His Lady Bride

Brothers in Arms #1

by Shelley Bradley

He was a legend on the battlefield, but Aric Neville, known throughout England as the White Lion, had had his fill of intrigue and bloodshed. So he threw down his sword and walked away, to live a solitary life, cultivating a reputation as a sorcerer. But his prized tranquility was shattered when the villagers brought him a bride. Gwenyth de Auburd was a raven-haired beauty too impudent to ignore and too tempting to resist. When the war raging around them sucked Aric into his past again, he also fought a losing battle against his undeniable desire for the luscious, willful maiden . . . only to learn that he had come to cherish as his wife. Contains mature themes.

Genres: Historical Romance, Romance, Historical, Audiobook, Medieval, Contemporary Romance, Fiction

320 pages, Mass Market Paperback

First published August 1, 2000

About the author

Shelley Bradley also writes as Shayla Black.

Reviews

[Megan (BookWifeReviews) · Rating 2 out of 5]

I really liked the first half of this book but after about 45% it went downhill. Both of the MCs were idiots.. They kept assuming the worst about each other and instead of talking to figure things out they just ignored each other for week and one of them would randomly shove their tongue down the others throat and then all would be forgiven.... seriously this happened at least 3 times.

So I just wanted to hit the characters.. I just wasn't that into it.

[Steph's Romance Book Talk · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is the type of historical fiction I can get down with!! Just enough historical information that makes me want to know about the historical connection and enough fiction to enjoy the new journey. Since I fell into books and shows like Outlander, The White Queen, The White Princess, The Other Boleyn Girl, and The Tudors; I have looked for books that could hold my interest in the same way. This happens to be one of those books. I look forward to reading the other books in the series as well.

This specific video review will be included in the April 2018 wrap-up.

For other video book reviews check out my YouTube Channel: Steph's Rom Book Talk.

[Bambi Unbridled · Rating 3 out of 5]

His Lady Bride is set during the tumultuous time of Richard III's reign, shortly after Richard had his nephews murdered to steal the throne. I enjoy when my historicals include actual historical events with a re-imagining of events, motives and characters.

Our heroine is Gwenyth de Auburd, a baronet's daughter who lost everything when her parents died. After being condescended to by her vain cousins and forced to work in the kitchen by a cruel uncle, Gwenyth dreams of the days she can be a lady again. Indeed, all Gwenyth seemed to care about was marrying well and regaining her status. So when she was wed by force to a poorly sorcerer, Gwenyth did not accept her fate graciously. Despite growing up with little, Gwenyth came off as a spoiled brat. She was ungrateful, greedy, and callous when it came to her new husband. I was not a fan of this heroine at all.

Aric Neville, the battle-worn White Lion, retreated to a pauper's shack to wallow in his solitude after his part in Richard's ascension to the throne. I sympathized with Aric's plight, and he felt real remorse for his what he perceived to be his role in the death of the little princes. For the most part, I liked Aric as a hero. He was honorable, always tried to do the right thing, and took care of those around him.

Our heroine was so stubborn and short-sighted when it came to our hero that I really wondered why he was with her for most of the book. Aric was quite stubborn himself at times, thinking the worst of Gwenyth when she was trying to turn their relationship around. However, I felt like Gwenyth brought much of that on herself. I just wish there would have been less angst and more relationship-building. But that is a personal style preference for me - I like to see some of the relationship building instead of having the build up for the entire book.

That being said, I enjoyed the secondary storyline that involved Aric's brothers-in-arms and his attempt to step back from political issues. My interest was definitely peaked by Aric's brothers-in-arms, who I believe are the heroes of the other books in the series. So I will definitely keep reading to see how those play out.

I'm not usually a fan of male narrators, but Tim Allen did a good job with this story. His male characters were all separate and distinct voices, and his female affectation did not sound like fingernails down a chalkboard. The female affectation was important for me here b/c I already did not care for the heroine, so giving her an annoyingly fake and high-pitched voice would have driven me batty.

I voluntarily reviewed an advanced copy of this book that I received from the publisher, Tantor Audio.

[Mysti · Rating 2 out of 5]

This book is a damn mess. Not even a hot mess..... just a mess. If it hadn't been for the sexy audio, I would have DNFd it at 30%. FYI - I have no idea if any of this is historically accurate, that's not something I care about or know enough about. Here's a seriously abbreviated recap.

Aric (super killer, has some secrets, ran away from responsibility) is forced to marry Gwenyth (dumb nitwit that is obsessed with being wealthy, prude) in order to save her life. Something about King Richard and some dead kids and some other historical stuff. Gwyn doesn't want to be with him because she thinks he's poor. Surprise, he's not poor. There's a battle and some jealousy and a lot of insecurities. They finally have sex around the 57% mark. He's hot. At least his voice is hot. Like I said, I would have quit this a long time ago if it weren't for that voice. There's a battle and they live HEA.

