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The Pennyroyal Green Series: Between the Devil and Ian Eversea by Julie Anne Long

book review March 31, 2014 Leave a comment

Tansy Danforth is isolated, orphaned, and looking to a family friend to help her both settle in a new country and, this is a historical romance after all, marry to gain access to her inheritance. Fortunately for Julie Anne Long fans, the friend is Alex Moncrieffe, Duke of Falconbridge who, along with Genevieve his Duchess, is from Long’s classic romance pairing in What I Did for a Duke. Tansy is staying at the Eversea estate in Pennyroyal Green while she gets her footing. Her hero is Ian, the lone unmarried Eversea son and someone who has always been an entertaining addition to the novels.

In What I Did for a Duke, Ian was the story catalyst when he was found in whatever state is the razor’s edge of in flagrante delicto with Alex’s soon-to-be erstwhile fiance. Alex planned a retaliatory ruination of Ian’s sister Genevieve and, of course, fell in love with her instead. As an added bonus to the falling in love, Alex took the opportunity to torment a well-deserving Ian for his sins. Rakish to the degree that he shows very poor judgement and behaves selfishly, Ian needs someone to lead him a merry chase to help get him back on track as the person he manages to be in other aspects of his life. Enter Tansy and Between the Devil and Ian Eversea.

Tansy is the woman who stories like to tell us women hate. She is beautiful. She steals all the male attention. She feigns confusion and claims incompetence to flatter and soothe. (Okay, I admit I do loathe that in men and in women.) She flirts endlessly, shamelessly, but not really as subtly as she thinks she does. Instead of being cold or calculating, Tansy is desperately lonely and doing her best to garner attention, even superficial attention, to take the edge off her isolation. This is not to say that she can’t be a bit annoying. It’s a habit she needs to break. Tansy is young, she has had too many bad things happen in her life, and she is doing her best. Ian sees through the flirtation inasmuch as he recognizes it as an act, but it takes longer for him to truly see Tansy. Long shows the reader Tansy’s real self through her interactions with her guardian and the people most would consider inconsequential in their world. When Ian and Tansy genuinely see each other, they, of course, find their match.

Julie Anne Long seldom disappoints and she does not do so here, nor does she truly succeed. She is one of the best writers in the historical romance business and I always eagerly anticipate her new releases. As one would expect, Between the Devil and Ian Eversea is wry and frequently laugh out loud funny. She balances character development and sincere romance with a consistently droll tone which is a fine accomplishment indeed. From a thematic perspective, I’ve realised that a lot of Long’s protagonists are people trying to figure out how to be in control in world where they have little to none. Even those who seemingly have power or choice are not immune to loss, life, and the struggle to manage it. Only when they surrender the masks or efforts for control do they have the opportunity to build something more. It’s a lovely through-line for her books.

I don’t know if I’ve been too subtle about it, but What I Did for a Duke is delightful and a classic of the genre. If you are a romance fan and have not yet read it, do yourself a favour and snap it up at the same time as you buy Between the Devil and Ian Eversea.

A complete summary of Julie Anne Long’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.

 

The Hathaways: Mine till Midnight, Seduce Me at Sunrise, Tempt Me at Twilight, Married by Morning & Love in the Afternoon by Lisa Kleypas

book review March 20, 2014 1 Comment

For every new historical romance author discovery, such as Juliana Gray, there is a little pile of disappointment at my bedside. So while waiting for the new Julie Anne Long, I have re-read the Hathaway series by Lisa Kleypas. If Courtney Milan is the reigning romance queen, she inherited the crown from Kleypas when she abdicated the historical genre.

