Review - - The Summer Bride

The Summer Bride

By Anne Gracie

Publisher: Berkley

Release Date: July 5, 2016

 

Lady Beatrice is busy making plans for her fourth “niece” to make her debut, but Daisy’s plans are quite different. She has no interest in balls and soirees; she just wants to design the gowns that the ladies of the ton wear to such events. Daisy’s dreams are as big as her talent, but a husband and children play no part in them. She is already on her way to fulfilling her dream of designing clothes. She has more orders for custom dresses than she can handle. She just needs to save enough money to open a shop and to convince Lady Bea of the futility of trying to turn Daisy into a young lady in search of a husband.

Patrick Flynn is a friend and business partner of Max, Lord Davenham, Lady Bea’s nephew and husband of Abigail Chance (The Autumn Bride), and Freddy Monkton-Coombes, husband of Damaris Chance (The Winter Bride), but unlike them, he has not a drop of blue blood. An Irishman who overcame poverty and devastating loss through his own efforts, Patrick is a wealthy, self-made man who has no illusions about what makes him acceptable to the ton. His goal is to find an aristocratic bride, a proper lady with appropriate connections—the very opposite of independent, outspoken, fiery-tempered Daisy Chance.

To Flynn’s surprise, it is Daisy who first captures his attention and then claims his friendship and eventually his heart. But Daisy refuses his offer to partner her in her dress shop and his offer of marriage. Flynn’s only hope is to be as tenacious in his pursuit of Daisy as Daisy is in her certainty that Flynn and a family are not for her.

The Summer Bride is the fourth and final book in the Chance Sisters series, and it gets my vote for best of series, although I have loved all the others. I adored both Daisy and Flynn. Daisy is a rare romance heroine in that she is no lost heiress or stolen aristocrat, but a true throwaway child who grew up as a maid in a brothel. She is imperfect in body (She is lame) and in character (She is stubborn and tart-tongued), but she is also fiercely loyal to those she loves and courageous when confronted with obstacles. And she is a bit of a paradox in that she has a deep belief in her talent but little sense of her worth as a human being. Flynn is an appealing combination of arrogance and vulnerability, irresistible charm and a dangerous edge, single-mindedness and a tender heart. I have a weakness for the self-made hero, and Flynn joined my favorites. Their HEA was sigh-worthy and satisfying.

As always, Lady Bea was a delight, and I particularly enjoyed the scene where she proves that she is up to any challenge when the well-being of one of her beloved nieces is at stake. From beginning to end, this series has been about family, by birth and by choice. Both Daisy and Flynn have poignant stories about their birth families. In Abby, Damaris, Jane, and Lady Bea, Daisy has found a family to whom she is bound by mutual loyalty and abiding love. The ties of friendship that link Flynn and Max is strong indeed, but part of the reason I found the HEA a perfect ending to the series is that marriage to Daisy gives Flynn the family he has lacked since late childhood. The series begins and ends with the making of a family.

I have been recommending Anne Gracie’s books since I first read Gallant Waif fifteen years ago, and I am happy to give another of her books my highest recommendation. If you love historical romance that moves you to tears and laughter and introduces you to characters that linger in your memory and in your heart, I suggest you add The Summer Bride to your TBR list ASAP. I plan on rereading all the Chance Sisters books while I wait to see what Anne Gracie has for us next.

~Janga