The Many Sins of Lord Cameron by Jennifer Ashley (Highland Pleasures, Book 1)
A Victorian romance that doesn’t pull a fast one on the reader. It’s a shame we get only one book a year in this series.
Lord Cameron Mackenzie has been a bachelor ever since his psycho first wife died and has raised his son with the help of his brothers and the women who have married into their family. He’s known for his talent with training race horses, and, of course, for his reputation with women.
Ainsley Douglas is a widowed lady-in-waiting to Queen Victoria (yes, it’s not a Regency!) and a good friend of one of the Mackenzie wives’. She’s been sent to their house party to retrieve incriminating letters that are being used to blackmail the queen. She’s encountered Cameron before—in smouldering but unfulfilled circumstances—and finds herself caught up with him again in her attempt to retrieve the letters.
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Heartless by Gail Carriger (Parasol Protectorate, Book 4)
The latest instalment of the Gail Carriger’s Parasol Protectorate series proves that some things can get even better with time.
Alexia Maccon (nee Tarrabotti) has got herself into trouble again. Aside from the ‘infant inconvenience’ that has led to everyone trying to kill her—featuring, this time around, zombie, semi-mechanised porcupines—she has to solve a plot to assassinate the Queen. All while waddling about, moving, investigating her husband’s past, fussing over members of the pack and having tea.
This latest instalment of the Gail Carriger’s Parasol Protectorate series proves that some things can get even better with time. This book was just as witty and compelling as the others—I read it at every possible moment—and even more creative. (The porcupines were totally original.) Alexia, despite being preggers and totally dependent on her parasol, hunky werewolves and her unflappable butler to prop her up, still manages to save the day and pop out a baby besides. (Yes, the progeny makes its appearance in this one, which is not a spoiler since you can tell that from the size of her in chapter one.)
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Just Like Heaven by Julia Quinn (Smythe-Smith Quartet, Book 1)
No one does comedy, wit and light-hearted romance like Julia Quinn.
In which wandergurl and @katydidinoz band together to win a coveted ARC at ARRC2011′s silent auction.
Honoria Smythe-Smith plays the violin in the infamous Smythe-Smith quartet’s annual musicale. (If you’ve read the Julia Quinn’s Bridgerton series, you’ll know they sound horrible.) It’s her secondish season out, and this time, she’s determined to find a husband, as the last few have cried off.
Marcus Holyroyd, Earl of Chatteris, is Honoria’s brother’s BFF. Since his hurried departure for the continent, he’s been looking out for Honoria (discreetly) and warning away any inappropriate suitors. He’s also secretly in love with her, but he hasn’t figured that out yet, which is all right, because she hasn’t figured out that she’s in love with him.
Will they figure it out in time for the next Smythe-Smith musicale?
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In keeping with Aussie Author Appreciation Month, this Mixed Bag features local authors whose work we haven’t previously reviewed on Book Thingo.
Their Newborn Gift by Nikki Logan
Their Newborn Gift by Nikki Logan (Australian edition)
Lea Curran’s one-night stand with rodeo star Reilly Martin resulted in a baby he never knew about. But four-year old Molly’s only chance to live a normal life may rest with cord blood from a close genetic match. Lea will do anything to save her daughter, including sleep with Reilly again to conceive another child. But first she has to tell him about his daughter.
The complications in this story make for dramatic conflicts, and the first twist totally threw me. Nikki Logan doesn’t let up on the angst, and with a terminally ill child involved, this book is guaranteed to be a tear-jerker. Luckily, it’s a romance. With an epilogue!
Reilly starts off acting like ye olde heartless hero bent on revenge for Lea leaving him after one night—‘as cheap as a motel television’—and not telling him about the baby.
…in all her planning and visualisation it had never occurred to her he would care about the baby that would result, let alone want it. The paradigm she was working from was five years out of date: Reilly Martin, king of the circuit; lover of women; drinker of beer.
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My Reckless Surrender by Anna Campbell
Dramatic, thrilling and, yes, a little over the top—vintage Anna Campbell.
This is a modified version of the winning review in the ARRC2011 Reader Challenge. (Here’s a photo of Kat receiving the award.)
‘I want to be your lover.’
Diana Carrick presents the Earl of Ashcroft with an offer too good for a notorious rake to refuse. So when he declines, she doesn’t know whether to feel relief or despair. She’s made a bargain with the devil: a child in exchange for marriage to the man who controls the estate in which Diana grew up and which she loves.
Tarquin Vale, Earl of Ashcroft, is intrigued by the mysterious proposition but senses a bit of, well, dodginess about the entire affair. But this is a romance, after all, and his willpower is no match for Diana’s allure. Ashcroft embodies that favourite of all historical romance heroes—the rake who’s not really a rake—with an added bonus of being powerful enough to vanquish villains.
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The Countess by Lynsay Sands (Madison Sisters, Book 1)
Light on plot, on character and on plausibility. And they make out next to a corpse.
