Review of The Marriage Contract (Marriage by Fairytale #1) by Ruth Ann Nordin
The Marriage Contract is the first book in the series Marriage by Fairytale.
Patricia Cotter, the widowed Lady of Pruett, is pregnant and in need of protection. She's been cursed by a gypsy, a curse that was given to her mother and passed to Patricia upon her mother's death. Now with nowhere to go, her friend Lewis knows just where to take her.
Stephen Bachman is a wealthy man with a shadowy past that hides his face behind a mask. He isolates himself on his estate outside London and sees only Lewis and his sister Loretta and her family. When Lewis brings Patricia to his door, Stephen agrees to take her on, but he has conditions.
1) Patricia can never look at Stephen's face without his mask.
2) Patricia can never remove the sheets covering the mirrors.
3) Patricia can never ask Stephen about his past.
She agrees to the terms, and so begins a marriage of convenience. But Patricia, and soon her baby, bring a warmth and light to Stephen's life he didn't expect, and the protection he gives her goes beyond merely practical and into friendship.
As the two grow closer, Patricia can't help but wonder how long it will be before the gypsy finds her and once again takes away all she loves.
This was listed as a Beauty and the Beast retelling. It is not. It takes advantage of the trope, but a trope is not a retelling. The tags listed on Smashwords are: Beauty and the Beast fairytale, bride, curse, gothic romance, pregnant heroine, Regency romance, secluded hero, sex, suspense, and Victorian romance. Some of these tags are contradictory, like Regency romance and Victorian romance—two time periods separated by seventeen years—which either lends to the author trying to grab as many readers as possible to make as much money as possible, or not understanding her own genre. Neither is favorable. Nor is mistaking a trope for a retelling.
I inched my way through this book. It took me three months to read it, and every time I picked it up I hoped it would get better, was disappointed when it didn't, and then seriously considered DNF'ing it. Every time. The writing was simplistic, the dialog awkward and unnatural, it was full of mistakes about how a manor house would run especially regarding children, there was an abysmal amount of telling instead of showing, and dear God the birthing scene was awful. I've never given birth and even I know that's not how things work!
There was potential in the basic concept of the story, but once the author started to add details to it, the concept crumbled under its own weight. She wanted the story to be suspenseful with the threat of the gypsy, but there was no threat of the gypsy, just Patricia worrying about the gypsy. That's not suspense; that's anxiety. Not the same thing, and I would know because I have intense anxiety.
The climax wasn't good, especially Stephen's portion. It was so uninteresting that I paused in the middle of a sword fight because I was bored and left the book unopened for two weeks at 88% read.
Thank God it's over.
I will not be reading any more books by Ruth Ann Nordin.
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