The Obedient

Lists with This Book. This book is not yet featured on Listopia. Feb 20, Talltree rated it liked it Shelves: Jan 07, Katy Beth Mckee rated it it was amazing Shelves: A peak into the relationship between Sean and Ginger both in the present and how they got together. He offers her just what she needs. Neth rated it it was ok Oct 21, Ssh rated it liked it Mar 08, Tonet rated it liked it Jun 14, MaYa rated it did not like it Jul 05, Sissi Drake rated it liked it Dec 30, Tina rated it liked it Aug 08, Diana Uy rated it it was ok Feb 24, Ella Jeffs rated it liked it Feb 18, Rosie rated it really liked it Sep 15, Stergek rated it it was ok Sep 29, Lady D rated it it was ok Oct 05, Grace rated it liked it Mar 01, Danielle rated it it was amazing Sep 02, Richard rated it liked it Jun 21, Mandy rated it liked it Jul 05, Iva rated it really liked it Jul 19, Hot Reading Mom rated it liked it Mar 01, Jessica rated it liked it Feb 03, Marta rated it liked it Dec 31, Katherine Herrick rated it did not like it Apr 12, Berni Hollinger rated it it was amazing Jun 01, Jme rated it really liked it Jun 07, There are no discussion topics on this book yet.

Carolyn was one of you as a kid, with the intriguing seeds planted in her head of the shivering thrill-thoughts that came with words like spanking, or discipline. As with you, those kinds of words and thoughts connected the heated blush of her cheeks with feelings elsewhere, which got more and more interesting the older she got. I bet you know just what I'm talking about.

Like some, she started writ Carolyn was one of you as a kid, with the intriguing seeds planted in her head of the shivering thrill-thoughts that came with words like spanking, or discipline. Not wanting to dispossess the widow and her 3 daughters from the country seat, he off handedly off I am on a cheating-Regency-husbands roll here. Not wanting to dispossess the widow and her 3 daughters from the country seat, he off handedly offers to marry one of them.

He feels a wife will add to his respectability and anyways he has to settle down at some point. He has a very satisfactory mistress in town and has no inclination of leaving her. The h is the plain, short, chubby, middle daughter with the elder daughter being the beauty of the family.

The practical h steps in as she feels she would feel more comfortable and be more appreciated by an older man anyways. So when the H makes an entrance, they are all suitably dismayed, the h included. They get married and move to London. While she can chatter nonstop with others, she gets tongue-tied in his presence making her seem gauche to her husband. But as a reader we can see the H being intrigued and charmed by her despite himself. Spoiler time view spoiler [The marriage is consummated and he keeps his occasional trysts with the mistress.

The sex is just as he expected — mild and dutiful at home, raunchy and energetic with the mistress, quite proving his point. And all hell breaks loose. The tame tabby turns into a vitriolic virago. Then goes all cold and sanctimonious on him. He apologizes for hurting her not for his actions, mind you and asks for a fresh start. As he says she is just unable to forget and forgive his faithlessness. So things linger awkwardly and the story struggles for a while. But better sense prevails and the dramatic resolution was sweet and lighthearted for both couples viz.

It was always the H who makes an effort to talk to her, appeal to her or be with her. She never initiates a conversation or seeks him out even when she was unaware of his cheating. And I strongly dislike hs who are warm to everyone but the H! And what about experienced husbands who know what sex is all about and never initiate the naive wives properly?

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He never bothers with her satisfaction or even pain, or showing her what exists beyond just the perfunctory act. And he never recovered in my estimation. So neither was perfect. They both had their failings. His quiet pursuit of the sister was astute and yet so sweet and endearing. Apr 17, Didi rated it really liked it Shelves: I do love a good marriage-of-convenience story, and this fit the bill. Having a mistress was an acceptable practice by well-bred gentleman, but no self-respecting young woman would abide by it.

Lord Astor, or Geoffrey, was a good man. He had a mistress and had to come to terms with the fact that Arabella would never stand for it demurely. I loved how his feelings for her took him by surprise I do love a good marriage-of-convenience story, and this fit the bill. I loved how his feelings for her took him by surprise. He never imagined being in love with his own wife! Arabella's sister, Frances, was a bit of a baby, I thought. She was the beauty of the family but not much more.

On a side note The man on it looks to be in his fifties at the least, while the young woman looks nothing like Arabella. Geoffrey was in fact 27, Arabella, There is a purposeful twist at the beginning of the book that ties into miscommunicated ages, but the cover models are comically ridiculous. I really liked this one, though. It was emotional and believable. View all 5 comments. Dec 29, Naksed rated it liked it Shelves: This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers. To view it, click here. Dec 08, Jess the Romanceaholic rated it liked it Shelves: So, as many of you know, I don't typically read Mary Balogh books.

