Review and Giveaway: The Winter Bride

The Winter Bride (Chance Sisters - Book 2) by Anne Gracie

Publication Date: 04/01/2014
Publisher: Penguin Group
Imprint: Berkley Sensation
Genre: Historical Romance
Pages: 336
ISBN-10: 045259269
ISBN-13: 978-0425259269

(Received for an honest review from Berkley Sensation)

Purchase: Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Book Depository, Indiebound

Anne Gracie on the WEB: website, blog, twitter, facebook, goodreads

Books in the series: 

Chance Sisters

1. The Autumn Bride
2. The Winter Bride

Coverart: Click the Image for a larger, clearer view of the covers in this series.

Excerpt from, The Winter Bride, courtesy of Amazon's Look Inside feature.

Synopsis:

~"Delightful....A romantic winner." --Kirkus  

Four young women face a life of destitution—until a daring act changes their fortune and turns them each into a beautiful bride.  In The Winter Bride, a compromising situation leads to an unexpected wedding and delicious temptation....

Damaris Chance’s unhappy past has turned her off the idea of marriage forever. But her guardian, Lady Beatrice Davenham, convinces her to make her coming out anyway—and have a season of carefree, uncomplicated fun. 

When Damaris finds herself trapped in a compromising situation with the handsome rake Freddy Monkton-Coombes, she has no choice but to agree to wed him—as long as it’s in name only. Her new husband seems to accept her terms, but Freddy has a plan of his own: to seduce his reluctant winter bride. 

Will Damaris’s secrets destroy her chance at true happiness? Or can Freddy help her cast off the shackles of the past, and yield to delicious temptation?

Thoughts:

Anne Gracie's second book in the Chance Sisters series, The Winter Bride continues the tale of four women who found themselves fighting for their own survival in one way or another. Though they are not all real sisters, they have a deep bond and readers will love the interaction between them. Gracie is well known in the historical romance genre and readers know to expect a well written and creative novel with each of her books. From muffins to pigs, this book is a real gem with strong characters and enough humor to make the readers sides ache. A great second book in the series.

What I liked:

Anne Gracie has a way with writing that is both complex and entertaining. Her heroes and heroines are often not typical of the time period she writes about. She gives the reader anomalies in situations and in characters. She throws a few curves and readers often find that those curves are what makes Gracie's books so amazing. The Winter Bride is no exception to the rule. We often find heroes that have an aversion to marriage for one reason or another and we have one in this book as well. But the difference is, the heroine doesn't want to marry either. She simply wants a cottage in the country where she can live and paint to her heart's content. In Regency times, that was just unthinkable. And it makes all the difference in this book.

Damaris isn't your typical Regency heroine for a lot of reasons. She grew up in China where her father was a missionary and she doesn't have all of the charm and decorum that most debutantes have. After many harrowing experiences she makes her way to England and by 'chance' gets a second chance at life and love. I thought Gracie did such a great job with her. She had been throw so much, that Gracie could have made her really jaded and bitter, but she didn't. Damaris was kind and loving and the perfect compliment to Freddy.

Freddy wasn't exactly what he seemed either. He makes a grand show of appearing to be a rake who doesn't really care about anyone or anything, but in truth he is a successful businessman, who is scarred from the past. For all his aversion to marriage and his wastrel seeming ways, he has a good heart. He is just afraid to give it away. I loved Freddy's humor and thought he was the perfect hero. A little dark, but not brooding and he knew when to laugh and to make others do the same. There were side splitting moments with him and teary moments. He was such a contrast in emotions. A great all around character.

Gracie uses humor to her advantage in this one and readers will quickly be drawn in. She takes two characters that have suffering a lot and brings them together where they heal and comfort and protect each other. It might be all set up by a fake betrothal which Freddy concocts to get out of finding a bride, but it turns into quite a romance. Readers will love it when the main characters are shocked to realize that maybe marriage isn't quite so bad an idea.

What I didn't like:

There were moments when this one dragged a wee bit, but not too much. I felt like it took an inordinate amount of time for them to get down to business if you know what I mean. I think things could have progressed a bit more quickly and still been just as interesting.

Bottom Line:

This is a very good addition to the series. It has moments of levity and a lot of humor. Readers will laugh and cry with these characters and truly enjoy their happy ever after.

The Winter Bride is available NOW from your favorite bookseller.

I'm giving this one 4 out of 5 apples from my book bag!

About the Author:

Anne Gracie is the national bestselling author of The Autumn Bride, Bride By Mistake, and The Accidental Wedding. She lives in Australia.

Giveaway Details:

The publisher is sponsoring a giveaway for one copy of The Winter Bride by Anne Gracie.

~ You must be an email subscriber to participate.
~ US addresses only.
~ The deadline to enter this giveaway is Midnight EST, May 1st.

1. Please leave a comment about what you really think about marriage.
2. Please fill out the FORM.