Tracy’s review of The Wicked Wedding of Miss Ellie Vyne (Sydney Dovedale #2) by Jayne Fresina
By night Ellie Vyne fleeces unsuspecting aristocrats as the dashing Count de Bonneville. By day she avoids her sisters’ matchmaking attempts and dreams up inventive insults to hurl at her childhood nemesis, the arrogant, far-too-handsome-for-his-own-good, James Hartley.
James finally has a lead on the villainous, thieving Count, tracking him to a shady inn. He bursts in on none other than “that Vyne woman” . . . in a shocking state of dishabille. Convinced she is the Count’s mistress, James decides it’s best to keep your enemies close. Very close. In fact, seducing Ellie will be the perfect bait . . .
James Hartley and Mariella Vyne aka Ellie, have been “enemies” for as long as they can remember. James’s mother ran off with Ellie’s stepfather’s brother and therefore sent the families feuding as it were. There has been no love lost between Jame and Ellie over the years. Now James has followed a scoundrel by the name of the Count de Bonneville to an inn and who does he find instead? Ellie. She of course claims that the count just went out the window but Ellie is really the Count. She’s been posing as a man to win funds that keep her half sisters and stepfather going but now she’s in a pickle. James believes that Ellie and the count are lovers and since he feels that is all wrong he says he’ll marry Ellie. It’s kind of a strange proposal but of course Ellie doesn’t take it seriously so she leaves town – only to have James follow her.
As the couple spend more time together Ellie realizes that she’s loved James for years and James eventually realizes the same thing, but not before everyone and their mother and the horse they rode in on manages to try to keep them apart.
I have to say that this book has so many different tropes in it I honestly wasn’t sure which one was the “main” one or which one I should focus on the most.
- Ellie was posing as a man to get funds for her impoverished family
- James was being forced by his grandmother to find a wife.
- James had fathered an illegitimate child.
- James bumps his head and has amnesia for a short time.
- James was supposedly still in love with his previous love.
- Ellie makes an agreement with James to marry him only if 5 nights of passion brings on a child.
- Ellie’s “real” father shows up to get money from both Ellie and James.
I think that’s it but seriously – that’s a lot going on for one book! Now saying that you would think that I didn’t like the book but I really did. I can’t honestly say that there was a dull moment while I was reading, that’s for sure.
I did feel that there were all together too many misunderstanding’s between James and Ellie but after their past of “hating” each other I guess it was understandable to a point. They had thought the worst of each other for years so why stop now, right?
The love story, at the crux of it, was pretty good. Despite all the crap that life had thrown at them they managed to realize that they couldn’t let the other get away.
There were some pretty fun secondary characters as well. Grieves was James’s valet and he was wonderful. He kind of reminded me of the butler from the movie Arthur in that he was definitely impertinent. But in this book he was softer and more friendly. He had some great pearls of wisdom and his scenes in the book always made me smile. Another character was Lady Mercy Danforthe and she was a royal PITA! Granted she was only 12 but I loved her parts in the story and I really liked seeing her realize that she could be a child and not have to act like a little adult at all times.
Overall it was a really cute book and was entertaining.
Rating: 3.5 out of 5
The Series:
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This book is available from Sourcebooks Casablanca. You can buy it here or here in e-format. This book was provided by the publisher for an honest review.
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