See, adultery is a dealbreaker for me. There's enough crap like that in real life, and frankly, I read for entertainment, not to be dragged down by depressing things like a man who just flat out can't keep it in his pants. That said, I actually didn't hate this. I liked that while our hero wasn't immediately throwing himself on the mercy of his So, as many of you know, I don't typically read Mary Balogh books.

I liked that while our hero wasn't immediately throwing himself on the mercy of his wife for being caught with having a mistress, he was genuinely sorry for having hurt her. I felt our heroine's disappointment and disillusionment at finding out that her husband had no intention of keeping a vow that he'd made to both her and G-d, and her being torn between desperately wanting to build a life filled with trust and affection with her husband, and not wanting to open herself up to that hurt again by giving into that temptation. I do feel that the resolution came a little too quickly -- even though he wasn't quick to give up Ginny, and in fact visited her even after the confrontation with his wife, I felt like he was too quick to switch into the I LOVE YOU's and that she was too quick in forgiving him..

Don't get me wrong, I'm not saying that he should be forever punished for his indiscretion, especially given the times and his honest belief that keeping a mistress after marriage was in no way a slight or disrespect to his wife bah! Paraphrasing obviously lol Anyway, I didn't hate it, which is a step in the right direction as far as I'm concerned with this author lol Three Stars Nov 20, Hasnamezied rated it liked it Shelves: Oh this was a big disappointment for me.

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Usually, I love to read for Mary Balogh especially her regency novels. Jun 11, Shari Kay marked it as not-for-me. Jul 06, Emilia Barnes rated it did not like it Shelves: He marries Arabella, despite feeling some disappointment that it was not the beautiful Frances who was his bride, and they go to London together. There Arabella becomes more modish, and thus more physically attractive, and she makes friends, a lot of them, having a particular liking for those with defects because she thinks herself defective, while she thinks her husband very much a picture of perfection.

This means that she cannot be easy with him. And so, even though they have sex, their relationship progresses on uneven lines. Lord Astor starts to both like his wife and resent her for not liking him back. She finds out about his Mistress, becomes very angry with him and promises him nothing but coldness in the future. Meanwhile her sister is a watering pot and Sir Theodore comes to Town only to watch her flirt with Sir John, a man who is dull and unpleasant, but for whom Frances has an unaccountable weakness.

Many things happen in his novella, but not many of them interesting. The plot, if one can call it that, plods along through extremely repetitious expositions of internal monologue, which really read like: Arabella thought herself to be fat and his lordship perfect ad nauseum, his lordship thought her not so bad, but he had a lust for his mistress ad nauseum, Frances cries ad nauseum. The story between an eighteen year old girl, with a good heart but with very deeply ingrained confidence issues and her marriage to a seemingly perfect lord is in itself not entirely unendearing.

I do sympathise with Arabella a little. It is not because he is unfaithful to his wife something which other reviewers seem to have a huge problem with , but because he seems to have little going for him other than being good-looking. Indeed, besides the plot being really only a slow progression of meaningless events until a small change happens which will be repeated to the reader ad nauseum until another small change happens, it is the lack of characterisation that is the most annoying part of this book.

Georgette Heyer wrote books with masses of exposition substituting plot e. April Lady but one always liked to read about the various quirks of character of the people involved. Their dialogue, thus, became interesting, infused with their own particular brand of wit, intelligence or absurdity. Here the dialogue is dull, any sentence spoken by any character could just as easily be spoken by another. Thus, the central couple is not particularly interesting, but they are far more interesting than the completely incomprehensible secondary couple: Frances and Sir Theodore.

France is beautiful and cries a lot. She is also dumb as a brick. She is so prudish that when a man she is half-promised to, whom she loves, rescues her from a charging bull or what she believes to be a charging bull and kisses her forehead afterwards, she slaps him, but at the same time sees no problem to go off on her own with Sir John in Vauxhall or to allow him to kiss her in a garden at a house party.

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Her crying was used, I think, to some comedic effect, but on the whole it happens so often that it becomes entirely unrealistic. More to the point, someone so level-headed as Theodore seems a very unlikely partner for her. She is not faithful nor even particularly kind to him, and it seems odd that someone so reasonable as he should want to marry her, despite her being apparently such a diamond.

I must compare this to Georgette Heyer simply because so many of her tropes and characters seem to have been stolen to enormously inferior effect here. Like Jane in Civil Contract she is far less beautiful than the girl her husband would have preferred to have married. Like Arabella she goes around helping people. Unlike Horry, however, she lacks charm, wit or rumgumption. Unlike Jane her unattractiveness seems to be mostly in her head.

