Tag Archives: book reviews

Written on Your Skin by Meredith Duran

book review June 29, 2014 Comments: 2

“He had made jokes for himself, expecting no one else to catch them,
and indeed no one else had.” (103) Yep.

While as well-written as all of Duran’s Victorian romances, Written on Your Skin never really captured my interest and wasn’t my cup of tea, although it did have some great moments. To find out if it might be your cup of tea, please read on.

Phin is a spy working for Her Majesty’s government in Hong Kong. Poisoned at a party, he finds help in the surprising form of Mina Masters. A beautiful flibbertigibbet to whom he is attracted against his better judgement, she surprises him by saving his life and helping him escape. Four years later, Phin’s inheritance of an earldom has allowed him to leave the service and he is flailing against himself and his past with a controlled, narcotic enhanced stupor. Mina re-enters his world when she calls in the debt owed for his life. Together, they are trying to track down her missing mother, but Mina is a complicated woman hiding behind as many masks as he is. Phin, for his part, is also trying to keep Mina safe by limiting her participation and, very much against her wishes, her appearances in public.

Trust is the through-line in Duran’s work and Written on Your Skin is no different. Both Phin and Mina have life experiences that have driven them to create false fronts for the world. He simply doesn’t know what to do with himself or how to act naturally around his old friends, in particular the louche set he used to run with. Mina has learned to play dumb, coquette, bohemian, or whatever it takes to protect herself and control her circumstances. Each has fought battles to get where they are. Magnetically drawn to each other, they have to break through all of their posturing and self-protection. How do they trust each other? Can they trust themselves?

The quality of the writing is consistent with the rest of Duran’s books, I just don’t really enjoy a lot of MacGuffin-y machinations. I’m not sure if the book had too many, or if it just felt that way because I was never really that engrossed by the story. It’s probably the latter.

Also by Meredith Duran:

Rules for Reckless Series (not entirely interconnected, more of a theme)
That Scandalous Summer – very good
Your Wicked Heart – delightful novella
Fool Me Twice – excellent
Lady Be Good – nothing special
Luck Be a Lady

Not Rules for the Reckless Series
Bound by Your Touch – excellent
Written on Your Skin – not my style, but very good

Links to my other reviews can be found on my complete reading list of books sorted by author or Author Commentary & The Tallies Shameful.

Bound By Your Touch by Meredith Duran

book review June 19, 2014 Comments: 2

This book is great. You should read it. Details below.

Featuring a delicious rake who needs to get his act together and a bright spinster who needs to set herself free, Meredith Duran’s Bound by Your Touch is a Victorian romance with an Egyptology maguffin and themes of disentangling oneself from unhealthy relationships and a thinking person’s feminism which emphasizes the importance of giving women responsibility for their choices as a component of true equality. All of this is supported by clever writing, appealing leads, and a believable romance.

Lydia Boyce is her family’s designated grown up. She has two sisters, one of whom is an endless pill, and an absentee father. Devoted to his pursuits in archeology, he has convinced Lydia that her role as his representative and protector is more important than her own personal and emotional interests. When a counterfeit item ostensibly from her father is delivered to the rake in question, Viscount Sanborne, hijinks ensue that lead to many interesting places in terms of both story and for the characters’ emotional growth.

Romance novels are full of constrained and plain women who are overlooked by those around them. What I liked about Lydia is that although she is aware of her so-called failings when compared to her more demure and pretty counterparts, she nonetheless does not try to change herself into something she is not. Moreover, and I loved this detail, what Lydia does not and cannot know is that she is sexually attractive to the men around her. It is not a woman’s responsibility to be appealing, but it is nice to have a fiercely intelligent heroine who is unaware of the effect she has on men.

Sanborne is likewise complicated. He is a charming and gorgeous, but also a drifting, gormless scapegrace who has been coasting along with a very fast set buoyed by his own unassailability and enmity for his father. He needs to grow up and find a way to deal with his demons. Lydia is a seemingly odd match for him, but like most people, Sanborne has unsuspected depths he finally allows himself to look into as he becomes the partner she needs.

Meredith Duran is a fantastic writer who successfully balances entertaining, sincere romance with genuine and complicated characters. Her books are great. You should read them.

