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Wicked Captain, Wayward Wife

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The Captain's defiant bride! When young widow Evelina Wylder comes face to face with her dashing captain husband - very much alive - she-s shocked, overjoyed-and furious! So, whatever his explanation for his outrageous deception, she'll keep Nick firmly out of their marriage bed. Eve's sheltered innocence bewitched Nick, but it's her fiery anger that captures this adventurer's soul! Now the daring war hero faces his biggest challenge yet - proving to Eve that his first duty is to love and cherish her, for always!

304 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 2010

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About the author

Melinda Hammond

113 books49 followers
I write under the names of Melinda Hammond and Sarah Mallory.

I have been telling stories for as long as I can remember - many of them born of frustration when I was stuck in a classroom longing to be rescued! I love anything romantic, whether it is a grand opera or a beautiful painting. It doesn't necessarily have to be happy, as long as it is inspiring.

I was born in Bristol and grew up on Barton Hill, an area of small terraced houses built in the nineteenth century between the mills and the railway. I think my love of adventure stories is due to the fact that I grew up with three older brothers and lived in a street full of boys! My love of history and the English language was fostered at grammar school, where I soon discovered the delights of Georgian and Regency fiction, first of all with the works of Jane Austen and then Georgette Heyer.

I left school at sixteen to work in companies as varied as stockbrokers, marine engineers, biscuit manufacturers and even a quarrying company, but I never lost my love of history, and when I wasn't reading and researching the Georgian and Regency period I was writing stories about it.

When I was at home with my first child, I decided to try my hand at writing seriously, and my first historical novel, Fortune's Lady, was published by Robert Hale in 1980. I have now published more than twenty novels, over a dozen of them as Melinda Hammond, winning the Reviewers Choice award in 2005 from Singletitles.com for Dance for a Diamond and the Historical Novel Society's Editors Choice in 2006 for Gentlemen in Question. Writing as Sarah Mallory for Harlequin Mills & Boon, The Earl's Runaway Bride won a coveted CataNetwork Reviewers Choice award for 2010 and the RNA's RoNA Rose Award in 2012 and 2013.

For many years I lived in an old farmhouse on the edge of the Pennines in West Yorkshire, literally a stone's throw from open moorland. Now I live by the sea in the wild Highlands of Scotland. I love walking to think up my latest plot, or just to clear my head ready for another session of writing.

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Displaying 1 - 15 of 15 reviews
Profile Image for Molly.
456 reviews
December 14, 2014
Este é o primeiro livro que leio da Harlequim. Para primeira experiência, foi agradável. É uma leitura divertida, leve, com alguns momentos de humor e bastante sedução. Tem ainda alguma ação e aventura, o que também ajudou ao interesse pela história. O único aspeto que tenho a apresentar é o facto e o livro ter sido traduzido para Português do Brasil. Apesar de não ter nada contra ler em pt-br, acho que não havia necessidade da tradução ter sido assim. Afinal, comprei o livro como sendo em Português de Portugal...se tivesse comprado um livro do Brasil, aí sim, contava com a tradução em pt-br!

Mas o facto de o livro estar em pt-br acaba por não alterar em nada o interessa da história, da qual gostei bastante. Como referi anteriomente, esta é uma leitura bastante leve, onde a história e as personagens são bastantes lineares. É um romance bom para se passar o tempo ou para intercalar com outras leituras mais densas.

A história conta como Evelina, uma jovem inglesa a viver no interior, acaba por se apaixonar e viver uma aventura romântica e um tanto periogosa com o seu noivo, que apareceu na propriedade do seu avô com um plano para casar com ela.

Não quero estar aqui a escrever muito mais sobre o enredo, uma vez que seria fácil escrever vários spoilers, pois a história não tem grande densidade ou profundidade.

As personagens são um tanto planas e não muito complexas, talvez com excepção do homem: Nick Wilder, um capitão da marinha inglesa, sempre à procura de aventura. A jovem, Eve, também não está mal, não é uma rapariga lamechas nem nada disso, sempre à procura de aventura. Mas isso não faz com que haja uma grande complexidade.

Então, se não há complexidade ou um enredo rico e forte, porquê é que este é um livro interessante?

A resposta a esta questão é a seguinte:

É um livro que distrai; cumpre o seu propósito; dá para desanuviar; dá para para entreter. É leve, tem aventuras e bastante romance e sedução, sem "fofuras". Como primeira experiência com a Harlequim, esta foi agradável!

Recomendo e não tenham problema com a tradução, apesar de esta poder ter sido revista para pt-pt.
Profile Image for Z..
533 reviews
November 1, 2023
3.5 stars...or whatever...I think my numerical ratings are kind of meaningless tbh. The blurb is kind of misleading, but this is a good adventure story. The romance feels less "resolved" than they often do (especially for a straight historical -- they're married and but their future doesn't feel as settled as the standard lords-and-ladies marriage-and-babies) which is fun. Downside: it kind of flirts with some old skool tendencies in a way I don't love. The heroine says no when she (kind of) means yes and is disappointed when he respects her no...I understand where she's coming from but I felt like I could see the author calculating how to play both sides (bodice ripper kink vs respectable good guy). Meh.

Also, not the author's fault obviously but the ebook I read on hoopla has some irritating errors.
Profile Image for Nathan.
37 reviews
March 8, 2021
Perfectly serviceable. An enjoyable read though nothing particularly exciting.

