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Substitute bride
256 pages
A classic vintage romance where a cold bargain of convenience melts into complicated, undeniable attraction.
What it feels like
This vintage romance delivers the quintessential marriage-of-convenience experience, wrapping the reader in a brisk, emotionally charged atmosphere of resentment and undeniable attraction. The narrative thrives on dramatic tension, pitting a cold, revenge-driven proposal against a heroine's desperate bid to escape poverty. As the transactional boundaries of their arrangement begin to blur, the mood shifts from tense and guarded to romantically angsty. The prose is straightforward and deeply focused on the internal friction of trying to sustain dislike while inevitably falling in love. It is a perfect, nostalgic read for fans of old-school category romances who delight in watching a cynical bargain unravel into genuine, complicated affection.
- Mood
- angsty
- romantic
- tense
- Tone
- dramatic
- earnest
- melodramatic
- Pace
- brisk
- Themes
- marriage of convenience · revenge and resentment · escaping poverty · unexpected attraction
- The writing
- Straightforward and emotionally charged, leaning into the dramatic friction of vintage romance.
- The arc
- Moves from a cold, transactional arrangement born of desperation to the complicated warmth of unexpected attraction.
- Who it's for
- Readers who love classic, old-school category romances featuring marriage-of-convenience tropes and brooding heroes.
Content notes
- financial distress
- manipulation
About the book
From the back cover of the 1983 Harlequin edition:
"I'll marry you instead," he told her
Rick Conway would go to any lengths to get his revenge on Emma's beautiful but faithless cousin. And though Emma was thunderstruck and offended at his cold proposal, she soon overcame her scruples.
It would be a temporary arrangement, Rick claimed, and it would be a way of escaping her life of impoverished drudgery.
All Emma had to do was sustain her dislike of him. And that was when her problems began!
Description from Open Library.
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