| Title | : | The Bride Who Wouldn't (Honeymoon #1; The Russian Billionaires #1) |
| Author | : | |
| Rating | : | |
| ISBN | : | - |
| Language | : | English |
| Format Type | : | Kindle Edition |
| Number of Pages | : | 113 |
| Publication | : | First published June 16, 2014 |
B00L2F5P02.
A romantic honeymoon in Paris, with a sexy billionaire Russian groom….
There are only two problems. It’s a marriage of convenience. And, the virgin bride is frigid.
Kate Edwards has never embraced her sensuality, is terrified of intimacy, and the wedding night is a disaster. Instead of calling the whole thing off, Isaak Zaretsky listens to her and challenges her using his unashamedly sensual nature and superb bedroom skills. But can Kate really give herself without love?
The Bride Who Wouldn't (Honeymoon #1; The Russian Billionaires #1) Reviews
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I don't know what I just read here, but this is not your grandmother's romance or even Mom's. What to say about our Russian H? He's not your typical billionaire, accusatory Russian asshat other than a few preliminary inner monologuing on gold-diggers and the gullibility of older Russian billionaires as in his uncle that the h was engaged to before he died. (Eye roll) the h is actually a charming and caring hero intent on seducing the heroine because no way is he going to go for a year without sex...he demonstrates what he will be required to do in a crude hand gesture heretofore
unseenunread in a romance if celibacy is absolutely necessary during the year long marriage he proposes for stupid reasons. Sorry for the run-on.
Too bad the h is a self-admitted frigid iceberg. How did she become frigid? The H gets all hot and bothered and prepares to whup some mythical third party, heroine-abusing ass when he finds out the real story behind the iceberg.
Well, my plane is at the gate and my free wifi is about to shut down so who cares about the plot, the brother with his own story, the cruel father dying in Russia, or the genealogical pseudo mystery. I think "love garden" is quite enough to go on. -
Squicky book
First off the story is only 50% of the book. The rest was a story about 'gamers' which is a total buzz kill for me. The first story was okay but there was one scene that totally squicked me out. I was just grossed out and the book just never came back from that with me. Carol is one of my all time favorite authors but this story was just meh. I had a hard time getting into it and it ran out of steam early. Safe but I warn you, you're going to be totally squicked out at that scene. -
It was ok, I guess. I needed something short and simple, and this was free on Amazon! So, I gave it a try.
This is the typical HQ style novel, about a woman who is forced to marry some man she doesn't even know. Of course, they end up falling in love. -
3 to 3 1/2 stars
Please note:
In my Kindle version of the book,
The Bride Who Wouldn't, ends at 51%.
Another free novella is included at 52%:
The Honeymoon Trap. THT is the fourth book offered in this series by different authors.
My rating is for the first book only. -
Well, what can I say? Plain ole romance is definitely my thing.
-
Kate Edwards is a historian who runs classes on tracing your genealogy. She met Ivor Zaretsky at one and they became friends. She was helping him trace his Russian ancestors and she told him of her own family issues. He offered her a one year contracted marriage for $3 million; one million on engagement, another on the wedding and the last payment after the divorce.
But then he died suddenly and she discovers that he isn’t a billionaire. Her first payment is the last of his fortune and his nephews want it back. But she already gave it to her family.
Isaak Zaretsky decides to honour the contract; Kate will wed him instead. She’s twenty six, a virgin and terrified of intimacy but there’s no way she can repay the money.
She thinks she can get to Paris for the honeymoon and then tell Isaak they won’t be having sex. He has other ideas.
***
Other than the over the top story line (why would anyone give their family a million when she knows they will waste it?), and the violent changes of character (evil, angry Isaak turns instantly sweet), I don’t like the writing style. It’s really overwritten. The purplest of purple prose.
Why are they talking dollars if they’re in London? Euros? Pounds?His stern mouth softened and there was a small fan of lines around his eyes like rays of the sun coming out and Kate was suddenly nervous but for different reasons for she had never truly been attracted to a man. (Kindle Locations 6666-6667)
Ugh. It throws me into edit mode. I want to correct it. Don’t tell us ‘she locked the door closed behind her’. What is that? Who locks a door open? It’s doubly redundant.They were driven and were mostly silent but as they approached the Russian Orthodox church where dark crowds were gathering Isaak turned to her. (Kindle Locations 6798-6799).
That isn’t where the sentence should end…
‘The wake he did not inflict on her…’
Shudders.
I don’t think I have ever heard anyone say ‘then I shan’t’ in conversation.
Her freckles aren't REMOVED by the makeup artist; they might be covered.
*Grits teeth*
There is an unnecessary ‘for’ in almost every sentence. It’s starting to make me crazy.His kiss burnt not just her chest or her lips now, for there was a fire spreading low in her stomach, a fire she had glimpsed but once and now it returned to the stir of his tongue.
