Rule's Bride
Kat Martin
Mira, Apr 27 2010, $7.99
ISBN: 9780778327745

In 1857 Boston, visiting Londoner Lord Rule Dewar agreed to marry the teenage daughter of Howard Griffin, owner of Griffin Manufacturing. The deal was pure economics as sixteen year old Violet gets a title and the man she has a schoolgirl crush on and Rule gets a gun manufacturing firm. He returned home to a life of much greater affluent debauchery while she remained in New England.

Three years later Violet arrives unannounced in London to demand Rule agree to an annulment. Attracted to his feisty beautiful American wife, he wants to consummate their marriage, which he failed to do when they exchanged I do. She insists she has someone else in mind for her marriage bed. Falling in love, Rule persuades her to give him one month to prove they belong together as a happy married couple; if she still wants the annulment he will grant it without an argument. As he courts his wife, who has loved him since he came to her home in Boston, someone wants the pair kept apart and a murder is an acceptable means to achieve that end.

The final R. Dewar's Bride historical romance (see Royal's Bride and Reese's Bride) is an enjoyable Victorian romance starring a married couple beginning their courtship three years after they wed. Although the marriage of economic convenience is an ancient standby of the historical sub-genre, Kat Martin refreshes it with her lead couple as she wants a first chance while his wife prefers a different chance with someone else. Readers will enjoy the intelligent tale as Rule has a climb higher than Big Ben to get out of the hole he is in when it comes to winning his wife's respect though he has her love.

Harriet Klausner