Member Reviews

This was a very frustrating book to read. On the one hand, the prose was easy to read, but I failed to find the "curse" or the heroine's trauma believable for some reason.

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This was a delightful book. I liked how the main characters fell in love even after a deceitful start. I'm also glad she stood up for herself when she found out how he had manipulated her and many others. I look forward to reading more books by the author.

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The blurb for this make really screamed "historical romance" to me so I was excited to read it, hoping it'd be as good as it sounded and I'm happy to say that it met my expectations, it was a great reading!!

I loved the opening scene, I thought it was pretty original and had a dramatic quality to it that just got me hooked and I wanted to keep reading and find out what happens next. The plot may sound simple enough but there's actually complexity to it, it has depth and the same goes for the characters, they're not simple minded or one–dimensional, they each have their own problems and demons to face and that allows them to develop and grow.
I enjoyed the author's writing, it's a solid story, the pacing is good, Truly, "The Bad Luck Bride" is a book every fan of historical romance should read. I'd love to keep reading the next book or books in the series.

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A fantastic first book by this author! I am floored by the beautiful characters, the captivating backstory of the heroine, and the surprisingly gentle nature of the hero. I almost didn't read this book, based on some of the reviews on Goodreads. However, I reminded myself that I rarely agree with reviews and should let this book have its day with me. So I did. I read the whole book. And you know what? I don't think I read the same book as those other reviewers. I loved it, and I think you would love it too!

Alexander Hallworth, Marquess of Pembrooke, is on a mission of revenge. After finding out his sister killed herself rather than remain pregnant with a bastard child, he swore to get even with the man who forced her hand. And what better way to do it than to ruin him financially and steal his betrothed? But when he sees her standing in the ballroom at her betrothal ball, a note from her fiance breaking the betrothal clutched in her hand, he sees a kindred spirit and vows to save her from the humiliation he has caused her. They soon find themselves engaged and then married. Lady Claire Cavensham is used to such bad luck. After all, she has gone through four broken betrothals now, all as the result of a curse laid on her since childhood. She finds Alex an easy man to love, but when secrets come out and trust is broken, she must decide if her love for him can surpass his apparent distrust of her. It's a story of deception and lies, and it all seems to come down to the old saying - O, what a tangled web we weave when first we practise to deceive!

This is one of those rare moments when I love the hero way more than I do the heroine. Don't get me wrong - I like both characters very much! There is something about Alex, though, that makes me believes in fairytales again. Sure, he did some questionable things in the first few chapters, particularly in deceiving Claire. However, it quickly becomes clear that he genuinely likes her and just wants to see her happy. However, Claire frequently frustrated me, as she seemed so hung up on the few misunderstandings she had with Alex. She overreacted in a few situations, when really she should have been looking at how kind Alex was to her after they were married. What she kept assuming of him - that he doesn't trust her, that was using her, etc. - didn't match the affection, support, and understanding he showed her. He didn't even consummate the marriage right away, which in those days, said something! Especially of a man who supposedly thought so little of her. It was a bit much ado about nothing, but I still greatly enjoyed them as a couple. Her curse made her vulnerable, and that caused a lot of her insecurities. Once the curse is explained, the reader does fully understand why everything is so hard for her.

Great debut novel for Janna MacGregor! I can't wait to read the next book in the series. Masterful storytelling and a great writing style, this author is one to watch out for.

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If you enjoyed Elisa Braden’s “The Madness of Viscount Atherbourne or Katharine Ashe’s The Devil’s Duke series, then Janna MacGregor’s novel “The Bad Luck Bride” will definitely interest you. This was not your typical light hearted historical romance (thank goodness) and the tension between the two main characters was palpable. The story begins with the Alex, Marquess of Pembrooke, coming to grips with the death of his sister, Alice. Believing Lord Paul, the second son of the Duke of Southart, to have been to blame, Alex sets about ruining him. Lady Claire Cavensham, becomes his pawn when Alex intervenes in her engagement with Lord Paul. Claire has suffered through several failed engagements, and believes herself to be cursed since the death of her parents. What follows is an intense romance that is nearly destroyed by Alex’s demons.
I thoroughly enjoyed the two main characters and felt that Ms MacGregor did a marvellous job with portraying the difficulties faced by both Alex and Claire. Whilst Alex appears to be determined to ruin Lord Paul, his affection for Claire is obvious from the beginning. I look forward to reading the secondary characters in future novels. I now have a new author to look out for!
Thank you to NetGalley for giving me the opportunity to read this novel and to write an honest review.

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I received an advance reader copy in exchange for a fair review. Loved this book. The love story between Claire and Alex has many ups and downs but in the end they have a HEA. It is well written and holds your attention. I would recommend this book for a great read. Beautiful cover.

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The Bad Luck Bride is the perfect name for this story. Lady Claire the daughter of the deceased Duke of Langham has had 4 betrothals that resulted in death or injury of her finance's. Now the Ton has said she is cursed. Lady Claire has secrets and fears that are uncovered in the story. But I liked her.

