Mary Jo Putney

The Wild Child is the first book in Mary Jo Putney’s Bride Trilogy. Dominic has been mostly estranged from his identical twin brother, Kyle, for years, so he’s shocked when Kyle shows up at his door, asking for help. Kyle is committed to visiting and courting Meriel, his betrothed, but some other matter, which he won’t reveal, has come up, leaving him unable to go. Since Meriel is widely considered to be mad and likely wouldn’t even know he’s there and the courting simply cannot wait until his other business is finished, Kyle bribes Dominic to pretend to be him and go engage with Meriel until he can return. Dominic doesn’t entirely feel right about the situation, but Kyle’s offer is one he cannot refuse. He travels to Warfield, the vast estate Meriel inherited from her mother, where he finds a beautiful but mysterious and ethereal young woman who cannot speak and who flits around the gardens barefoot all day. Meriel was traumatized at the tender age of five when her parents were murdered in India and she was kidnapped by the attacking forces of a maharajah. After spending over a year in captivity, she was finally returned to England and placed under the guardianship of her two uncles. She hasn’t spoken a word since, leaving most people believing that she’s mentally deficient. Through patience and persistence, Dominic slowly gains Meriel’s trust and they share many emotional moments of connection. Because she has lived an unconventional life in which she’s closely studied flora and fauna, Meriel has a curiosity about a physical union between a man and a woman. Dominic is someone she wants to be with, but he keeps her at arm’s length until he can no longer resist the pull between them. Soon he realizes he’s done the unthinkable and fallen in love with his brother’s intended. However, when one of her uncles discovers the other's scheme to marry her off, he throws Dominic off the estate and locks Meriel up in an asylum, leaving Dominic racing to save her and find a way to protect her from ever being sent to such a horrid place again.

Although inseparable when they were young, Dominic and Kyle’s estrangement began when they were sent to different schools as boys. They began to grow apart with Dominic harboring some feelings of resentment for being relegated to second son status simply for being born ten minutes later, and for Kyle trying to tell Dominic how to run his life. They’ve barely seen each other for the past decade when Kyle comes to Dominic promising to give him a valuable estate in exchange for his help courting Meriel. As someone who’s always loved the land and wanted an estate of his own to run instead of his small monthly allowance, it’s too good of an offer to pass up. However, from the moment he meets Meriel, he sees something in her that others don’t. He recognizes her genius in the flowers and plants she tends in the garden and her kindness and compassion in the animals who’ve become loyal companions to her. As he patiently pursues her, he comes to realize that despite her lack of speech, she’s far from the madwoman others seem to believe she is. She also has a seductive side that is hard for him to resist, but he tries for the sake of his deal with Kyle. Eventually, though, Dominic realizes he’s fallen madly in love with Meriel, and tells her the truth of his identity, which doesn’t surprise her, as she’d surmised as much. But when the uncle who supports her marrying falls ill and the other one who wants to have her committed hears of the scheme, it places both Meriel and their love in danger.

Dominic is a beta-leaning, cinnamon-roll hero who is nothing but sweet to Meriel. I loved how he saw the best in her and not the worst like most other people. He appreciates her unconventional floral arrangements and connects to her love for animals. He sees all the things about her that everyone else, even the people who support her the most, miss. He was gentle and compassionate with her, just the right person to gain her trust and help her reconnect with the outside world. Dominic may have met Meriel under unusual and less than honest circumstances, but he came clean with her at exactly the right time. He’s also smart enough to realize that things aren’t going to be easy just because they love each other. He knows that as a younger son with no real money or property of his own that he’ll likely be viewed as a fortune hunter who took advantage of Meriel, but he doesn’t let it stop him from protecting her the best he can. Dominic is also very understanding of Meriel’s desire for independence and gives her assurances that he won’t step on her toes if she marries him.

After being traumatized by her childhood experience in India, Meriel hasn’t spoken a word. Her paternal uncle would’ve liked to see her locked up, while her maternal uncle believed that she would do better if she was allowed to live a more normal life. Luckily the latter’s opinion prevailed, so Meriel, who as the only daughter of her parents, is a very wealthy heiress, lives on her mother’s estate with two elderly widowed cousins who treat her kindly and an Indian bodyguard who came with her to England as a child and is her trusted friend. Warfield has become her sanctuary, and she spends her days there tending the gardens and befriending and caring for the animals. Now that her supportive uncle is aging, he wants to make sure Meriel is properly cared for if anything should happen to him, so he invoked a previous marriage contract with Kyle, wanting him to wed her quickly while her other uncle is out of the country. Meriel had met Kyle when he’d previously made a brief visit and hadn’t been impressed with her betrothed. But when a man looking like him returns, she finds herself almost immediately attracted to him. She can read people’s auras and senses something different about him. This man actually sees the real her and understands her like no one else does, which only solidifies their bond. Meriel has seen animals mating and is curious about what it would be like for humans, but she’s never felt a real desire for that kind of connection until she meets Dominic. She sets about trying to seduce him, but he surprisingly clings to his gentlemanly side for much longer than she would have expected. However, even after he tells her his true identity, she’s reluctant to marry him for fear of losing her independence, but she may not have a choice when her uncle tries to commit her.

