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A review by rjordan19
The Bride by Julie Garwood
adventurous
funny
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
4.25
Overall: ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
Readability: 📖📖📖📖
Feels: 🦋🦋🦋
Emotional Depth: 💔💔💔
Sexual Tension: ⚡⚡⚡
Romance: 💞💞💞💞
Sensuality: 💋💋💋 (scenes are on the light side as far as details go, for me)
Sex Scene Length: 🍑🍑🍑
Steam Scale (Number of Sex Scenes): 🔥🔥🔥🔥 (some aspects of this is lighter – the language and the length of the scenes, but I think all the scenes were countable)
Humor: Yes
Perspective: Third person from heroine’s point of view (and a bit from the villain)
Percentage which mains are first on page together: Around 10% or so
Cliffhanger: No
Epilogue: No
Format: Bought e-book
Should I read in order?
This is the first in Garwood’s Lairds’ Fiancees series.
Basic plot:
Alec is told by his king to marry an English Bride and he gets his choice of Baron Jamison’s 4 daughters...
Give this a try if you want:
- 1102 time period
- mostly Scotland setting
- Scottish (Highlander) hero/English heroine pairing
- the ever popular in old school books violet eyed heroine
- bit of arranged marriage feel
- protective hero
- medium steam – I counted 4 as scenes though the language is a bit light and some are on the shorter side
First line:
The deathwatch was over.
My thoughts:
I have been meaning to try this series forever because Garwood is suggested so often and so prolific in the HR community. I overall really enjoyed this one, and loved some parts so much. But I got mildly annoyed with a few aspects too.
First off, the humor in this one was really delightful. I enjoyed that aspect to it so much. The banter between Jamie and Alec was so fun and had me smirking in so many parts. I also really enjoyed the ending the ending and was laughing in delight.
I thought there were some swoony parts and I was pleasantly surprised by some of the parts (like the seductive hair grabbing and protectiveness of Alec). The steam too surprising to me. Some of the scenes were on the short and light side but in this particular novel I’d say there were 4 scenes that felt full.
I did get a bit annoyed with both Alec and Jamie at a few parts and struggled for a short part towards the middle. I didn’t like that Alec thought it was ‘adorable’ to rile Jamie up. And when she was upset about something, he didn’t want to deal with her tears so he would purposefully make her mad...but overall I was super happy with this story. I already wrote my review for The Wedding (the next book in the series), and while I enjoyed parts of that one, I liked this one a lot more.
Quotes/spoiler-y thoughts: Any mistakes are my own
“Kincaid? You’re supposed to leave me here,” she called out. “This is just a marriage of convenience, isn’t it?”
He stopped in the center of the hallway, then turned around to face her. “Aye, wife, it is a marriage of convenience. My convenience. Do you understand me?”
---
It was hopeless, of course. He would die. His fate had been decreed the moment he touched Jamie.
If only Alec realized what praise kink was doing nowadays lol
Her eyes widened in surprise. Alec smiled. He’d just found a rather simple way to placate her: praise. Wasn’t it true that all women liked to hear their husbands’ expressions of approval from time to time? Alec decided to remember that fact for future use.
---
“Mary told me. She said it was disgusting.”
“You won’t think it is.” Alec growled that prediction.
“I won’t?” She sounded out of breath again. “How do you know that?”
“Because you’ve wanted me to touch you since the moment we met.”
“I haven’t.”
“Because I can feel the passion inside you. Because your body reacts whenever I look at you. Because-”
“You’re embarrassing me.”
“No, I’m making you hot.”
“You’re not.”
“I am.”
“You may not speak to me this way,” she ordered.
“I’ll speak to you any damn way I want to,” Alec answered. “I want you, Jamie.”
A couple examples of the dubious consent here – she says no, but it’s always ‘weakly’ or she thinks in her head how much she wants him, but doesn’t verbally confirm that (classic old school – if consent is absolutely needed in your books, this might bother you)
“I want you to stop now,” she moaned.
Alec didn’t pay any attention to her weak protest.