Also by Meredith Duran:

Rules for Reckless Series (not entirely interconnected, more of a theme)
That Scandalous Summer – very good
Your Wicked Heart – delightful novella
Fool Me Twice – excellent
Lady Be Good – nothing special
Luck Be a Lady

Not Rules for the Reckless Series
Bound by Your Touch – excellent
Written on Your Skin – not my style, but very good

Links to my other reviews can be found on my complete reading list of books sorted by author or Author Commentary & The Tallies Shameful.

A Princess in Hiding Series: How to School Your Scoundrel by Juliana Gray

book review June 19, 2014 Leave a comment

The last novel in Juliana Gray’s “A Princess in Hiding” Victorian romance series, How to School Your Scoundrel features a challenging hero and a remarkably self-possessed and capable heroine. Luisa is the eldest and last hidden princess. Like her sisters Emilie and Stefanie, she fled her country after her father, the Crown Prince, was murdered in a coup. Luisa’s husband was killed as well. Secreted away by a first-rate manipulator and conniving bastard, their uncle, the sisters were trained to masquerade as men and then sent to work in disguise for conveniently marriageable protectors. Particularly deft with plotting, Juliana Gray has cleverly intersected and overlapped Emile, Stefanie, and Luisa’s stories. With her sisters safe, it is time to learn how Luisa will be returned to power in her homeland and just happen to find a suitable Consort along the way. Her position as the secretary for the Earl of Somerton is a good start. The villain of book two in Gray’s  “Affairs by Moonlight” series, A Gentleman Never Tells, Somerton is an almost entirely irredeemable character. To become a decent human being, Somerton’s heart will need to grow three sizes and the leaden lump of his soul be alchemized into gold. Gray manages two sizes and some silver.

The challenge of Somerton’s redemption is that so much of his behaviour is that of a classic bully. Profoundly resentful of his wife Elizabeth’s lack of affection for him and the serene mien she is able to nonetheless affect, he is torn between seeking to control her and not knowing how to let go. Elizabeth’s side of the marriage was shown in A Gentleman Never Tells. It was compelling and heartbreaking. The reader may be seeing the other side of the coin in How to School Your Scoundrel, but Somerton is still a jealous, manipulative, overbearing son of a bitch. The suggestion that he would change in a new relationship was not enough for me. There is a moment late in the book when Luisa and Elizabeth are alone and Luisa tells her that she never gave Somerton a fair shake: “Yes, he can be brutal. But he also has the capacity for great devotion. And you never knew. You never gave him a chance, did you? You never opened your heart to him.” I see, so the stalking and paranoia are his wife’s fault, are they? If it was just that Somerton was heartbroken at his wife’s lack of feeling for him, it would be sympathetic; however, he is jealous and obsessed with her imagined infidelity. He has her followed, investigated, and isolated. He rejects their child. Elizabeth did her best to live honourably in an untenable situation while her husband hounded her by day and whored by night. Part of the point of marrying into ruling a country is that he will be strong and betimes ruthless which he certainly is, but the novel did not have time to transform him into a reasonable human being as well.

Another issue I had with the story was whether or not I wanted to read a book about a dictator, whatever the suggestion of benevolence in counterpoint to the dastardly revolutionaries, being returned to power, especially when the novels are set in 1889 and said autocrats are leaders of a German principality. I err on the side of democracy and just because the country was being turned into a different kind of dictatorship did not suggest to me that what the citizens needed was a return to the status quo.

How to School Your Scoundrel was well-written and Gray almost pulled off a huge character transformation. I’m sure Somerton’s brute with a heart of gold will appeal to some readers, but I am not one of them. Still, you should give Gray a try. She has six books out and this is the only one I wouldn’t recommend. I particularly liked Stefanie’s book, How to Master Your Marquis from this series and  A Duke Never Yields from the “Affairs by Moonlight” trilogy which has a lighter tone over all.

Also by Juliana Gray:

The Affairs by Moonlight Trilogy
A Lady Never Lies
A Gentleman Never Tells
A Duke Never Yields – most recommended of the three

A Princess in Hiding Series
How to Tame Your Duke
How to Master Your Marquis – most recommended of the three
How to School Your Scoundrel – see above
The Duke of Olympia Meets His Match (novella)

Links to my other reviews can be found on my complete reading list of books sorted by author or Author Commentary & The Tallies Shameful.