Meriel is easily one of the most unique and unusual romance heroines I’ve read. Because she’s had no real contact with the outside world and because her cousins mostly leave her be, she harbors an interesting combination of traits. She can play the genteel lady with impeccable manners when she must, but it’s exhausting for her. Conversely she doesn’t feel at all constricted by the dictates of society, so she runs around barefoot all day, wants to remain an independent woman, and has no moral hang-ups about sex. Dominic shakes up her carefully ordered world, in both good ways and bad. He provides a deep human connection like she’s never experienced before and truly understands her. But his presence is, in part, responsible for her being sent to the asylum and having to make difficult choices about whether to risk her independence to marry him for the protection his name can provide. Meriel is just a delightful mixture of sweetness and light combined with strength and resolve that was very endearing.

The third main player in this story is Kyle who has several of his own POV scenes as we follow him on his journey to take care of the matter that is keeping him from courting Meriel and that he won’t reveal to Dominic. It would be easy to dislike him if one’s view was based simply on his opening scene where he asks for Dominic’s help. He has a rather imperious attitude, it appears that he can’t even be bothered to get to know his own bride-to-be, and he seems somewhat set on remaining estranged from his brother even though Dominic agrees to help. However, as Kyle’s part of the story progresses, we see a man who is deeply in love and at loose ends over the impending death of someone very close to him. We get to see him in the throes of grief and just how tender and loving he can be toward another human being. While I think that his decision to marry Meriel despite not loving her was a bad one and not at all fair to her, I was still much more sympathetic toward Kyle by the end of the story than I thought I’d be, which is good since he’s the hero of the next book, The China Bride.

The Mary Jo Putney books I’ve read so far have been a mixture of ones I thought were merely good and others that I loved, and I’m happy to say that The Wild Child fell into the latter category. Meriel captivated me from her opening scenes and continued to impress me the further I read. She’s such an interesting and unique character who grows a great deal throughout the story. Dominic equally enchanted me with his down-to-earth demeanor. Aside from his gentlemanliness when Meriel is trying to seduce him, which I appreciated, he’s never stuffy and isn’t afraid to get dirty in the garden with her. I just love how he treated her like a whole person right from the start, and as a result, she blossomed under his attentions. Dominic and Meriel were absolutely perfect for one another and I love how they fought for a future together free of society’s prejudices. Kyle’s part in the story was equally well done, leaving me very interested in reading his book. In some books she has that were passed down through the women in her family, we’re also told about Meriel’s ancestor who has the same name and that earlier Meriel is the heroine of the book, Uncommon Vows, which is considered by some to be a prequel to this series. As a whole, the characterizations were superb, showcasing all the different facets of the characters and showing them developing well throughout. The story itself was very rare and distinctive to the genre, so that alone kept me engaged and reading. I was even rather morbidly fascinated with the peek inside the horrors of an asylum of the era that the author gives her readers. All the elements simply came together to create a fantastic read that I thoroughly enjoyed.… (altro)

Angel Rogue is the fourth book in Mary Jo Putney’s Fallen Angels series. Robin was introduced in the previous book, Petals in the Storm, and is now nursing a broken heart after the heroine of that book, with whom he was in love, married another. His days as a spy for the crown are now over, too, leaving him feeling rather adrift. Then one day an exotic beauty quite literally stumbles over him in the forest. He soon learns that Maxie is an American of half-Native heritage whose father was English. She’s traveling alone, walking the length of England to get to London to investigate her father’s untimely demise, which she has reason to believe may have involved foul play. Being the consummate gentleman, Robin can’t allow a young woman, even one disguised as a boy, to travel the dangerous roads alone, so he insists upon accompanying her. At first, she’s not too pleased to have the company, but after he proves useful in fending of several attacks by ne’er-do-wells, she starts to warm up to his presence. As they continue the journey together, they get to know one another and begin to fall in love. But although he very much wants to marry Maxie, Robin is convinced that he’s not great husband material and that no woman should want to wed him. For her part, Maxie has fallen in love with Robin, too, but longs for him to love her back and isn’t sure if he’s capable of that.

