The Wedding Escape

February 17, 2003
This overwrought follow-up to Monk's Victorian-era saga, The Prisoner, begins with a bang—or, rather, a thud—as young American heiress Amelia Belford jumps from a church balcony to escape an arranged wedding to an avaricious, aged duke. In record time, the runaway bride commandeers the carriage and heart of hot-tempered Jack Kent and the fugitive pair head toward the home of the man Amelia thinks she loves, foppish Lord Philmore. When it's revealed that Philmore is really a homosexual fortune-hunter, the two make another spectacular exit and escape to Jack's house in the Scottish highlands. Jack's siblings and servants are all reformed rogues like himself, and they help Amelia become self-sufficient. Meanwhile, Jack contends with saboteurs who are determined to sink his shipping business. Neither of the protagonists are particularly appealing: Jack is a violent, homophobic man with an inferiority complex, and foolhardy Amelia puts up not only with Jack's bad attitude and angry outbursts but also his maltreatment (their two sexual encounters verge on rape). While this twisted relationship won't bother fans of old style bodice-rippers, more modern readers may be hard-pressed to make it past the protagonists' first "intimate" encounter.

March 15, 2003
Jack Kent isn't in the habit of helping brides escape from their weddings, but he doesn't hesitate when he comes across American heiress Amelia Belford scrambling out of a window. Realizing that there had to be something better than marrying the elderly, belittling duke of Whitcliffe, Amelia is fleeing the wedding of the decade, but she needs Jack's carriage to elude her outraged family. With Jack's help, Amelia hides herself away, hoping that the man she loves, Percy Baring, will rescue her, only to find that Percy's only interest in Amelia was in her generous and now unavailable dowry. Now a runaway with a reward for her return, Amelia discovers resources she never knew she had, but even so, Jack, hampered by memories of his poor orphan past, doubts he has any chance of winning her love. With its clever, witty writing, deftly plotted story, and superbly crafted, subtly complex characters, Monk's latest historical is a deliciously romantic delight.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2003, American Library Association.)