Whirlwind Wedding

Author: Jacquie D'Alessandro
Published: September 2000 (Bantam)
Category: Regency Romance
Rating: 7.5/10

I can't remember why I picked up this book, one of D'Alessandro's earlier titles. Maybe I saw a review of one of her newer books and figured I should read an older book before I go running off buying a new author. I can say that since reading Whirlwind Wedding, I've ordered three more of her books. Hooray for finding new authors with backlists! There's a teensy hint of the paranormal in this romance, as the heroine, Elizabeth has visions of the future.

Austin Randolph Jamison, ninth Duke of Bradford, met the uncanny beauty at the ball at Bradford Hall. And from that first moment, he was stunned. How could this unsophisticated female, who climbed a tree in a ball gown to rescue a kitten, know secrets that could ruin his family and speak of danger that threatened them all? Who was she, this American bluestocking who knew too much, whose innocence shone in her eyes even as her full lips tempted sin? Suddenly the duke knew he could not afford to let her go...

At their first, and might I add enchanting, meeting, Elizabeth rescues Gadzooks the kitten. Charmingly, Austin's groom named each kitten as it was birthed, like "Gadzooks! There's another one!" and not all of the names are fit for a lady's ears. Austin finds conversation with Elizabeth to be like a breath of fresh air and how he's strangely attracted to someone so un-ladylike, until she proclaims that his brother is still alive - a brother who may have betrayed the country in France, but is honored as a hero who died.

While a houseguest in Austen's home, Elizabeth has a vision of him being shot at after she had already warned him he'd be in danger on a particular night. Of course, he doesn't listen to her and nearly dies, if not for her running out in the middle of the night to find him and care for him, which led to her being compromised when they were discovered together the next morning.

Something that annoyed me: Right when Austin's about to say the big "I love you," relatively early in a romance novel, Elizabeth pretends that she doesn't care for him and her vision of their daughter dying means that she can't have ANY children with him at all, and that she only married him to become a duchess, and hey, can I have a divorce? All of this was just piled on in the span of a page and I can't blame Austin for being angry and feeling deceived. And Elizabeth was being cowardly and then acted all pitiful when he sent her away to wait out the month and find out if she'd gotten pregnant during the happy portion of their marriage.

Good stuff: D'Alessandro writes well, and the characterization of Austin and Elizabeth was great and they were so lovely together. I didn't have a problem with the writing; the plot was what bugged me.

Still a good read, if you disregard the cheesiness at the end (near-death experience).