The Perfect Wife

By Victoria Alexander

The perfect wife should be beautiful, trusting, and absolutely agreeable—or so the Earl of Wyldewood thought. But in New York Times bestselling author Victoria Alexander's intriguing tale, he finds that marriage is about more than mere appearances . . .

When the Earl of Wyldewood meets Sabrina Winfield, he thinks he's found the ideal match. Graceful and genteel, the elegant blonde will look simply exquisite displayed on his arm. And a lady like Sabrina will undoubtedly occupy her time with proper matters, leaving him free to pursue his own pleasures . . .

But beneath Sabrina's delicate beauty lies the most infuriatingly stubborn, wildly adventurous woman the earl has ever met. She's nothing like the perfect wife he had imagined. And before long, all he can think of is quieting her biting wit (with his kisses), putting an end to her outlandish schemes (with his own carefully planned seduction), and doing everything in his power to become the perfect husband.

• Language: English
• Publisher: HarperCollins
• Release date: Jan 31, 2012
• ISBN: 9780062198204

Victoria Alexander

#1 New York Times bestselling author Victoria Alexander was an award-winning television reporter until she discovered fiction was more fun than real life. She is the author of thirty-one novels, and her books have been translated into more than a dozen languages. Victoria lives in Omaha, Nebraska, with her long-suffering husband and two dogs, in a house under endless renovation and never-ending chaos.

Reviews for The Perfect Wife

[mariahsidhe · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

This book was certainly interesting, filled with adventure, and the desert! I can't help but like books that have both sea voyages and desert adventures all in one. And also a love story! Even more impressive. Can't help but feel bad for the man though, pushed around by so much stubborn female. =)

[phyllisd_5 · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

An adventerous story with mature primary characters (i.e., baggage) and the humor that I love in Victoria Alexander's work. Even the secondary characters were well-developed.

[the_book_queen · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

First off, I love Victoria Alexander's writting-- she is an amazing historical romance author, providing both wit and love, steamy passion and mystery, and a good plot line and characters. What more can you possibly ask for?! The Perfect Wife started off a little bit slow, but quickly gained speed. It was different, as far as my reading preferences go, because the hero and heroine were both parents, widowed, and they were in their thrities already. Usually the heroine is younger, maybe 26, and the hero is anywhere from her age on up to mid 30's. I'm not really complaining, however, because as I read the story, I felt that they really matched, and they truly did love each other.Set in the back drop of England, but quickly moving to the open sea and Egypt, The Perfect Wife was captivating and interesting. Not only is it a great love story *With some great love scenes, I might add!* but V.A. has managed to also give us a nice subplot, the theme of danger and adventure, burried treasure and secret pasts...I also liked how she was able to so deftly weave together not only Nicholas and Sabrina's love story, but also Erik and Belinda's and even some of Matt and Nic's sister *I'm so sorry, I can't remember her first name right now!!*. I found it a nice mix, and I didn't feel that it was confusing or took depth away from any of the relationships, like you would expect from such a detailed character plot. 4.5/5 STARS! The Perfect Wife is a great example of historical romance at it's best-- steamy, yet innocent, true love and exotic mysteries... And more than few reformed rakes... Because every woman knows---A reformed rake makes the best husband! ;)

[ancestorsearch · Rating: 2 out of 5 stars]