---
He became rougher in his quest. “We aren’t going to stop, are we, Alec?”
“Nay, love, we aren’t.”
He withdrew his fingers, then thrust them demanding into her tight sheath again.
She cried out in pain. “Don’t do that, Alec. It hurts.”
“Hush, love,” he whispered. “I’ll make it easier for you.”
I loved this hair grabbing moment
She arched against him. Alec forgot all about being gentle then. He pulled her legs high about his waist, twisting her hair around his hands to keep her from moving away from him, and drove inside her with one powerful surge.
---
“I told them you were English,” Alec lied. He threw his arm around her shoulders again and, as was his disturbing habit, literally hauled her up against his side. God’s truth, he treated her just like a satchel.
“And that, of course, is the reason their cheering,” Jamie countered. “Because I’m English.”
“Nay, wife. ‘Tis the reason they’re screaming.”
---
It makes me swoon!
She wasn’t capable of thinking. His tongue stroked the passion in her, pressing, in, out, again and again, until she was whimpering for release from the sweet torture. She was begging him not to stop when he stood up to face her. Jamie tried to capture his mouth for a long, hot kiss, but he pulled back. He suddenly grabbed hold of her hair, twisted it around his fist and jerked her forward. “Don’t ever try to leave me again.”
Content warnings:
- Death of hero’s wife (implied she took her own life but you find she was murdered)
- Death of parent remembered
- some levels of dubious consent and a bit of a pushy hero (maybe a touch of body betrayed me, but not overmuch)
- villain hurting others, plotting murder, arson
- scenes of being trapped/hurt/violence and death on page
Locations of kisses/intimate scenes:
Safe sex: No but it’s the 1100s and they are married and willing for a pregnancy
16% - wedding kiss
29% - kiss
32% - 🔥kisses, fingering for her, oral for her, missionary
39% - 🔥Jamie is awoken by Alecs kisses, fingering for her, missionary
57% - kisses
66% - kisses
70% - 🔥kisses, blow job (incomplete and quite short) then laying down, facing each other sex
83% - 🔥kisses, missionary
86% - kiss
96% - kiss
Readability: 📖📖📖📖
Feels: 🦋🦋🦋
Emotional Depth: 💔💔💔
Sexual Tension: ⚡⚡⚡
Romance: 💞💞💞💞
Sensuality: 💋💋💋 (scenes are on the light side as far as details go, for me)
Sex Scene Length: 🍑🍑🍑
Steam Scale (Number of Sex Scenes): 🔥🔥🔥🔥 (some aspects of this is lighter – the language and the length of the scenes, but I think all the scenes were countable)
Humor: Yes
Perspective: Third person from heroine’s point of view (and a bit from the villain)
Percentage which mains are first on page together: Around 10% or so
Cliffhanger: No
Epilogue: No
Format: Bought e-book
Should I read in order?
This is the first in Garwood’s Lairds’ Fiancees series.
Basic plot:
Alec is told by his king to marry an English Bride and he gets his choice of Baron Jamison’s 4 daughters...
Give this a try if you want:
- 1102 time period
- mostly Scotland setting
- Scottish (Highlander) hero/English heroine pairing
- the ever popular in old school books violet eyed heroine
- bit of arranged marriage feel
- protective hero
- medium steam – I counted 4 as scenes though the language is a bit light and some are on the shorter side
First line:
The deathwatch was over.
My thoughts:
I have been meaning to try this series forever because Garwood is suggested so often and so prolific in the HR community. I overall really enjoyed this one, and loved some parts so much. But I got mildly annoyed with a few aspects too.
First off, the humor in this one was really delightful. I enjoyed that aspect to it so much. The banter between Jamie and Alec was so fun and had me smirking in so many parts. I also really enjoyed the ending the ending and was laughing in delight.
I thought there were some swoony parts and I was pleasantly surprised by some of the parts (like the seductive hair grabbing and protectiveness of Alec). The steam too surprising to me. Some of the scenes were on the short and light side but in this particular novel I’d say there were 4 scenes that felt full.
