The Obedient Bride
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3.9 • 108 Ratings
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- $5.99
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- $5.99
Publisher Description
Geoffrey, the new Viscount Astor, needs a wife. Since he sets no great store by love and romance, he decides it would be eminently sensible to offer marriage to one of the three daughters of his predecessor. He has never met any of them and has no preference. He leaves the choice to them and their mother.
Arabella, the middle daughter, volunteers to make the sacrifice and marry the earl since her older, far more lovely, sister is already in love with someone else. She prays that he will be an older man of few attractions, for she sees herself as plain and uninteresting. She is dismayed to discover that Geoffrey is, in fact, young, handsome, and fashionable. She vows to be a dutiful, obedient wife and to devote her life to making him comfortable.
Arabella's plan seems to be working nicely for both Geoffrey and herself—until, that is, she discovers something about him that shocks her to the core. It is an offense she considers quite unforgivable. And when Arabella makes up her mind about something, she is not easily persuaded to change it.
Geoffrey is finally shaken out of his complacency to the discovery that his wife means far more to him than he had realized. But how is he to win her back when she flatly refuses to be wheedled out of her outrage?
Customer Reviews
All dialogue
Mary Balogh did NOT convince me with this book. We have Lord Astor and Arabella. Arabella is a country girl who isn’t pretty and she knows it. The fact she continued to describe Arabella as childlike physically became slightly disturbing. I got tired of Arabella calling heralded unattractive. We follow her through a transformation due to her husband, Lord Astor. He gets her new gowns and changes her hair. She herself decides to go on a diet which Lord Astor doesn’t like. Aside from Arabella being insecure and mature for her age of eighteen… there’s really not very much I can say about this character. There’s the obvious, she’s dutiful to her role as a wife and woman. That’s it. She’s also very Christian since she expected Lord Astor to stay faithful even though their marriage was one of convenience.
Then, we have Lord Astor who keeps his mistress (why wouldn’t he? It was seen as normal). I suppose he falls in love with his wife but not passionately enough for me to believe him. It might just be the way MB writes. She has many characters which is fun but none have enough detail for me to be transported into a different world. MB tells you the main characters thoughts but not quite their emotions. Her secondary characters have actions.
This is my first MB book. I’ve been wanting to read MB for a while since she’s such a renowned author but kept reading from authors I’ve read before. I have to say, I’m slightly disappointed but will give another MB book a try, perhaps a more modern one. Hopefully her writing has changed.