The Bad Luck Bride is the perfect name for this story. Lady Claire the daughter of the deceased Duke of Langham has had 4 betrothals that resulted in death or injury of her finance's. Now the Ton has said she is cursed. Lady Claire has secrets and fears that are uncovered in the story. But I liked her.

Lord Alexander Hallworth Marquis of Pembrooke has just buried his sister Alice. Alice has committed suicide and has left her brother a letter. The letter implies that Alex's best friend Lord Paul was responsible for his sister suicide. Now Alex only wants revenge and to destroy his ex friends life. Lord Paul is addicted to gambling and has lost everything to Alex even his fiancée Lady Claire. Alex will marry the Lady Claire to keep her fortune out of the hands of the Gambling Lord Paul.

The H/H Lady Claire and Lord Alex Pembrooke are written in an intelligent way and they resolve there differences in a mature and quick manner, but the same issues causing there marriage problems keep coming back and have to be resolved again and again. The storyline doesn't always flow and connect as it should but this could be because it has not been properly edited as of yet.

The Bad Luck Bride is an enjoyable story with likeable characters. The romance is a sexy sensuous one between the H/H. I am just tired of the old Spinster who lost her virtue storyline. That part of the story can be rewritten as far as I am concerned.
ARC KINDLY PROVIDED BY NETGALLEY FOR AN HONEST REVIE

Well-written, original, and hard to put down. The characters are complex, and you'll find yourself rooting for true love to win out! I look forward to reading other books in the series.

I enjoyed this book. The characters had great chemistry and it was great to see Lady Claire's "curse" broken.

All were shocked at the announcement of the “cursed” Lady Claire Cavensham to Lord Alexander Hallworth, the Marquess of Pembrooke, especially since she is already engaged to another unfortunate Lord Paul. Perhaps she will make it to the altar this time with one of these fine gentlemen! —Midnight Cryer
No one is left breathless at the imperious pronouncement of her engagement to Lord Pembrooke more than Claire. She hardly knows the dangerously outrageous man! But after three engagements gone awry and a fourth going up in glorious flames, she isn’t in a position to refuseAlexander requires the hand of his enemy’s fiancée in marriage in order to complete his plans for revenge. It’s his good fortune that the “cursed” woman is desperate.& also that he’s extremely attracted to her.
A very well written debut novel, in fact so accomplished it’s hard to believe it is a first book. A very well paced story of secrets & misunderstandings. The characters have depth. Alex & Claire are extremely likeable even though they have their flaws. The minor characters are also given depth & I hope some of them have their stories. Both Alex & Claire are battling events from their pasts but gradually they learn to ‘open up’ to each other, the road to their HEA was littered with obstacles both of their own making & by others, these were handled with sensitivity & on the whole were believable. I look forward to more from the author

I liked the beginning of the story. I did find it a bit hard to connect to Alexander and seeing him as a hero. Both the Alexander and Claire are flawed and the way in which they're flawed, especially the hero makes for a bit of a heavier read. There were some twists in this story.

This story is different and although I didn't connect with the characters as well as I typically do, it is a well-written story and I know that this book will appeal to some readers.

The story starts off a bit slow but the conflict and plot are well developed, and the reader is pulled into Claire and Alex's complicated relationship. The emotional turmoil and struggles the couple has to face to have their happy ending draws the reader in and you can't help but feel for Claire. Alex definitely digs himself a big hole and he has a lot to atone for in order to win Claire's trust back once all of his secrets are revealed. I very much enjoyed their story. The characters were strong, the plot was compelling, and the development of the relationship with its highs and lows kept me turning the page. I very much enjoyed the book and recommend to any who loves a great historical romance.

The Bad Luck Bride is the first in a new Regency romance series from Janna MacGregor. This is her first novel, and it shows. I really wanted to like it, but I did not. Main characters Claire and Alex are both unlikable and erratic. They are happy and lustful and everything seems to be going fine, then they are suddenly suspicious and angry and ready to flounce off. The writing is clichéd (“His voice caressed her as he leaned toward her and emerged from the shadows as if he were a hero in a gothic novel.” (p. 59 of the advance reader copy)) and the dialog stilted.

Claire believes she is under a curse, and how she lets the curse affect her life and her marriage is ridiculous. Alex wavers between being a cold-hearted jerk bent on revenge and and a lover wallowing in alcohol and despair. They both seemed very immature.

I read an advance reader copy of The Bad Luck Bride. It is scheduled to be published in May 2017.

In the end this story turned out to simply be about forgiveness.

Despite the truly amazing amount of coincidences that occurred to brand Lady Claire with the "curse" of never having an engagement end in marriage, the real curse she suffers from is being haunted by the death of her parents in a accident when she was young. Similarly, Alex is tormented by the loss of his sister under tragic circumstances, which has led him to seek revenge on a former friend by stealing his fiance. I really liked that by the middle of the book, both of the characters knew they loved each other and were committed to that, even though the didn't know if they would end up sharing their lives together. I enjoyed how the story worked in the theme of forgiveness in several of the character relationships, whether it was forgiving another person for something they had done, forgiving a misunderstanding, or in the end, the hardest of all, forgiving yourself.

I received an advanced copy in exchange for an honest review.

The story started off well – I really liked the first scene and had high hopes for the rest of the story. It did not happen. I got bored and the book was almost a DNF. The curse, it was tedious and got old quickly. Also, I could not figure out the reasoning of why Alex was marrying Claire to protect her. From what? He already convinced Lord Paul to break off the engagement so what was the need? Honestly I was more interested in Lord Paul (who I thought would be a villain but dropped off the scene until the end of the book). Do not get me wrong, the story is nice – it is a bunch of observations about Alex and Claire. At around 70% I almost gave up but wanted to see how it would end. The story was better after that point – there were emotions and thoughts of “will they would get back together”.