I did get a bit annoyed with both Alec and Jamie at a few parts and struggled for a short part towards the middle. I didn’t like that Alec thought it was ‘adorable’ to rile Jamie up. And when she was upset about something, he didn’t want to deal with her tears so he would purposefully make her mad...but overall I was super happy with this story. I already wrote my review for The Wedding (the next book in the series), and while I enjoyed parts of that one, I liked this one a lot more.
Quotes/spoiler-y thoughts: Any mistakes are my own
“Kincaid? You’re supposed to leave me here,” she called out. “This is just a marriage of convenience, isn’t it?”
He stopped in the center of the hallway, then turned around to face her. “Aye, wife, it is a marriage of convenience. My convenience. Do you understand me?”
---
It was hopeless, of course. He would die. His fate had been decreed the moment he touched Jamie.
If only Alec realized what praise kink was doing nowadays lol
Her eyes widened in surprise. Alec smiled. He’d just found a rather simple way to placate her: praise. Wasn’t it true that all women liked to hear their husbands’ expressions of approval from time to time? Alec decided to remember that fact for future use.
---
“Mary told me. She said it was disgusting.”
“You won’t think it is.” Alec growled that prediction.
“I won’t?” She sounded out of breath again. “How do you know that?”
“Because you’ve wanted me to touch you since the moment we met.”
“I haven’t.”
“Because I can feel the passion inside you. Because your body reacts whenever I look at you. Because-”
“You’re embarrassing me.”
“No, I’m making you hot.”
“You’re not.”
“I am.”
“You may not speak to me this way,” she ordered.
“I’ll speak to you any damn way I want to,” Alec answered. “I want you, Jamie.”
A couple examples of the dubious consent here – she says no, but it’s always ‘weakly’ or she thinks in her head how much she wants him, but doesn’t verbally confirm that (classic old school – if consent is absolutely needed in your books, this might bother you)
“I want you to stop now,” she moaned.
Alec didn’t pay any attention to her weak protest.
---
He became rougher in his quest. “We aren’t going to stop, are we, Alec?”
“Nay, love, we aren’t.”
He withdrew his fingers, then thrust them demanding into her tight sheath again.
She cried out in pain. “Don’t do that, Alec. It hurts.”
“Hush, love,” he whispered. “I’ll make it easier for you.”
I loved this hair grabbing moment
She arched against him. Alec forgot all about being gentle then. He pulled her legs high about his waist, twisting her hair around his hands to keep her from moving away from him, and drove inside her with one powerful surge.
---
“I told them you were English,” Alec lied. He threw his arm around her shoulders again and, as was his disturbing habit, literally hauled her up against his side. God’s truth, he treated her just like a satchel.
“And that, of course, is the reason their cheering,” Jamie countered. “Because I’m English.”
“Nay, wife. ‘Tis the reason they’re screaming.”
---
It makes me swoon!
She wasn’t capable of thinking. His tongue stroked the passion in her, pressing, in, out, again and again, until she was whimpering for release from the sweet torture. She was begging him not to stop when he stood up to face her. Jamie tried to capture his mouth for a long, hot kiss, but he pulled back. He suddenly grabbed hold of her hair, twisted it around his fist and jerked her forward. “Don’t ever try to leave me again.”
Content warnings:
- Death of hero’s wife (implied she took her own life but you find she was murdered)
- Death of parent remembered
- some levels of dubious consent and a bit of a pushy hero (maybe a touch of body betrayed me, but not overmuch)
- villain hurting others, plotting murder, arson
- scenes of being trapped/hurt/violence and death on page
Locations of kisses/intimate scenes:
Safe sex:
16% - wedding kiss
29% - kiss
32% - 🔥kisses, fingering for her, oral for her, missionary
39% - 🔥Jamie is awoken by Alecs kisses, fingering for her, missionary
57% - kisses
66% - kisses
70% - 🔥kisses, blow job (incomplete and quite short) then laying down, facing each other sex
83% - 🔥kisses, missionary
86% - kiss
96% - kiss