The five Hathaway siblings, Leo, Amelia, Win, Poppy, and Beatrix, were raised in an eccentric academic family, happy in their seclusion when a series of events changed their lives: their father died, their mother followed him, Leo’s beloved fiancée succumbed to scarlet fever, Leo and Win almost did as well, and then Leo inherited a peerage forcing a change in circumstances and location. They are still recovering from these events when the first book opens. Mine till Midnight does the heavy lifting setting up the Hathaway series and the subsequent novels allow for frequent visits with the siblings. Kleypas also brings in most of the couples from the Wallflowers series for visits although, sadly, not nearly enough Simon and Annabelle Hunt, and, apparently, Sebastian and Evie St. Vincent are incapable to speaking to each other. Anywho, I enjoy character reincorporation beyond the canny marketing it represents. Kleypas is very good at giving the cameos just enough detail to get a sense of where the couples are now.

Mine till Midnight  –  Amelia Hathaway and Cam Rohan – Very good.

Of all the romances I have read, and there have been a lot, Mine till Midnight is one of the very few which had a moment so sincerely romantic that I had to pause, fan my face, and collect myself. I just love the heroine. Amelia Hathaway is one of my all-time favourites. Sensible and stalwart, she has been holding the pieces of her family together by strength of will alone. When a charming and unusual man enters her life, giving her support and a much needed chance to unclench, if only in private, Amelia is swept off her feet before she really knows what has happened.

Mine till Midnight is a strong starting point for the series. Somewhat unfortunately, in addition to a suddenly surprisingly Machiavellian villain, it also has what seems to me an absolutely pointless ghost story subplot that crescendos towards the end. Moreover, the hero, Cam Rohan, is of Romany (gypsy) descent, as is the hero of the next book, Seduce Me at Sunrise. While I appreciated the effort to bring a person of colour (for the times) into a historical romance, I grew quickly tired of what I think of as “the Romany bullshit”: fetishized exoticism, plus “gypsy” medical knowledge that was implausible for someone who has been isolated from his own culture since he was 10 years old.

Seduce Me at Sunrise  – Win Hathaway and Merripen – Weakest of the series.

Seduce Me at Sunrise is a lot like Wuthering Heights, but with a happy ending, make of that what you will. Another Romany hero, Merripen is an intense, brooding hulk who has lived with the Hathaways for  many years. The love of his life, Win Hathaway, has been an invalid since her bout of scarlet fever. Sent to France to recover, she comes back in full health to make good on the promise of their years of mutual longing. Merripen fights valiantly and seemingly endlessly against his attraction to her. His objections to the match are twofold: first, he feels himself unworthy of Win as the result of childhood trauma; second, he is convinced that her health is too fragile for a marital relationship. Win disagrees with him on both counts and tries to convince him before surrendering to his intractability. Merripen is guilty of some major comeheregoaway. He is also almost completely humourless, and while Kleypas plays this well, there was too much sturm and drang for me.

Tempt Me at Twilight – Poppy Hathaway and Harry Rutledge – Great. Rawr.

Despite having already reviewed this book, I love the characters so much that I’m doing so here again. Tempt Me at Twilight is my favourite Hathaway novel regardless of some plotting that verges on twee. The hero, Harry Rutledge, is a spectacular creation. He’s one of those men who in real life would be very difficult and less than ideal, but in the context of a romance novel is extraordinarily appealing. An autocratic, control freak, rake, he voluntarily gives up that last bit, but it is up to Poppy Hathaway to dismantle the rest. He is a typically sardonic, self-made Kleypas hero (I love them so) with a sad backstory and unrelenting ambition.

Poppy Hathaway is the least eccentric of the Hathaways and she longs for a simple, quiet life. The family beauty, she lacks the appropriate social skills to function well within the restrictions of Society. Her governess/social guide, Catherine Marks, has helped, but Poppy has a habit of talking too much when she is nervous and displaying “unbecoming” intellect and a broad range of interests. Harry takes one look, one listen really, and decides that it is time to marry; unfortunately, Poppy already has a suitor and Harry is not above manipulating the situation to get him out of the way. This bites Harry rather ferociously in the ass; nonetheless, he and Poppy are mutually fascinated, so Harry learns to have and show emotions.

Married by Morning – Leo Hathaway and Catherine Marks – Good, not great.

