Book Thingo » Historical romance

The Many Sins of Lord Cameron by Jennifer Ashley

Wandergurl — Fri, 16 Sep 2011 00:00:54 +0000

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.

Cameron is the third brother to feature in Jennifer Ashley’s lovely series featuring the scandalous Mackenzie family. Like the previous book featuring Cameron’s brother, Ian, this is not entirely a conventional romance novel. Both Ainsley and Cameron were married before, but while she was married to a kind man to avoid scandal, he was married to a psycho nymphomaniac who ended up causing scandal. His wife’s death is a bit of a mystery in the beginning, but it’s explained rather quickly—none of this dragged-on Jane Eyresque mysteriousness typical in other books.

The theme of the series appears to be about healing—everyone saves themselves and each other from drowning in their own hang-ups or traumas. The Mackenzies are a strong, proud and scandalous family, deeply affected by the abuse they suffered at the hands of their psycho dad, and they’ve come out better for it. Yes, they’re in need of love, and sometimes saving from themselves, but they’re believable, sympathetic characters, not the kind who act like arseholes, and then we’re just supposed to forgive them and let them be redeemed because we feel sorry for them as they had crap childhoods, evil women treated them badly, etc.

The family dynamics between the siblings and their wives is also lovely, which is as it should be because it sets up the rest of the characters for the series!

I liked both Ainsley, for her quiet kind of strength and hidden cheekiness, and Cameron, for his stubborn kindness and the way he grew as a character. I have yet to read a book in this series that I didn’t love—they’re all keepers for me. Ainsley and Cameron’s romance is unconventional for the prudish Victorian age, and I liked how this was played out.

Ashley does not pull any fast ones on you. The Mackenzies don’t have everyone on their side, the Queen doesn’t like them, society loves them—the title’s a dukedom—but thinks they’re crazy, mamas don’t entirely throw their daughters at them, and in the end, it’s still like that. There’s no magic fix. The road to redemption is there, they get their happy endings, but you get to appreciate the entire journey.

Yay or nay?

I highly recommend the entire Highland Pleasures series. You can read this one on its own, but it would be better if you read them all in order. I look forward to the next book, and it is a shame that they only come out once a year!

Title: The Many Sins of Lord Cameron
Series: Highland Pleasures (Book 3)
Author: Jennifer Ashley
Publisher: Berkley
A format: 9780425240496 (2/8/2011)

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The Madness of Lord Ian Mackenzie by Jennifer Ashley

Heartless by Gail Carriger

Wandergurl — Wed, 20 Jul 2011 00:00:13 +0000

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.)

Connal, Lord Maccon, is still the smitten werewolf, but he gets to play a bigger part in this book, what with managing his pack. (In the last book he was a mostly absent ass.) His gruff but affectionate nature has ensured that I kind of have a soft spot for him, especially since his wife is doing such a good job of training him. Lord Akeldama, Alexia’s gay BFF has a bigger role in this books as well, and he invents even more affectionate nicknames for her. We also get further glimpses into his character, and we get to see more than his all-knowing, fashion-loving self.

This book fleshes out other secondary characters. We get to learn more about vampire hives, pack politics and how an alpha becomes an alpha. There’s also a whole bunch of dirigibles and we even get to find out Biffy’s real name.

Which brings me to this important point: I love this book, and this series, but you really can’t start from here. It can, if you must, stand alone. The central plot point is explained in such a way that it finishes in this book, but all the secondary threads, including the one involving the baby that has been stretched for the last few books, don’t end or start here. It will leave you wondering, and the continuity is better if you begin from the start.

Was there anything I didn’t like about it? Well, I kind of figured out a major plot point from just a little after the beginning. I also still really dislike Alexia’s sisters. Also, I don’t really get why it’s called Heartless. I don’t think it fits with the theme of the book—I think they just wanted something that ended with ‘-less’. Other than that, I have to say I liked it better than the last one.

Yay or Nay?

