Tag Archives: book reviews

FBI/US Attorney Series: Love Irresistibly by Julie James

book review April 10, 2013 Comments: 2

I’m breaking new ground! This novel is an unrealistic American contemporary  romance instead of an unrealistic English Victorian romance. Progress?!

This book made its way on to my Kindle owing to Malin’s excellent review in which she gives a lovely summary and an accurate evaluation of the book. Set in Chicago, Love Irresistibly is the story of Cade Morgan and Brooke Parker who meet cute during a criminal investigation. They are both ambitious, driven attorneys who have been recently jilted because neither really makes time for personal relationships. There are subplots involving criminal investigations, long-lost family, and football. It was a light, quick read.  Julie James is a fun, mostly competent* writer who moves things along well, and has some really nice moments. If this novel were to my taste, I’d seek out more of her books.

Next comes the part where I invent a literary term. If you know the real one, please pipe up.

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The Bridgertons Series: On the Way to the Wedding by Julia Quinn

book review April 9, 2013 Comments: 8

Julia Quinn is an excellent gateway author for people curious about historical romance. I raced through her catalogue (as did my mother) at the beginning of my obsession, when I was greedy and the entire genre lay before me like a shameful buffet.  I came back to her now because even lesser Quinn is better than most everything else, and I just can’t face any more bad romance (although I’m not ready to change what I’m reading). Last year, I didn’t bother to read this last book in Quinn’s justly popular Bridgerton family series because the reviews were comparatively lacklustre, but reading one of her new-to-me books after so much tripe was a treat.

Gregory Bridgerton has watched all seven of his siblings make happy marriages. He longs for true love and will settle for nothing less. Pole-axed when he lays eyes on the beautiful Hermione Watson, he decides that this must be it. Hermione’s best friend, Lucy, is accustomed to witnessing these reactions, but decides to help Gregory because he is the lesser of two evils, the other one being Hermione’s unacceptable secret love for her father’s secretary, and because he is the best of the long line of besotted fools. Gregory gets distracted by Lucy.

Delightfully wry and fun, you will find yourself laughing out loud at Julia Quinn’s books. She is a deft writer, witty and charming. The prose is clever and feels effortless, and she limits herself to the love story which greatly appeals to the purist in me. Quinn does longing and banter extremely well, as well as that fluttery feeling of incipient affection. Her characters are extremely likeable and the family dynamics are particularly entertaining.  The only challenge is that it seems to be hard for her to shift gears when the going needs to get tough.  Everything glides along beautifully, but when the action in On the Way to the Wedding gets ratcheted up, it’s too sudden a tonal shift and jarred with the carefully crafted buoyancy of the rest of the story, but that’s a quibble, not a condemnation.  However imperfect, Julia Quinn is still one of the best writers in the genre.

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Wedded in Scandal by Jade Lee

book review April 2, 2013 Leave a comment

I’m always ready to wade through a new-to-me author’s back catalogue. Jade Lee has favourable-ish reviews on Amazon/Good Reads and Wedded in Scandal was $1.99 on Amazon. That is definitely my preferred price for a potentially disposable historical romance novel. Given the size of Lee’s output, if all goes well, I’ll have new reading material for several weeks.

1. What do I expect from the “historical” elements in these novels?

Distance for escapism, proximity for familiarity.

Obviously, these books are not realistic. Historical accuracy is what Jane Austen is for. I read exclusively 19th century English set novels because I feel like I know something of the way of life at the time, I think I know about the clothing, and there is just enough modernity to make it feel familiar. Just far enough in the past to make it feel distant and separate, and not so long past that my brain is screaming “unclean”, as I do with medieval romances, or “so cold” as I do with the Highland settings. Big historical details can draw the eye towards inaccuracies and undermine the author’s work. Little details give authenticity and create space for the author to subvert authentic historical representations, i.e. put a bonnet on modern sexual and social mores. I believe Wedded in Scandal to be set in the 19th century based on –

  • the cover art
  • the presence of horse-drawn carriages
  • the absence of electricity
  • the theory that if it was the 18th century, people would be wearing wigs

I did not base my conclusion on any details from the book. There were none to draw on. No useful  details, no historical references, and, maybe I missed it, no date at the beginning of Chapter One as is industry standard. There was a cursory class warfare theme, but that’s hardly period specific. Perhaps they are living off the grid, but I’m going with 19th century.