There’s a lot of Harry and Poppy in Married by Morning which is an excellent start. The pairing of the leads, Leo and Cat, is one that had been teased in the previous books and the book didn’t quite manage to live up to the hype. Please keep in mind that with Kleypas that still means that Married by Morning is better than 90% of the genre. Leo is charming and Cat delightfully prickly, but there was an element that was unusual for Kleypas, but explaining will involve spoilers. Highlight the text below for details:

Sex in romance is a representation of the bond between the characters, or the potential for one should they put consummation before their emotions. Kleypas writes fantastic love scenes and her smolder is impeccable. I never thought I would say this about her, but Married by Morning gets the sex wrong.  Cat spent part of her life being trained as a courtesan, but escaped before she could be pressed into participation. Romantically inexperienced, she has been taught that her character is innately suited to the oldest profession. When Leo and Cat’s relationship becomes physical, it moves too fast. It took the standard romance trope of getting over one’s shyness swiftly and puts it on a fast track. A heroine can be willing and shy simultaneously. As Cat is particularly vulnerable in this area, there was too much too soon.

Love in the Afternoon – Beatrix Hathaway and Christopher Phelan – Very good/great.

This is a sweet and lovely story featuring one of romance’s legion of heroes suffering from PTSD. What better match for him than an eccentric young woman who has a way with wounded creatures?  Christopher and Beatrix began an epistolary romance while he was fighting in the Crimea. They fall in love, which is nice for everyone involved, except that Christopher thinks the author of his letters is a different woman. When Christopher comes home, he is confused and frustrated to find that his supposed pen pal is inane and that he is drawn to the peculiar Beatrix. While keeping the trademark Kleypas smolder, Love in the Afternoon is a story of two broken people who fit together and find a way forward. It has improved in my estimation on every re-read. The story is true to one of the most important elements for genuine romance: The main characters find each other and become more together and individually than they would have been apart.

All five Hathaway books have last-minute agita that delays the happy ending, but since they are by Lisa Kleypas, they still have tremendous entertainment value, no matter what plot elements might be rickety. More importantly, she is a master craftsman and writes, hands down, the most consistently attractive men in romance. I haven’t read her current Rainshadow Road series, but I have read just about everything else she has published. 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.

The Affairs by Moonlight Trilogy: A Lady Never Lies, A Gentleman Never Tells, & A Duke Never Yields by Juliana Gray

book review March 4, 2014 Leave a comment

Who else loves to see an autocratic hero brought down a peg? My newfound delight in Juliana Gray continues with the historical romance trilogy Affairs by Moonlight, including A Lady Never Lies, A Gentleman Never Tells, and A Duke Never Yields. If you read them in order, you have two books to wait before the aforementioned peg lowering and they are a really enjoyable ride.

The Set Up: It’s 1890. Three aristocratic/aristocrat adjacent English men rent a villa in Tuscany to escape Society, explore their individual interests, and study. Three aristocratic/aristocrat adjacent English women rent the same villa in Tuscany to escape Society, explore their individual interests, and study. Neither group had anticipated the other, nor are they pleased. They divide the house down the middle and everyone fails to stay in their prescribed area thus allowing hijinks to be fruitful and multiply.

A Lady Never Lies – Finn and Alexandra

The Duke of Olympia’s acknowledged bastard son and all around smart guy, Phineas Burke is retreating to Italy to work on his automobile in anticipation of a race in Rome later in the year. Society darling, and respectable widow, Lady Alexandra Morley is pretending to be taking a year to better herself, but in reality has fled London in hopes of sorting out her finances. Their story was engaging and blissfully free of complex machinations. There’s a villain, of course, and it takes Alexandra a while to come around, but Finn is lovely and that rarest of romance novel heroes, a redhead.

Extra appreciation to Gray for a story incorporating early automobiles. I’ve read a couple of books set in this era and they are always fun.

