Review: The Brazen Bride by Stephanie Laurens.

Posted July 9, 2010 by Rowena in Reviews | 2 Comments

Publisher: Avon, Harper Collins


Rowena’s review of The Brazen Bride(The Black Cobra Quartet, Book 3) by Stephanie Laurens.

Hero: Logan Monteith
Heroine: Linnet Trevission

USA Today bestselling author Stephanie Laurens adds a dynamic, sweeping tale to her extraordinary adventures.

They’re bold, courageous, resolute . . . ex-officers of the Crown united against a deadly traitor known only as the Black Cobra.

Shipwrecked, wounded, he risks all to pursue his mission=only to discover a partner as daring and brazen as he.

Fiery, tempestuous, a queen in her own realm, she rescues a warrior=only to find her heart under siege.

Bound by passion, linked by need, together they must brave the enemy’s gauntlet to win all their hearts’ desire.

So this is the third book in the Black Cobra Quartet and it follows Logan Monteith. Logan Monteith’s ship is shipwrecked and he washes ashore where a bunch of kids save him and bring him to the home of the lady of the land, Linnet Trevission who nurses him back to health.

This is one of those amnesia stories and if you know me, you know that I’m not a fan of these. I think this accounts for the reason it took me so long to read this book because I kept putting the book down after every other page. Amnesia stories make me nervous. I hate the falling out that usually comes with the memory returning to whoever lost their memory to begin with (Until You by Judith McNaught anyone?) and though I’m happy to say that there wasn’t a falling out like that in this book, I do have to say that this is my least favorite book of the three that came out so far.

My issues with this book stems with the heroine. She was too perfect for my tastes. She was the lady of the land, so she knew how to farm, she knew how to sew, she knew how to do every bloody thing under the sun and she could still do so much more. On top of everything she could do, she was this saint who took in orphaned kids and gave them a home in her house. She went above and beyond the call of duty to take care of her people. Her only black mark was that she wasn’t a virgin. In those times, that was a big black mark but because I’m a modern gal, it wasn’t that big a deal to me.

The other thing that pissed me off about her was that she treated Logan while he was there. Not the taking care of him but because he was a prideful man, he wanted to earn his keep. Help out since he couldn’t afford to pay his way since he couldn’t remember exactly what he did for a living and blah blah blah. He mentions this and she’s like, okay well pay me in sex. The way she throws this in his face when his honor demands that he stops their liaisons made me want to punch her in the face. She doesn’t do it all the time but the fact that she did it at all made me not like her.

Logan was a good, stand up hero though. I mean, he wasn’t perfect but at least he knew he wasn’t perfect. He tried to be good for the most part but he’s a man in love and sometimes he did stupid things for which I forgave him because he wasn’t like Linnet. He had some deep feelings for her and everything he did for her was out of love and while she shares those same feelings with him, her actions of the past (the whole sleep with me as payment for me keeping you alive and feeding you and blah blah blah) left a bad taste in my mouth that I never quite forgave her for. It tainted all of the good she did throughout the story.

At the beginning of the book, we got a lot of Logan and Linnet and not a lot of the whole cultist stuff. Daniel and Alex are brothers, correct? Half brothers but still they share the same father, right? Those two had a relationship that just did not sit well with me. To be frank, it was gross. Watching those two over the course of the book turned my insides and showed me just how evil they are in regards to the whole cultists things.

A lot of the black cobra cultists things are getting to be repetitive if you’ve been reading the series from the beginning so the retelling of Del and Gareth’s missions was a bit tedious but I didn’t exactly hate this book. I just didn’t like it as much as I liked the others. I very much enjoyed both Gareth and Del’s book but every time I get to the cultists things, I want to breeze over that because I already know what happens.

So this is what I have to say on this book. It’s good. I’m glad that I read it and I cannot wait for Rafe’s book to come out at the end of the year because holy goodness, I’m anxious for it. There was good stuff, there was bad stuff and I still want to read more.

Grade: 3 out of 5

This book is available from Avon. You can buy it here or here in e-format.


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2 responses to “Review: The Brazen Bride by Stephanie Laurens.

  1. I’ve had this book on my radar ever since I finished ‘The Elusive Bride’.. I love the whole series (have read in order, but my fandom had picked up after the last book)! Gareth is my favorite so far, but there’s still this book and the reckless bride (i think that’s the title) left to read.. I’ll probably fall for the last one. That guy was such a bad boy in the prologue!!!

    Great review!

  2. Rowena

    Thanks for your kind comments on my review HistoricalRomanceJunkie Rita! I’m enjoying this series as well and like you, my favorite book in the series thus far is The Elusive Bride. Gareth is my favorite so far as well but I’m thinking Rafe will be my favorite after the series is done. I’ve been mighty curious about Rafe ever since we first met him in The Untamed Bride and I’m on pins and needles waiting for his book to be released.

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