Book Review, Romance Review

Review: The Wrong Bride by Catharina Maura

She’s his fiancée’s younger sister. He’s the man she’s always loved.

When her sister doesn’t show up on her wedding day, Raven has no choice but to take her place — but marriage to Ares Windsor is nothing short of torture.

The elusive billionaire media mogul is the man she’s always loved… yet he’s only ever had eyes for her sister.

Married to him at last, Raven is determined to win him over.

After all, everything is fair in love and war.

And this? This is war.


This story blew me away. It was my first book by the author, but I want more. Drama isn’t usually my thing, but these characters pulled me in right away. Raven has been in love with Ares for her whole life but the last few years, he’s been engaged to her sister. It was supposed to be Raven, but things changed. You will feel her pain and her torment seeing them prepare for the wedding. Then her sister flakes, expecting everyone to cater to her whims as usual. But that doesn’t happen. The wedding can’t be postponed again and must take place as planned, even if the bride is a stand in.

That’s how Raven ended up marrying her sister’s fiancé to save their family business. Ares is hurt that his girl would pull such garbage, but he’s not surprised. He’s come to realize that nothing matters to Hannah except her career, not even him. At least he’s married to Raven, one of his oldest friends and someone he loves very much, but it hardly seems real.

I can’t go into any detail without spoiling the story, so I’ll just say that they grow increasingly closer only to field a crazy curve ball. This is where it gets into tele-novella level drama, like straight cray. Raven’s sister Hannah is a nightmare, but she’s always been their mother’s favorite. As the golden child, movie star Hannah can do no wrong. Raven is a supermodel who also runs her own business, so she’s every bit as accomplished, if not more but her mother and sister go out of their way to criticize and belittle her at every turn. The story is dramatic from the opening scene but it really amps up as the story unfolds. This is soap-level drama, and I devoured every word. I loved these characters and was concerned their ending might be less than perfect because I’m very particular, but I loved that, too.

Leave a Reply