Wed by Proxy by Alice Coldbreath

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Wed by Proxy
by Alice Coldbreath
July 7, 2019















My friend recommended this book to me and I have to tell you I was hooked from the moment I read the blurb:
‘Thrice wedded, but never bedded’.
I MEAN! YES PLEASE!
This book scratched an itch that I thought I’d never be able to reach. I grew up on books by Jilly Cooper, specifically the series where the main character’s name was the title of the book. These were tempestuous novels with slammed doors and groveling and intense feelings, but I know these books don’t at all hold up. I desperately wanted to read a tempestuous novel but one that wouldn’t make me cringe or rage because of dubious consent, controlling behaviour, and the like. Alice Coldbreath seems to have gifted the world with just that kind of book!
Mathilde’s mom is a powerful courtier in the newly united country of Karadok. Mathilde has been married off legally for political reasons three times. The first two were very old men and she only met them a couple times in all before they died. The third time was to a leader from the recently-conquered north, Lord Guy Martindale. It’s part of a peace treaty, but the two never actually meet before signing the wedding papers, and they don’t meet for the first four years of their marriage.
Mathilde grows frustrated with her sheltered life at court and so runs away (with the help of a few pages) to go to her husband, Guy. The journey nearly ends in disaster when Mathilde and her page friend Robin are chucked in jail, but Guy saves the day when he vouches for both of them. He installs them in the hunting lodge – as though she was a mistress and not his wife – for he doesn’t believe that she is his wife. You can see what the third act issue is going to be!
This is a more progressive version of the books that I grew up reading. Delicate, wide-eyed virgin who is finding her more spirited side paired with a gruff, alpha-male type who is protective and very large. Except, in this book, while Mathilde has the endearing naivete of Amy Adams’ character in Enchanted , she does seduce Guy using the tips in the illustrated erotica that the local witch gives her for inspiration. Guy is pretty alpha, yes, but he’s a proponent of enthusiastic consent and he does some world-class, A-grade grovelling in the last third of the book supplicating himself at Mathilde’s feet. Literally. Repeatedly.
It’s difficult to put into words why I love this book, when all my brain and heart want to do is flail from pillar to post exclaiming that I love it, but I shall endeavour to be more articulate than that. I love that this book revisits old archetypes in a way that is so much more palatable than those classics from the 80s and 90s. I love that Mathilde’s naivete is so believable and earnest that it’s impossible not to love her. But she never becomes a sickly sweet figure. She is discovering that her little teeth bite (literally). Guy is initially a bit flat, but as he meets Mathilde and grows more in love with her, his personality blossoms. The writing is so immersive that for the hours that I was reading this book, I completely forgot about my nagging to-do list and as soon as the budget permits I shall be buying this series en masse.
Speaking of which, the blurb labels this a standalone novel, but other reviewers have said that this book should actually be read after the Vawdrey brothers series. This is my first Alice Coldbreath novel and I adjusted with ease to the world and existing characters, but I am now keen to go back and start with book 1 of the Vawdrey series and work my way through from there. I loved how it updated older, familiar archetypes, I loved how absorbing it was to read, and I can’t wait for more.