Reviewer: Tracy What the Groom Wants by Jade Lee
Series: Bridal Favors Series #4
Publisher: Sourcebooks Casablanca
Publication Date: February 4, 2014
Format: Print ARC
Genres: Historical Romance
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Series Rating:
An honest love…
Radley Lyncott has been in love with Wendy Drew as long as he can remember. When he went to sea, she was too young to court. Now that he’s returned to take up his Welsh title, he is appalled to find that debt has ruined the Drew family, and—even worse—Wendy is being courted by another man.
Or a dangerous attraction?
Family comes first for seamstress Wendy Drew, who is forced to settle her brother’s debt by working nights at a notorious gambling den. But her double-life hasn’t gone unnoticed—she has captivated none other than Demon Damon, a nefarious rake who understands Wendy’s darkest desires and is hell bent on luring her into his arms.
Radley Lyncott has been at sea for years. Now he’s back in London and wants nothing more than to court and marry Wendy Drew. Unfortunately that doesn’t happen like he thinks it will. When he gets home he finds that due to a small pox outbreak he is now a duke. Growing up with a mother who gave him dreams of one day being duke he’s not quite as “street” as he could be but he’s in no way prepared to be a duke. He just wants to live his life and marry Wendy!
Wendy is a seamstress who has a brother who got in deep from gambling. He went to Wendy and now she’s working off her brothers debt by dealing in the “slum lord’s” gambling hell. She thinks she’s now free of Demon Damon – but what she comes to realize is that she may never be done with the man as he’s obsessed with her.
Radley does his best to deal with his new responsibilities and still try to court Wendy but she’s not being completely truthful with him and she knows that she can never marry him because of Radley’s new station in life. She’s also well aware that once Radley finds out Demon Damon is the man who’s controlling her life he’ll get himself killed.
What the Groom Wants was an entertaining read. Parts of the book were good and others not so much at all.
The story itself was a bit all over the place, I have to say. Usually stories go along and though different things happen there seems to be one main focus. This book didn’t have that and unfortunately it made me wonder what I should be focusing on. Was I supposed to focus on Wendy’s issues – of which there were many? Should I focus on Radley’s issues? Demon Damon? IDK, it was just a very odd historical romance.
That said there were parts of it that I liked. I liked Radley in general. I loved the way he stood up to his mother, and everyone else for that matter when they wanted to not only change how he dressed but how he lived. He knew he had to do things differently but he wasn’t the type of person to now ignore all of his friends from the poorer part of town. I highly admired the man for being who he was.
Wendy was a good person too but she was just a confused woman. She didn’t seem to know what she really wanted and then when I thought she did it would change in a minute. I did like her but wanted her to get her head on straight.
Overall a bit of a disconnected story but entertaining.
Rating: 3 out of 5
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