ISBN: 0-312-98311-5
Publisher: St Martin’s Paperbacks
I LOVED The Bridemaker! I actually read this book first of the four and it was this book that had me searching for the others of this “Maker” series.
We are introduced to “The Bridemaker” – Hester Poitevant (don’t like the name!) who earns her living by tutoring awkward young ladies of the ton to be sophisticated prize catches for the season’s marriage mart. She has quite a history of finding just the right clothes, just the right advice, just the right tutoring to make ugly ducklings into swans! She hides herself in plain sight as a widow, downplaying her beauty, hoping no one remembers her past.
When her latest charge, Dulcie, sets her sights on Adrian Hawke – the disreputable American merchant, Hester is forced to interact with Adrian to try to dissuade him from courting Dulcie. We actually met Adrian Hawke in The Matchmaker. He was the illegitimate son of the Neville Hawke’s deceased older brother. At the end of The Troublemaker he goes to live with Marshall and Sarah in America.
Although Hester is successful at dissuading Adrian from pursuing Dulcie, he sets his sights on un-peeling the layers that make up the facade of Hester. What results is a wonderfully endearing love story. It has all the glam and glitter of Regency England, that I love, and a swashbuckling hero that sets my heart to pounding. A must read!
“A complex romance with multi-dimensional characters who possess complicated and powerful emotions. An intricate plot with surprising twists hold the reader’s attention. A powerful love story makes this tale exceptional.” Romantic Times
The Romance Reader gives The Bridemaker 4 stars and says: “It’s a great combination of humor, romance, secrets that must finally be revealed, selfishness, confusion, and a wonderful disregard for the pretentious propriety that is the essence of the ton, as the couples sort themselves out, revealing themselves to be wonderfully well-matched, and as lives change in ways that the reader sometimes doesn’t expect.“