The Scoundrels of St. James Series: In Bed with the Devil, Between the Devil and Desire, Surrender to the Devil, Midnight Pleasures with a Scoundrel, and The Last Wicked Scoundrel by Lorraine Heath

book review May 27, 2014 Leave a comment

Every romance author has a through line to her work and Lorraine Heath’s is damaged people finding strength in each other and themselves to persevere and succeed. The Scoundrels of St. James series has this through line, as well an homage to Oliver Twist. There is an Oliver, a Feagan, a Dodger, a Sykes, and a Nancy. A group of four friends – don’t worry, Sykes isn’t one of them – have survived and escaped Victorian London’s rookeries and built better lives for themselves; in fact, owing to an aristocratic kinship of one of their circle and the enterprise of another, they now rub shoulders with the wealthiest and most powerful people in England. Oh, these are romance novels all right.

Plot Summary (All): A plucky and determined urchin has built a safe, good life. Enter an aristocrat who is both attractive and makes the urchin leery. The aristocrat has secrets, too. They become lovers. A complication arises. The urchin and the aristocrat triumph together with the help of the other urchins.

The St. James men are dangerous and stalwart, the women are gentle and kind. The characterizations are not as strong as they could be and veer towards stereotype. Each book has sweet moments and they are entertaining enough to pass the time, but none of them are keepers, although I did actually buy Midnight Pleasures with a Scoundrel out of impatience with my library, and because I felt I owed Heath money for a least one of the dozen or so of her books that I have read this year.

The Scoundrels of St. James Series:

In Bed With the Devil – Luke and Catherine

Lucian Langdon, Earl of Claybourne, is the reason that all of the urchins were given the chance to make good. Identified by his grandfather as his long-lost grandson, Luke was brought into the family fold; his friends came with him and were given opportunities for education and advancement they would not otherwise have had. Luke does not believe himself to be the rightful heir, but as he was about to be hanged for murder, he thought it best to play along with “the old gent”. Luke has no memories of his life before the rookery and is beset by the kind of headaches repressed memories cause in fiction. He can’t prove to himself that he is the heir, but he’s not about to give up his wealth and privilege either.

Did I mention that the man Luke was accused of killing was his uncle and “the old gent’s” heir at the time? The bastard had it coming, but the juxtaposition of Earl and alleged murderer has given Luke a dangerous reputation and limited his social cachet. Since an assassin is what Catherine, Lady Mabry requires, she has not hesitation about approaching Luke to kill someone on her behalf. They make a deal: Luke wants Catherine to train his almost fiancee Frannie (Surrender to the Devil) in the ways of the aristocracy and, when that is done, Luke will carry out Catherine’s requested killing. That bastard has it coming, too. Luke and Catherine fall in love, events crescendo, justice is served, and the happy couple get married.

Luke was an enjoyable character, but Catherine was wonderful. She is bright and determined, cowed by nothing, and has ovaries of steel. Everyone should have a friend like her.

Side note: Luke has trouble sleeping and drinks to help soothe himself to sleep. This is kind of habit is a common trope, but the amount Luke drinks, dear Lord, the amount he drinks! In one scene, it says he has consumed three bottles of whiskey and that a fourth should do it. Unless he saved them from a minibar, I cannot conceive of anyone being able to drink that many bottles without either becoming a severe alcoholic, coming close to death, or sweating alcohol from every pore instead of the pleasant sandalwood cologne Catherine notices.

Between the Devil and Desire – Jack and Olivia

An up-from-the-gutter-street-urchin-making-good-with-a-gambling-establishment is a standard historical romance trope. Youthful participation in organized crime leads to an honest and lucrative pursuit in which the urchin can rub shoulders with the so-called elite and make an obscene amount of money. Heath did it better in Lord of Wicked Intentions, but the ultimate novel of this ilk is the Lisa Kleypas classic Dreaming of You which features the supreme squalor born hero, Derek Craven. It is a fantastic book and one that comes up again and again on “best” lists. Between the Devil and Desire suffered by similarity for me. I didn’t mean to compare, but I’ve read Dreaming of You many times. Derek is all that is good and yummy about Kleypas heroes and his heroine, Sara, is an excellent character who balances brains and ability with inexperience. Where was I?