Biggest issue was Gwyn. I promise you - 90% of the time she was shouting stupid, childish insults at him. I can't remember the exact phrases she used, but they were similar to....
"You daft knuckle dragger"
"You baboon dung shoe"
"You poo poo stained underwear head"

Just dumb sh*t like she was a child. She had the maturity of a tadpole. There was nothing enduring or likeable about her.

I was also bored with the story. Also, how did she go months of having unprotected sex and never get pregnant??

I'd say for sure skip this one.

[Shasha · Rating 2 out of 5]

I seem to give medieval stories less stars, unless it's a fantasy.

Both MCs are stubbornly set on a certain path and so much time was spent at odds that I became less and less enthusiastic to continue. So much angst could have been avoided if they just TALKED out some issues. The heroine is lacking in female friends, or even one. The other female characters are unlikable.

The two future male leads were introduced and I will continue the series because they sound so different. The historical setting isn't one I have read of before and was intriguing.

Mature content, biblical profanity

[Elizabeth · Rating 1 out of 5]

Great hero, ungrateful heroine.

In the beginning I understood Gwenyth's feelings. She had been raised in a loving noble family to be a lady only to then be treated as little more than a servant when her uncle became her guardian. So, naturally she was upset when forced to marry a man, Aric, who lived in a hovel and was seen as a sorcerer. However, Aric treated Gwenyth with kindness, understanding and an endless supply of patience in the face of her constant name calling and bemoaning of her fate.

She was justified in her anger when she found out who he truly was when he was called back into service. Again though, even after noting how miserable her husband was and acknowledging his reasons for leaving that life behind she continued to belittle him.

Aric was weighed down with guilt for an event that led to an innocent's death. He refused to share this burden with Gwenyth. He also refused to allow her to perform her duties as his wife outside of the bedchamber, instead letting his father's young, beautiful and power hungry widow to continue running the household. Both of these made Gwenyth question her position and may have contributed to her acting out but didn't keep her from falling in love with him.

Several times in the story Gwenyth does some soul searching and realizes what a brat she's being after repeatedly telling Aric that she seeks not just security but the running of a castle and servants since that's what she had been raised to do and vows to change her behavior because she loves him. However, when Aric asks her to go back to that hovel of a cottage with him that love is tested. She fails miserably telling Aric "you cannot give me everything my heart desires, then rip it away from me as if it meant nothing."

Both Aric and Gwenyth have their faults. However, Aric seemed to learn from his and become a better person whereas Gwenyth would recognize hers, change for a bit then revert back to those same behaviors. Since that happened throughout the book, I'm left thinking it will continue to do so even after the end.

[Metalkarin · Rating 4 out of 5]

I don't understand the negative reviews on this book.
Yes, I agree that Gwenyth was horrible to Aric. But we have to keep in mind that it was the dark ages. Women were dependent on men. If their husband didn't provide they (and their children) would starve. She also is mistreated by her family and forced into a wedding with an alleged sorcerer.
And Aric, this proud righteous man? Well, even most modern men don't express their feelings very easily, do they?
I enjoyed the historic angle in this story. I enjoyed the relationship between two stubborn people. The build of their relationship, their choices were plausible IMO.

And, since I choose the audiobook, I loved the narrator, Tim Campbell. Nice timbre, good speaking speed, and great accents.

[penelopewanders · Rating 3 out of 5]

Somewhat annoying heroine, but on the whole a good quick read. The plot involves Richard III and his murder of the princes - first time I've encountered that particular theme in a historical romance.
Miles better than the contemporary I read by her a few years ago.

[Pamela(AllHoney) · Rating 3 out of 5]

The first book in the Brothers in Arms series by Shelley Bradley. Set in Medieval England. It was just a fair book for me. Nothing really grabbed me about the story or the characters.

[Blondie · Rating 2 out of 5]

I did not like the heroine throughout most of the book, and that is something personal and not a reflection of the writer, so I am going to try book 2.

[Sonia189 · Rating 3 out of 5]

From my blog:

One of my favorite tropes in romance is the enemies-to-lovers and all its subdivisions. This book in particular would feature a couple that besides not being very fond of one another when they first meet would also get on with the forced marriage plot, another one of my preferences if done right. Since this book was published in 2000, I was not expecting a lot of wit and uniqueness often seen in nowadays releases, but I suppose it can be complicated to add a lot of innovation in historical stories without making them unlikely or silly.