YAAAAY! I’m so glad there is more of this series and I look forward to the next one. (In May, 2012!) Highly recommended for people who are kinda over paranormals and want something different. Yes, this still has vampires and werewolves, but it’s steampunk. And Victorian London. And so incredibly witty it will make you laugh out loud. Also, there’s a lot of tea.

Title: Heartless (excerpt)
Series: Parasol Protectorate (Book 4)
Author: Gail Carriger
Publisher: Orbit/Hachette
B format: 9780356500096 (7/2011)
A format: 9780316127196 (28/6/2011)
Ebook: 9780748122677 (7/7/2011)

Books in the Parasol Protectorate series

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Just Like Heaven by Julia Quinn

Wandergurl — Fri, 03 Jun 2011 00:00:10 +0000

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?

I loved this book. It was just the right combination of romance and comedy mixed with a bit of light and fluffy, some squee-ing, and of course, smiling to myself. Having been disappointed by Quinn’s last book (which I never finished), I was pleasantly surprised to find this one to be so sweet and compelling enough to finish that I stayed up to read it through.

I enjoyed the fact that it was one of those cases where they were both in love with each other and realised it at about the same time. There was none of this ‘I’m in love with my brother’s BFF or BFF’s brother and I have loved him FOREVER and carried a torch and oh he will never look at me that way.’ Or ‘I am in love with my BFF’s sister or sister’s BFF but I must never ever look at her that way because it is not honourable and she deserves better and I have a stain upon my soul. ‘ Nope. Their backgrounds aren’t that complicated. They have baggage, but not like a matching set of Louis Vuitton.

While some parts of the plot are a bit suspicious (MILD SPOILER ALERT: They get to spend time together because of a letter written by a housekeeper and, yes, her mother agrees that they just run off to go help him!) it mostly moved along nicely. There are no secret spies, babies, mystery plot twists, suspected supernatural creatures, etc. It’s just a story about two people falling in love. You don’t get a lot of that anymore and I loved that this book.

Yay or nay?

A resounding YAY! whether you’re a Quinn fan or not. This book reminds me why Quinn has such a following: no one does comedy, wit and light-hearted romance the way she does.

This review is based an advanced reading copy donated by the author to the ARRC silent auction to benefit Queensland flood victims.

UK edition

Title: Just Like Heaven (excerpt)
Series: Smythe-Smith Quartet (Book 1)
Author: Julia Quinn
Publisher: Avon/HarperCollins
A format: 9780061491900 (31/5/2011)
Ebook: 9780062079534 (31/5/2011)

Where you can buy this book

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What Happens in London by Julia Quinn

Mixed Bag: April 2011 (Aussie Author edition)

Kat — Wed, 13 Apr 2011 00:00:00 +0000

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.

Wanter of heirs, apparently.

But it’s not long before he’s mush. We don’t see the story from his point of view, so there’s a bit at the end where you may feel like smacking Lea on the head for being so obtuse.

Yay or nay? Delivers what you’d expect in a category romance, with the added bonus of being set in the Kimberley. You can read an excerpt via the author’s website.

A review copy of this book was generously provided by the author. This book was released under the Sweet Romance line in Australia and the Romance line in the US.

Publisher: Harlequin Romance | Australia: 9781742551241 (7/2010) | US: 9780373176649 (6/2010) | Ebook: 9781742787169 (7/2010)

Her Best Friend by Sarah Mayberry

Her Best Friend by Sarah Mayberry (Australian edition)

Amy Parker’s two biggest dreams were to restore the local movie theatre to its former glory, and for BFF Quinn Whitfield to see her as more than a friend. When soon-to-be-divorced Quinn shows us unexpectedly, Amy might finally get everything she’s always wished for.

This isn’t a bad read if you like your Blaze very dramatic and angsty. Mayberry’s writing is always up to par, but I had a problem with the love triangle in the story. I was left feeling like Amy deserved more than to be the second choice, even if she ultimately proves to be a better match for Quinn.