Lord Alexander Hallworth Marquis of Pembrooke has just buried his sister Alice. Alice has committed suicide and has left her brother a letter. The letter implies that Alex's best friend Lord Paul was responsible for his sister suicide. Now Alex only wants revenge and to destroy his ex friends life. Lord Paul is addicted to gambling and has lost everything to Alex even his fiancée Lady Claire. Alex will marry the Lady Claire to keep her fortune out of the hands of the Gambling Lord Paul.

The H/H Lady Claire and Lord Alex Pembrooke are written in an intelligent way and they resolve there differences in a mature and quick manner, but the same issues causing there marriage problems keep coming back and have to be resolved again and again. The storyline doesn't always flow and connect as it should but this could be because it has not been properly edited as of yet.

The Bad Luck Bride is an enjoyable story with likeable characters. The romance is a sexy sensuous one between the H/H. I am just tired of the old Spinster who lost her virtue storyline. That part of the story can be rewritten as far as I am concerned.
ARC KINDLY PROVIDED BY NETGALLEY FOR AN HONEST REVIE

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Well-written, original, and hard to put down. The characters are complex, and you'll find yourself rooting for true love to win out! I look forward to reading other books in the series.

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I enjoyed this book. The characters had great chemistry and it was great to see Lady Claire's "curse" broken.

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All were shocked at the announcement of the “cursed” Lady Claire Cavensham to Lord Alexander Hallworth, the Marquess of Pembrooke, especially since she is already engaged to another unfortunate Lord Paul. Perhaps she will make it to the altar this time with one of these fine gentlemen! —Midnight Cryer
No one is left breathless at the imperious pronouncement of her engagement to Lord Pembrooke more than Claire. She hardly knows the dangerously outrageous man! But after three engagements gone awry and a fourth going up in glorious flames, she isn’t in a position to refuseAlexander requires the hand of his enemy’s fiancée in marriage in order to complete his plans for revenge. It’s his good fortune that the “cursed” woman is desperate.& also that he’s extremely attracted to her.
A very well written debut novel, in fact so accomplished it’s hard to believe it is a first book. A very well paced story of secrets & misunderstandings. The characters have depth. Alex & Claire are extremely likeable even though they have their flaws. The minor characters are also given depth & I hope some of them have their stories. Both Alex & Claire are battling events from their pasts but gradually they learn to ‘open up’ to each other, the road to their HEA was littered with obstacles both of their own making & by others, these were handled with sensitivity & on the whole were believable. I look forward to more from the author

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I liked the beginning of the story. I did find it a bit hard to connect to Alexander and seeing him as a hero. Both the Alexander and Claire are flawed and the way in which they're flawed, especially the hero makes for a bit of a heavier read. There were some twists in this story.

This story is different and although I didn't connect with the characters as well as I typically do, it is a well-written story and I know that this book will appeal to some readers.

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Scheduled live post on April 25, 2017 on Blue Cat Review
Disclaimer:
The eARC of The Bad Luck Bride was provided by St. Martin's Press and NetGalley in exchange for an honest review, for which I am not being compensated in any way. All opinions are fully my own.
~ Judi E. Easley for Blue Cat Review

My Review:
Ms. MacGregor has created a very sympathetic heroine in Lady Claire. She's pretty but doesn't seem to know it. She's rather quiet in company. And her failed engagements are really not her fault. All she wants to do is get married to a nice man and have children.

Alexander is trying to ruin her fourth fiance. In doing so, he finds himself quite fascinated with Lady Claire. As a reader of romance, you surely know where that leads. This is a rather nice read. I gave it a solid four-stars. I liked the story and the characters. I think there's a lot to work into a series with. I look forward to seeing more of the Cavensham family series. I recommend Lady Claire's story to any of you who enjoy historical romances.

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The story starts off a bit slow but the conflict and plot are well developed, and the reader is pulled into Claire and Alex's complicated relationship. The emotional turmoil and struggles the couple has to face to have their happy ending draws the reader in and you can't help but feel for Claire. Alex definitely digs himself a big hole and he has a lot to atone for in order to win Claire's trust back once all of his secrets are revealed. I very much enjoyed their story. The characters were strong, the plot was compelling, and the development of the relationship with its highs and lows kept me turning the page. I very much enjoyed the book and recommend to any who loves a great historical romance.

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The Bad Luck Bride is the first in a new Regency romance series from Janna MacGregor. This is her first novel, and it shows. I really wanted to like it, but I did not. Main characters Claire and Alex are both unlikable and erratic. They are happy and lustful and everything seems to be going fine, then they are suddenly suspicious and angry and ready to flounce off. The writing is clichéd (“His voice caressed her as he leaned toward her and emerged from the shadows as if he were a hero in a gothic novel.” (p. 59 of the advance reader copy)) and the dialog stilted.