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And unlike Arabella, she has no spirit. She is very similar to Julia in Civil Contract, in that she turns out to be all wrong for the hero through her excessive sentimentality. Like Fanny from Black Sheep she falls for a scoundrel. But unlike those characters she lacks any depth at all.



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She never does anything but cries or flirts. Lord Astor, on the other hand, lacks any defining characteristic that I could even tell.

The Obedient Wife

He is handsome is all I know about him and that is not nearly enough. All the characters in this novel are pale imitations of Georgette Heyer classics, even the final chase scene being extremely anti-climactic. Both the dialogue and the narration lack wit or spark, which is the sort of thing that made even the dullest Heyer plot extremely readable. Then there are the various inconsistencies and inaccuracies of plot, which have me scratching my head.

The Obedient Bride

Frances, Arabella and Jemima are the daughters of a Viscount and yet they have never had a dancing instructor nor have they been to London before at least not for the Season. Frances, especially, is twenty years old, one would expect that she would have gone even for a short visit to be presented at the least. I have no idea why they did not just marry. Then there is the very peculiar decision of the new Lord Astor to marry a girl he had not even seen. It also puzzles me why he has sex with her straight away. It was not uncommon, in such marriages as these, to wait for a while, especially if the bride was so young and they did not know one another at all and it is constantly repeated how child-like she looked, which surely must have made it for him all the creepier and a wait all the more justified — their first times read horribly like rape to me and it does not help that Balogh mentions several times how small and submissive she is underneath him.

I also do not understand why he marries Arabella at all. And even if he did intend to marry one of the daughters, he could have gone there first made himself known, made friends with them and picked one rather than go and have had the mother decide which one it would be. They would be much more likely to call him by his surname or a nickname derived thereof, surely. But the biggest issue by far, is the development of relationships.

Somehow MB managed, despite telling us a lot about the state of thought and emotions of the main characters repeatedly still make the progression of their thoughts super unbelievable. Arabella hates her husband for cheating on her, she will never forgive him we hear ad nauseum until suddenly they have to share a bed and have passionate sex for which she begs. Within minutes she is out deciding that she does forgive him after all. It is very odd to have whole pages devoted to explaining to us, very slowly and repetitively that one state of emotion is taking place only to then suddenly change it to another.

The problem is not the change, in actual fact, but the extensive, repetitive descriptions. The progression comes out as abrupt, rather than natural. Rather than make us laugh at or doubt the things Lord Astor tells himself he is feeling, we are left confused and annoyed. Altogether it was on par with fan fiction. Not even good fan fiction, only tolerable. View all 12 comments.



Oct 16, Ana T. After a few less than wonderful Baloghs here's one that I truly enjoyed. Him because he is helping the last Viscount's family and she because she will be able to help her family if she does. The way they approach the marriage however is very different.

The hero sees it has something he has to do but that it won't disrupt his private life, he will continue to keep his usual mistress and doing his usua After a few less than wonderful Baloghs here's one that I truly enjoyed. The hero sees it has something he has to do but that it won't disrupt his private life, he will continue to keep his usual mistress and doing his usual activities with the exception that now he will accompany his wife to social functions and will present her sisters to society.

The heroine, however, is determined to make the best of her marriage and be the perfect wife. In part because she feel he is entering a bad bargain as she is not as beautiful as her sister. They do adjust well to married life and in fact Bella, the heroine, likes her new social life so much that she becomes a vibrant young woman always surrounded by friends and admirers. However, one evening she hears that her husband is keeping a mistress and decides to confront him about it.

I loved how Bella was so very hurt and disappointed but managed to hold on to her her dignity while making it very clear how mad she was. Geoffrey really couldn't see how his actions could be seen as wrong which I suppose was accurate for the time and type of marriage but he felt her displeasure and decided to change. He ended things with the mistress and worked on gaining Bella's trust again. Mind you he did not change overnight, in fact his first reaction was to get very angry that Bella should think and speak in such a way with him.

But when he decided to reform he did his best to please her and I felt he actually won her over. There's a subplot with Bella's sister and a rake that I felt was a bit unnecessary unless it was to show how noble Geoffrey was in contrast. In the end I found this a very nice little story although readers with strong feelings about adultery should probably stay away.

Nov 05, Twiggy rated it liked it Shelves: The heroine, Arabella, marries Lord Astor out of duty to her family once he inherits her father's title. Arabella has grown up with little self esteem and over shadowed by her beautiful but excessively stupid sister. She is initially intimidated by Astor but as time goes on, she finds herself settling into life in the Ton and making good friends who like her for herself.