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Tempting Fortune and Devilish by Jo Beverly

book review March 27, 2013 Leave a comment

Caveat: This review discusses sexual assault.

I don’t finish every romance I start. Sometimes, I sort of dance through them, open-minded when I begin, I may lose interest and jump around a bit to see if it can catch my fancy. Sometimes it does, and I go back and read everything. Sometimes, I give up and add those to the reject pile on The (Shameful) Tally. For this review, I am smushing together two failed attempts from Jo Beverly’s Georgian “Malloren” series which is famous for the presence of a classic hero. Based around a sibling group, Beverly saved the most forbidding brother, Rothgar, for last. I’ve read series like this before. Sometimes with great results, sometimes with very bad results indeed, although the bad results make the review a lot of fun to write.

So popular was the Rothgar character, there is a phrase I started to hear in the romance subculture referring to the anticipation of a specific hero’s book, “I’m waiting for Rothgar”. Julie Anne Long is currently building the same anticipation for Lyon Redmond and Olivia Eversea in her Pennyroyal Green series. I suspect that readers who discovered Courtney Milan before I did, felt the same way about the delicious Smite Turner.  I didn’t have to wait for Rothgar. He arrived at my local library thirteen years ago and has been sitting on the shelf ever since. In hardcover, no less, which is an honour accorded very few romance titles. Most of them are set up on spinners (over in a corner away from the “real” books in my library’s case) and cleared out to make way for fresh content on a regular basis.

Since I’m not waiting for Rothgar, but rather a decent author to publish something new, I decided to read other books in the series leading up to his story. I found book 2, Tempting Fortune, on the romance spinner and started with that. I didn’t get very far.

One of the things my husband objects to about romance is his perception that the heroes are aggressive and domineering towards the heroines. Originally published in 1995, Tempting Fortune begins with Bryght Malloren breaking into a home to steal some papers. He encounters an armed house guest, Portia, who tries to stop him. She tries to shoot him, he throws her to the ground to throw off her aim and then lies on top of her, restrains her, and kisses her as a “forfeit”. She’s surprised to find that she doesn’t exactly mind and feels safe with and attracted to him. [RECORD NEEDLE SCRATCH] This is EXACTLY what Mr. Julien was talking about, and EXACTLY where the book lost me. I don’t care if Adonis himself is standing in front of you: the stranger invading your home is not attractive, especially when he is pinning you to the floor.  I danced ahead to see what else happens and found a scene that was even more off-putting, and then skipped ahead a couple more times, jumping to the end.

Giving up on Tempting Fortune meant I’d finished “delaying for Rothgar” and I could start Devilish. I didn’t have high hopes given the sexual power dynamics of the second book and I was thus able to avoid disappointment. He has an intense back story I won’t bother with here, but the result is that the Marquess of Rothgar is pure romance novel Alpha male: Quick with a blade or a quip, arrogant, rich as Croesus, he has the king’s ear, and, of course, he meets his match in Diana, Countess Arradale. But it’s also 1743, so while Rothgar is not effete, he is betimes bejeweled, bewigged, bepowdered, and wearing extremely dandified clothing, including high heels.  My twenty-first century brain cannot process any of that as masculine and I really like emphatically masculine heroes in romance novels.