Sabrina is a widow left alone to raise her daughter Belinda, she gave up her wild past and became a very proper woman obeying all of the society rules to ensure her daughter a good marriage. Belinda becomes engaged to Erik the son of the Earl of Wyldewood. The only problem is Sabrina has no dowry to offer, due bad investments she has been left penniless. Sabrina discovers her husband won a letter that gives the location of gold that was hidden in Egypt, the answer to her money problems. She lets her butler in on her upcoming adventure who has accompanied her in the past, with his help she locates others from her past to assist her. Once her daughter discovers what she is planning she begs her finance to help, he goes to his father the Earl of Wyldwood, Nicolas. When he arrives Sabrina is packed and ready to go he insist she cancel the trip, when she does not he decides to accompany her. Once they sail Sabrina stays in her room, she is worried that he will discover her past and call of the marriage, she decides to stop hiding and deal with him. He tells her that he had her investigated and she would make the “Perfect Wife” for his status, unaware of her wild past. Sabrina decides that maybe marriage to him would guarantee her daughter’s marriage to Erik so she offers to marry him, with the understanding his is only a marriage of convenience, he agrees. When I opened the book and read the prologue I really was looking forward to this story, but nothing every happened I was so bored reading the book the story was cluttered, the plot was not rewarding I am surprised I finished the book. I did enjoy some the secondary characters the were more enjoyable then the main characters. I read one other book by her and it was much better then this.

[bookfreak13 · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

Wow. Great book. Matured love, young love, adventure all thrown together to produce a delightful read.

[pnrlist · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

Romantic comedy full of slapstick humor. I generally prefer drama and steer clear of chick-lit-y type stuff, but this has a super insecure, chubby heroine with mean cousins, so of course I love it.

[nancynova · Rating: 2 out of 5 stars]

A knight back from the crusades marries his childhood arranged betrothed, who thinks she's fat, ugly - and after the wedding very accident prone. Only they weren't accidents - someone is trying to kill her.

[fairydragonstar · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

It was funny and cute

[onyx95_1 · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

Spending years on Crusade, Paen Gerville returned home to mourn his brothers death. Collecting and then marrying his betrothed sounded an easy task, but didn’t turn out that way. Preparing for her betrothed to come collect her, marry her and escort her to her new home, Avelyn Straughton knew she was not the ideal bride because of her size. With her limited time she made the decision to make her wedding dress a tad smaller than she currently wore, in the hopes that she would fit in it by the day. Taking it in turned out to be a mistake, one that her cousins would never let her live down. As one incident after another beset the newly wed couple, they began to wonder if the fates or just her clumsiness were working against them. After all, these just were not like her.First Lynsay Sands for me. I enjoyed the characters and their interactions. Finally, characters that, while ignorant of some things, weren’t complete idiots (show of my unfortunate reading selection lately more than anything to do with this book). The writing style was easy to follow and the honor, confusion and humor all came through so great. I am very interested to read more of Lynsay Sands historicals as well as finding out if her paranormals are as well written.

[whitreidtan · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

Normally medieval-set historical romances are not my romances of choice. There's just altogether too much dirt and battle. But this particular book had enough humor, slapstick and otherwise, to leaven the difficult realities of life in the eleventh century. Lady Avelyn is not a slight girl; she is a fully grown woman, rounded, comfortable and eminently skilled to be mistress of her own home, just the sort of woman her soon to be husband Paen wants to marry. However, she has spent so many years being bullied by her nasty cousins that she can only see faults, fretting that Paen will reject her upon first sight despite their long-standing betrothal. And so Avelyn, who had intended to lose weight for her wedding but hasn't managed to do so, allows her mother to bind her tightly and sew her into her wedding dress, which will, of course lead to disaster. It is stunts like this and others that lead Paen to decide that his new wife is sickly, frail, and completely accident-prone, something that worries him unduly. Refreshingly, the misunderstandings between Paen and Avelyn do not lead to arguments but they continue to keep the newly married pair apart regardless as neither addresses the issues. And so these two, tentatively attracted to each other, fumble along getting to know one another even as Avelyn evades attempts on her life from an undiscovered source. This particular plot line is the one that provides the major plot climax and enables Avelyn and Paen to finally see each other. The scenes between Avelyn and Paen are a bit more humorous than sexy but they are likable characters overall and it is rather nice to be able to laugh at the stress of getting to know your spouse only after the wedding. A light read, fans who like a little less seriousness in their historical romances will find this quite appealing.

[lina_em · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

very funny.