RULE'S BRIDE was an Excellent Read

Finally finished Rule’s Bride, which is the final in the Bride Trilogy by Kat Martin. The trilogy is actually about the Dewar brothers and how they became happily married. It began with the oldest brother and concluded with the youngest brother’s marriage, Rule. Although I didn’t read either of the other novels in the series, just the last one, I was not at all lost in the novel itself and thoroughly enjoyed the novel completely. Each novel is a stand alone, for which I am absolutely grateful to Ms. Martin for her talent at creating such a wonderful world of characters that makes them familiar enough in this novel that you don’t see them as exact strangers, because they are important to Rule because they are his brothers, and, at the same time, their lives are separate from what is going on in his world and the world of this novel.

There was nothing overly surprising about the novel itself. It was a pleasant read. It had scorching love scenes, but as the story progressed there was a surprising introduction of a second love story which centered around the character of Caroline who just so happened to be the cousin of Rule’s bride Violet. I rather enjoyed the glimpses of Caroline’s story as well; and there was a murder mystery to solve with Rule being the main suspect in the murder investigation! AND an impending Civil War in the U.S.!
If not for life getting in the way, this would have been one of those reads where I would have picked up the book and read it in less than three days, but, alas, life did get in the way and I had to do other things other than just read; however, each moment I did get free, I did find myself stealing away into a quiet corner of sunshine to read a page or two here and there just to get a bit further into the story.

Kat Martin is one of my favorite authors in romance novels, and especially in the historical romances. In fact, she is one of the few writers of historical romances I actually will read any more because she makes them real and not just slapped together. Even if the “historical” parts are not completely accurate (I love history you see, especially the Victorian era) it doesn’t matter, because she gets the feel of the period perfect – at least for me.

I don’t suspect I will be going back and reading the other two novels of Royal’s Bride and Reese’s Bride but I’m definitely keeping them in my list of possibles – you never know when there might be a need for a good historical Victorian romance.

According the “Author’s Note” section at the end of the novel, the next novels for Ms. Martin is going to be a contemporary trilogy “centered on the handsome Raines brothers.” The first novel is going to be Against the Wind and will be set in Wyoming. Normally contemporary romances set my teeth on edge, but I just may give this one a chance. I haven’t read a true contemporary romance from Kat Martin. She does everything so well I can’t see how this couldn’t be anything except excellent!