The Loveless Marriage by Barbara Cartland

The Loveless Marriage Reviews

• 
  Naksed

  A Scottish Earl who has been abroad and “Englishified” for most of his adult life returns to his ancestral home where he is forced to marry the daughter of a rival clan in order to prevent further bloodshed. He is annoyed at getting hitched to what he imagines must be an uncouth, big-boned, earthy Scot when he has been used to dipping his wick into sophisticated, gorgeous, witty, English, high-class tarts from the royal court of King George.
  
  He meets the bride on his wedding day at church. He is astounded by her feyness, unusual beauty, elfin figure and face, and the fact that she managed to show up in a very elegant Paris-style bridal gown in the middle of the Scottish wildness, with only a week to plan for the wedding. Our hero is obviously not acquainted with Barbara Cartland Mary Sue heroines who can do everything right, including pulling a rabbit out of a top hat!
  
  By the time the wedding night is here, the Earl is no longer reluctant but very eager to consummate his marriage to his intriguing bride. Unfortunately, she does not share his feeling. He finds her in the middle of the night contemplating suicide by jumping down a waterfall rather than eagerly awaiting his pleasures in the marriage bed. They strike a deal: they will both try to give the marriage of convenience a chance to grow into something more, and that means entering a platonic friendship until they both feel tingly in their private parts.
  
  The pair go to Edinburgh where the English King is on a Royal visit. Our heroine pulls out many more elegant French gowns sewed by her local crofter’s French wife, and dazzles the entire court with her fashions, her wit and her charm, causing her husband to fall in love with her. There are no nasty ex-mistresses to stand in between the would-be lovers, which is very unusual for Barbara Cartland. However, there is a spurned suitor named Hamish, from heroine’s own clan, who vows retribution for losing his prospective bride.
  
  Fortunately, the heroine’s fey powers of ESP wake her up in the middle of the night to alert her to the fact that Hamish is climbing up the side of the castle in order to murder her husband. Realizing simultaneously that she loves the Earl and must save his life, she bursts into his room and warns him just in time for him to leap out of bed and slam the window down on Hamish’s fingers, causing him to fall to his death. The hero and heroine then finally avow their love for each other and jump into bed for physical bliss while their nemesis lies with his broken neck down their window, for a very macabre ending.
• 
  MissKitty

  If you are reading this review first... then DO NOT read any other review with spoilers!
  
  
  The ending is just too LOL unbelievable! I would have fallen off my chair in laughter had I not known what to expect. However, that being said, the manner that the villain is dispatched, and after, what commenced, still served for much amusement. 👍🏻
• 
  Alice

  casement window vs Edwardian
• 
  Hasselhh

  .... There are some good elements of Scottish culture....