Devilish, or the portions I read at any rate, is blessedly free from the “forfeits” of Tempting Fortune, but there was an extremely distressing series of events in which Diana is verbally, physically and sexually abused, tied to a bed, her clothing cut off, and then gets rescued seconds before being raped. Now, there are books for every taste and proclivity in this genre, but I’m not talking about a sexual fantasy. Diana is violently assaulted by the villain. It is an attempted rape as a plot point. I hate attempted rape as a plot point. It’s one thing to have things getting a little dicey before the hero quickly swoops in, it is quite another to spend a protracted period on an assault and lead up to a terrifying violation. In her defense, I do think Beverly showed sensitivity and complexity in the characters’ reactions, but it was all way too much for me, and they moved on far too quickly: “I’m traumatized, I’m going to reenact my trauma to claim it and my body as my own, okay, I’m fine now.” The stories in these books are by their very nature unrealistic, but the emotional life of the characters has to feel real for the novels to have any true weight. Devilish managed to have simultaneously too much and too little emotional life, and, dear God, I never want to read a scene like that ever again in a romance novel.

Lessons in Love Series: The Rake and England’s Perfect Hero by Suzanne Enoch

book review March 26, 2013 Comments: 2

GOD DAMN IT! 

When will I learn with Suzanne Enoch? WHEN? It always goes so well and then falls apart.

The Rake

the rake

This was published less than 10 years ago and yet with 1970s Maid of Honour dress.

The conceit of this historical romance series is that three friends decide that men need to be taught “lessons in love”, or, more precisely, how to conduct oneself as a gentleman and a decent human being.

Tristan Carroway, Viscount Dare, and Lady Georgiana Halley met when he was 24 and she was 18. They were mad for each other. He was young and stupid, so he participated in a silly wager regarding her virtue and broke her heart into a thousand tiny pieces. Despite completing the task *wink*, Tristan kept quiet and protected Georgie’s reputation, but he has regretted his actions as much as, if not more than, Gilbert Blythe did for calling Anne, “Carrots.”

Fast forward 6 years and Georgie is still furious (in a love/hate way) and decides to teach Tristan a lesson. Thence things proceed in an orderly fashion towards a happy ending until the book comes to a screeching halt and derails. It was all going so well. It was romantic and fun. Then Enoch painted herself into a corner and blam! the book ends happily, but with a scandal of truly epic proportions hanging over Tristan and Georgie’s heads, and with me wondering WHEN will I ever learn about Enoch.

Tristan has been added to my favourites list. He’s charming, rakish, and sincere.  I shan’t blame him for Enoch’s storytelling shortcomings. Georgie is delightful as well. They have chemistry and snappy banter that leaps off the page.  Tristan’s four brothers (Bradshaw, Robert, Edward, and Runt) feature as supporting characters and are set up well for their own books; in fact, part way through I realised that I had read Bradshaw’s book last year as part of another series. Robert was set up so endearingly that I immediately bought his book when I finished The Rake despite the aforementioned fiery plot crash. I was, of course, disappointed. WHEN? WHEN WILL I LEARN?! Enoch pulls me in and lets me down every time! The Rake painfully so. It was thisclose to greatness.

England’s Perfect Hero

England's_Perfect_Hero

What a surprisingly almost-non-cringeworthy cover, but fear not!, here is the front flap:

perfect hero

I feel better now.

Because there are as many men in these novels who fought against Napolean as there were actual soldiers at the time, Robert Carroway is one of a legion of Regency romance heroes with PTSD.  He is still struggling to re-enter the world of the living four years after coming home. Lucinda, Georgie’s best friend, is actually in pursuit of another man, the one in the title, but gets increasingly distracted by Robert. She should be. He’s lovely.

England’s Perfect Hero lacked the ebullience of the The Rake, although the characters were sweet and well-drawn, especially the Carroway family. They are such fun. Suzanne Enoch got bogged down in a convoluted, and really rather obvious, subplot and that’s where this one went off the rails.

Both of these novels careened into their endings with ridiculous behaviour from their characters and illogical plotting decisions, thus bringing me back to WHEN? I actually said, “this is stupid” out loud during one particularly egregious incident. If you want to write a love story with neither machinations, nor major subplots, there is nothing wrong with that; in fact, it’s my preference. However, if you choose to have villains and intrigue, you have to make them convincing, compelling, and logical.  As a purist, I won’t like your story as much, but I will appreciate the effort.

