My Brother's Bride
Series: Serendipity, Book 2
By: Rachael Anderson / Narrated By: Helen Taylor
Length: 6 hrs and 41 mins
Oh my! What on EARTH happened with this second in a series…?!?
I’ll start off with what many miffed reviewers decried: A Trigger Warning…
If you’ve been a victim of sexual assault? You might wanna stay away. Noooo, the assault is not written in a scene, but it is described in detail after the fact. And you see, it’s just used as a device to knock our heroine up and for our Hero to shine like a beacon of Manhood that we all wish was ubiquitous… but is NOT.
The first book in Rachael Anderson’s trilogy was a charming, lighthearted romp that had some serious consequences to the Hero and heroine getting together. Prudence, our heroine for that one had an AWEsome sister, plus she had a rather shy and pragmatic friend. So, FIRST, I was disappointed that this second in the series didn’t follow sister Sophia but instead was friend Abigail’s story.
It opens with the Marquess of Brigston, the elder brother who carries the weight of the world ‘pon his shoulders, eyeing his younger brother Jasper and his new bride Abigail. The two had gone and eloped, and this is a hastily thrown together ball to “celebrate” their union. The groom is all over the place; the bride looks all haggard and worn. So whazza deal?
Soon, Jasper, this darling of the ton whom nobody thought would ever settle down, is NOT settling down but scooting off to a hunt, leaving his preggers wife with his family. Brigston is NOT amused, but Jasper, not meeting his eyes, mumbles that Brigston just doesn’t have all the facts.
After a bit, with Abigail all woeful, word comes that Jasper’s been killed in a hunting accident, and everybody’s mourning and at a loss. The woeful Abigail gets more woeful, and soon is saying she HAS to leave, and the truth comes out: This baby isn’t Jasper’s, and she pukes her whole tale of having a shy flirtation with an unsuitable man, ended it, started getting stalked by him, is eventually raped and impregnated by him. So see? NOOOOO fault of her own (As is the case in any rape, yes?), but what IS she to do? Well, not leave. As Brigston pleads with her: Mom, Abigail’s mother-in-law, is grieving her son, please don’t have her grieve the loss of what she believes will be her grandchild. So ix-nay on telling who the father really is.
As time goes on, the uber serious and stalwart Brigston finds that Abigail is the only woman he’s ever known whom he can relax and be playful with; and Abby realizes Brigston is the only person on the estate who can make her laugh. Plus, she starts feeling a flipflop in her stomach when he’s near, feels heat where he touches her. No, don’t worry—this is a clean romance (Thank GOD!), but it rather set up a problem for me which I had a difficult time getting past.
You see, after being raped, Abby could never let Jasper touch her, felt fear and revulsion. TOTALLY understandable. But! With Brigston? Whaaa? What rape? Noooo, kiss me! Hold me! Touch me! All of a sudden she’s cured of nightmares, and she’s cured of her fear of physical intimacy.
And NATurally the truth comes out with mom-in-law, and Abby is sent packing. That Abby had to tell her ticked me off even more than I was already getting ticked, as Brigston promised Abby he’d tell his mother. Uhm, nope, didn’t quite get around to it. There are quite a number of instances of a character letting info kinda not get relayed to the proper person at the proper time, any number of important things being kept secret. And THAT I find unUTTerably annoying.
Yeh yeh yeh. Abby is sent away, and she joins Prudence and Sophia, and they jaunt off to the Season, and somehow Abby is pretty languid about the whole thing, as tho’ Brigston, he who’s set her heart a-fluttering, being in London at the same time is no biggie. Again: Annoying. Prudence and Sophia livened everything up for me, yeh, but they weren’t enough for me to get past Abby being a bit of a wet noodle. It WAS nice that, after the baby is born, Mom-in-Law comes around and warms up. It’s NOT nice that the whole obstacle to Brigston and Abby being together is solved in around three sentences stated in two places.
So huh…
No, I don’t think Abby’s story was the best. But I did sooo like My Sister’s Intended, thought it had a nice style of writing and liked the difficulties within, and I do sooo like Sophia that I’m totally willing to give Book 3 a shot.
It’s just that it won’t be anytime soon. And I am DESperately hoping that Sophia isn’t raped or anything. Don’t mean to be glib, but author Rachael Anderson sure was sooo….
By the way? Narrator Helen Taylor who does all of her books is awesome as usual. Nope, she was NOT the problem I had.
As an Amazon Associate, I earn from qualifying purchases.