Jack Dodger has been summoned to the home of the recently deceased Duke of Lovingdon. It seems the Duke has left his entailed estate to his son Henry, an annual stipend to his lovely young widow, Olivia, and everything else, every coal-scuttle, pickle fork, and shred of clothing, including Olivia’s, to Jack. The catch is that Jack must agree to become Henry’s guardian. Jack is a grasping sort of fellow, so he accepts. What follows is a fun love/hate relationship between Jack and Olivia. Henry is won over in short order. Olivia takes longer. There is a lot of bluffing and posturing going on between the hero and heroine, even though they are obviously well matched. Olivia has spent her life devoted to duty, Jack shows her freedom.

In addition to my unintentional Kleypas comparison, Between the Devil and Desire was also undercut by the profoundly annoying, but unfortunately historically accurate, lack of power Olivia has in her son’s life. Her husband left everything, including their son, in the hands of a covetous stranger. While upset, she is not the seething mass of indignation one would expect. There should have been considerably more “THIS IS AN OUTRAGE UP WITH WHICH I SHALL NOT PUT!” and emphatic flinging of objets d’art.

Surrender to the Devil – Sterling and Frannie

This was my least favourite of the group. It never really captured my interest although it passed the time adequately. Frannie Darling, who might be Feagan’s daughter, works at Jack’s club as a book-keeper and is opening a home for orphans in her spare time. She is gentle and kind and good and smart and devoted. Whatever. At her friend Luke’s wedding, she spots Sterling, Duke of Somethingfancy. They spark instantly. He is going blind (not a spoiler) which he considers a huge personal failing as opposed to a sad reality. For her part, Frannie is distrustful of the aristocracy and does not want to become part of it. Given conditions for the poor in Victorian England, one can hardly blame her. Bad things disrupt their relationship, said issues get resolved. Frannie becomes a duchess.

Midnight Pleasures with a Scoundrel – James and Eleanor

Eleanor Watkins wants revenge. Her twin sister, Elisabeth, killed herself after returning from her Season in London. The traumatic information she recorded in her journal has led Eleanor to Lord Rockberry and a public London park late at night. What she does not know, but what comes in handy very quickly, is that she is being followed by James Swindler of Scotland Yard.

James is the urchin of this duo. Like his friends, his name has been changed to reflect the skills he used in the rookeries to get by. His work as a child transformed into legitimate police work when he became gentrified. He’d had a special bond with Surrender to the Devil‘s Frannie, but Eleanor rattles him in an entirely new way. James is a giant hulk of a man*. Eleanor is petite and feminine enough to have blue birds on her shoulder. She also has tremendous moxie and is as strong and determined as James is to find justice. James is charged with keeping Eleanor away from Rockberry and appears to be doing an excellent job, but when the lord is found murdered things take a sharp left turn.

I really enjoyed Midnight Pleasures with a Scoundrel and am glad that it was the novel I paid for. Major subplots frequently make me whine, but the story in this one really worked for me. It had twists and turns to keep things interesting and the couple’s relationship was believable.

The Last Wicked Scoundrel (novella) – William and Winnie

The last of the urchins gets a novella for his own happily ever after and final visits with the couples from the previous books. William Graves is the doctor who has been called to bedsides throughout the series and his beloved’s is no exception. Winnie, widowed Duchess of Avendale, was savagely abused by her terrifying bastard of a husband and William helped to nurse her back to health. Winnie is now re-entering the world after the polite period of public mourning. She wants to repay William’s kindness by raising money for a hospital. He’s all for it and anything else Winnie might have in mind. He is secretly in love with her and she with him. They get it together and it on before things go completely awry and then are resolved.

 

*Pet Peeve: Swindler’s interior monologue reveals that so magical are his loverman skills that prostitutes have refused payment. Even if historically accurate, I do not want to hear about the novel’s hero sleeping with prostitutes. More importantly, that is not how prostitution works. Declining payment from a sexual virtuoso client is akin to the porn star party line, “I was really horny, so I thought I may as well get paid for it.” Prostitutes are trying to make money the only way they know how, or, often, under duress. I find it extremely challenging to believe that one was impressed by his skills, or how long he can last (I would think the less time the better), or that she would refuse her payment. This strikes me as entirely a male fantasy.