Note A: Georgie is heavily pregnant throughout England’s Perfect Hero. It was Chekov’s Womb. Chekov’s Unfulfilled Womb! There’s an unrealised subplot involving fans in The Rake. I mean, honestly!, why set these things up and then leave them dangling. WHEN?

Note B: There is a novel between Tristan and Robert’s in the series, but it doesn’t involve the Carroway brothers, so I wasn’t interested.

Also by Suzanne Enoch
Reforming a Rake (Lucien/Alexandra)
Meet Me at Midnight  (Sinclair “Sin”/Victoria “Vixen”)
A Matter of Scandal (Grey/Emma)
The Devil Wears Kilts  (Ranulf/Charlotte)

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

Winning the Wallflower by Eloisa James

book review March 20, 2013 Leave a comment

I don’t like short stories because they are too short, but I do like romance novellas because the length focuses the plot quite nicely and frees it up from all those extraneous elements (spies, machinations, supporting characters) that usually annoy me. Winning the Wallflower is just such a novella, but all I can really tell you about it is that it is by Eloisa James, an author I have previously rejected. Also, it was 99 cents. It may have been reasonably bantery and enjoyable. I’m not really sure because…

Sterling_Archer_8057
I decided to watch Archer while working from home this week. A lot of Archer. Twenty-three episodes (and counting) in three days, so when I read Winning the Wallflower everyone sounded like Sterling Archer: the hero, the heroine, the heroine’s friend, the omniscient narrator. As did my emails for work. It made for an interesting tonal shift, although with the vaguely florid romance writing style it did work strangely well. Not so much for the emails at work. A lot of careful proofreading required there. Plus the hero, Cyrus (I know, but I have to admit that I think Cyrus is actually a pretty cool name.), looks like Sterling Archer, if Archer weren’t a 21st century spy cartoon character and Cyrus wasn’t a fictional Regency Adonis.

At the beginning of Winning the Wallflower,  Cyrus (You think it’s cool, too. I won’t tell.) and a lovely young woman named Lucy, are engaged. She has recently come into an inheritance and is being forced to jilt his untitled tush so she can marry someone more suited to her newly be-lucred station. Lucy doesn’t know Cyrus, he has barely spoken to her despite the whole proposal thing, but she is very warm for his form because he is totally gorgeous. In the process of throwing him over, Lucy finds her strength and Cyrus discovers that, what?!, she’s actually charming and smart and speaks honestly to him. Not too shabby for a woman he proposed to because she fit into his master plan to rebuild his family’s reputation *cough* cursory revenge plot *cough*. So, she dumps him, he realises he’s an ass, and sets out to woo her. Quickly. It’s a novella.

The (Shameful) Tally

Highland Surrender by Tracy Brogan

book review March 11, 2013 Leave a comment

Highland Surrender* is a historical romance novel set in the Scottish Lowlands in the 16th century. At one point, the heroine reaches up to undo a button at the hero’s collar. Did they even have buttons in 1537? To the Googles!

My search results included a partial topic listing for “button” on Wikipedia, including –

  • Buttons in museums and galleries
  • Early button history
  • Buttons in politics

How tantalizing!

Some museums and art galleries hold culturally, historically, politically, and/or artistically significant buttons in their collections. The Victoria & Albert Museum has many buttons, particularly in its jewellery collection, as does the Smithsonian Institution.

The list of potential button relevance is giving me life. I would TOTALLY go through all of the button drawers at the V&A. I looked through all the drawers of lace when I had the chance.

Functional buttons with buttonholes for fastening or closing clothes appeared first in Germany in the 13th century. They soon became widespread with the rise of snug-fitting garments in 13th- and 14th-century Europe.