A Gentleman Never Tells – Roland and Lilibet

This was the first book I read from Affairs by Moonlight before going back to get A Lady Never Lies from my library and following it immediately with A Duke Never Yields. In A Gentleman Never Tells, the hero is a charming, espionage-y good guy masquerading as a wastrel caught in the trap of his own seeming indolence. If I had a romance novel nickel…

Roland and Lilibet fell in love six years ago, but he was forced to abandon the relationship. Lilibet was convinced to marry another man and did her best to love him. She has fled to Italy with her son to hide from her husband. Mr. Lilibet is an absolute bastard. So much so, in fact, that the rate at which matters escalate and their intensity when he enters the story is a bit of a shock when juxtaposed with the rather fun little maguffin. (Said horrendous individual will be the hero of the next book in Gray’s current series. Talk about given yourself a writing challenge.)  Roland’s heart practically Pepe-Le-Pews itself out of his chest around Lilibet. She has spent years finding what honour she can in her life, but has reached an impasse. Roland’s devotion crosses into “Really?” with some details, but their delight in each other is very sweet.

Gray’s heroes, particularly this one, say things like “Blast!”, “Dash it all,” and, “Right ho!”. My father, whom I always described as somewhat Edwardian, used these expressions his whole life. He used less savoury language as well, but even then he sounded formal.

A Duke Never Yields – Wallingford and Abigail

This was my favourite of three books, in spite of magic realism elements that were both a bit much and unnecessary. Interestingly, this subplot was minor enough in the first books that I didn’t really clue into what was being implied until I got to book three. There are ghosts and a curse. Sure.

The Duke of Wallingford is tall, autocratic, and “magnificently disagreeable”.  Free-spirited Abigail has selected him as her first lover. He fits very nicely into her year-long scheme of adventure and exploration. Abigail has vowed never to marry and voluntarily removed herself from Society so that she can do fun things like bet on horse races and travel. Wallingford is a perfect fit, except that he engineered the non-fraternization policy for the castle. What Abigail does not know is that he is a self-shaming slut and attempting to be a self-reforming rake as well. The goal of his year off is to make something of himself as a person and to stop putting the make on every woman he sees. Abigail simply sees an experienced man who will meet her needs, but once her emotions become involved, she sees that his previous behaviour shows a pattern that will be dangerous to her emotional well-being. There are a lot of *cough* busy heroes in romance. This is the second novel, the first being Any Duchess Will Do, wherein the hero realises that his conduct has been repellent. But it’s fun. No really, it’s fun. Abigail ties him in knots.

The reading order for the Affairs by Moonlight series isn’t crucial as the plots are contemporaneous rather than sequential, although A Duke Never Yields will be best read last. Juliana Gray is a really good writer whom I will continue to look for. I cannot imagine how complicated it was to interweave three stories so successfully, completely, and without unnecessary repetition. Reading the books so close together one can really see how the scenes are balanced. Well done.

Also by Juliana Gray:

 

A Princess in Hiding Trilogy
How to Tame Your Duke
How to Master Your Marquis
How to School Your Scoundrel 
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.

A Princess in Hiding Series: How to Tame Your Duke & How to Master Your Marquis by Juliana Gray

book review February 27, 2014 Comments: 2

New author! Juliana Gray is a very strong historical romance writer with a wonderful turn of phrase, a gift for simile, and great smolder. It is such an unexpected pleasure when a book randomly selected from the romance spinner at one’s library results in a new novelist to enjoy. I went back the next day, and the next, to get more of her books. Gray will be going on my woefully short good authors list and may well end up as an autobuy.

The “A Princess in Hiding” trilogy features three German aristocrats, Emilie, Stefanie, and Luisa, who have fled political unrest in their home country to arrive in London and the bosom of an uncle who has the least British-sounding aristocratic title in all of romance: the Duke of Olympia. A conniving old son of a bitch thoroughly experienced in shenanigans, he trains each woman and then sends her into hiding as a young man and, coincidentally, the story of what happens to each of them takes about 350 pages to tell.

