The Spanish Marriage

by Madeleine E. Robins

You saved my life, Miss Cannowen. I will be pleased to take you to England with me." — To Dorothea Cannowen, these are the words that could save her life. An eighteen-year-old orphan, she is in the difficult position of being a penniless, unenthusiastic guest at a Spanish convent. Now Sir Douglas Matlin, whom she discovered wounded in the convent garden and nursed back to health, has offered to escort her back to London, where his aunt will happily launch her into society. But what will society think of a girl who traveled so far alone with a man? The resourceful Matlin suggests to the nuns that he marry Dorothea in Spain and have the marriage annulled upon their arrival in England. It's the perfect plan to keep the Londoners' tongues from wagging. Perfect except for one thing. It doesn't take love into account. And love has a way of complicating matters...

Genres: Romance, Regency, Historical Romance, Historical

192 pages, Mass Market Paperback

First published September 12, 1984

About the author

Writing gives Madeleine Robins the chance to focus on many of her ruling passions: cities, history, swordplay, the history of disease, and the future of mankind–with a side order of historical costuming and infrastructure (urban plumbing is far more interesting than you’d think).

Born in New York City, the Author has been, in no particular order, a nanny, a teacher, an actor and stage-combatant, an administrator, a comic book editor, a baker, typist-clerk for Thos. Cook’s Houses of Parliament office, a repairer-of-hurt-books, an editorial consultant, and a writer. She holds a degree in Theatre Studies from Connecticut College, and attended the Clarion Science Fiction Workshop in 1981. She is a founding member of Book View Cafe (http://bookviewcafe.com) where most of her short fiction is available for free!

Reviews

[Jacqueline J · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is one I reread every year or so. Dorothea, a young English girl, is 18 and is stuck in a convent in Spain during the Peninsular Wars. She finds Sir Douglas Matlin wounded in the convent garden and nurses him back to health. He offers to escort her back to London. She can not travel alone with him so they marry for the journey. But the nuns convince him that she is only 15 or so. He is very attracted to her and on the journey gets feverish and makes love to her. Oh the angst before they figure out the problem.

[Widala · Rating 4 out of 5]

3.5 stars rounded up.
A fun entertaining read about a silly misunderstanding.
Thea was a strong headed young woman with sometimes childish behaviour but she could be very mature, patience and resourceful. While Douglas I see as the source of the silliness because he asked the important question to the wrong person and didn't deign to ask it to Thea herself. But thanks to him, hilarity ensued.
I'm sorry, I have to add this, nothing to do with the story though.
My book's cover version is this . I don't know if the publisher thought it's artsy or tried to be faithful to the time frame of the story whatever, but I definitely turned off by it. I mean, just look at him. No, he's not ugly, and could be considered fairly good looking, but not a romance book's hero material. I have to wash my eyes with this before I could start reading. While it's not fair to judge books by their covers, but in my opinion a romance book need to give a nice mental image of the characters. But, it's a matter of taste and opinion.

[Katie Montgomery · Rating 4 out of 5]

Gobbled this one down in an evening -- pretty typical comedy of errors, with a somewhat irking premise, but the language was spot-on and I enjoy Robins.

[Laurie · Rating 3 out of 5]

misunderstandings, hiding out in convents, derring do, duels, abductions. a duenna.

[Alexandra K · Rating 3 out of 5]

First read March 20, 2014

[Shay · Rating 2 out of 5]

-1 for the ridiculous premise that made the comedy of errors more of a tragedy or even stupidity; +1 for the characters and dialogue, and thus back to the default 2 stars.

[Janet]

Another one of Robins' entertaining Regency romances.