Claire is convinced that she's cursed. She's lost her parents at a young age as well as had three engagements broken off in horrible ways. So when Alex comes to her with a proposal she agrees if only to save face. What Claire doesn't know is that her most recent broken engagement was caused by Alex himself. This was a well-written read that I couldn't put down. I was fascinated by the fact that Alex knew that he was wrong but didn't seem to want to do anything about it anyway. I especially enjoyed Claire's family and would love to read more about them.

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At the beginning of this book I was confused by all the misconceptions, misunderstanding and mistrust swirling around.

I couldn’t understand the thing about curse… Why Claire was cursed? She thought she was curse, why? What has she done? To whom? Mah…

They’re running circles around each other. Sometime other characters interrupt the conversation between Claire and Alex and we’re left hanging as well as they are.

I hated when that happened! Why people couldn’t see that they’re talking and let them finish? Arghhh…

Still I was intrigued enough to want, almost need, to find out how they’ll get themselves out of their predicament and I kept reading.

The story is complicated and simple enough at the same time!

Alex wants revenge for the suicide of his sister and is prepared to do everything, cheat, lie, manipulate everyone to obtain it!

Poor Claire, who is cursed (I still don’t know what did she do to be cursed), is innocently in the middle of his revenge since she’s almost engaged with the man who (supposedly) ruined Alex’s sister thus causing her suicide.

Alex, being an idiot and not wanting to listen to his friend, who tries constantly to caution him, cause her to brake her engagement and, at the same time, in guise of helping her, compromises her and at the same time offers her marriage.

So they marry. But, while Alex starts to fall for his wife, at the same time he persists in doubting her fidelity and pursuing his revenge. He also hides what he’s done from her, falling more and more in a mire that his convoluted life has become!

At the same time, Claire, unaware of what Alex is doing, tries her best to convince herself that her curse has ended and starts falling in love with Alex.

Obviously, things unravel suddenly and both his and hers world collapses.

Claire, disappointed by Alex’s duplicity and schemes, leaves him.

Alex, fully in love with his wife and ready to do everything to make her return, muddles the things with every words he utters!

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This goes on and on and every time they have a talk trying to clear their situation somebody interrupts them! And Both, passively, let it happen! Double arghhh!!!

At the end they solve their problems, but for me it was like climbing stairs on the 20th floor!!! At the end I was exhausted!

But, because it kept me on my toes and made me feel strongly, I decided that this book merits a full 4 stars!

This book was beautiful and sweet. I love a good romance novel. 1st book by this author won't be the last

Janna MacGregor's tale about Claire and Alex is engaging and surprisingly current, while maintaining Regency period authenticity. After giving her heart to her first fiancée who suddenly dies, Claire suffers through two more broken engagements. Alex seems to rescue her in her ignominy, yet all is not as it seems. Haunted by the loss of his sister, Alex executes a plan to avenge his sister's death with Claire as a casualty. What follows is a touching journey of self-discovery, love and forgiveness. I am hoping there will be more in the future about the surrounding cast of characters.

Well written book with lovable and three-dimensional characters. However, the romantic plot was so often relegated to the sidelines that the intensity level was affected. The story revolves around the main characters’ personal agendas and obsessions – Pembroke’s revenge, Claire’s curse and a painful childhood event - and its implications in their relationship. It’s interesting to watch how well-planted rumors can sully one’s reputation.
I liked the setting descriptions and the secondary characters too; and I thought the characters’ outlooks were quite credible historically: for example, in the heroine’s opinion, the hero “had every right to expect a pure and virtuous bride”, which seems much more accurate than some 19th-century liberated heroines that sometimes appear in historical fiction.
I also enjoyed the way two strangers get to know each other in a convenience marriage and how they, both grieving, find comfort in each other.

DNF at 12%. I've been reading this for 20 days and that's all the more of the book I've gotten read. I just wasn't able to connect with the characters or get into the book. It was an interesting premise, and the writing was decent but I didn't feel like the hero's motives really made sense and the "curse" just seemed silly to me. I might give the author another try if the next book seems interesting.

Many twists and turns with the plot, which keeps it interesting.

I really enjoyed this book and hope to read from the author in the future.

3.5 stars. I have mixed feelings on this one. There were definitely parts that I liked, but Claire started getting on my nerves a bit. For someone who was supposed to be "so strong", she whimpered a lot. The villain was pretty tepid also. Strong writing though.

I do have to say that I prefer these books to not have the leads be wishy-washy. I love him - no I don't...do I stay - do I go...jeesh!

**Thank you to the publisher and Net Galley in exchange of an honest review.**

A very promising beginning, but ultimately, the story and the characters fell flat. I absolutely adored the high drama at first: a soap opera-ish start with Alex determined to avenge his ruined sister baby destroying Lord Paul, the almost fiancee of Lady Claire, who wants to marry just to be relieved of being called a curse with so many failed engagements. But after all that, I couldn't figure out why Claire would so readily agree to marry Alex, even when her relatives were saying to her, oh good riddance to Paul, but hey no need to rush into marriage with Alex.

Alex, with his drinking and anger issues, was no prize, but wishy washy Claire wasn't all that either. I wanted to enjoy this more than I did. I think this author has a promising style and way with words; I just couldn't fall in love with her characters.

This is a delightful first novel by Janna MacGregor, and I will be looking forward to the next entry in the series. Lady Claire is thought to be cursed after a string of broken engagements, but Lord Alex is plotting revenge and needs her in his scheme. What starts as basically a marriage of convenience turns into much more as they work through multiple misunderstandings to true love and passion. Good character development throughout makes this a very enjoyable read.