How to Tame Your Duke – Ashland and Emilie

The Duke of Olympia arranges for Princess Emilie to be hired by the Duke of Ashland as a tutor for his teenaged son, the Marquess. Aristocracy is very thick on the ground in this series. In the wilds of Yorkshire, Emilie succeeds in her efforts to appear to be a bearded male despite my extremely serious misgivings about how convincing a fake beard would be up close on a day-to-day basis in 1889. Ashland  is big, battle-scarred, and several other Gothic things, but basically a very nice, very intense man. His Duchess decamped 12 years ago, so it is just he and his son in his palace on the moors which, sadly, is not also in the style of a Moorish palace. Emilie and Ashland fall in love, not while she is pretending to be a man, but while she is pretending to be a prostitute which is not quite as squicky as it sounds. All the truths come out, except the one about who is trying to harm the princesses, and this particular one weds her prince Duke.

I liked the characters in How to Train Your Duke, I even liked the young Marquess. Gray did not dwell overmuch in the machinations and subterfuge for which I was grateful. Emilie was a strong woman and determined not to be treated as the kind of pawn women often were in her situation. She takes what she wants.

How to Master Your Marquis – Hatherfield and Stefanie

Princess Stefanie ends up hiding in the home of a renowned criminal defense barrister (that’s going to come in handy later) who just happens to be the close friend of a man so good-looking that she refers to him as “The Archangel” in her head. James Lambton, Marquis of Hatherfield, is a glorious, beautiful, and charming man. Estranged from his parents, he spends a great deal of time at his friend’s home. His presence increases when he meets Stefanie and realises IMMEDIATELY that she is a woman dressed as a man and that she requires protection. I thought it a bit much that Ashland didn’t figure Emilie out sooner, so kudos to Gray on the logic of this twist. Unfortunately for Hatherfield, his friend’s house also contains one Lady Charlotte who is determined, and in league with Hatherfield’s parents, to land the Marquis. In a historically unrealistic, but modern applause worthy move, Hatherfield exploits the horror at his clearly inappropriate infatuation with the law clerk and lets everyone think he is gay and therefore relieve the marital pressure.

I was charmed by both of the main characters in How to Master Your Marquis; however, there was a plotting element involving sexual abuse that I did not like as it took me out of the fantasy realm these novels dwell in. It was not an exploitative or a particularly large element, but its very presence diminished the book for me. I have zero tolerance for subplots like these in romance. Caveat reader.

The last book in the trilogy, How to School Your Scoundrel, comes out in June and I will be looking for it at my library. In the meantime, I am reading another Gray trilogy, Affairs by Moonlight, and the titular rogue of How to School Your Scoundrel appears as the utter bastard of a villain in one of the books. It will be interesting to see how well Gray can reform such a reprehensible individual.

Great Details:

  1. The men are referred to almost exclusively by their titles, i.e. Ashland and Hatherfield, or their last names.
  2. Aristocrats have servants, lots of servants. It’s an uncomfortable period detail to those of us not enamored of inherited privilege, but an accurate one.
  3. Hatherfield is a rower. This explains his beautiful physique and provides a rare thing in romance: justifiable muscles.
  4. Stefanie and Emilie slept in the same bed growing up. What an excellent period detail.
  5. How to Master Your Marquis has a simultaneous flash forward plot that Gray dovetails extremely well with the present story line.

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 
How to School Your Scoundrel 
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 Scandalous, Dissolute, No-Good Mr. Wright by Tessa Dare

book review February 15, 2014 Leave a comment

The Scandalous, Dissolute, No-Good Mr. Wright is a gem. A delightful Regency romance pared down to its bare bones, this quick read is a perfect of example of what a novella can be and why I love them. There are no machinations, diversions, or distractions. Tessa Dare provides a witty, bright, engaging love story focused entirely on the winning main characters.

Owing to a pubescent scandal, Eliza Cade has been sentenced to wait to enter society until her older sisters are married. Hers is an adventurous spirit and Eliza is clamoring against the wait for her life to begin. Nonetheless, at the age of eighteen, she manages to encounter the scandalous, dissolute, no-good Mr. Harry Wright at a party when he has tucked himself away in a side room waiting for an assignation to begin. Harry takes to Eliza instantly and it is clear they are well matched, but she is too young and he too worldly for anything to come of their undeniable appeal for each other.

