The Banished Bride: 6

by Andrea Pickens

Book Overview

Sent to capture an infamous lady spy, Alexander mistakenly takes prisoner a woman he met years ago-the day she became his wife. This description may be from another edition of this product.

• Format: Mass Market Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0451205618
• ISBN13: 9780451205612
• Release Date: March 2002
• Publisher: Signet Book
• Length: 224 Pages
• Weight: 0.90 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.7" x 4.2" x 6.8"

Customer Reviews

Was fate involved in getting these two together?

"The Banished Bride" by Andrea Pickens (March 2002) Scandalous Secrets Book 1 At fourteen Aurora was offered as a winning bet in a game of chance. She was to become the bride to a son of the Earl of Woodbridge. She was heavily veiled and her inebriated groom forced to the altar. After the wedding the groom went off in his scarlet regimentals of a Lieutenant in The Horse Guards. When his father asked how long he would be gone he replied "I've no idea. The longer, the better". Aurora was to be sent to one of the estates owned by her husband but she took off with her nanny who had inherited a small sum. She and her nanny found out that her husband wasn't a total cad as he was sending her money every year. She didn't know where he was and after so many years (about 10) she didn't care. She ran a business called "The Sprague Agency for Distressed Females" . Going by the name of Aurora Sprague she saved wives threatened by their husbands and found out all sorts of information on unfaithful husbands. She had a girl who needed to be moved to Scotland and she had to take her there but in her haste she forgot about arranging for a companion for herself on the way back. So she he found herself with only her coachman. Alex Fenimore (the groom) found out he was now the heir since his brother Charles had recently died of an illness. He was the new Earl of Woodbridge and was being released from his duties on the continent to return home but he didn't want to go. His commanding officer General Winthrop took pity on him and gave him one last assignment...to find a spy, a woman spy somewhere off the west coast of Scotland. Unfortunately the act of Aurora being alone brought her to the attention of Alex who thought she was the spy. What a mad and interesting development this all becomes. Happy Reading! Reading Genie. You might like some of the other books by Andrea Pickens: A Diamond in the Rough Second Chances The Hired Hero A Lady of Letters The Major's Mistake

Well written but too short

I liked the characters in this book as well as the plot. The heroine is one you can admire and understand, and the hero has whit and humor and honesty about his own character flaws. My only complaint is that the story feels like it ends in the middle of the plot. It almost feels as if the author was pushed to make her deadline and needed to wrap it up quickly. This book could easily have supported another 100 pages of life after the hero and herione swallow their pride and allow love to conquer all. Well written overall book, though.

An exceptional Regency

This one's a winner. Aurora and Alex are marvelous, thoroughly realized romantic leads. Watching them get to know each other, spar, and fall in love is thoroughly delightful. The secondary characters are well drawn, too. Pickens takes a unique, but somewhat questionable on the surface, plot and makes it glow. It's one of her best works (along with A Diamond in the Rough & A Lady of Letters). The spy plot is little more than a device, being "off screen" most of the time, but it is handled deftly. And there were a couple of moments that were slightly discordant after the "revealing" of the truth. Other than those minor nitpicks, this is a grand book, well worth the read. I almost want to pick it back up and read it again.

What a thoroughly original story!!

The plot is interesting - even though the spy bit was a little less played out than I would have liked. Other than that, I loved the characters, the way they converse with eachother, and the way they discovered eachother's identity.. I can definitely see this developed later on as a longer novel because it has so much potential. But in its current form, it's still a wonderful story.

A wonderful Regency romance!

