Ideal Bride [Paperback]

This author really knows how to make me laugh. Her characters are so fun and vivid I am surprised she is not writing the long Regency romances (the kind I LOVE!)

I just ordered her next book and if it is anything like this delight, I will be smiling all night long.

Normally I wouldn't think much of a hero who is so obviously aware of his good-looking appearance that he expects women to fall all over him and takes offense if they don't. Nor do his frequent references to the heroine's flat chest and her other inadequacies make him a likable character. In the beginning, his friend the Duke seems a much a better potential hero.

But even at his first meeting with "Saint Nola," the earl's daughter who has dedicted herself to helping the war widows, Gabriel undergoes a curious sort of transformation that everyone sees except him (and perhaps Nola herself). Even as he emphatically denies that she could ever be a candidate for the "ideal bride" he seeks, he finds himself thinking about her constantly. . . and enjoying her company far too well.

Is it because she is the first woman who shown no interest in attracting him? Or because she proves herself to be a highly capable woman and one who is sincerely committed to helping the needy? Or is it because his mother, his best friend, her brother and two aunts, the servants, his tenants and business partners--and the entire ton, it turns out--are conspiring to throw them together for a walk down the aisle.

Even after he finally admits to himself that he loves Nola and wants to marry her, he tries to find a way to "save face." The whole world knows about his requirements for his "ideal bride." If he marries Nola, who is practically the antithesis, he would be a laughingstock among the ton. So he devises a way to "compromise" Nola into marriage. No one would ridicule him for doing the honorable thing, after all.

When that fails, and his mother begins rounding up potential husbands for Nola, Gabriel's next move is to propose to Nola and ask her to keep it quiet for a month or so until the ton becomes obsessed by some other scandal. But Nola refuses his offer, even after he confesses his love for her (which should have come BEFORE the proposal of marriage). Even after he finally agrees to lease her the warehouse she wants for her war widows bazaar.

Nola, you see, already loves him--she did notice his handsome appearance after all--but she is well aware that she has been practically pushed into his arms by all the well-meaning matchmakers, and she knows that she lacks the qualifications for the "ideal bride" he was seeking. Marrying her would just make them both unhappy.

It becomes a matter of Gabriel having to choose between his pride and a life with the woman he loves, and realizes that there is really only one choice to be made.

At that point, the transformation from arrogant jerk to romantic hero is complete, and the reader is left with the feeling that all is right in the world and that every minute spent reading this book was time well spent.