Maxie grew up straddling both the white world of her father and the Mohawk world of her mother, but never quite felt like she belonged in either. After her mother died when she was young, Maxie traveled around the eastern states with her father who was a bookseller. She thought it was a pretty good life, but then her father, who was also the second son of an English aristocrat, decided to return to his homeland. In England, Maxie feels like even more of an anomaly, especially after her father died on a trip to London. Now alone in the world, except for her extended relations, she starts planning to return to the States, until she overhears her aunt and uncle discussing her father’s death. It’s then that she realizes they’re hiding something from her about his demise and fears that they may have had something to do with it. Not knowing if she can trust them, she runs away in the dead of night, disguised as a boy, headed for London on foot to investigate what happened to her father and maybe to visit an aunt with whom she’d had amiable correspondence. Not long into her journey, she leaves the road to avoid being spotted by other travelers and literally trips over a man who is napping in the forest. He’s the most gorgeous man she’s ever seen, and when he hears that she’s traveling alone, he insists upon accompanying her. Maxie doesn’t really want his company, but after they’re accosted a couple of times, she realizes that maybe she is better off with a protector. Even though she doesn’t really believe any of the stories he tells her, Robin proves to be a charming companion, and soon she finds herself trusting him and falling in love with him. But if he can’t love her back, they may not have a future. Maxie is a fierce and spirited heroine who exhibits American moxie alongside her Mohawk appreciation for nature and life. I like that she was able to accept Robin for who he was and show compassion for the pain he experiences from the things he was forced to do as a spy.

Robin is a cousin to Lucien (Dancing on the Wind) and is the friend and former lover of Maggie (Petals in the Storm). I really liked him in the previous book of the series, where my heart broke a little for him. He loved Maggie, but she unfortunately didn’t feel the same. However, they’ve remained good friends anyway. Robin’s days as a spy are now over and he’s returned to his brother’s estate, not sure what he’s going to do now. He’s simply been whiling away the days, when Maxie stumbles over him. When he finds out she’s traveling to London alone, he has nothing better to do and decides to go with her on a lark. Their journey becomes perilous when they’re attacked several times along the way by a man sent by Maxie’s uncle to find her. It turns out to be quite the adventure, though, and Robin hasn’t felt this alive in a while, mostly thanks to his traveling companion. However, after being a spy for so long, Robin has trouble with showing his true self to Maxie. He also harbors some self-hatred for things he had to do during his espionage days and feels that he might not be a fit husband for any woman. Deep down he’s lonely, though, and Maxie proves to be everything he could want in a partner, but if he can’t open up his heart, they may not have a future together. I still liked Robin in his own book, but I couldn’t help feeling like he took a little too long to open up to Maxie. It’s pretty late in the story before he shows any real vulnerabilities, and until then he’s just the spontaneous guy who has a dozen different personas that he can put on with ease, depending on the situation. I understood his fears about Maxie not wanting to know the real Robin, but at the same time, I felt this left some distance between them. I loved him, though, for behaving as a gentleman and treating Maxie like any other lady in spite of her heritage and her being an American, both of which give her different views on relationships.

Angel Rogue is almost entirely a road trip romance with our protagonists spending nearly three-quarters of the book traveling across England. This is usually a trope that I enjoy, but for some reason, it seemed rather slow-paced. Admittedly the long stretches on the road are punctuated a number of times by some exciting chase and fight scenes with the guys Maxie’s uncle sends after her, so I’m not sure why I felt that way. Maybe it’s because the mystery of whether Maxie’s father met with foul play is left entirely for the last couple of chapters. Or maybe it’s because it took a while for the characters to develop. I liked Robin and Maxie and thought they were well-suited for one another. However, as I mentioned before, Robin takes a good long time before he genuinely opens up to Maxie, and until then, I wasn’t getting a great sense of who he was because of him hiding behind various personas. I think he could have been a deeply tortured hero, but he doesn’t reveal that part of himself until pretty late in the story, and even then, it’s mostly handled in a single night. I did, however, very much enjoy the secondary romance between Robin’s brother, Giles, and Maxie’s aunt, Desdemona. Their part of the story has an enemies-to-lovers vibe with Desdemona sweeping into Giles’s study in full pique over her missing niece and Giles trying to defend his brother from her accusations. However, as they chase the younger couple across England, they, too, develop a fondness for one another that was endearing. I also enjoyed the glimpses of our past heroes and heroines, all of whom attend a dinner party at Rafe and Maggie’s house. Michael, the hero of the next book, Shattered Rainbows, was seen there briefly, too. Even though the way in which the narrative was told wasn’t perfect for me, I did very much like all the characters, which is a major plus, so despite being a tad underwhelmed after finishing it, Angel Rogue was still a pretty good read.… (altro)