The novella proceeds to bounce through their subsequent encounters, some separated by a year or more, as Eliza matures and Harry tries to manage, and eventually succumbs to, his attraction to her. It is never once inappropriate or discomfiting. Rather, it progresses from “I recognize myself in you” and “you are such fun to talk to” towards deeper, mature feelings. The story is entertaining, consistently funny, and absolutely charming, plus it’s only $.99 for your e-reader.

A complete summary of Tessa Dare’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.

 

Compromising Miss Tisdale by Jessica Jefferson

book review February 11, 2014 Leave a comment

As Compromising Miss Tisdale is Jessica Jefferson’s only entry on Amazon, I am guessing she is a new author just getting started. Congratulations to her on an excellent first novel. Her website lists three upcoming publications which will feature the eponymous Miss Tisdale’s sisters. They are introduced in this first effort and sound like they will be fun.

The novel starts well with Ambrosia Tisdale beginning her fourth season in/on the market for a husband. There is nothing wrong with her other than a desire to marry someone who will please her family and, this is the hitch, for love. It’s a tall order. Duncan, Lord Bristol, is one of those younger sons who have found himself possessed of a title when his brother unexpectedly shuffled off this mortal coil. Duncan has just returned from a family imposed exile when the story opens. Ambrosia is instantly drawn to him even though she thinks he is all wrong for her. Duncan is attracted to Ambrosia, but also needs her excellent reputation and sizable dowry to help restore his family’s reputation and coffers. Duncan decides it would be most efficient to simply compromise Ambrosia. It’s dueling tropes with the reformation of a rake versus a marriage of convenience. They have great chemistry and make sense as a couple.

Compromising Miss Tisdale is a promising debut and overall the writing is very good and creates the appropriate historical illusion; unfortunately, it gets interrupted by distracting word choices, grammatical issues, and editing errors. I would like to offer Ms. Jefferson some advice: You need to either fire your current editor and/or hire one. If you are self-publishing, I imagine there comes a point when you can’t look at your manuscript for one more second. Find someone knowledgeable and honest who can review your work for you. Your novels will be the better for it.

I have some notes:

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L’Amour et Chocolat Series: The Chocolate Heart by Laura Florand

book review February 9, 2014 Leave a comment

To borrow from a previous review:

The Chocolate Heart is book five in Laura Florand’s Amour et Chocolat series. The conceit of each novel is that an American woman is thrown into close proximity with a French chocolatier/pastry god. They fall in love quickly, get busy, and are engaged in short order. Florand provides consistently enjoyable escapism with romantic locations. The Chocolate Heart is not best of the series, that’s The Chocolate Touch, but The Chocolate Heart was certainly an absorbing and mostly entertaining read.

Summer Corey has been told all her life that she is spoiled and ungrateful. Her parents see her as property to be picked up and dropped as they see fit. The latest gambit in their cycle of attention and neglect is to give her a 4 star hotel in Paris as a Christmas gift. Their goal is to lure her back from the South Pacific island where she has been living and working as a teacher in blissful self-imposed exile. Summer must stay in Paris for three months to gain another expensive gift that she actually wants, a communications satellite something-or-other, for the island residents. She hates Paris, the hotel business, and dessert.

Luc Leroi is the charming perfectionist, and practically perfect in every way, head pastry chef at the hotel Summer has been given. He is driven and has worked relentlessly to reach the top of his profession and stay there. He’s only 30, but since he started when he was 10, it seems reasonable. He is always gorgeous and most of the time he manages to be charming, but Summer completely flummoxes him.

The Chocolate Heart has the most challenging of any of the American woman/French culinary deity combinations in these books. Summer is sympathetic, but not always likeable, and Luc is a victim of his own self-restraint. They are two wounded people hiding behind false fronts and suffering from painful miscommunication. Elements that had been successful in the preceding books reached an intensity that left me uncomfortable. Luc is so busy being in control that he becomes almost clinical and Summer is so vulnerable that it feels like she is being used. It’s not romantic, so much as really unhealthy. Florand seems to realise this, too, as the book has a lengthy “several years later” epilogue to let the reader know that Luc and Summer are in a better, healthier place.