Links to my other reviews can be found on my complete reading list of books sorted by author or Author Commentary & The Tallies Shameful.

Also by Lorraine Heath:

Continue reading →

The Lost Lords of Pembroke Series: Deck the Halls with Love by Lorraine Heath

book review May 24, 2014 Leave a comment

I continue to work my way through Lorraine Heath’s catalogue filling my time with b-list historical romance. This novella belongs to the Lost Lords of Pembrook series which includes:

She Tempts the Duke – tortured hero, kind and loving heroine
Lord of Temptation – so much meh
Lord of Wicked Intentions – really good, great heroine

Deck the Halls with Love was a quick read even for a novella. Lord Chetwyn was jilted by Anne, the heroine of Lord of Temptation. Specifically, he consented to withdraw from their betrothal when it became clear that she was in love with someone else, establishing his nice guy bona fides. Their engagement was the result of honour and duty as Anne had been engaged to Chetwyn’s brother and said brother’s dying wish was for Chetwyn to look after Anne. With the broken betrothal behind him, Chetwyn now realises that he could likely have found other ways to have a care where Anne was concerned. So amicable was their parting that Chetwyn is at Anne’s in-laws for one of those Yuletide house parties people in historical romances love to hold. He is also anticipating a certain guest. While his sense of duty is a nice thing, Chetwyn had thrown over his own lady to become involved with Anne. Meredith, referred to as Merry in a nice Noel-y touch, was in love with Chetwyn and did not understand why she went from being almost affianced to alone on the dance floor. Merry will be at the party, but she is not free. Caught in the least compromising possible of compromising positions, she is engaged to a seemingly nice man with a bit of a gambling issue. Chetwyn is determined to win Merry back over the course of the Christmas fete. Anne helps. It doesn’t take long to establish that Chetwyn and Merry are compatible and need to force a break in her engagement to be together. The weather cooperates, honour prevails, and some expeditious shenanigans put them on track for scandal, but one they will endure while sharing a home.

Lorraine Heath is a successful author with a formula that works well for her. She is a cut above the workaday writers in the genre and a cut below the ones I normally recommend. I have read a large number of her books, but I have only ever paid for one. Deck the Halls with Love passed the time, but I will not delay returning it to the library in favour of more time with the characters, despite the fact that she managed to make them very likeable in very short order.

Also by Lorraine Heath:
As the Earl Desires

The Scoundrels of St. James Series:
In Bed with the Devil
Between the Devil and Desire
Surrender to the Devil
Midnight Pleasures with a Scoundrel
The Last Wicked Scoundrel

London’s Greatest Lovers Series (snort):
Passions of a Wicked Earl
Pleasures of a Notorious Gentleman
Waking Up with the Duke

Links to my other reviews can be found on my complete reading list of books sorted by author or Author Commentary & The Tallies Shameful.

It Takes a Scandal by Caroline Linden

book review May 6, 2014 Leave a comment

The first chapter of the historical romance It Takes a Scandal is akin to seminar on how to successfully create a sympathetic hero. Sebastian Vane has been stripped of everything he held dear and that will help him make his way in the world. Seriously injured fighting Napoleon (not personally), his mentally ill father is sinking daily into greater and more unmanageable derangement, but not before selling portions of the family estate for a pittance. Sebastian loses everything except his dignity and even that he holds onto by self-exile. There is no self-pity, just a man quietly retreating into himself and building a life as best he can from the remaining tatters.

Strong, kind, and generously be-dowered Abigail Weston moves into the house next to Sebastian. The Weston family has new money, pots of it, but no titles.  I enjoy the old versus new money elements in historical romance because as a modern North American I respect and admire people who have built a better lives for themselves through hard work. At the time considered boorish upstarts, they had the advantage of not being shackled to limitations and demands of primogeniture. The Weston are self-made and even more unusual in romance, happy. They have their foibles and squabbles, but they love and protect each other. It’s a nice change, but back to the lovebirds…

Sebastian Vane is a tortured hero. Abigail Weston is the bright and curious heroine who brings him out of his shell. They meet accidentally and are immediately drawn to each other. Events conspire for and then against them before they come together. The plotting is logical and convincing*. The machinations reasonable for the genre. It Takes a Scandal is well-written and enjoyable, but it hit on a personal bone of contention as, frankly, I think I prefer a little more mileage on my heroines. Sebastian is darling and Abigail is lovely, but I’m not sure I want to read about her. She was a little too untried by life for my tastes.

