Book Log 27/2016 - Sarah Hegger: The Bride Gift

[jacey]

A fairly straightforward historical romance set during the wars between Stephen Empress Maude. Helena of Lystanwold is married by proxy to Guy of Helston. They didn’t even meet until after the wedding day.. Guy’s motive is to  possess Lystanwold, (which he does once he’s married to Helena). Helena’s uncle’s motive in pushing for the proxy wedding is to give Helena protection from the grasping, cruel Ranulf, near neighbour with his beady eye on Lystanwold and the earldom.

Yeah, OK it’s not as if you haven’t read this story before in all its variants. Reluctant bride (tick) marries hunky knight (tick) against her will (tick) but they fall for each other regardless (tick) and he saves her from a fate worse than death / death / rampaging hoards (tick). She’s usually feisty (tick) and unforgiving (tick) but it all ends up happily ever after(tick). Having said that this kept me turning the pages. It’s a light read, but engaging.

The sexual tension is handled well and the pace is nicely done. There’s tension with Rosalind whom Helena sees as ‘the other woman’ and Helena takes a while to get over her jealousy. I like Rosalind and could have happily read something with her as the main character. Towards the end of the book, however, both Helena and Guy acquire a sudden dose of stupid and act completely out of character which annoyed me somewhat. I did feel as though they acted for the sake of plot rather than following their own character traits to their logical conclusions, but everything else worked well.