To settle a debt between their fathers, fourteen-year-old Elizabeth Jane Aurora Taft is married to twenty-year-old James Hadley Alexander Fenimore, the third and youngest son of the Earl of Woodbridge. After the ceremony, the groom, who recently bought a commission in the Horse Guards, leaves for India to join his regiment. Their fathers arrange that Aurora will return home until she turns sixteen; thereafter she will reside at Rexford House, the smallest, most run-down, and isolated of the Woodbridge lands, which Alex inherited from his grandfather.Ten years later, Elizabeth Jane Aurora Fenimore has discarded her married name for her mother's family name, Sprague, and lives quietly at Rose Cottage with her former governess. Aurora, founder of the Sprague Agency for Distressed Females, has earned a reputation for solving women's problems with efficiency and dispatch. Local ladies with philandering husbands -- husbands who are, as a result of Aurora's investigations, willing to spend money on their wives instead of their mistresses -- and women Mrs. Sprague has spirited away from their abusive husbands view her as an angel sent from heaven to aid them. The men, no doubt, think her a devil sent from Hell to plague them, but Aurora is not concerned with the opinions of men. Having herself suffered a gross injustice at the hands of a man, she feels empathy for the women she helps.Alex is shocked when the news reaches him on the Peninsula that he has inherited the earldom. Not only did he never imagine he would accede to the title, he doesn't want to leave the army. The War Department is adamant that he take up his duties as earl, but gives him one last mission to perform on his way home: To capture a traitor passing vital intelligence to the enemy. With the meager information available, Alex sets sail for Ayr, Scotland in search of the agent -- a female. An ambush leaves him with a pistol ball in his shoulder, but Alex catches up with the woman again...or so he thinks. After she has a doctor treat his wound and then nurses him through a fever, Alex realizes Mrs. Aurora Sprague is not the havey-cavey female she seems. When the traitor again tries to kill "Major Alex Woodmore," and threatens Aurora, they flee...but will the secrets they keep, despite the passion that blazes between them, destroy their chance for love and a happy ending?THE BANISHED BRIDE is absolutely wonderful! This compelling story of second chances and the healing power of love evokes, in turn, smiles and teary eyes. Alex and Aurora are marvelous, multi-layered characters with whom readers cannot help but fall in love. Both learned, at an early age, not to expect love or support from their families -- and rejection hurts, even when it comes from people undeserving of regard. Although they both have faults and hide their vulnerability behind a brave façade, Alex and Aurora have many admirable qualities -- qualities the other has never encountered in a member of the opposite sex. Duri

a wonderful and satisfying read

At first glance the premise for this Regency romance seems incredibly far-fetched. How on earth could a husband and wife, after many years of separation, not recognise each other (never mind not being familiar with each other's names) when they finally meet? Andrea Pickens, however, has written a really engrossing and enjoyable novel using exactly this plot premise, and amazingly enough, this premise becomes both probable and completely believable under her skilled hands.The novel opens with a scene at a gambling house, where the fathers of the hero and heroine are deep at play. The Earl of Woodbridge has been steadily losing to Baron Trumbull. In order to clear his debts, the earl offers his 19 year old son, James Hadley Alexander Fenimore, as a husband for Trumbull's troublesome 14 year old daughter, Elizabeth Jane Aurora. Eager to be rid of his daughter (whom we gather is a budding feminist), Trumbull agrees. On the day of the wedding, young Alexander turns up very drunk and dressed in a uniform, while Aurora is dressed from head to foot is a thick wedding veil -- so that the couple don't actually see each other at all. Wedding over, Alex hands his bride over to his father and leaves for India. Thirteen years pass, Alex is happy with his career in the army, while Aurora has been living quietly in the country (having forsaken both the Fenimore household and name) under the name of Aurora Sprague (her maternal grandmother's name). She's also made a name for herself for running The Sprague Agency For Distressed Females. The agency does everything from spiriting abused wives away from their abusers to providing information to women about their spouses, business partners, etc. And it is because of her latest errand to spirit an abused wife across the Border that Aurora's path crosses with Alex's again.The death of his father and both his elder brothers has made Alex the new Earl of Woodbridge; and as such, he must now sell out of the army and return to civilian life. This he is loath to do; however a request from Wellington to ferret out a rather dangerous female spy who is operating in England, sweetens the pot somewhat. Alex begins his search in earnest, and believing that the lone woman traveling in her own personal coach is the spy he is after, he forces his way in Aurora's coach and arrests her. Aurora is incensed; and too late, Alex realises that he has made a mistake. But before he can undo his error, one of the spy's paid assassins is on their trail; and now Alex must keep Aurora at his side for her own protection as much as because he feels deeply attracted to her. Danger aside, Alex realises that Mrs. Sprague is not someone with whom he can dally carelessly with, mostly because, notwithstanding her sharp tongue, Alex senses that Aurora is someone who has been badly hurt by the men in her life, her absent husband especially. What would happen if Aurora discover that he has (like her own husband) abandoned his own wife? As for Aurora, she n