Welcome to Sugarbeat’s Books – The Home of Romance Novels!
Welcome also to the first Sunday in a new weekly event. Since I’m so fond of books in series, I’ve decided to create Series Sundays. Perfect for the lazy day of the week, I think! Every Sunday I’m planning on posting a review to a book that is part of a series and in the order that they belong in this series. Today we are starting with a series from two years ago – the Bride Trilogy from Kat Martin. I started reading her books many years ago and have read quite a few. Today we start with with Royal’s Bride.
ISBN: 77832642X
Publisher: MIRA
Release: Aug 25, 2009
Source: I purchased a copy of this book to read and review
Though he is a titled nobleman,
Royal Dewar is singulary unlucky …
forced to choose between his soul mate …
and his salvation.
After years abroad, Royal has returned to Bransford Castle to find his father dying and the family treasury nearly empty. Then the old duke wrests a final promise from his guilt-ridden son: that Royal will marry heiress Jocelyn Caulfield and restore the estate to its former glory. However, it is not his fiancee who quickens Royal’s pulse, but rather her beautiful cousin Lily Moran.
Penniless Lily knows that nothing can come of their undeniable attraction?but there is a way she can help Royal. Enlisting some questionable characters from her past, Lily concocts an elaborate ruse to recover some of the Bransford fortune from a notorious confidence artist. As the dangerous scheme unfolds, Lily and Royal are thrown together in pursuit of the very thing?money?that keeps them part …
Royal Dewar, the current Duke of Bransford, promised his father on his deathbed that he would marry Jocelyn Caulfield and bring the family’s estate back into the black. We start this book when his year of mourning is over and although Royal Dewar has been busy trying to rebuild the estate, he realizes that it is now time to claim his bride.
Jocelyn is breathtakingly beautiful and very wealthy, but Royal is more attracted to her poor cousin Lily Moran than Jocelyn. When Lily arrives at Royal’s estate early to prepare for the arrival of Jocelyn and her mother, Royal mistakes her for Jocelyn. He seems puzzled that Lily requires several days to prepare when he has a full slate of servants to see to their whims. (certainly sets Jocelyn in a bad light!) As the book progresses, Lily offers to help Royal recover some of his father’s money from the con man who swindled his father. It seems that Lily spent her early years learning the art of the con from her less than respectable uncle. As this story line progresses, Lily and Royal become closer and closer. As Royal and Lily are becoming closer, we discover that Jocelyn really doesn’t want to marry Royal as she is in love with someone else.
Although I was somewhat disappointed by the previous trilogy by Kat Martin, I felt that this book has this trilogy off to a good beginning! Royal’s Bride is a good start. I’m an avid reader of Kat Martin’s historical novels and I feel that this book is closer in quality to the “Necklace” trilogy from some years ago than the previous “Heart” trilogy. The book has a mature and interesting plot. The characters are well rounded and well thought out and all seem consistent to their basic characters. The sex scenes are hot and spicy in true Kat Martin style! Although I’ve read many negative reviews for this book, I have to disagree. I liked the book and look forward to the next in the series.
