Guest Review: Never a Bride by Amelia Grey

Posted September 22, 2010 by Ames in Reviews | 5 Comments

Ames‘ review of Never a Bride by Amelia Grey

Her name is on everyone’s lips . . .
When he left for America six years ago, the handsome Viscount Stonehurst never suspected that he would return home to England to find his lovely fiancé embroiled in the scandal of the decade. The woman he planned on making his wife has been kissing every man in London . . . except him!
But scandal doesn’t matter in search of the truth . . .
Engaged and then abandoned, Mirabella Wittingham is determined to find the man who drove her cousin to suicide, even if it means ruining her reputation and disgracing herself in the process . . .
When her plans go awry, Mirabella has no choice but to turn to her long-lost fiancé for help. But can she trust the man who deserted her so many years ago, or is he destined to fail her yet again?

Never a Bride is a reprint of Amelia Grey’s first novel, which was originally published in 2001. (She does have other older published works under a pen name.)

Mirabella Wittingham has been engaged for what feels like forever with no fiancé in sight. She has given up hope that he will return and instead decides to try her hand at investigation. You see, her best friend and cousin was seduced by a gentleman and when she got pregnant, he abandoned her. Mirabella’s cousin killed herself rather than deal with the scandal of an illegitimate child. Now Mirabella is out for justice and she doesn’t care if she has to ruin her reputation to get it.

Camden, Viscount Stonehurt, the fiancé, has returned to England from America after 6 years. Just in time to hear the rumors about his betrothed. He first left London because of another betrothal that went horribly wrong and he does not want to be the cuckold for the second time in a row. He does not want to marry Mirabella and is quite happy that she doesn’t want to marry him. But his parents desperately want the marriage to continue on so Mirabella and Camden start acting like the engaged couple, meanwhile, they will use their ruse for their own ends.

I always wanted to read Amelia Grey’s work and unfortunately, I was not impressed with Never a Bride. I knew from the minute Mirabella’s cousin, Sarah, was introduced, that Mirabella was going to get into shenanigans that would annoy me. And I was right. Mirabella was stubborn to a fault. Camden was ok. He was vulnerable and afraid to put himself out there again. All the fault lies at Mirabella’s feet.

Also, the plot was predictable. I knew how things were going to roll out and I correctly guessed the identity of the villainous seducer. There just wasn’t enough to keep my interest. In the end, I need to give Never a Bride a 2.75 out of 5. It wasn’t bad, it just wasn’t good.

This book is available from Sourcebooks. You can buy it here.