In this story we meet Aric, a warrior who is also an earl and someone tired of fighting and innocent people dying because of the more powerful and their ruling. After being disappointed with his king, at the end of yet another battle, he decides to let go of his past and becomes a sort of hermit at an isolated cottage.
The problem is that nearby the most important figure faces the consequences of a drought, which is compromising the harvest and the economy of the villagers. To find a way, he forces his niece to wed Aric, because he got a reputation of being magical after domesticating a wolf. In comes Gwyneth, and they can't seem to see eye to eye when they meet.
With some adventures and politics in the way, will they find enough common ground to fall in love and be each other's strength?

This is another book that has been in the pile for around 10 years... it was written by an author mostly known as Shayla Black.
I must say some elements in this book were really silly and almost comical. Thankfully, the author did try her hand on seriousness by finding a medieval point in time that isn't often seen in romance (Richard III reign) and used several details to give depth to her story. I'd say the problem is that there's isn't enough balance in the plot to make it strong from start to finish and probably there was a slight under use of the possibilities that, emotionally, could have made this something even better.

The way the relationships are portrayed are a little too superficial. Especially the secondary characters don't seem to go beyond the most expected circumstances and a role to be played. The main couple has interesting situations between them but I was a little disappointed with the heroine who, realistically thinking is quite likely to have existed (being cocky of her position in life at times and vulnerable at others) but looking at how she behaves from the POV of this being a romance story, it was very difficult to like her.
I can understand this was even more stressed for her change of heart to be more obvious but I don't think the author paced the heroine's evolution well.

It seemed there wasn't much character development. The characters ended up doing what the reader has always known to be the right choices and although there's some comfort in this, it wasn't special enough for the story to feel more intriguing.
I'd say some of the best prospects were when the opposed couple had to go to Aric's family estate and that is when Gwyneth found out the truth about him. I thought things could become seriously intricate and emotionally more complex with the add-on of Aric's insecure younger brother and his ex fiance turned stepmother to the relationship he had with his wife.

The problem is that the potential issues or alliances that could have arisen from this weren't given focus point. Instead, we had to keep seeing both Aric and Gwyneth mope around about what they thought they should do and why they thought the other one was in the marriage for something else not love, while indeed they were already in love with each other. Well, or so they said, as I don't think we actually saw a believable falling in love relationship.

My favorite aspect of the book was how Aric's ethics were a key element of the whole thing. It was quite good I could cheer for the hero and his position in life but his more "negative" actions as a fighter were clearly not highlighted... still, it's always good that the personal doubts the hero has can be linked with his personality and not there just to fill a gap. So sad he was counterbalanced with such a childish (in behavior and some thinking) heroine.

All things considered, this was not a bad novel and I did feel interested in several moments to the point of not wanting to let go of the book for other chores. But thinking about it as a whole, I wouldn't say it went beyond average for me nor when compared with other historicals I preferred.

[Abby A. · Rating 2 out of 5]

If it wasn't for the hero, this book would be a 1. The heroine was one simply unlikable. She did not deserve the hero.

[✧ Elle Jae ✧]

I wanted to like it. I think I liked it a bit more because I listened to it, and Tim Campbell is the best... but the endless repetitiveness became quite tedious... saw all the things coming, but I did finish it, but wasn't my favorite thing.

If I were rating it... 2 stars

[Tuesday · Rating 4 out of 5]

Like this one, hope to read the next one in the series.

[Kathy · Rating 4 out of 5]

Well my rating is quite complicated. I chose the book because it is narrated by Tim Campbell who NEVER disappoints when bringing a book to life for me.
Both main characters, Aric and Gweneth, are, of course, deeply flawed, traumatized by their experiences, hurt, untrusting, self-protective, quick to anger, stubborn, quick to assume the worst in each other. Forced into a marriage that both reject, fighting constantly, they slowly come to appreciate the other. And then political intrigue gets in the way. I didn’t know much about the history of this period and didn’t appreciate the importance of it to this story. Even though the book is a fictional re-imagining of historical events that are still shrouded in mystery, I became very interested in the mystery and researched some more about it. So despite the somewhat cheesy storyline and uninspiring writing, I was captivated by the book. The narrator is excellent, the characters are interesting, the chemistry is credible, and the sex was quite delicious and varied. Not a perfect book, but I thoroughly enjoyed it.

[Amsa · Rating 2 out of 5]

Seriously what was the writer thinking writing the heroine as an ungrateful bitch. There are so many things wrong with the heroine. Firstly she is no "Lady". Think about the century this novel is supposed to be based on and in those days women did not swear. At least not to the extend this supposedly "Lady"swears like a lady sailor.

Secondly she is a money grabbing whore. She gives hero hell when she thinks he is poor. All she wants in her life is a castle, money, title and to be the mistress of the castle not love and when hero points this out she starts swearing at him not accepting our even think about it. She even slept with him in castle not at the cottage where he treated her so well even cooked food but she wanted to marry a rich guy.

