Love Bade Me Welcome

By Joan Smith

No Synopsis Available.

• Format: Mass Market Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0449204049
• ISBN13: 9780449204047
• Release Date: November 1983
• Publisher: Fawcett Books
• Length: 217 Pages
• Weight: 0.30 lbs.

Customer Reviews

Excellent Gothic-style historical romance

After the sudden death of her beloved husband, Davinia has no place to go but to her husband's family, to the estate that he had rejected long ago along with many unhappy memories of the past. At first she is welcomed by the family. . . until it is discovered that she is to bear a child, which--if male--will replace her husband's brother as heir of the estate.At that point, Davinia's world becomes a nightmare. Although she is attracted to her husband's younger brother Homer, she suspects that he is courting her only to gain the estate he thought was his before her unexpected pregnancy. Her suspicions are confirmed after someone pushes her down a flight of stairs and causes her to lose her unborn child. When she learns that her husband's death had been caused by poison, she wants nothing more than to get away before Homer discovers that she knows of his treachery and decides that she, too, stands in the way of his inheritance. But the truth is not as clear-cut as Davinia envisions. It turns out that her beloved husband was not who he seemed. And Homer's character just doesn't seem consistent with a ruthless murderer, she thinks, even as she finds herself falling under his spell. Still, who else stood to gain by murdering her husband and child? Davinia knows she must get away from there before it is too late.Although the Gothic/romantic suspense genre is not currently in vogue, I have to say that this is one of the better books I have read recently. I found myself in tears most of the way through it and could not stop reading it until the end. It's such a riveting story that it almost doesn't matter that the author apparently does not realize that in Britain at that time it was illegal for a man to marry his brother's wife (which is, incidentally, the way Henry VIII managed to annul his first marriage to his brother's widow, Catherine of Aragon). Still, Ms. Smith is not the only author to make this mistake, and the rare pleasure I got from reading this book makes me more than willing to forgive her for it.