Kati Wilde
Autor von The Midwinter Mail-Order Bride
Über den Autor
Reihen
Werke von Kati Wilde
The Midsummer Bride (The Dead Lands #4) 6 Exemplare
Three Dead Land Brides: A Dead Lands Fantasy Romance Collection (Discreet Cover Edition) 6 Exemplare
The Hellfire Riders, Volumes 1-3: Wanting It All, Taking It All, Having It All (The Motorcycle Clubs) (2014) 4 Exemplare
The Motorcycle Clubs: His Wild Desire, Off Limits, and Wanting It All — Autor — 2 Exemplare
Sheriff's Bad Bear (Wolfkin & Berserkers, #4) 2 Exemplare
The Harvest Bride (The Dead Lands) 2 Exemplare
The Hellfire Riders: Jack & Lily 1 Exemplar
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Statistikseite
- Werke
- 43
- Mitglieder
- 376
- Beliebtheit
- #64,175
- Bewertung
- 3.7
- Rezensionen
- 38
- ISBNs
- 27
- Sprachen
- 1
And so is this novel! Though it has some truly great ideas, they are often immediately overshadowed by banality and crudeness… Before I get ahead of myself, though, let me quickly state that this is it (for now) with Christmas romances but I came across the title - “The Wedding Night Before Christmas” - and couldn’t help myself but read it.
Beyond its strangeness, this was a winner for me and this is mostly due to the extremely relatable Audrey “Motherfuckin’” Clarke - how could I not root for her?!
»Two documents, exactly the same—except one was stapled on the diagonal, and the other stapled vertically.
Who does that? Only a monster.«
(Indeed, Audrey, and isn’t it almost as bad if the staple is not either precisely vertical, horizontal or - best of all! - on a precise 45° diagonal?!)
Audrey, the female protagonist and rock upon which this novel safely rests, is a capable, powerful, intelligent, self-made rich, attractive and neurodivergent woman.
»I’m not cold. But I don’t express myself in the same way many people do. I can barely tolerate people touching me or touching them in return. Affection isn’t physical for me; it’s mental and emotional. So I show affection by showing interest—and it’s impossible for me to feign interest if I don’t care about what someone is talking about or doing. But even when I do care, I know my manner comes off as lacking in warmth. If I could act, maybe I could fake it. But I’m not any better at pretending than I am at lying. So I can’t be anything other than who I am.«
Caleb, the male protagonist, approaches Audrey because he needs her financial backing to get even with a family who is trying to sue him out of his inheritance. His unconventional idea: He proposes marriage to Audrey and she accepts on the spot.
At this point, I looked up the author, Kati Wilde, to see if I had accidentally stumbled into a male wish-fulfilment fantasy… (Looks like I hadn’t.)
Caleb also swears all the time. For no fucking reason at all. In every second sentence. I’m not fucking exaggerating. And he has a “slight” personality problem:
»Personality-wise, I’m a vulgar asshole at my worst, and miles away from Prince Charming at my best.«
This becomes especially grating when very nice ideas…
»A fantasy that takes a warped perception I had of her, one that hurt her and ate me up with guilt, and turns that pain into something that’ll give us both pleasure.«
… drastically clash with Caleb’s swearing and crudeness.
»She told me to dress for a date, so I settled for what was clean and might stand up to the cold outside. And I suppose I look like some giant lumberjack escorting a sexy fairy princess into this damn party, but I can’t bring myself to give a shit if we don’t match.«
And yet, this novel worked for me because the chemistry between Audrey and Caleb is simply great and he never feels threatened by Audrey’s self-confidence or outward powerfulness. As any decent partner should, Caleb supports Audrey, takes her needs and challenges seriously, and vice versa.
I would have loved to get to read a little more about Audrey as a successful business woman, about her assistants, Jessica and Jeremy, and some other side characters which are sadly neglected.
This is a very, very hot, spicy and steamy novel. I liked it but if you prefer a “fade-to-black” approach, this is very definitely not “your” novel… Also, versus the end, there’s more sex than anything else and I found myself wishing to read more about those two in non-sexual contexts.
Especially since there are quite a few open questions that aren’t addressed by the epilogue (“Five years later”) either: What becomes of the Wyndhams? What does Caleb do with his inheritance? What about Audrey’s parents?
Despite being seriously annoyed by Caleb at times, I didn’t like putting this one down.
Four out of five stars.
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