I do not recommend The Chocolate Heart, except maybe to visit favourite characters from other books in the group. This is the complete series for those who want to know with (order of preference):

  1. The Chocolate Thief – Pretty good, it took me from 99 cents on Kindle to the complete series. (5)
  2. The Chocolate Kiss – A very good fairy tale that made me forgive the metaphor. (2)
  3. The Chocolate Rose – Excellent passion, it needed just a little more love story. (3)
  4. The Chocolate Touch – My favourite of the group, it was really sweet and intense. (1)
  5. The Chocolate Heart – The weakest of the group. (6)
  6. The Chocolate Temptation – Steamy, not quite as good, but still very readable. (4)

A complete summary of Laura Florand’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.

Nothing to Commend Her by Jo Barrett

book review February 5, 2014 Leave a comment

If Pride and Prejudice is the ultimate You Are Everything I Never Knew I Always Wanted romance, Daphne du Maurier’s Rebecca is the perfect illustration of what the romancerati refer to as The Big Misunderstanding. If at some point during their courtship or honeymoon, Maxim de Winter had managed to blurt out, “My wife was a vain, inconstant shrew and I loathed her, you little fool”, everyone would have been spared a lot of agita. Nothing to Commend Her has two Maxims and two The Second Mrs. de Winters. Both keeping secrets, both refusing to have basic conversations or ask simple questions that would clear everything up.

I wrote the preceding paragraph before I finished Nothing to Commend Her. I was taking a break from rolling my eyes and groaning. I often get review ideas while reading the book, such as a romance review template, and this time I planned one around the following elements:

  1. I got this book for free on Amazon.
  2. Jo Barrett is a new author because they often give books away to appeal to new readers. This was how I found this gem from Caroline Linden.
  3. As Barrett is a new author, I would write a constructive criticism review of her book with helpful hints for Ms. Barrett and her editor. I did that before with Shana Galen and Anya Wylde.
  4. I was going to be nice about it.

Then it turned out that Jo Barrett has published over thirty romances, both historical and contemporary, and now I can’t really see the use in pointing things out. She’s clearly making a living, so I’m just going to do this:

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Castles Ever After Series: Romancing the Duke by Tessa Dare

book review January 31, 2014 Leave a comment

[stunned silence followed by vociferous string of profanity-laden expostulations]

That was a change of pace. Well-written. It seems historical romance author Tessa Dare is going in a new direction, one more whimsiquirkilicious than I had anticipated. I have never given my Kindle the side-eye before. And I did, in fact, resist the temptation to throw it across the room. That counts as a victory. And that was certainly the most expletives I have ever let loose while reading a love story. A lot of new things today, it seems.

[cleansing breaths]
[re-reading most of the book]

“I believe there are two ways of writing novels. One is making a sort of musical comedy without music and ignoring real life altogether; the other is going deep down into life and not caring a damn,” said P.G. Wodehouse, giving a surprisingly apt posthumous description of Romancing the Duke.

Delightful historical romance author Tessa Dare has abandoned the ladies of Spindle Cove and embarked on a new series called “Castles Ever After”. As the name suggests, this new novel has a fairy tale undertone/overtone, not to mention many clever references to classics of the romance genre. Dare writes incredibly consistent and enjoyable stories, but of all the authors whose work I buy automatically, Dare is the one who most often requires a willing suspension of disbelief. Romancing the Duke broke mine, Dare BROKE IT, with this playful and quirky novel.

Doubt not that Tessa Dare’s tongue was firmly planted in her cheek: Isolde Ophelia Goodnight’s father not only saddled her with a tragedy-in-waiting name, he left her penniless and alone. Summoned to Gostley Castle in hopes of claiming a bequest from an anonymous benefactor, she instead encounters a derelict estate and its equally derelict ducal inhabitant, Ransom, Duke of Rothbury, who will serve as the tortured hero for the purposes of the story. He’s as big, brooding, and gorgeous as one looks for in such characters. Ransom is just sitting around waiting for the redemptive power of love to bring him back into the world. It’s a good start.