But once? This isn’t Middle English.Yes, Isaak thought as her kiss deepened, as the audience cheered and clapped for they could stop now, yet they continued on. He kissed her harder, his tongue sworded hers, but then she halted things and pulled back startled.
No thought indicators. Yet another ‘for’. If they can’t stop you don’t need to say that they continued. You also don’t need to say they continued ON. Fullstop needed after harder. Sworded is NOT the right word. It means to be carrying a sword - like ‘armed’ but with a sword. Even ‘pierced’ won’t work because he doesn’t punch a hole in her tongue. He’s kissing her, not wounding her. The ‘halted things’ is unnecessary.
Her bath is now mocking her… now it’s delicious. Please tell me she isn’t consuming her bubble bath.
She’s sleeping under a throw rug? A throw, maybe. A throw RUG goes on the floor.
‘The door knocked’ No. Doors don’t knock.
‘A thick creamy envelope’? No. Cream. Envelopes aren’t creamy. Ice-cream is creamy.His legs as he dried them were muscular and lean and the scent of him, fresh from the shower and doused in cologne, had her forget her own question as he answered.
WHAT?
The sex is… I want to say… worse.Kate could feel her face all hot and the friction within her had her thighs start to tremble, and she tried to pull her hips back, but he held her from the inside and would not give her space and he would not relent. She came to his hand, and Isaak stroked her through the deep contractions with both his fingers as his mouth caressed her and till her flushed face fell to the pillow. Isaak felt her come abate and removed his fingers and took a breath and inhaled her scent and then moved over where Kate lay catching her breath, sated but slightly shocked as he pressed his fingers to her lips so she could both taste and smell herself. (Kindle Locations 7978-7982)
Came TO his hand… Felt her come abate? Shake my head.
Sighs…
***
I just can’t work it out. This is 2014, so it’s not one of her first works. Her bio says she’s written seventy books and she has a Harlequin contract.
This is from Tule Publishing - a small ebook press with a few imprints. But I’d swear an editor hasn’t been near this book.
And from the other GR reviews, I’m clearly in the minority. Most readers don’t seem to care. Well… good luck to her but I won’t be reading more works by this author.
1 purple prose star.
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I don't get it. How do you fall in love with someone who forces your to marry them and there is very little chemistry between them. And he's not even a billionaire!
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It was an okay read, there wasn’t much angst. 🤷🏻♀️
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In The Bride Who Wouldn't by Carol Marinelli, Kate is doing all she can to keep the family antique business from going under after the death of her father and subsequent poor management by her mother and brothers. Kate loves antiques, history and her family. She is a historian teaching genealogy when she meets Ivor who is researching his family's Russian roots. She becomes good friends with Ivor, even traveling to Russia with him.
They both have secrets and they both need help, so a contract between them is drawn up for a marriage of convenience. In return for marrying Ivor for a year, Kate will receive much needed money for her family business. But Ivor dies suddenly before they can be wed. Suddenly the deal is over, and Kate is faced with some unexpected decisions. Ivor's nephew Issak gives Kate the choice to pay back the money...or marry him. Feeling stuck, Kate decides the wedding will go on. Despite her attraction to Ivor though, she will not give him everything. It will remain a marriage of convenience. There are things Isaak doesn't know, and by the time he realizes the extent of it, they are on their honeymoon in Paris. Surprised by his reaction and attraction to Kate, Isaak sets about to woo her and to really make her his.
As Paris and Isaak work their magic, Ivor's secrets slowly come to light. Isaak will discover there is more to both Kate, Ivor, and even himself than he imagined there could be!
The Bride Who Wouldn't is a fun, fast paced steamy hot novella! Kate manages to draw you in quickly and keep you there, adding a little bit of mystery with the romance that makes the story line unique and intriguing. Kate and Isaak are both very likeable characters and very similar in a lot of ways. They are both strong and very loyal to their family's...even when you might question why. Their romance was unexpected and fast, but Carol really made it believable. More importantly she made Kate and Isaak people we'd love to be with.
The pace of The Bride Who Wouldn't was appropriate, and this novella is the perfect length for Kate and Isaak's story. Carol throws in a few surprises along the way, and I felt the way she gives us some of the answers to some of the secrets fit really well with the story line.
I'd recommend The Bride Who Wouldn't to any romance reader who likes it hot, fast, and a bit mysterious!! -
Three and a half stars.
Read as part of the Australian Bestsellers Box Set.
This reads like an old fashioned category romance complete with fake relationships, marriages of convenience and a virgin bride. And yet, I did love it!
Kate entered into a bizarre contract with an elderly Russian millionaire called Ivor, a fake relationship including a marriage of one year, in return for three million pounds. Unfortunately, Ivor died before they could get married and under the terms of the contract she must repay the million pound downpayment to his nephew Isaak - money that her family has already spent/ wasted.
