Rowena’s review of The Bargain Bride by Barbara Metzger.

Hero: Persephone Goldwaite
Heroine: Kendall “West” Westmoreland

It was a match not made in heaven, but in pound notes-an arranged engagement between a girl of thirteen and a lord’s younger son. Since then, thirteen years have passed, and as her betrothed has been sowing his wild oats, Penny has grown up, grown impatient, and grown resentful. In fact, she’s vowed never to marry the man who blighted her life and destroyed her dreams. Viscount Westfield is happy enough to return the bridal dowry. But one look at Penny and Westfield knows he can never, ever let her go…

Barbara Metzger is a new to me author that I thought I’d try out to see if she’d be to my liking or not and while I didn’t think she was a bad writer, I couldn’t get excited about reading this book. The entire time that I was reading this book, I wanted to be reading something else. I’m in a historical reading frenzy and I thought this book would be a great one to keep the historical party going but unfortunately, this book fell flat on its face for me.

This book is about a hero and a heroine who were promised to each other by their father’s. Neither one of them asked for the arranged marriage but it was something that they each had to deal with sooner or later. The heroine, Penny had grown up thinking she was going to marry Kendall Westmoreland, a viscount from London but when she grew weary of waiting and started reading about his exploits in the newspaper, understandably she got pissed. She had every right to be pissed but her attitude in the book got to be too much. So much so that I began hating her with every page that I read.

Penny was written as a strong heroine. A heroine who knew her own mind and while I could respect a smart heroine, Penny was nothing but a smart mouth, mean tempered brat who got on my last frickin’ nerve. She had valid reasons for not liking West but when she first meets this guy, she socks him right in the face. She’s nothing but a common country bumpkin who is a banker’s daughter and he’s a viscount. A VISCOUNT and she punched him in the face. Are you kidding me? When would that ever happen back in those days? As the story progresses, Penny grows more and more bratty. She starts to fall for West’s charm and instead of making the best of her situation, she starts in on the revenge and then she starts in with her smart ass mouth who just doesn’t know when to give in and let shit go. She took things too far for my tastes and by the time she started to make amends, my dislike for her was so thorough that nothing she did would make me happy.

I just flat out did not like her.

Then there was West. I didn’t understand this guy. I mean, he comes to see his fiance after 13 years and first thing he wants to do is find a way out of the marriage. Okay, fine…but the very next day, he’s cornered into marrying the heroine and he’s okay with it. He’s more than okay with it because she’s pretty and she’s got pretty hair and he can’t wait to bed her. Okay, that could be the rake in him talking but I just didn’t buy his whole act. He likes his women with strong minds and not simpering little idiots who can’t think for themselves. He’s intrigued by his bride and he doesn’t mind wooing her into submission.

That would have been fine and dandy but to me, West came across as a doormat to Penny. She comes into his home and starts making demands and he lets her get away with it. He let her get away with far too many things and he annoyed me just as much as Penny did. Although, I did end up liking West way more than I liked Penny.

The secondary characters were interesting though I know I will forget them come next week. There just wasn’t much to recommend this book for me. The heroine was a spoiled beast and the hero came off kind of soft, the heroine’s father made me want to commit murder but the heroine’s grandfather was a likable fellow as was Marcel. But apart from those two, I just don’t think I have it in me to recommend this to anyone.

1.5 out of 5

This book is available from Signet Eclipse. You can buy it here.