Yay or nay? Despite the happy ending, the story felt bittersweet and the hero failed to satisfy. You can read an excerpt via the author’s website.

Publisher: Harlequin Special Moments | Australia: 9781742553191 (5/2010) | US: 9780373783717 (2010) | UK: 9780263888829 (4/2011) | Ebook: 9781742780696 (5/2010)

A Most Sinful Proposal by Sara Bennett

Marissa Rotherhild doesn’t want to marry a botanist, but she ends up trying to seduce one into an affair. Lord Valentine Kent is determined to find a rare kind of rose, but there’s an insane man determined to thwart him, and the whole thing is putting Marissa in danger.

She’s innocent, but she’s a temptress. He’s an absent-minded botanist, but he’s not really—just…driven? The villain is completely insane and who knows why. There’s a leak in the household, whose identity becomes glaringly obvious to the reader after the second time the character is mentioned. They all run around the countryside looking for a rose.

Everything about this book was confusing. Characters made the oddest decisions and everyone moved at the whim of the external plot. Marissa does something so incredibly stupid at the end of the book, but by that time it was too late to DNF the entire thing.

Yay or nay? Best read in one sitting or confusion will get the better of you and it will be impossible to finish. You can read an excerpt via the author’s website.

Publisher: Avon (Harper Collins) | A format: 9780061339172 (2010)

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My Reckless Surrender by Anna Campbell

Kat — Wed, 06 Apr 2011 00:00:00 +0000

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.

Anna Campbell’s work has been christened ‘Regency Noir’ and, to the extent that the villain creates a potentially sordid situation for Diana, My Reckless Surrender fits the bill. But it doesn’t come close to the darker themes of Claiming the Courtesan and Untouched. Much of the first part of the story revolves around Diana and Ashcroft’s mutual seduction, and these pages are dominated by passionate and sexy scenes. We also get subtle touches of humour that are not only delightful to read, but serve to demonstrate why Diana and Ashcroft are right for each other.

Campbell’s prose veers towards purple, but those of us who love her work already know this. There’s something delicious about Campbell’s masterful lovers:

He refused to suffer this incendiary craving alone. Some instinct told him she offered the right lover a depth of passion unlike any he’d experienced.

He intended to be that right lover.

and there’s something charming about Diana, who is in the process of discovering passion and desire, yet whose chaste background betrays her every time:

“So availability isn’t your only requirement in a lover?” Nerves made her voice quake. Nerves and a simmering need.

Oh, she was a sad, sad case. He wasn’t touching her, and still she burned. In his company, her body became something alien, beyond her control.

He burst out laughing. “Diana, do you have any idea how insulting your questions are?”

Her color rose again. “I’m trying to understand.”

He shrugged. “Attraction is always mysterious.”

For this I can forgive the use of the term ‘interior passage’. Maybe.

Yay or nay?

Campbell has gone from strength to strength, and this is her best book so far. Although the bad guy is a caricature of sleaze and nastiness, Ashcroft and Diana are nuanced characters. Campbell balances Diana’s internal conflicts so that she comes across neither mercenary nor stupid. The climax of the story is dramatic, thrilling and, yes, a little over the top—vintage Anna Campbell.

This book won the Australian Romance Readers Award for Favourite Historical Romance 2010. You can watch a video of the author talking about the book at Scarlet Pages, the Avon blog.

US edition

Australian edition

Title: My Reckless Surrender (excerpt)
Author: Anna Campbell
Publisher: Avon (HarperCollins)
C format: 9780732291044 (1/6/2010)
A format: 9780732291051 (1/1/2011)
US mass market: 9780061684319 (1/6/2010)

Where you can buy this book

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The Countess by Lynsay Sands

Kat — Tue, 15 Mar 2011 23:00:00 +0000

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.

Christiana, Countess of Radnor, had thought she was entering a love match, but her first year of marriage revealed her husband, Dicky, to be an abusive and tyrannical man. When he drops dead without warning, she and sisters cook up a plan to keep his death a secret until one of them can marry and save their father from his gambling debts.