Also from Caroline Linden’s Scandals series: Love and Other Scandals

Recommended Caroline Linden which I will get around to reviewing:

What Happens in London
Blame It on Bath

Links to my other reviews can be found on my complete reading list of books sorted by author or Author Commentary & The Tallies Shameful.

*Captious Aside: Linden’s Scandals series has a running joke about an erotic publication that all of the young women are trying to get their hands on. It’s a monthly pamphlet they must scour the bookstores for and not get caught. Did such a thing really exist? I find it hard to believe and, while I appreciate the effort to bring greater sexual awareness to the inexperienced heroines, ready access to erotica seems extraordinarily unlikely.

Rules for the Reckless Series: Your Wicked Heart by Meredith Duran

book review April 29, 2014 Leave a comment

Amanda Thomas was stood up at her wedding. Now, having gone to her fiance’s hotel to find out what the hell happened, she encounters a man who says her beloved is an imposter.  Everyone agrees with him, bowing and scraping in a way that strongly suggests he may very well be the real Viscount Ripton. Here we are just one chapter into the Victorian romance Your Wicked Heart and our heroine is alone, penniless, unemployed, confused, jilted, stranded, and still wearing her very uncomfortable wedding dress. To add insult to injury, the man claiming to be the real Viscount Ripton accuses Amanda of being a swindler and insists that she travel with him on his quest to find the truth. Sure, he’s gorgeous, but that doesn’t make up for the scorn and accusations. Ripton, for his part, will not be distracted by Amanda’s Bo Peep prettiness and latches on to her as the best hope of finding the cousin masquerading under his name.  Hijinks ensue. Fun, frolicsome ones because this is a road trip novella and hijinks love taking it on the lam.

As I have opinions about historical romance that I feel compelled to share, I must say that I always feel the road trip is the romance plot which requires the most violent willing suspension of disbelief.  The couple is thrown together intimately and in defiance of even more societal conventions than usual. Your Wicked Heart  also follows that pattern, but I didn’t mind. A romp was not what I expected from Meredith Duran, or for just 99 cents on Amazon, but a lighthearted adventure is what the story provides. Amanda is plucky and determined. Ripton is dutiful and single-minded. Worn down by Ripton’s intensity and sense of duty, Amanda’s natural charm has the same effect on Ripton. Because Duran’s greatest strength is character development, the more serious personal elements are what help balance the novella’s playful aspects. Your Wicked Heart is a fun quick read with a small twist at the end that makes everything feel a little more gravitas-y.

Also by Meredith Duran:

Rules for Reckless Series (not entirely interconnected, more of a theme)
That Scandalous Summer – very good
Your Wicked Heart – delightful novella
Fool Me Twice – excellent
Lady Be Good – nothing special
Luck Be a Lady

Not Rules for the Reckless Series
Bound by Your Touch – excellent
Written on Your Skin – not my style, but very good

Links to my other reviews can be found on my complete reading list of books sorted by author or Author Commentary & The Tallies Shameful.

Rules for the Reckless Series: Fool Me Twice by Meredith Duran

book review April 25, 2014 Leave a comment

Meredith Duran writes character driven historical romance.  She’s sometimes a little more serious* than I prefer, but her latest release, Fool Me Twice, strikes a fantastic balance. I suspect it’s her best yet, but I am too busy working through her back catalogue at the moment to make any kind of judgement. It is very, very good. I highly recommend this book and will be adding Duran to my autobuy list forthwith.

Alastair de Grey, Duke of Marwick is nothing to write home about as the story begins. The villain of Duran’s last novel, That Scandalous Summer, Marwick was a fiercely intelligent polymath and active political figure when at his best and before his monumental pride was reduced to ashes. Having learned that his almost beloved wife manipulated and betrayed him, Marwick has completely withdrawn into himself. Enter Olivia Holladay who has problems of her own. On the run, she uses a trumped-up reference letter under an assumed name to get hired on as Marwick’s housekeeper. Olivia knows he has the material she needs to blackmail her pursuers into submission. The only problem is that, having made a survey of the house,  she realises the incriminating information is in Marwick’s own bedroom. The bedroom he refuses to leave, or have cleaned, or let anyone near, much like the man himself.