The ermine was a bad sign. Izzy has a pet ermine which, in her defense, was a gift from a fan of her father’s serialized medieval fairy tale. She brings it with her to the castle and they both stay when she discovers that the estate has been bequeathed to her. This comes as quite a shock to Ransom as he did not know the castle had been either a) up for sale or b) sold. His recent blindness has left him a little behind in his correspondence. Things should have proceeded apace from there, but the hijinks, DEAR LORD, the hijinks that ensued.

I had not anticipated costume play or live action role-playing in a Regency romance. I daresay few have. I daresay I’m not even sure it was a Regency romance. It was more of a historically-indeterminate homage to a Gothic novel: the truculent hero; the crumbling castle; the bright-eyed and bushy-tailed destitute heroine; things that go bump in the night; sexual tension; aggressive carnivorous pets; plot elements that are picked up and dropped; inexplicable character shifts; and the almost successful interplay of the love story and whimsy. It was all so cute, I cringed. I wanted a love story, not a Duke getting his LARP on.

I’m not sure who exactly this novel was written for. The short answer is, “Not me.” I get it. It’s not you, Romancing the Duke, it’s me. I was expecting a heartfelt love story with some of Dare’s trademark caprice and smolder, but instead the novel is a romp with an emphatic lack of connection to reality instead of the veneer-of-plausible-deniability connection to reality I look for in romances. It was not what I expected and it was not, like Ransom’s feelings for Izzy, everything I never knew I always wanted.

My partner-in-romance, Malin, loved the book. Check out her review for a different take on Romancing the Duke.

A complete summary of Tessa Dare’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.

 

The American Heiress in London Series: When the Marquess Met His Match by Laura Lee Guhrke

book review January 30, 2014 Leave a comment

I have read one Laura Lee Guhrke historical romance already, Scandal of the Year, and while it had some nice moments, I did not rush out to track down her catalogue. Guhrke does have a book on All About Romance’s Top 100 list, And Then He Kissed Her, that I keep meaning to read, but for now, I’m reviewing the book they happened to have at my library.

When the Marquess Met His Match is the first book in Guhrke’s new “An American Heiress in London” series. The heroine, Lady Belinda Featherstone, came to England with her ambitious parents and a fortune. In short order, she was married, alternately ignored and insulted by her spouse, beggared, and, mercifully, widowed. She has set herself up as a matchmaker for rich American women and English men looking for a generously dowered spouse. Belinda prides herself finding suitable partners for her clients and sincerely tries to ensure their matches will be more successful than hers.

Nicholas, Marquess of Trubridge, is a classic romance rake: handsome, spoiled, and charming. He’s also beset by a difficult father. Cut off without a farthing until he marries according to the Duke’s wishes, he hires Belinda to find him a rich wife who can a. support him and b. tick his father off as much as possible. She is, of course, instantly attracted to him, but leery of his mercenary goals and his seeming resemblance to her twerp of a husband. Belinda agrees to work for Nicholas and he goes to work on her. Thrown constantly together through their efforts, Belinda decides to ignore her attraction and tells Nicholas that he needs to grow the hell up. Nicholas takes the scolding to heart and moves his life in a productive direction. They get married. The end.

The book was perfectly satisfactory, passing the time pleasantly enough, but not particularly involving. Guhrke described their attraction well, but beyond the physical appeal and some biographical details, there wasn’t a lot of time devoted to the falling in love portion of the story. Guhrke does gets my appreciation for not setting her books in the Regency, and for the evocative detail of the costumes, in particular the love scene including the time-consuming and exhaustive removal of a woman’s complete ensemble, buttons, bows, ribbons, hooks, and all.

And now, if you’ll excuse me, I need to go watch The Buccaneers as it has similar themes and is a costume bustlegasm.

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