Okay, Tracy Brogan. You win this round, but button knowledge, or no, your figures of speech leave a lot to be desired. I bookmarked some for just such an occasion:

  • But the morning dawned soft and fair, mild as a Highland calf (PAGE ONE!)
  • Her pulse thrummed, like the flap of a thousand swans leaving the surface of a loch.
  • Press this issue further and you’ll find yourself in a storm of regret. (That one was pretty cool.)
  • Questions crashed inside Myles’s mind, clattering like hooves against a cobbled street.
  • Mild relief tapped Myles upon the shoulder.
  • …the gaze of his familiar sapphire eyes pierced through her, splintering her lungs like shards of glass

To be honest, and fair, this book was simply not my cup of tea: wrong era, wrong setting, wrong subplot. I can see how, if it was to one’s tastes, this would be a fun read. The off-putting elements would have been fine with me in a story I was interested in. The writing in romance novels is often exactly this overwrought. Yes, even in the “good” ones. If the characters and story are truly compelling, the reader can/will overlook a multitude of sins *cough*Outlander *cough*. I’m not the audience for this book, and as genre fiction is so readership specific, I should probably keep my big, condescending mouth shut. Highland Surrender has averaged 4.3/5 stars from over 300 reviews on Amazon. It’s a pretty impressive score and likely a safe indicator of quality (violently skewed for the genre), if you are looking for a political intrigue Scottish renaissance romance.

*Not to be confused with Highland Obsession, Highland Legacy, Highland Quest, Highland Vengeance, Highland Betrayal, Highland Defiance, Highland Rescue, Highland Rake, Highland Heart, Highland Healer, Highland Destiny, My Highland Love, A Highland Home, Highland Sons,  The Highlander, Highlander Ever After, Highland Ever After, Sins of the Highlander, Highlander’s Captive, The Highlander’s Hope, The Highlander Takes a Wife, or the other books called Highland Surrender.

The (Shameful) Tally

When You Give a Duke a Diamond by Shana Galen

book review March 4, 2013 Leave a comment

I would love to start a proofreading/editing service for historical romance novelists. I’d hold the author’s hand and say things like, “It’s not really appropriate for the hero and heroine to get randy in the home of his recently deceased fiancée, especially as they are searching said home for clues as to her violent demise. It may come across as insensitive.”

When You Give a Duke a Diamond was like the movie The Return of the King: It had several endings starting about 70% of the way through, and then somehow managed to keep going via deus ex machinations and unnecessary complications. Also, that title is truly appalling.

The Plot: Will is an uptight Duke. Juliette is a famous courtesan. Something with murder and spies.

In addition to wanting to offer my services as an editor, I often read these books thinking an author has potential. Then I look her up on Amazon, discover she has published many novels, in this case eleven, and realise that this is as good as it’s going to get.  Since Shana Galen is not paying me to be nice about it, here is what is wrong with this book:

  • It is a little too busy establishing its subplots.
  • There are too many subplots.
  • Will is “tired of fighting it”? It’s been, like, 37 hours.
  • Everyone is crazy beautiful.
  • The aforementioned excess of endings.
  • It needs more banter.
  • No one gets back and forth between London and Yorkshire that easily by carriage. This time would be well spent having Will and Juliette get to know each other (in the non-biblical sense).
  • Any romance that includes “Prinny” is instantly on notice. This is, admittedly, a personal issue.
  • JESUS CHRIST! TWO MURDERED DOGS?!

Here is what is right with this book:

  • The moments of tenderness are actually rather sweet.
  • The eruptions of violence are shocking and frightening.
  • There are some really fun touches of humour.
  • The hero must accept the heroine’s past as in no way indicative of her value, or morality, as a human being before his suit is even considered.
  • A particularly harrowing and thrilling triumph over one of the villains, even if his presence was deus ex machinations.

I might read more by Shana Galen, if the price is right: $1.99 or less/free from the library.

NEXT!

The Lion’s Lady by Julie Garwood

book review March 4, 2013 Leave a comment

This time, I’m kicking it old school…

I went through a romance genre phase after I graduated from university in 1990. I don’t think I read a so-called real book for about two years. My boyfriend at the time was ENDLESSLY horrified by my choices. Then, I woke up one day and went to the library for works by the Algonquin Round Table. That kind of awakening hasn’t happened so far, and as I’ve read what I believe to be everything good currently out there,  I decided to go back and read an author from my last genre episode.