The Countess was one of the first books I requested from NetGalley. In the process, I made some important discoveries:
1. DRM-protected NetGalley books expire 60 days after downloading.
2. It isn’t unusual for me to take me more than 60 days to review a book I’ve read.
3. Sony Reader’s note-taking feature is linked to the ebook file. When the ebook file expires, my notes are unreadable.
Technology sucks sometimes.
Luckily, I can still do this review, but it’ll be a little more general than usual. Except when I specifically mention making out next to the dead guy. More on that later.
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Wandergurl’s recommended reads from 2010 and a self-imposed challenge to conquer her TBR pile.
Book picks for 2010
The Forbidden Rose by Joanna Bourne
Effectively the prequel to The Spymaster’s Lady, this equally wonderfully written novel is about ‘Maggie and Doyle’. Marguerite de Fleurignac, a French noblewoman, encounters William Doyle in her burnt out chateau. They both pretend to be people they are not, as she is trying to desperately smuggle out people during the revolution and he is an English spy looking for her father. The romance is lush and lovely, the spy plot moves around nicely, and I was kept captivated. Highly recommended.
Feet of the Chameleon by Ian Hawkey
This is a largely anecdotal history of modern African football and how it has shaped various countries’ political histories. I read this book during the football (soccer) world cup while in Africa so it was especially poignant. It explained a lot of things that were interesting to me, and would be interesting for anyone with an interest in Africa, its people and its history.
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Marry Me by Jo Goodman
Or: OMG, Wandergurl is alive.
I lost my phone. This is not an excuse as to why I have dropped off the face of the earth but anyway, this happened. Fortunately my contract was about to expire, so I could get a new phone that wouldn’t cost me too much. And so I ended up with an iPhone 4. What does this have to do with this book, you ask? Well, I downloaded the Amazon Kindle app. And this book was free! And recommended! And I ended up reading it. And that’s how I ended up resurrecting myself from the dead and suddenly writing a review.
Coleridge Monroe moves to Reidsville, Colorado with his sister to assume the position of town doctor. It’s a town of about 800 people, which I have to say, is possibly more than some towns in Australia now. When he accompanies one of the deputies to check on one of the outlying farms in the mountains he meets Judah Abbot, the local cranky ass, and what turns out to be his daughter, Rhyne, who due to the severity of her illness and the circumstances surrounding it has to be taken to town and ends up staying with him for a while. (Note that these are not just fluffy circumstances to make up the slimmest of reasons to get the heroine to have an excuse to stay with the hero. These are hardcore OMG, this is difficult kind of circumstances. When Goodman makes things difficult, she makes things difficult.) Eventually she becomes their housekeeper and you can see where this is going from there.
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Pleasures of a Notorious Gentleman by Lorraine Heath (London's Greatest Lovers, Book 2)
A dramatic, heartbreaking Victorian romance between two slightly damaged people whose secrets are an obstacle to the kind of love they want and need.
Injured in body as well as in mind, Stephen Lyons is no longer the cheerful, skirt-chasing charmer he had been before the Crimean War. When Mercy Dawson, one of Florence Nightingale’s nurses at Scutari, shows up with an angry father and Stephen’s son, he has no choice but to marry her even though he can’t remember a single moment of their time together.
This is the second book of a series, but references to the previous book are fairly easy to follow. The story starts with a prologue to show Stephen pre-war; it’s a little slow but serves its purpose. I do wonder how Stephen managed to avoid getting sexually transmitted diseases with the repeated emphasis that Heath gives to his promiscuous ways.
Lorraine Heath’s Victorian romance paints a very bleak picture of war, and it’s to Heath’s credit that she doesn’t gloss over the suffering of soldiers. Interestingly, nurses were also frowned upon—I didn’t understand this at first, but apparently the fact that nurses are comfortable with undressing and bathing men was seen, at least by some in the Victorian era, as disreputable—-and Mercy pays a huge price for her desire to help in the battlefield.
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Touched by Fire by Kathleen O'Reilly
I’m determined to review every Kathleen O’Reilly book in my shelf, starting with her debut into historical romance.* The writing shows promise, but lacks the subtlety of her later work.
* Update: Although O’Reilly wrote this novel first, based on publication dates this is actually her second novel. Her first published work of fiction is A Christmas Carol.
When I discovered Kathleen O’Reilly’s books, I went on a mission to track down her backlist. O’Reilly’s first work of fiction, Touched by Fire, is a Regency romance—the only historical romance she’s published so far—featuring a hero with a deep, dark secret, and a heroine who just won’t take no for an answer.
I know; it sounds a bit absurd. It kind of is a bit absurd.
Colin, Earl of Haverwood grew up with the shameful secret that his birth was a result of his mother’s rape in the hands of a convicted murderer. The circumstances of his birth, and his adoptive father’s certainty that Colin is afflicted with the same murderous lust, has driven him to avoid any real relationships with women.
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