtation again, to annoy his Dad. Jared lets everyone think he and Beatrice are having an affair right under the same roof as his wife, Cassandra. Cassy is a martyr to Jared's self-destructive, endlessly bad, stupid behavior. As the previous reviewer noted, who in their right mind decides to marry disastrously in order to get back at someone else? Why in the world would Jared's father, marrying the woman that Jared was in love with, think it would be okay? That his son would not be hurt? Angry? I would think it would be devasting to bring home the woman you love to your ancestral estate to meet your family before marrying and then to have a "loving father" marry her instead would be horrifying. I quote here, "It was my understanding you were heard to brag at your wedding that you would soon have a whole line of heirs instead of just one churlish one." Jared's eyes were filled with undisguised contempt as he met his father's gaze. Lord Waycross cleared his throat, then replied gruffly, "Evidently I spoke too soon. It's been two years, and Eleanor is not yet increasingly. So the continuation of our family is up to you." No wonder, in a way, Jared revolts. So even understanding Jared's motives, and valid ones at that, he had no right to marry Cassy and not tell her before what sort of marriage it was to be. While I give her credit for carving out her own life, the situation was pathetic. No chemistry between them. There were no even remotely entertaining scenes between them. Not a single moment between them were the reader could say, ah, the relationship has some hope. When he realizes he loves her, as a reader you wonder, why? He does not know her and she thinks she has feelings for him? Why? Anyone who would harber feeling of love for him after the way he treated her has to have their head examined. 0 romance for this story.
Rating: 2
Summary: wonderful heroine couldn't save this novel
Comment: "A Devilish Husband" makes full use of the marrying-for-revenge plot device -- I am NOT a fan of this plot device, but I'll admit that I have come across novels where the authours have utilized this particular plot device to write some rather nifty books. This novel however is not one of those, and even the existence of a rather sympathetic heroine was not enough to rescue this particular romance novel for me.
In order to get back at his father for having wooed away the woman that he had intended to marry, Jared Moreland has been doing his level best to humiliate his father by leading a life of drunken debauchery. Now, however his father has demanded that he marry in order to safeguard the family line. Still angry with his father, Jared hits upon a plan to further humiliate and anger him by marrying Beatrice Crawford, the daughter of a hopeless gambler and of little social consequence. Crawford however has already married Beatrice to another gentleman of some fortune, and in no short order Jared finds himself married to Beatrice's quiet and dignified stepsister, Cassandra Wallace instead.
The marriage however does not start off on a good foot: a series of misunderstandings sees to it that Cassandra and Jared never get to really talk about their sudden marriage or to consummate the marriage. Having led a life of complete solitude, with only her stepfather and Beatrice for company, neither of whom she particularly cared for, Cassandra is determined to have a more fulfilling life and marriage. But then Jared informs her on the reason behind their hasty marriage, and that he has no immediate desire to father any children. Cassandra is appalled, but resolves to try and make the best of the circumstances. She is also resolved to try and make her unconventional marriage work. But this suffers a setback when the newly widowed Beatrice suddenly descends begging to be allowed to stay. In no time at all Beatrice sets up a scandalous flirtation with Jared that sets the ton agog. And Cassandra, who has stoically borne with everything so far is not sure how much more she can take, esp if Jared decides to set Beatrice up as his mistress!
Reading "A Devilish Husband" made me believe in divine intervention -- how else to explain how the self-destructive Jared could set out to perform a truly daft and stupid deed (like marrying the grasping Beatrice) but end up performing the one task that actually leads to his salvation (marrying Cassandra instead)? Except to decide that someone some where was watching out for him. And why exactly is this plot device so popular? Who in their right mind decides to marry disastrously in order to get back at someone else? To me, this was a really big flaw in the plot premise. And then there is the subplot that involved Jared's father marrying the woman that Jared believed himself to be desperately in love with. What loving father does this without any thought to his son's emotional well-being anyway? And can he really expect his son to deal with such a betrayal in a clam and logical manner?
I liked the heroine of this romance novel very much: she possessed a charm and inner strength that was extremely taking. (Jared Moreland, on the other hand, is a complete idiot.) It was easy to empathize with Cassandra and to fully enter into her feelings and reservations. But even this very pleasing heroine, together with Alana Clayton's superior writing style and superb character developments, was not enough to allow me to get past this (in my opinion anyway) rather unrealistic plot premise.
 |
Title: The Diamond Key by Barbara Metzger ISBN: 0451208366 Publisher: Signet Pub. Date: 01 April, 2003 List Price(USD): $4.99 |
 |
Title: The Marriage Campaign by Susannah Carleton ISBN: 0451208021 Publisher: Signet Pub. Date: 04 February, 2003 List Price(USD): $4.99 |
 |
Title: The Wedding Journey by Carla Kelly ISBN: 0451206959 Publisher: Signet Pub. Date: December, 2002 List Price(USD): $4.99 |
 |
Title: Prospero's Daughter by Nancy Butler ISBN: 0451209001 Publisher: Signet Pub. Date: 06 May, 2003 List Price(USD): $4.99 |
 |
Title: The Rake's Mistake (Signet Regency Romance) by Gail Eastwood ISBN: 0451207270 Publisher: Signet Pub. Date: November, 2002 List Price(USD): $4.99 |
Thank you for visiting www.AnyBook4Less.com and enjoy your savings!
Copyright� 2001-2021 Send your comments