This goes on for the rest of the now she being stubborn, self centered and always wanting money and power. Give her a choice between money and her husband you guessed it right she chooses money.

Hero was a sweet guy with demons of his own but he treated her well and tried to do right by her.

[Barbie Adamson · Rating 1 out of 5]

The female main character was a vapid, whiney thing that i could not relate to and the male main character was a dicknugget. They both couldn't get over themselves. The male struggled with some real PTSD but oh, no.... when the time came to actually start fighting again, he was ready to go (??!!!). This is unfair in so many ways. He kept it a secret and let it fester yet was able to get over it? As someone who has PTSD, this is ridiculous and an insult if I correlate it to the military and when a service member is struggling, just send em right back overseas - that'll fix them. Ugh no.... that's not how that works. I was hoping this could be my new series but it just wasn't for me. I was happy to read the final note about how the King Richard historical society vehemently disagreed and it is conjecture on the historical happenings but that should be said at the very beginning. "Warning: Read if you want complete historical conjecture and mismanagement of mental health concerns."

[Cat Oaks · Rating 2 out of 5]

Mixed feelings on this one. By reading the review I said "Totally what I like": A war-sick warrior who refuses to battle again is forced to marry a girl due to a threat on her life. They have to go through Several obstacles to find love. Not bad ain’t it? We know this. Yet the flaw is in the ridiculous explanation for both of them not wanting to accept the other one. The hero’s suffering, guilt and self-pity sounds quite logical and understandable; however, the h is totally, absolutely annoying, insufferable and dumb. I found myself most of the reading hoping for Aric to find someone else who would care for him and love him regardless where or how he lived. I got it, she was taken everything she was born entitled to and want it back, but it's too selfish to only think about that and not in what really matters, such as a caring husband. I was about not to read Drake's nor Kieran's stories, however, I've already started Drakes and it is way much better, so far. We'll see.

[Brittany Duszczyszyn · Rating 3 out of 5]

I couldn’t help but cringe at the bratty behaviour from the lead female but I understand the story wants you to see how much she grows & changes. The lead male is a great character I’m looking forward to the next books about his friends so that I can learn more about their stories. The book ends nicely wrapped up like they lived happily ever after & a quick history lesson.

[Amy · Rating 5 out of 5]

Had a hard time putting this one down. My one complaint is that Aric is very bad about communication. He's very tight-lipped and could solve a whole bunch of problems he had with Gwenyth if he just talked more.

[Debra · Rating 4 out of 5]

Aric is an Earl in self-inflicted exile. Gwenyth is an Baron’s daughter, now an orphan, forced to work as servant in her own home. Aric is forced to marry her in order to protect her life. Gwenyth’s uncle has sent her to marry the “sorcerer “, unaware he has just married her to an Earl.

[Krys · Rating 2 out of 5]

Had a lot of great potential, but the heroine ruined it for me. She was selfish, GREEDY, and ungrateful. I hoped that would change as I kept reading but it didn’t. She also repeated herself in her inner monologues a lot, like she had nothing useful to say or think about.

[D.G.]

DNFed at 36%
I can’t get over how uncomfortable it must be to live in a small cabin in the Middle Ages. Also, she wants to have her own castle and he doesn’t tell her he’s actually rich. And there hasn’t even been sex (this is sort of a relief, given that their hygiene sucks.)

[Booklover · Rating 2 out of 5]

Aric & Gwenyth

2.5 stars.

I think SB does a decent job with the history part of the book, but ugh, the heroine is the worst. Shrewish doesn't even begin to describe her, and things do not improve with time.

[Marcilla Elliott · Rating 5 out of 5]

4.5 Great book. Loved both main characters, Gwenyth and Aric. Aric, trained as a warrior, felt guilt because of his ambition and put down his sword. Gwenyth was a bride forced upon him. They both had to look within themselves to discover what was most important in life.

[Iris · Rating 2 out of 5]

Didn’t like Gwyneth. She appears greedy and petulant throughout most of the book and very shrewish not just fortnight and honest.

[Wendy · Rating 3 out of 5]

Meh, it was ok to pass the time doing dishes but this book was nothing special.

[Valmiller8 · Rating 5 out of 5]

Great story

I love Shayla’s writing style. Every book I’ve read or listened too is awesome. I hope you enjoy the strong sassy heroine and the gruff alpha she finds herself with.

[Mili Fay · Rating 4 out of 5]

Writing: 5 Stars;
Characters: 4 Stars;
Plot: 4 Stars;
Entertaining: 4 Stars;
Read Again? Maybe.

Total: 4 Stars

This is what I expect from the genre. It was entertaining.

[Natalie · Rating 2 out of 5]

Terrible. The heroine is annoying and horrible, then when she finally becomes tolerable the hero turns horrible.