There was also a bit of the ‘she says no but she really means yes’ with quite a few of their interactions that turned me off a bit, in that she turns him down a few times, then is disappointed when he actually obeys her wishes. I know the setting doesn’t always allow for it but I much rather people say what they mean instead of getting mad that someone actually did what you asked them to even if that wasn’t what you wanted.

I must also say that my copy of this story had a surprising number of spelling errors. Words were missing or lacked their appropriate ‘ing’ or ‘ed.’ I had to guess the intended word in quite a few places by sentence context alone. I know things can slip through the cracks but I expect much better from a professionally published book.
1,411 reviews
March 24, 2019
Wow what an adventurous read, with a one month courtship, scheming cousin, a house party n much more could not put it down except for sleep n work
Profile Image for Priscilla.
1,930 reviews19 followers
December 14, 2023
Leitura leve e com alguns momentos de humor.

Evelina construiu uma vida depois do sumiço de Nick e é um deleite ver os dois tentando se entender.
Profile Image for Gabriela.
68 reviews1 follower
October 15, 2012
Vou ser direta: Evelina é uma chata. Ela não me cativou, o que fez com que o livro perdesse um pouco da graça para mim. Não me entenda mal, o livro não é ruim, mas tem outros históricos melhores, com "mocinhas" mais cheias de atitude.

O problema de Eve é que ela é do tipo de mulher que se finge de durona, que diz ao cara para ele ir embora, pois ela não quer mais vê-lo nem pintado de ouro. Porém, depois fica se lamuriando porque o homem fez exatamente o que ela mandou: foi embora.

Tá, eu entendo, Nick (que, aliás, é um fofo e a razão para eu ainda considerar o livro bom) a enganou, se mandou logo depois da noite de núpcias e fingiu estar morto. Certamente não era para Eve perdoá-lo logo de cara, mas ele tinha motivos bastante plausíveis para fazer o que fez e explicou tudo a ela assim que se encontraram novamente. O que foi uma das coisas que apreciei neste livro, o mocinho não ficou enrolando, dizendo que tinha uma explicação para tudo, mas só podia dizer depois e que a mulher deveria confiar nele e blá blá blá.

Mas Eve ficou até os últimos momentos do livro, mesmo depois de ele salvá-la duas vezes, fazendo mimimi, dizendo coisas do tipo: "Ai, ele é um aventureiro, não vai querer parar em casa!" e "Ah meu Deus! eu tenho que deixá-lo livre, para que ele seja feliz". Isso tudo sem nem falar com Nick para saber o que ele realmente queria.

Enfim, se você já comprou o livro ou uma amiga lhe emprestou, pode ler que não vai ser uma perda de tempo. Mas se você ainda não comprou, sugiro que escolha outro.
Profile Image for Gail.
Author 25 books218 followers
October 11, 2010
This wasn't exactly what I expected, but I think I mixed up a couple of different sets of back cover copy. I thought the captain returned after years of the heroine thinking him dead, but it was only a short time. They married, spent one night together, and then he left and was reported dead. Her grandfather (who sometimes was called "supporting" in a strange search-replace edit in the e-book I read) died shortly after this, and people start popping up wanting strange things.

There's a mystery-adventure-spy plot that seems to take over the romance. The conflict between the hero and heroine feels a little contrived to me--things should have been explored between them that weren't. It was more of a gallop through to the end. But I did read it through to the end. It was an okay read.
Profile Image for Becky Black.
Author 57 books109 followers
December 6, 2011
Very enjoyable historical romance, with an interesting and different background story about smugglers. I'd have liked to see more of what Nick was getting up to sometimes, since it does remain very focused on Eve. But she's an engaging character, and Nick got to make some great entrances!

The "Regency" badge on the front of this is misleading. It's set at least 20 years before that. Mills and Boon do seem to slap that "Regency" badge on anything set between about 1750 and 1850!

I was mildly amused by the hero's name "Nick Wylder", since it sounds to me like the name of a 1980s New Romantic singer.
Profile Image for Caroline.
Author 6 books11 followers
November 29, 2011
Yet another dreadful title obscures the fascinating story of a tempestuous romance set against coastal smuggling in late-eighteenth century England.

The atmospheric rural setting makes a refreshing change from the chandeliered London townhouses and provincial palaces of so many historical romances.

The descriptive writing is up to Ms Mallory's usual superlative standard, and the technical details of the smuggling industry add an extra layer of intriguing authenticity.
Profile Image for Etty Kurnianingsih.
94 reviews
April 18, 2012
Ngantuk abis bacanya... Meski HR tetap aja sentuhan HQ berasa banget. Dari segi cerita sih lumayan tapi sayang ga meninggalkan kesan yang mendalam, jadinya mesti lompat2 supaya cepet selesai. Tokohnya pun juga tidak ada yang khusus. Semuanya ga masuk selera, Sarah Mallory kayaknya ga bakal masuk daftar novelis favorit gw nih...
Profile Image for Stevie Carroll.
Author 4 books26 followers
February 17, 2012
The blurb is a little misleading, since a lot happens in the book before the events it describes, but there are all kinds of fun goings on to make up for that. In fact the other plots swamp the romance at times. Some of the plots stretched belief a little too far, but an engaging romp anyway.
Displaying 1 - 15 of 15 reviews