In the early 1990s, Julie Garwood was the best writer of historical fiction and, according to Wikipedia anyway, I can congratulate myself on my excellent taste as she was apparently important to the genre for introducing quirkier heroines and the use of humour. I read most of her historical output, and during my romance novel cleanse, her book The Gift was one of only two I kept. It was also the first thing I picked up when the current fever set in.

Here, in a nutshell, is Julie Garwood’s The Lion’s Lady:

Christina, is young, not quite 19, and bee-yu-ti-ful. As with all Garwood heroines, she has a sprinkle of freckles across her nose. Her mother fled an abusive marriage to a non-determinate European royal before dying and passing on her child to be raised by — wait for it — the Lakota Sioux. After a year of “Acting English” training, Christina has arrived in London to help her (villan alert!) aunt claim Christina’s inheritance before disappearing back to the Lakota.  Oh, and her evil father is skulking in the wings twirling his moustache because of a subplot about stolen jewels. As Christina is Blondey-Blonde von Blondersen, I remember wondering in 1992, and again this time, why her skin apparently has no sun damage from 16 years living on the plains. Did her adoptive mother make her wear a bonnet?

The hero, the Marquis of Lyonwood (Lyon), is thirty-ish, the size of a door, very male, also patient.

I would describe this book as fluffy. The subplots are dead serious, but the love story is approached with lightness and whimsy. There is a playfulness to the writing which is quite charming. The love scenes were considered quite graphic at the time. They would still qualify as fairly explicit, but have nothing on what one can find today depending on one’s tastes. Last year, when I read my first romance with anatomically correct terms (The Devil in Winter) my eyebrows made it halfway up my skull.

I won’t be seeking out any more Garwood. The genre has developed since the early 1990s, and I have little patience for impossibly beautiful leads and a borderline creepy age difference. My recollection of the books at the time was that all the heroines were very young, chaste, beautiful Victims of Circumstance, and I greatly prefer the more mature Wallflower heroines that proliferate today.

(The other book I have kept all these years was Vows by LaVyrle Spencer. She was well-regarded in the genre for writing “real people” historical romances set in the United States in varying time periods. Spencer retired in the late 1990s, but her entire back catalogue is available for e-readers. Julie Garwood transitioned to contemporary hardcover romance and thrillers and is still publishing today.)

With This Ring Series: Reforming a Rake, Meet Me at Midnight, and A Matter of Scandal by Suzanne Enoch

book review February 21, 2013 Leave a comment

More B+ romance from an author I go to in a pinch and only if the price is right. Suzanne Enoch is almost really good. Her romances leave something to be desired, but I can never quite put my finger on what. It may be that she’s not good at conveying passion, or maybe intimacy, or even besottedness.  Love beyond the initial attraction? I’m still trying to puzzle it out.

Reforming a Rake

Amazon is giving a publication date of 2009, but the cover art tells a different story:

rake

Despite appearances to the contrary, the hero is not Kevin Sorbo of Hercules: The Legendary Journeys.

Lucien Balfour, a rake and some sort of noble, needs a social tutor/guide for his country cousin. He is impeded by both the cousin’s gauche behavior, and the young woman’s vulgar, grasping mother. He hires Alexandra Balfour, a genteel-y impoverished lady, to act as her governess; not because of sterling references or experience, but because he really wants to have sex with Alexandra, and he figures she can teach his cousin to be alluring to men as well and thus get the young woman off his hands and out of the house with alacrity. Lucien and Alexandra fall in love, he locks her in his basement (in a fun way) for reasons I cannot begin to remember, they get married, the end.

I feel behooved to mention that only in romance novels can a name like Lucien, or Sebastian, be ruggedly masculine, although, truth be told, I actually like the name Lucien. Not enough to burden a child with it, but certainly well enough to aggrandize a cat, if I weren’t violently allergic to them, which I am.

