Wedding Belles

by Lynn Kerstan, Carla Kelly, Barbara Metzger, et al.

Book Overview

From five beloved and bestselling Regency authors come five brand-new stories about weddings, romance-and cold feet...

• Format: Mass Market Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0451211898
• ISBN13: 9780451211897
• Release Date: May 2004
• Publisher: Signet Book
• Length: 311 Pages
• Weight: 0.38 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.9" x 4.2" x 6.9"

Customer Reviews

19 Stars - Explanation Follows!!

19 Stars: 5 each for Layton, Metzger and Kelly; 2 each for Lane and Kerstan. However, if you are fans of the first three, buy the book and ignore or skim the other two offerings.Layton, Metzger and Kelly are auto-buys for me but, please, Signet, spare us from Alison Lane's efforts in these eagerly awaited anthologies. It was forgettable - I could not be bothered to finish this tepid and ill-written story of a girl fleeing a wicked guardian into the arms of a rake without much cash. It's part of a series but I won't be tempted to read any of the other stories. It's intended to be an "action" type of story with evid-doers chasing the heroine but it's just too shallow and written in such stilted prose that, well, I just didn't care at all.Lynn Kerstan can, and has done, better. Her story is about a penniless ward who is given the opportunity to choose between three sons of a Duke. The three brothers are OK but Julia is immature, silly, acts like a spolit child (which she is) and the story drags on and on until the final resolution. Why, please does the author let the heroine refer to a clergyman (not a nice one we gather) as "Pawson Ribble"? Does she have a speech defect? What's wrong with Parson Ribble? The only thing of any interest (and it stretched credulity) was the heir to the dukedom has asthma and his middle brother applies 21st century techniques to get it under control. Oh botheration, nothing more to be said here.Layton's offering was cleverly written and it had a definite theme: love across class divisions and it was written with grace and humour. It was not her best effort but her characters include a cast of characters from an aristocratic family and one of the city type abhored by the ton. It's a farcical type of tale of two people trying to prevent the marriage of their siblings and, in due course, they fall in love seeing for themselves that love can transcend many obstacles.Metzger, as always, writes with a light hand and spins a fairy tale about good versus evil by having the devil and St Peter fight for the soul of a Marquis who has been a bad boy back in London and now lies near death on a Spanish battlefield. As always, her prose is light, sparkling and funny and her characters act out a cleverly plotted tale on their way to a happy and romantic conclusion.Kelly, always an admired favourite has a very unusual offering. Her story of a widowed American sea captain who falls in love with a prickly and unhappy Englishwoman was well written as always with this author and it was charming to read a story of a 40 year old widower falling in love despite himself with a 32 year old spinster. A background of the press gangs and President Jefferson's imminent Embargo Act of 1807 gave the story a very interesting setting. Buy the book if you like Signet anthologies as much as I do and enjoy the three best stories. Maybe some readers will enjoy Lane and Kerstan but I'm certain everyone will enjoy Layton, Metzger and Kelly