The Perfect Bride by Brenda Joyce

Title: The Perfect Bride
Author: Brenda Joyce
ISBN: 97803737724445
Publisher: HQN/2007
Pages: 377

Stacy of Stacy's Bookblog was giving out free books for May and I asked for it. She agreed and posted it ASAP! This is second book she has been kind enough to send to me! The first was The Pleasure Trap by Elizabeth Thornton.

From the back cover

A childhood trauma has left Lady Blanche Harrington incapable of all emotion, least of all love. Now circumstance demands she marry, and Blanche dreads choosing from her horde of fawning suitors. For one very eligible gentleman has not stepped forward...

A war hero and a recluse, Rex de Warenne has long admired Lady Blanche. Though fate and his own dark nature have robbed him of any hope for the kind of future such a lady deserves, Rex is determined to aid her--and keep his feelings to himself. But when their growing friendship leads to a night of shocking passion, Blanche's new found memories threaten their fragile love...and Blanche's very life.

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I rarely read romances. However, Brenda Joyce is one of few authors I do read. Both historicals and contemporary.

Blanche is a complicated character. She is still umarried at 28, because of something happened in her past when she was a child. She is incapable of emotions. So she thinks. When her father dies suddenly leaving her a vast fortune, she feels the need to marry to look after her prospects. She has a lot of suitors but none of them interest her. Then she meets Rex again. She had been briefly engaged to his brother 8 years back. Rex is man with a past. He too has shunned marriage and is in no hurry to marry. He cannot escape his deep dark secrets just as she can't. By the manipulation of Blanche's best friend Bess, she ends up in Cornwell at Rex's place. And stumbles upon him while he is in a compromising state with his maid. Rex is filled with remorse. He has always admired her. Somehow, they end up being friends and lovers. Blanche considers marrying him. Then she starts recalling her dead memories which threaten her sanity, her love and hopes of a future...

WIth both the main characters complex, it becomes a bit heavy. Also it gets a bit repetitive in the middle. We expect passions to explode at any time. This takes a while. This is not one of her best novels but it is not bad either. For die hard romantics, it is good.