Claire believes she is under a curse, and how she lets the curse affect her life and her marriage is ridiculous. Alex wavers between being a cold-hearted jerk bent on revenge and and a lover wallowing in alcohol and despair. They both seemed very immature.

I read an advance reader copy of The Bad Luck Bride. It is scheduled to be published in May 2017.

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In the end this story turned out to simply be about forgiveness.

Despite the truly amazing amount of coincidences that occurred to brand Lady Claire with the "curse" of never having an engagement end in marriage, the real curse she suffers from is being haunted by the death of her parents in a accident when she was young. Similarly, Alex is tormented by the loss of his sister under tragic circumstances, which has led him to seek revenge on a former friend by stealing his fiance. I really liked that by the middle of the book, both of the characters knew they loved each other and were committed to that, even though the didn't know if they would end up sharing their lives together. I enjoyed how the story worked in the theme of forgiveness in several of the character relationships, whether it was forgiving another person for something they had done, forgiving a misunderstanding, or in the end, the hardest of all, forgiving yourself.

I received an advanced copy in exchange for an honest review.

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The story started off well – I really liked the first scene and had high hopes for the rest of the story. It did not happen. I got bored and the book was almost a DNF. The curse, it was tedious and got old quickly. Also, I could not figure out the reasoning of why Alex was marrying Claire to protect her. From what? He already convinced Lord Paul to break off the engagement so what was the need? Honestly I was more interested in Lord Paul (who I thought would be a villain but dropped off the scene until the end of the book). Do not get me wrong, the story is nice – it is a bunch of observations about Alex and Claire. At around 70% I almost gave up but wanted to see how it would end. The story was better after that point – there were emotions and thoughts of “will they would get back together”.

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Claire is convinced that she's cursed. She's lost her parents at a young age as well as had three engagements broken off in horrible ways. So when Alex comes to her with a proposal she agrees if only to save face. What Claire doesn't know is that her most recent broken engagement was caused by Alex himself. This was a well-written read that I couldn't put down. I was fascinated by the fact that Alex knew that he was wrong but didn't seem to want to do anything about it anyway. I especially enjoyed Claire's family and would love to read more about them.

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<b>REVIEW ONLINE NOW</b>

<img src="https://cdn.meme.am/cache/instances/folder708/500x/54463708.jpg"/>
At the beginning of this book I was confused by all the misconceptions, misunderstanding and mistrust swirling around.

I couldn’t understand the thing about curse… Why Claire was cursed? She thought she was curse, why? What has she done? To whom? Mah…

They’re running circles around each other. Sometime other characters interrupt the conversation between Claire and Alex and we’re left hanging as well as they are.

I hated when that happened! Why people couldn’t see that they’re talking and let them finish? Arghhh…

Still I was intrigued enough to want, almost need, to find out how they’ll get themselves out of their predicament and I kept reading.

The story is complicated and simple enough at the same time!

Alex wants revenge for the suicide of his sister and is prepared to do everything, cheat, lie, manipulate everyone to obtain it!

Poor Claire, who is cursed (I still don’t know what did she do to be cursed), is innocently in the middle of his revenge since she’s almost engaged with the man who (supposedly) ruined Alex’s sister thus causing her suicide.

Alex, being an idiot and not wanting to listen to his friend, who tries constantly to caution him, cause her to brake her engagement and, at the same time, in guise of helping her, compromises her and at the same time offers her marriage.

So they marry. But, while Alex starts to fall for his wife, at the same time he persists in doubting her fidelity and pursuing his revenge. He also hides what he’s done from her, falling more and more in a mire that his convoluted life has become!

At the same time, Claire, unaware of what Alex is doing, tries her best to convince herself that her curse has ended and starts falling in love with Alex.

Obviously, things unravel suddenly and both his and hers world collapses.

Claire, disappointed by Alex’s duplicity and schemes, leaves him.

Alex, fully in love with his wife and ready to do everything to make her return, muddles the things with every words he utters!

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This goes on and on and every time they have a talk trying to clear their situation somebody interrupts them! And Both, passively, let it happen! Double arghhh!!!

At the end they solve their problems, but for me it was like climbing stairs on the 20th floor!!! At the end I was exhausted!

But, because it kept me on my toes and made me feel strongly, I decided that this book merits a full 4 stars!

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This book was beautiful and sweet. I love a good romance novel. 1st book by this author won't be the last

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Janna MacGregor's tale about Claire and Alex is engaging and surprisingly current, while maintaining Regency period authenticity. After giving her heart to her first fiancée who suddenly dies, Claire suffers through two more broken engagements. Alex seems to rescue her in her ignominy, yet all is not as it seems. Haunted by the loss of his sister, Alex executes a plan to avenge his sister's death with Claire as a casualty. What follows is a touching journey of self-discovery, love and forgiveness. I am hoping there will be more in the future about the surrounding cast of characters.

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