Nicholas Kirwan is returning to his
family home in Ireland after the Napoleonic War only
to find that his late father has left the family
in serious debt. Nick finds himself in dire straights
with two sisters of marriageable age and an aging mother, not
to mention a house that's showing its age. His only choice is
to marry. Not just any woman but one with a large dowry.
Rietta Ferris is the elder or two sisters
in the Ferris household. Spurned by a past love she is determined
to be a strong and independent woman. She's chosen not to
marry but to live at home with her aging father to assist
him in the running of his estate, which she does very well.
However there's a family curse that says unless the eldest
sister marries first that bad luck will befall the family.
The fact that Rietta has refused to marry puts her younger
sister Blanche in a pickle. When her father "sells"
Rietta into a marriage with Nick Kirwan she's caught between
falling for his charms and the knowledge that her father sold
her, essentially, in order to not only free Blanche to marry,
but he can also wed again.
"The Irish Bride" is a story centered
in the Anglo-Irish community of Ireland in 1816, continuing
the endearing "Irish Eyes" line of Irish romances
from Berkeley/Jove. This is pre-famine times in the west of
Ireland where wealthy plantation families from England have
large estates with native Irish renters paying taxes and working
the land for the lord's benefit. Coming out galas, high tea
and keeping up with the Jones's are top priority. However
I felt this story lacked in this regard. Based on description
as I read, both the Kirwan and Ferris households appeared
to be fancy farmhouses rather than the grand manor houses
that would have dominated this culture. As well, the inhabitants
of both families clashed in class. Where the Ferris's represented
a more affluent social class, the Kirwan's seem to be more
like country people, which puts Nick's knighthood in direct
contradiction to his perceived station.
I felt that the character of Rietta was written
very well but she apposed Nick's. Where she excelled in personality,
emotion and inner depth, Nick lacked in the same. Rietta is
a headstrong woman, independent, and bright. Nick, on the
other hand, contradicts the typical hero characteristics that
include boldness, strength, honor, the ability to give comfort
to the heroine and is able to save the day regardless of the
challenges set out before him. His character seems to ride
on the coattails of Rietta which nearly put him into the position
of a secondary character instead of the hero he's meant to
be.
The only native Irish part of this book is
the small part of the story that takes place in the Claddagh
area of Galway City. Rietta travels to the Claddagh to interact
with the natives in order to write down the Irish legends
that have been handed down through the generations. This act
seems to pull Rietta into a more intriguing story but ends
up getting lost when she marries Nick and the storyline takes
a completely different turn. There is a lost potential to
see an interaction between the gentry and the poor Irish,
to learn more about native Irish culture and tradition, and
to put Rietta and Nick into a more dramatic climax of the
story. Unfortunately I believe the story falls short because
of this undiscovered potential in the storyline.
While "The Irish Bride" has great
potential I feel that somewhere along the line it got lost.
It was a cute story and was able to enjoy it for the read,
but I found that it lacked the real punch that it could have
had if the Irish elements had been drawn out. As it is, this
story has come over rather bland, leaving me feel as if it
was a story originally written for an English setting then
switched to Ireland to suit this particular line of books.