Marwick was quite the autocratic bastard in the last book and his road to redemption is long. If he hasn’t been in a clinical depression, it’s damn close. Olivia falls for both the wounded man he is and the formidable man she knows is lurking under all of his unkempt surliness. She appears to have arrived at the right time to draw Marwick out and support him as he gets back on his feet. It’s an interesting pairing with a hero recovering from betrayal through the help and ministrations of someone else seeking to betray him.  Olivia’s efforts don’t cure him, Duran is too sophisticated and talented a writer for such facile plotting, as much as she goads him into action. Marwick’s withdrawal has had a negative effect on virtually every aspect of his life. It’s a painful and necessarily humbling journey back to himself.

The complexities of Olivia and Marwick’s personalities make for compelling reading. Fool Me Twice stumbles in tone, in a very minor way, around some of the downstairs household politics and with a blessedly brief twee incident, but overall it is superlative.  That it’s not a neat and tidy romance is the novel’s greatest strength. Moreso than in many romances, and in keeping with the great ones, Olivia and Marwick feel like people doing their best to make their way in the world and discovering a counterbalance in each other along the way.

Also by Meredith Duran:

Bound by Your Touch
Written on Your Skin
Your Wicked Heart
That Scandalous Summer

Also by Meredith Duran:

Rules for Reckless Series (not entirely interconnected, more of a theme)
That Scandalous Summer – very good
Your Wicked Heart – delightful novella
Fool Me Twice – excellent
Lady Be Good – nothing special
Luck Be a Lady – also nothing special

Not Rules for the Reckless Series
Bound by Your Touch – excellent
Written on Your Skin – not my style, but very good

*If you like serious romances, try Sherry Thomas.

Links to my other reviews can be found on my complete reading list of books sorted by author or Author Commentary & The Tallies Shameful, or my  streamlined recommendations list.

London’s Greatest Lovers Series: Waking Up With the Duke by Lorraine Heath

book review April 24, 2014 Leave a comment

The Marquess of Walfort has a proposal for the Duke of Ainsley: For one month, Ainsley and Walfort’s Marchioness, Jayne, will shag each other rotten in an attempt to knock her up. Left paralysed and impotent by a drunken carriage accident Ainsley caused, Walfort feels he is owed this opportunity to give his wife the child he is unable to. Ainsley and Jayne are dead set against it. Ainsley very sensibly does not want to cuckold his friend, no matter what his debt/guilt, and, of course, he has always had a yen for Jayne and knows permission to act on it is a Very Bad Idea. Jayne blames Ainsley for Walfort’s injury and the loss of all of her hopes and dreams. The marriage is hollow, but Walfort and Jayne do, strictly platonically, love each other. They both want a child. What could possibly go wrong?

Waking Up with the Duke is a marriage of convenience historical romance built around an inconvenient existing marriage. Ainsley and Jayne head to his remote six bedroom fully staffed cottage for their month-long tryst. Given their serious reservations things start slowly, but then – VOOM! – they fall madly in love, spend the balance of the month revelling in each other and are left in a predicament: How does one retreat from a newly discovered love and move forward in the public lie one has created? The answer is, of course, by vilifying the invalid spouse. Lorraine Heath gets major bonus points for not making Walfort abusive.

The shadow hanging over the plot of Waking Up with the Duke, intentionally one assumes, is that although Jayne’s husband is the instigator of the illicit relationship, and he has come to terms with his physical challenges so poorly as to bring Jayne down with him, and was likely doing something the night of his accident which was entirely reprehensible, it’s very distracting. While reading about the charming and crazy beautiful people falling in love, I constantly wondered how Heath was going to pull off the resolution. It was clear she would need to make the husband unworthy and kill him off. Heath does so; however, the point isn’t really giving the leads permission to form a permanent relationship, it’s that the repercussions of Walfort’s misdeeds are too quickly addressed. Jayne has been devoted to her husband for the entirety of their marriage. She is a good, desperately lonely woman in a bad situation. Whatever Walfort’s misdeeds, and there has been massive betrayal, it diverts attention from the love story.

