Guest Review: Never Marry A Stranger by Gayle Callen

Posted December 4, 2009 by Book Binge Guest Blogger in Reviews | 3 Comments

Publisher: Avon, Harper Collins

Tracy’s review on Never Marry a Stranger by Gayle Callen.

The prodigal returns . . .

It’s an absolute scandal when Captain Matthew Leland arrives at Madingley Court. Presumed dead in battle, his sudden appearance gives the ton quite the shock. But no one is more surprised than Matthew, because waiting for him at home is a bewitching, blue-eyed beauty—and she claims to be his wife!

Miss Emily Grey was alone in the world when a knight in shining armor came to her rescue, claimed her heart, and then disappeared. But now her little white lie, a desperate act of self-preservation, has come back to haunt her. Her husband, once a far-off fantasy, is now a flesh-and-blood man who insists she share his bed . . .

Matthew has no memory of any marriage to this scheming seductress, and he’s determined to expose her in every way. But a life with the exquisite Emily will prove irresistible . . . and a marriage of deception will become a marriage of sweet, sweet surrender.

So Matthew Leland has been dead for a year, or at least that what his family thought. You see he was in the Army and was sent to India. He was wounded and had a long recovery. When he was healed he changed regiments but his old regiment had thought him dead and notified his family. He was out of communication range with his new regiment but when he found out about the mix up he went right home. He’s changed since being away from his family and England and he’s not about to be the controlled, repressed man he once was.

When Matthew appears at his ancestral home he is more than surprised to meet his widow – who faints dead away at the shock of seeing him. Matthew doesn’t know who this woman is, but he sees that his family cares for her so he fabricates the fact that he has lost some of his memories and that’s why he can’t remember his bride. Matthew, being the new man he has become, is intrigued with the beautiful imposter and is determined to find out what game his “bride” is playing at. So Emily lies to Matthew and plays the dutiful wife and Matthew lies to Emily and plays the amnesiac husband to save his family from yet another scandal.

I’m not big on lies between the h/h in books (and I’ll be honest, I hate it in real life as well). In fact the previous book in this series was a DNF for me because of the heroine’s lies (but I really liked the first book in the series). So why did this book not go flying across the room? Well, for me, there was enough attraction in Emily’s deception to get me to read more and find out what the heck was going on. Could I see Matthew in modern times putting up with anything like this? Absolutely not, but times were different back then.

Matthew and Emily start a courtship. Since he is playing the part of the man who doesn’t remember his wife he tries to get to know her and find out what makes her tick. But Emily surprises him. She is kind to his family and as it turns out small children (probably animals too – these kinds of heroines always are). But underneath that exterior Matthew sees a woman of strength. He figures she had to be desperate in order to come to his family and only a strong woman could playact that long. But what kind of person does this make her? Not one I would want to be associated with, but Matthew seems to fall for her and therein lies the issue. He wants her but he doesn’t want to commit. Where will that leave her?

The book was entertaining but I had/have some mixed feelings about it. It kept me interested enough to finish it but in the end I couldn’t come to really care for either Emily or Matthew all that much. When Emily’s truths came out I did admire Matthew for his protectiveness, but it was really no more than I would expect any upstanding gentleman to do back then. And for all that, he’d taken advantage of Emily and then told her he knew she was lying. What kind of man does that? IDK, it left kind of a bad taste in my mouth. For Emily’s part when she finally had to come clean she told him truths, but not all of them. She kept others and after doing that a couple of times I kind of wanted to smack her. All right, she thought she was doing it to protect Matthew, but really it just felt like she was trying to save her own hiney.

So overall I didn’t love the book by any means, but I didn’t hate it.

Rating: 3 out of 5

his book is available from Avon. You can buy it here or here.


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3 responses to “Guest Review: Never Marry A Stranger by Gayle Callen

  1. LOL Katie – as I said, there was enough to keep me going besides the lies. I know it happens quite frequently in romance novels so I don’t put it down automatically. 🙂 Actually I just bought a book called Lie to Me so there ya go! lol

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