Clever but I don't like cheating and he has a mistress which he intends keeping after he marries and although it is revealed later he didn't touch her once he met his intended wife, his motive was different and he did visit his mistress and give her gifts. This put me off the story as I hate cheating. ( )

I really want to give this book 3.5 stars. Attempting to bring Taming of the Shrew to the Regency era was an interesting concept, and I mostly liked the heroine. To be honest, though, I was unsure in the first several chapters if I would be able to tolerate the hero. I am not fond of the concept of "obey your husband in all things", but Anthony certainly tried to be. Caroline's naivete grated, and I dislike when couples refuse to communicate fully. So many problems could be solved by telling people what is going on rather than "protecting" another person. At the end of the novel, however, both characters had changed and matured enough to be believable in their love for each other. I'm not sure about the darker plot of the novel, yet. We'll see if it plays out in the next books. ( )

This is my first time reading this author and I understand that this is her third book; she wrote two other historical novels ‘The Queen’s Pawn’ and ‘To Be Queen’.

First, I never read any of Shakespeare's works, but I have seen many movies made of them, and I loved ‘The Taming of the Shrew’ with Elizabeth Taylor and Richard Burton, which was directed by Franco Zeffirelli. Both actors were magnificent in their portrayal of the lovers; both so passionate, she with one vicious tongue and fiery temper and he with his brawling and male chauvinistic attitude.

I love it when authors give us two characters that are vastly opposite to each other. It is always fun to watch them find the common ground and find their happily ever after.

This story opens as we watch the heroine, Lady Caroline Montague, in the midst of besting a potential suitor in archery at the house party her parents were giving in her honor, or better put as they were ‘courting’ men to marry her off to the highest bidder and save them from the dire straits they find themselves in.

From the start we know that she is not just a spoiled young woman, but willful and used to getting her way in everything her heart desires. As the daughter of a Yorkshire baron who was mostly absent from home due to commanding the English forces on the Continent, she grew up with least bit of supervision. She has great love for riding [astride], fencing and archery, taking great pride in beating men at it.

While she bats her eyes at the men gathered around her, she has no clue that her faith is sealed and a man that would be her husband is carefully observing her as she flirts with the only man that has ever hurt him.

Anthony Carrington, Earl of Ravensbrook, finally decides it is time to beget some heirs, so when his Commanding officer Frederick Montague is faced with a staggering amount of debt, he decides to come to his aid by marrying his young daughter.

His expectations of having a wife that is proper and pure, meek and biddable have been dashed as he watches her besting the man that awhile back assaulted his younger sister and forcing her into a self-imposed exile. To this day, every time he comes in close proximity of that man, he finds his blood boiling. As he watches them, the only thing he’s looking forward to is making Caroline his bride as soon as possible and taking her away to his property in Shropshire. There, he plans to have her stay while he continues with his own pursuits and the affair with his mistress, Angelique.

I really and truly wanted to like this story and there was a couple of things that I did, yet in the end it fell short of my expectations and in all honesty, if I hadn’t committed to write a review of it, I would not have finished reading it.

What I liked about the story was the setting in the regency era and the dialogue. Both were fairly good and brought otherwise one dimensional characters closer to at least sounding somewhat interesting, intelligent and not boring.

Here is where I encountered the biggest problem with this book. Editing! This was very, very poorly edited. Almost [please notice that I didn't say ‘every one’ but it could have been] every paragraph started with ‘Caroline knew…’ or ‘Caroline inclined…’; ‘She could…’ or ‘She knew….’ or ‘She could’ again and again. This went on and on throughout the whole book and it didn't stop at just Caroline but went on to Anthony as well.

The author kept ‘telling’ me what everyone ‘did’ that the ‘telling’ got in the way of me ‘feeling’ the ‘doing’. Once I pulled back and finished the story, I noticed a couple of other things that were very disappointing and I’ll only share one.

[*SPOILER ALERT, so please stop or skip this part*]

Our hero did an unthinkable thing right after the wedding and I just couldn't get over it.....for the rest of my review please visit me at RCJR eZine...http://rcjrezine.com/?page_id=20&book_id=292

Thanks!

Melanie for RCJReZine ( )

I should have known a book with a title this offensive would be terrible.
anthony, the "hero" is a jackass and quite a bastard. caroline, the "heroine" is a moron who let's him bully her. he uses sex as a weapon, she thinks it means he loves her. he also belittles her, treats her like a dog, and ignores her. so of course it means he loves her. in fact the only male non-servant who isn't treating her like a whore or a dog is the "villain" of the piece. and he's only a villain by proxy.
I want the hour I wasted reading this back. ( )

Shakespeare's The Taming of the Shrew doesn't jibe particularly well with our modern sensibility. Bending a woman to a man's will because it is right and expected and the way of the world makes most readers bristle with antagonism and throw out words like mysogynistic, especially female readers. So it was a calculated risk for Christy English to take this somewhat out of favor play and rework it in an historical romance, a genre whose readers are overwhelmingly women. How to Tame a Willful Wife is very clearly a retelling though and is handled very interestingly.

The hidebound, stiff-rumped Anthony Carrington, Earl of Ravensbrook has promised his old friend Baron Montague that he will marry the Baron's daughter and only child, Caroline, and discharge the Baron's debts as a way of thanking the old battlefield friend who saved his life not once but twice. Caroline is very cognizant and accepting of her duty to marry well and to the man of her father's choosing. But aside from this, she is not exactly a typical lady of her time. Her father was gone for so much of her childhood that she was allowed to run free and act in ways that properly bred young ladies were not. She wears breeches, rides astride, speaks her mind, trains in military arts, and just generally isn't easily led.

Anthony is powerful, arrogant, and domineering. He expects absolute obedience out of his wife and intends to break Caroline of her unladylike, unacceptable behaviour, turning her into just another milque toast society matron. He is very much a man of his time and their marriage will be no partnership. He is the head of the family and the one who wears the pants (at least as far as he knows). But Caroline is not ready to cede her freedom and all decision making to Anthony no matter how incredibly gorgeous he is or how much he makes her burn physically. She goes toe to toe with him to maintain at least some of her control and to let him know that she won't be bulldozed but Anthony is rigidly unwilling to bend even though it is clear that his attraction to her includes her strength. Their different views of the way that their relationship will run leads them to major conflicts and to acting behind each others' backs which could cost them their love.

The sexual attraction between the characters is sizzling and constant which is definitely a plus in a romance. Caroline as a character is appealing in her drive to retain her individuality and ability to direct her own life. She makes the best of her new position as the Countess of Ravensbrook and provides a caring touch that has been missing from the estate and the tenants. Anthony is a far less appealing character in his role of the dominant, controlling, and suspicious husband. He is a complete despot and his change of heart in the end is a bit too abrupt to be believable. Still, this is a very interesting way to take a Regency-set historical and most likely far closer to the truth of the majority of marriages of the time than the usual romances. ( )