Romance authors have to find new an interesting ways to keep lovers apart. It’s a challenge in a genre with six basic story lines. Waking Up With the Duke was quite good overall, but the overhanging complication was not satisfactorily resolved. Not every romance needs to have a neat and tidy plot, but this one did not have enough drang for its sturm. Ainsley and Jayne have to find it in themselves to forgive each other and Walfort and move forward, but at a terrible cost. It’s a marvelously complicated situation not brought to a satisfactory conclusion.

London’s Greatest Lovers Series:
Passions of a Wicked Earl
Pleasures of a Notorious Gentleman
Waking Up with the Duke – please see above

Also by Lorraine Heath:

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The Bow Street Runners: Someone to Watch Over Me, Lady Sophia’s Lover & Worth Any Price by Lisa Kleypas

book review April 2, 2014 Leave a comment

This trilogy does not feature the usual fancy people of romance which is a pleasant change. The Bow Street Runners were a precursor to a metropolitan police force in London and all three heroes work for the team. It’s a profitable enterprise and, assuming they conduct themselves ethically, an honourable one. Just try not to think too much about the realities of conditions for working people, in the prisons, or for the poor in Victorian London.

Someone to Watch Over Me – Grant Morgan and Vivien Duvall – Weak

Boy meets girl. Boy knows Girl. Girl has amnesia. Girl lives with Boy for protection. Something about revenge. Some kind of mystery. Marriage.

Someone to Watch Over Me is not one of Kleypas’ better works. I read it over a year ago, I have not revisited it, and I remember it as having one charming moment.

Lady Sophia’s Lover – Ross Cannon and Sophia Sydney –  Pretty good

Sir Ross Cannon is the chief of the Bow Street runners and a magistrate. Looking for a new secretary, he is stunned when a lovely woman, Sophia, appears saying she needs a job. He doesn’t want to hire a woman, what with it being Victorian England and his profession being somewhat sordid, but he agrees to give her a chance and she ends up supervising his household, doing some secretarial work, and, eventually, in his bed.

Sophia does not have a personality that leaps off the page. She is kind and hard-working, but her presence mostly consists of being attracted to Ross and showing otherwise poor judgement. Owing to an indiscretion and subsequent slut-shaming, Sophia is desperate for work, but her presence in Cannon’s office is not coincidental. Several years ago, Cannon convicted Sophia’s brother, John, of a petty crime and he died in prison. Sophia blames her brother’s death on Cannon’s cruelty and is out for revenge. Her plan involves a. collecting and making public evidence that proves he is a Bad Man and b. making Cannon fall in love with her and then breaking his heart to give an emotional dimension to her revenge. Sure.

Given the author, it’s no surprise that the romantic/intimate scenes in the book are steamy and plentiful; however, there are plot elements in Lady Sophia’s Lover that will send your eyes rolling heavenward. Things happen conveniently, illogically, and implausibly. Also, Ross puts his hands on Sophia more than once and though he never hurts her, it disrupts the reading experience and leaves you giving the book the side-eye. This is B-list Kleypas and one of those romances whose relative redemption is because of the hero. Ross Cannon is a widower, a workaholic, and a profoundly honourable man. Kleypas writes especially appealing men (I can’t be the only one who thinks that) and Ross is delish.  He is smoking hot, even given the aforementioned element.

Worth Any Price – Nick Gentry and Charlotte Howard – Meh

Do you like lots of sex in a romance novel, but you don’t want it to cross into erotica? This is the book for you. Worth Any Price is long on physical intimacy and short on relationship development. Nick Gentry is a very successful Bow Street runner. He has taken a private contract to track down Charlotte Howard who fled her family when they attempted to marry her off to a controlling and lecherous old goat. Nick and Charlotte marry to shield her from the goat in that way that often happens in  romance novels. It’s a marriage of convenience that turns into a love match, or, more accurately in this case, a marriage of lust that conveniently turns into love. There is a lot a good sex, it is Kleypas after all, but it is not long on romance, logic or character development, plus the ending has an egregious deus ex machina. Don’t bother. If you must bother, go with Lady Sophia’s Lover.

A complete summary of Lisa Kleypas’s catalogue, with recommendations, can be found here.

Links to my other reviews can be found on my complete reading list of books sorted by author or Author Commentary & The Tallies Shameful.