At first Isaak thinks Kate must be a bimbo fortune hunter but once he meets her he finds her very different to what he expected. In order to take press speculation away from his brother's recent bereavement and his own playboy lifestyle he offers her a deal. The same contract that his uncle offered her - a one year marriage. But the joke is on Isaak because Kate and Ivor had no intention of consummating their marriage and she has no intention of having sex with Isaak. Kate believes herself frigid and incapable of a normal sexual relationship, she thinks Isaak will demand an annulment once he discovers he is to remain celibate for one year or pay Kate in full - but she doesn't know her new husband that well.
As Isaak takes Kate to Paris for a romantic honeymoon and 'Pretty Woman's her in glitzy shops could they be falling in love? -
First reviewed at Keeper Bookshelf
The Bride Who Wouldn’t is such a charming, sensuously delicious story. Isaak is devastated by the death of his beloved uncle, Ivor. When he discovers that Kate had agreed to a contracted marriage with financial benefits based on three stages of that marriage of convenience, he was livid and intended for her to pay… pay the money given back immediately. When she couldn’t – he then offered her one and only one option… a marriage of convenience to him, with his rules for one year. Surprisingly, she accepted – well, as if she had any other option really.
Isaak and Kate will discover on their honeymoon in Paris that not everything is as it seems on the surface. Where Kate feels she has the perfect revenge for Isaak’s highhandedness – in fact, she has handed him the key to her sensuous surrender to the terms of their marriage. This couple will discover depths of patience, affection and understanding along their journey. They will also uncover clues into a mystery in Isaak’s past, one that will lead to answers for a happy future for them both.
The Bride Who Wouldn’t is an extremely enjoyable journey to discover one woman’s fear of her sexual needs, and one man’s realization that he isn’t the bad boy he once thought as he slowly unravels Kate’s defences and opens up his own heart to love. I enjoyed these two people, their sparing, the sensuous haze around them and the mystery that is Ivor.
Roman, Isaak’s brother who is mentioned often in this story has his own tale told in Born To Be Bad.
Looking for a fast paced love story that will keep you turning pages to find out how it ends? Then this story is for you. Enjoy the adventure as two unlikely people find love and marriage to be perfect for them – if not in that order. -
This is a Honeymoon Novella. It is book 1.
This story is set in Paris.
It is the story of Kate Edwards and Isaak Zaretsky.
Kate has been helping her friend, Ivor, study his genealogy. He has some family mysteries that need solved. Kate's family business is failing, and Ivor decides to try to help Kate with this. He has made a contract for one year of marriage in exchange for money to help get the family business out of debt. There will be no sex and they will only appear married when they are in the public eye. Before the wedding can take place, Ivor suddenly dies.
Isaak, who is Ivor's nephew, has knowledge of the contract. He tells Kate she can either pay back the money or agree to marry him. Kate, having no way of paying back the money, contacts her mother. Her mother, only thinking of herself, thinks it is a good idea to have Kate marry Isaak instead to keep the money for the business.
After she agrees to marry Isaak, they head to Paris to honeymoon. There they find out some answers to things in Isaak's family that were not known. They also discover a hidden desire and passion for each other. Is there honeymoon pretend? Or is it more real than either of them know? Did Ivor set a plan in motion before his death that would bring Kate and Isaak together?
I enjoyed this story immensely. It was fast paced, intriguing, and grabbed my attention early in the story. I will definitely read more from author Carol Marinelli. -
Great story idea but not much depth. I am 50% through the e-book and finished with the story. It was very short. The rest of the book is advertisement and a sample from other authors.
I was expecting a great mystery or some suspense but there was so little. The book description was written better than the book.
Characters were alright, story idea was great, but it was too short for much detail. It was a quick 4 day HEA. Not too bad for a quick read. Maybe a 2.5 stars. -
This was a quick read.
Kate is a genealogist who works at a library helping people research their families. She meets Ivor, a Russian man who is trying to piece together his past. Something happens to him, and now his nephew is trying to figure out who this mysterious woman is. They end up marrying in a quick turn of events and end up in Paris. -
Simply didn't like the book!
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Steamy novella
After his uncle dies, Russian Billionaire businessman Isaak discovers a contract Between his uncle and English genealogist Kate. In it his uncle promises to give Kate and her family $3 million if she will marry his uncle for a year and spend 4 nights With him in Paris. Enraged, he confronts Kate only to discover that he’s intrigued by her. So he makes her proposition, transfer the contract to him and he’ll save her family. Anger at his audacity but unable to repay the money already given Kate agrees after all she only has to follow the letter of the contract not the spirit of it. And so the honeymoon begins...