Meet Me at Midnight

rake midnight

The woman’s 1987 prom dress appears to be sliding off her body.

I almost always like romance novels when they get married at the beginning. This is one of those.

Victoria Fontaine, nicknamed Vixen, is beautiful (Regency Elizabeth Taylor), bright, and vivacious. Tired of her “my eyes are up here” life, she’s a hoyden whose parents don’t know what to do with her; fortunately, she gets caught making out with her new acquaintance, Sinclair, Marquess Althorpe, at a party in Chapter One. Victoria’s parents know an out when they see one, so they insist these two gorgeous, sexy people marry right away.

Sinclair, nicknamed Sin, louche by all appearances, is the standard indolent-younger-son-who-was-never-supposed-to-inherit-and-now-has-to-make-good. Lucien (Kevin Sorbo up there) was in the same position. Sin has recently returned from a life of endless indulgence on the continent, but he was really a spy, of course. Victoria figures it all out pretty quickly and sets out to help him with the maguffin-y sub-plot.

Speaking of sub-plots, Vixen has a menagerie of animals that she brings to Sinclair’s house with her. Animals that, once again, are you listening romance novel authors?,cannot be house-trained. Plus there’s a parrot that repeats what was said during love scenes. It’s kind of charming, but also kind of COME ON! PARROTS DON’T LEARN PHRASES THAT QUICKLY!

Regardless of the bluebirds on her shoulder, Victoria and Sinclair are rather delightful together, and I enjoyed their jaunt to a happy ending. There were moments of genuine humour and Enoch did a good job at the falling in love narrative. I didn’t even mind their nicknames, Vixen and Sin, since they represent the personas they had hi— RECORD NEEDLE SCRATCH!

I just discovered that there is a third book in this series, A Matter of Scandal, and I scooped that sucker up on Amazon for $1.99 in 1.3 seconds flat. There will now be an indeterminate delay while I read the book and add it to this review.

[Muzac version of The Girl from Ipanema]

I’m about a third of the way through. So far, so good. Great banter, good chemistry. Funny.

Greydon Bsomething, Duke of Wycliffe is helping his uncle reorganize his finances and the first step was a huge and long overdue rent increase for all of his tenants. That’s endearing. The lovely redhead, Emma Grenville, who owns and runs the finishing school on the estate is displeased, to say the least, so she and the Duke enter into a wager to prevent the increase. She has to come up with a better plan than the Duke’s to fix his uncle’s finances. He has to teach a class at her school for some reason. Translation: They have to spend a lot of time together.

Wycliffe is gorgeous (natch), large (obvs), thinks all women are trying to ensnare him ( ’cause, you know, Duke), and is magnetically drawn (of course) to the bluestocking who doesn’t give a toss about any of it, except his dismissal of her school and efforts (natch).  Apparently,  the best way to improve someone’s opinion of women is to make him spend extended periods of time with a group of teenage girls. Has the author ever met a teenage girl?

Wycliffe is annoyingly arrogant so far. I’m hoping he’ll be taken down SEVERAL pegs.

[Muzak resumes]

There is a hilarious moment when Emma is giving Grey what for at a dinner party and his entire response is to silently wish everyone else would go away so he can enjoy her insults without interruption.

[Muzak transitions to We’ve Only Just Begun]

A Matter of Scandal

rake scandal

 Why is Clint Eastwood pushing her into that rose bush?

Well, that was Enoch’s best effort: very funny, great chemistry, a romp; and once again, it was lacking something I can’t quite put my finger on. Do the leads need to talk to each other more? Talk to each other differently? Is there only sexual chemistry and no intellectual connection and therefore although that part works, it doesn’t go deeper? Is it something about the intimacy? Blargh!

I discovered another book in the series, The Rake, but it’s $7.59 on Amazon, so this won’t be happening any time soon:

rake rake

Pity.

Also by Suzanne Enoch
The Rake (Tristan/Georgiana)
England’s Perfect Hero (Robert/Lucinda)
The Devil Wears Kilts  (Ranulf/Charlotte)

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