Tag Archives: romance reviews

As an Earl Desires by Lorraine Heath

book review May 6, 2014 Leave a comment

Armed with my library card, I have been working my way through Lorraine Heath’s back catalogue. She is a B-list author for me: I don’t buy her books, but I will pick them up, if they are close to hand. Reading the older novels, I find I like her better. I’m going to keep going until my library’s supply is exhausted.

As an Earl Desires is the story of the Dowager Countess of Sachse and the new Earl, a man who has risen in life from teacher to aristocrat by virtue of the vagaries of primogeniture and despite being named Archibald. He is referred to as Arch or Archie. Good call.

Arch came into the title when the former Earl, a complete bastard (figuratively speaking) by all accounts  and the necessities of the plot, died without issue. The Bastard Earl’s young widow, Camilla, has taken it upon herself to train and educate Arch in his new life. There is just one tiny problem. Arch has fallen madly in love with her.  Actually, there are other not so tiny problems. Camilla has secrets she feels with ruin her if discovered. She was born into abject poverty and very early on it is revealed the Camilla is illiterate. She is both desperately ashamed and terrified people will learn of this. All Arch knows is that he wants to both jump her bones and stay for breakfast. To add further plot complications, Camilla is barren and while Arch doesn’t care about continuing the Sachse line, she does. He needs an heir, she wants a Duke to secure her future.

A sweet story, As an Earl Desires, moved along quickly and entertainingly. It was nice to read a romance with a kind and gentle hero. Not that most heroes are violent and rough, but they are often very self-possessed and, for want of a less modern term, cool. Arch made for a nice change. Camilla is the self-contained one and her gradual surrender of her fears in favour of a better life was nicely done.

Also by Lorraine Heath:

Lord of Wicked Intentions – her best so far
Deck the Halls with Love

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

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

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: 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:

Continue reading →

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.

 

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 Highlanders Series: The Devil Wears Kilts by Suzanne Enoch

book review February 12, 2014 Leave a comment

enochThere is an entire historical romance sub-genre based around Scottish Highland lairds and the tartans that love them. You can recognize the books instantly by the swathe of kilt and bare, muscular chest on the cover. I don’t read them because I get preoccupied with how cold everyone must be in Northern Scotland. Hitting on two genre quadrants, the new Scandalous Highlanders series from historical romance novelist Suzanne Enoch features members of a Scottish Highland family looking for love in Regency London. It’s kind of brilliant cross-marketing, really. The men are enormous, testosterrific, and entrenched in a kind of noble feudalism; the women are bright and steely Bennett-Dashwood-Elliots.

Rowena MacLawry of Glengask has fled her Highland home in hopes of having a London season. Her brother Ranulf, the Marquis, tracks her down at the home of their mother’s friend, Lady Hest. The Hests have two daughters, the older of whom, Charlotte, is our heroine. Ranulf and Charlotte clash in the standard “He’s a philistine!”, “She’s a busybody!” manner yet somehow manage to overcome their differences, indulge in sexual liaisons, and become betrothed. All this despite internecine clan warfare, English obnoxiousness, real estate purchases, morning rides, and a stable fire trying to distract them. The days are just packed.

The Devil Wears Kilts was fine, better than most and less than some. Suzanne Enoch is the tiptop of my romance B List. I read a lot of her work, but I avoid paying for it. I’d say I won’t bother to read more in this series, but who are we kidding? It will come to the library and I will bring it home with me. The books will be mostly enjoyable, but never quite enough somehow to lift them to the next level. I have inserted links to other Enoch books below and recommend the titles in bold.

With this Ring Series (fell swoop review)
Reforming a Rake
Meet Me at Midnight
A Matter of Scandal

Lessons in Love Series (fell swoop review)
The Rake
England’s Perfect Hero

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