—
This is a novella that’s full of a lot more with family secrets than I would’ve expected from the blurb. It takes them about half of the book to even get to Paris. And there’s a lot of antagonistic bickering back-and-forth.
Marriage of convenience happens to be one of my favorite tropes. But this is a bit dubious consent. Mostly because he has all of the power and she is really behind the eight ball and unable to get out of the arrangement.
There’s some stuff here about virginity and rigidity that I wish I’d been handled a bit better than it was. I wasn’t terribly fond of the ending of the whole she’s not leaving Paris a virgin.
That being said I actually did like Kate and Isaac as characters. I liked the surprise backstory of family secrets that showed up and I wish I did more of a focus and away. I wanted more of them working together to discover his past. It’s not a bad novella.
But because it’s not perfect and I don’t really feel the need to read the next book in the series I’m going to give this...
four stars -
1.5 stars
Talk about a relationship at lightning speed! I couldn't figure out how the second half of the book would proceed given the fast pace of the story. I checked the table of contents and yes, there it is. Surprise! This book finishes at the 50% mark and includes a bonus book. I wish authors would not do this.
Onto the 'The Bride Who Wouldn't'... I will say I do think both characters had potential. As different as their upbringings and outlook on life was, I can see how Kate and Isaak would be attracted to each other. There are several scenes that show how well they get on and these bright spots are why I am giving this book the extra half star.
The downside, is that everything is so rushed that you barely have a chance to absorb information before we're onto the next big revelation. As a result, there is a lot of telling and not a lot showing. It makes it hard to swallow the storyline when major life experiences are blithely skipped over.
Adding to the confusion, the typeset of the book makes it a poor reading experience given the constant swapping of character points of view. -
Absolutely ridiculous but in a fun way. I mean, who wouldn't enjoy a book in which the heroine confesses that she's a virgin because ? I loved that the hero doesn't act at all like the stereotypical virile alpha male HP hero when she tells him their marriage will be in name only; he's disappointed and hopes she'll change her mind eventually but he's sweet and gentle with her in the meantime, while still trying to get what he wants. The rather pat, typical HP revelations about the hero's family seemed like an afterthought but that was fine -- the hero and heroine mostly just interact with each other and that felt right for this story.
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A contract to wed for a year clutched in his angry hands he demanded to see Kate..
Somehow when Ivan and Kate had agreed to the contract she had never imagined he would die before the wedding. They had made no provision for this and she did not have the money to repay him. His nephew was here for the money. What was she to do?
A young women takes a chance to help her family and an older man wants a year without women chasing him. Isaac uses the contract as an excuse to find some peace from the women who chased him. To keep from returning money she didn't have Kate agrees to marry Isaac. What starts out as a business deal turns into a intense exploration of both of them into themselves. A very nicely written book that turns out to be very spicy. -
Because of Kate's background (hateful mother) she has never, ever, given herself to a man. Yes she is a twenty eight year old virgin. She was going to marry Ivor in a marriage of convince, but he dies. Now she is being set upon his nephew to get back the money that was given to her. Isaak then decides to honor the contract his uncle made with Kate. So now they marry. This is her story of discovery in the intimate side of marriage. Isaak is a will partner in helping her. I liked that I found this book by Carol Marinelli and that it wasn't a HP that I know her from. I will look for more books by her.
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I've read this as part of the "Australian Bestseller Box Set" anthology.
* 1 star! Iffy prose (reads like a first-time author), moral values from the 1950s (really, at first I didn't think it was set in the 21st century) and magic-wang healing... See A.M.'s review from Jan 15 2017 for a more detailed review about the writing - spot on. The one thing I liked about the story was the "hero" getting rid of his anger early on in the story, though.
The one star is for the entertainment value and negative example how NOT to write a story. -
Kate finds herself forced to marry Isaak so she can keep her family's business afloat. It is to be a marriage of convenience for all considered. The agreement specifies that they remain married for a year and then the money will change hands and they will divorce. Isaak feels he will benefit from this until Kate states that they will not have sex. Typical romance book - they fall in love and end up staying together.
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Bonus buy
This was a great little novella made even better by the addition of a second great little novella.
The Bride Who Wouldn't is a Russian billionaire arranged marriage tale, whereas The Honeymoon Trap is about a pair who meet online while gaming, and are then set up by his brothers to spend a weekend together.
Very different stories by different authors but both good reads. -
Free on amazon.
Very short story, it's just a novella. The couple meet, have a marriage of convenience and fall in love during their honeymoon in Paris. There is an added dimension of the Hero's mysterious background, and though the story is not a cliffhanger to the romance, there is definitely another book. -
A basic romance
This was a little disappointing you expect a Russian bad boy and what you get is just a sweet romance. It is a fairly boring story a young woman trapped into a marriage of convenience falls deeply for the man, he is not looking for love but finds it in her and they head for a happy ever after. A fairly simple story and basic romance.
