The Stolen Bride by Jo Beverley Series: Lovers and Ladies #3
Published by Berkley on January 16, 2024
Genres: Historical Romance
Pages: 197
Format: Paperback
Source: Purchased
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When Beth Hawley journeys to Lord Wraybourne's castle to help young Lady Sophie Kyle prepare for her wedding, she has to share her carriage with two unexpected travelers, the rakish Sir Marius Fletcher, who is stranded after his curricle overturns, and an unidentified elderly woman, found unconscious in a wrecked carriage.
As the date of Sophie's wedding draws near, Beth realizes some mysterious shadow from the past seems to haunt the bride and groom. The elderly woman, suffering from memory loss, may hold the key. Beth turns to Sir Marius for help, but her efforts are thwarted at every turn as she encounters a most unlikely villain-while her only ally seems to have his mind set more on romance than the danger at hand...
A couple’s wedding celebrations in the country draw their friends and family to the estate, but also a mystery that might sabotage their romance for good. The Lovers and Ladies series represents some of the late and talented Jo Beverley’s earlier works and employs a blending of the historical romance and suspense genres for this series of stories about a group of old school friends who each find their romance.
The Stolen Bride is the third book in the Lovers and Ladies series. Each story is standalone for the romance and suspense element, but connected by the cast of characters being friends and family. In the case of The Stolen Bride, there are two romances. Randall is Wrayborne’s school friend and Sophie is Wrayborne’s younger sister and it is their nuptials for which the others are gathering. The main romance is for Beth, who was Jane’s (Wrayborne’s wife) governess, and Sir Marius who is another of Wrayborne’s school friend who are both older and don’t think romance can touch them. Actually, both deny romance for what they think are practical reasons though it is most definitely touching them while the other couple’s romance which was established in an earlier story not of the series, I think, is unraveling from doubts and someone acting for mysterious malicious purpose.
I read the first two books in the series a while back and honestly can’t remember much more than a vague impression of enjoying the stories and liking the people. So, I was glad the author caught up on who was whom and how they were attached to each other.
This was a story where I could see the connection in both couples and didn’t really engage in the development through the conflict to see them together. Sophie’s struggles with seeing imagined trouble between her and Randall seemed more of an immature miffed girl more than anything else so I lost patience with her a lot. Fortunately, there was the suspense. It wasn’t hard to see who was behind it, but not the why. This is where my vague memory got in my way because in the end, the answer was connected to earlier events they were all involved in.
I liked Beth and Marius’ romance much better. He was a charmer and worked to get past her prim reserve. He was fun and flirty, but a solid gold character. She just had to see past her sense that she was a governess and he a baronet and believe he could really be interested in her. The flirty dialogue and their antics against the backdrop of country house party was fun stuff.
The big drama was old school gothic suspense style though a little lighter in tone since the romance was most prevalent through most of the book. Now, I’m back in the swing with this series and look forward to progressing toward the ‘Dark Angel’s story.
As a lifelong reader, it was inevitable that Sophia would discover book blogs and the joy of blog reviewing.Sophia is a prolific reader and audiobook listener which allows her to experience so many wonderful books, authors, and narrators.Few genres are outside her reading tastes, but her true love is fiction particularly history, mystery, sci-fi, and romance.Though, sorry, no horror or she will run like Shaggy and Scooby.
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Sounds good, but what a throwback cover! That looks like a classic romance
LOL, you should see the even older Avon cover.
Its good you were able to follow the story despite not remembering what occurred in the previous books.
Yeah, most of the time it was okay because we were onto a new two sets of romance pairs, but at the end when the suspense happened and the characters were tying it to earlier events that was when I realized I’d forgotten stuff. 🙂
How delightful…I love that this had a little mystery and suspense.
I do love when the romance is balanced with a good mystery, too. 🙂
Suspense gives an extra umph to a story that helps you get over some shortcomings, I find. It is annoying when a character gets miffed over immature things. Happy to hear you enjoyed the story and are ready to continue on with the series now. Fab review, Sophia!
The mystery part carried me through my annoyance at the younger heroine. I did have a good time with the other two, though. I was glad I finally picked up these older books for the ‘old school’ feel to them. 🙂
How fun that it had some mystery to it too.
That’s what I thought, too.
I love a good secondary “mature” romance in books (I think about the Kowalski series by Shannon Stacey). Based on what you wrote, I’d really struggle with Sophie.
Yeah, the younger heroine really made it tough to like her the way she was acting for most of the book. It was really obvious because of the second romance with the mature couple.
I like romance series that are made up of standalones–it makes it so much easier to jump into a series! This book sounds dramatically Gothic, and I think I might like that, even with the somewhat mixed review.
I liked that each story was mostly self-contained and yes, the darker suspense element was a treat. 🙂
I think I read a Jo Beverly book ages ago and enjoyed it but somehow never read much more by her. This looks fun!
I enjoyed reading this series from her backlist. Hope you can pick one up against some time, Katherine.