Astor also finds that marriage has greater consequences than anticipated and discovers that he wants to spend time with his wi The heroine, Arabella, marries Lord Astor out of duty to her family once he inherits her father's title. Astor also finds that marriage has greater consequences than anticipated and discovers that he wants to spend time with his wife and see that she settles in and becomes more comfortable with him. On the other hand he desperately wants to believe that his life can go on as before and to that end continues his relationship with his mistress, all be it with increasing guilt.

Arabella discovers the relationship and confronts Astor, who is sorry for her hurt but unapologetic as to it's cause and makes it clear he does not intend to give up his mistress. Unfortunately for him it is not so easy. He realises that he is unhappy at the h's withdrawal from him and that he has breached her trust. He also realises that if she will not forgive him, their life together will be pretty bleak.

He also finds that his passion for his mistress has waned and he eventually gives her up. The rest of the story focuses on Astor's growing awareness of his feelings for his wife and their eventual reconciliation. I thought this was a sympathetic portrait about the issue of adultery in the historical context and the impact it had on the relationship between the couple and their subsequent emotional growth, was done well.

There is a secondary romance involving the silly sister, who I wanted to strangle. Aug 24, Camille rated it it was ok Shelves: It epitomized all the things which sucked about this era. The male dominant society well, we still have that but not as much , the weak weepy women, the repression of emotions, sexual frustration and ignorance of women lay back and think of England! Arabella, who considers herself fat and ugly agrees to marry Lord Geoffrey Astor sight unseen so that her family won't be poor.

Even though she has an older and more beautiful sister who technically should marry first, but she takes the bullet and agrees. She takes this duty seriously but is constantly suffering from low self-esteem that she can barely speak to her husband. Eventually Arabella discovers her husband has a mistress and for some reason her character development gave no hint she would act so empowered she demands her husband stop seeing his mistress and declares their marriage a failure and will only continue out of duty.

Lord Astor was cool with that because he's a man, and well, no woman will dictate how he should live his life I'm sure you can see where this is going. Aug 12, Pam rated it did not like it. This was a boring book! The wife had no backbone for ages and then finally she finds out her husband has a mistress. She blast him for it and then she goes back to being the rug but she is no longer his friend. Give me a freakin break!! She has a sister that cries at the drop of the hat and really gets on my nerves!!

Mar 15, Cc rated it liked it. I don't think my opinion is going to be all that well liked, but I kinda thought she was a martyred goose. Dec 27, kris rated it did not like it. Lord Geoffrey Astor is the newest Viscount Astor. Since this is an obscene amount of power sarcasm , he offers to marry one of the daughters of the former Viscount.

For, you know, plot reasons. The lucky child lady in question is Miss Arabella Wilson, who is petite and curvy and too Innocent to Live. Will these blockheads figure out how to live happily ever after? Basically, Astor continues to stick his wick in his mistress up until the very last. He has 0 shame, 0 regret--until, suddenly, he does! Because otherwise there couldn't be a happy ending! This feels very similar to The Convenient Marriage in a lot of ways.

Mistress plot; "convenient" marriage; martyr heroine who is too Innocent to Live Except there was some Adult Liaisons!! The Adult Liaisons were kind of gross? Like, I thought I was inured to Duty Sex? I thought I had seen the worst of it and had come out the other side harder, better, faster, stronger. But this book was completely fine with a hero who has so little consideration for his wife that he doesn't even try to arouse her before going at it. Arabella probably should have thrown you in the trash after the first go-round, selfish prick.

And it's all twisted up in the mistress plot--where he finds his pleasure vs. Except you've already shown your ass, dude. I'm assuming my missing page 47 didn't have any pivotal scenes that would have changed my opinion on any of this. If I am mistaken, then I apologize. But only a little. Nov 06, Suzanne rated it really liked it Shelves: In this Signet Regency, Mary Balogh daringly for the time examines the role of love, duty and fidelity in marriage.

The hero, Viscount Astor and heroine, Arabella Wilson, enter into a 'marriage of convenience' with no expectation of love. She is young and naive, with no true understanding of her own sexual and emotional needs, but soon comes to idealize her handsome and sophisticated husband. He seems to believe that a 'wife' exists for solely for conception of an heir and to appear at so In this Signet Regency, Mary Balogh daringly for the time examines the role of love, duty and fidelity in marriage. He seems to believe that a 'wife' exists for solely for conception of an heir and to appear at social events.

The Obedient Wife by Carolyn Faulkner

Mistresses are kept to satisfy a man's "robust" sexual " needs, and the Viscount continues to visit his mistress in the early weeks of his marriage. Each is forced to reevaluate their feelings for each other and the fate of their marriage when the infidelity is painfully exposed. Self analysis, love, and the expression of honest sexual passion bring this couple the happy ending they deserve.