You think that’s hard to believe? You don’t know the half of it.

The thing is, I don’t mind a bit of fantastical historical romping. Lynsay Sands’ The Switch is on my keeper list, and I wouldn’t exactly call it realistic. But Christiana keeps Dicky’s body on a bed packed with ice. In a time when disease isn’t exactly easy to treat and hygiene isn’t entirely…hygienic.

Anyway, that’s just the set up. It turns out that Dicky is really an impostor—the Earl’s twin brother. The real earl, Richard Fairgrave, conveniently turns up at the first ball the sisters attend after Dicky’s death. Imagine their total shock.

I wasn’t shocked, because I read the blurb.

Christiana is understandably torn because she loathes Dicky but, OMG, suddenly he’s making her swoony and fluttery as she’d felt when he was first courting her. Except there’s still a dead body in the house and the truth is revealed.

So okay, it’s Weekend at Bernie’s historical romance-style. But when I got to the scene where Christiana and Richard do the hot and heavy next to the corpse (possibly partly on top of it, but I couldn’t check my expired egalley), I squealed and not in a good way.

Listen, you can pack a corpse in ice as much as you like but unless it’s in a freaking freezer, there’s no way this scene could have been anything but gross. And smelly.

The story never recovers. Richard is looking for whoever killed Dicky—and hence might have tried to kill him. The conclusion is underwhelming. Christiana is trying to figure out if she wants to stay married or not…by having sex with Richard. Nice. Consummate the marriage and trap your own ridiculous self. WTF? Meanwhile, in the sequel, one of her sisters is apparently off doing the rumpy-pumpy in a carriage with Richard’s BFF while the corpse looks on. Splendid.

Yay or nay?

An extremely light historical romp. Light on plot, on character and on plausibility. But let’s face it. You’re still thinking about the threesome with the corpse, aren’t you? I know I am. Not the author’s best work, I’m afraid.

An e-galley of this book was generously provided by Avon via NetGalley.

Title: The Countess (excerpt)
Series: Madison Sisters (Book 1)
Author: Lynsay Sands
Publisher: Avon/Harper Collins
A format: 9780061963049 (25/1/2011)
Ebook: 9780062041661 (25/1/2011)

Where you can buy this book

Books in the Madison Sisters series

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To dream the impossible dream (Top 5 for 2010 + TBR Challenge)

Wandergurl — Tue, 08 Feb 2011 23:00:01 +0000

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.

A Hundred Thousand Kingdoms by N. K. Jemsin

A fantasy novel written about a world with a hundred thousand kingdoms, in which one family and effectively one god rules an earth where many other minor gods and goddesses walk among its people. After the death of her mother, Yeine is summoned to the court of the worlds’ ruling family, the Arameri. She is surprisingly named one of their heirs and has to survive political machinations, competition from the other heirs and the gods themselves, who have a greater stake in this than anyone else. The writing flows well and transports the reader to the lofty hights of Sky, the Arameri palace, as well as the surrounding towns and the lives of its inhabitants. There’s a bit of romance that also drives the story forward.

Changeless and Blameless by Gail Carriger

Gail Carriger’s Parasol Protectorate series is one of my favourites, and I can’t wait for the next one. Changeless ended with a massive cliffhanger that annoyed the bejeezus out of me, so I never reviewed it. I picked up the next book and devoured it in a few hours, and am pleased to say that it ends satisfactorily. I need the next one, stat!

Set in steampunk London, Alexia is Soulless, married to a werewolf and has a gay BFF who happens to be a vampire. In Blameless, she tries to figure out what exactly being soulless means, so that she can clear her name based on things that happened in Changeless which i cannot spoil! If you haven’t read this series, start with Soulless!

Lover Mine by J. R. Ward

This book is here because it’s the book that got me to believe in The Crack (TM) again. This is all your fault, J. R. Ward. You and your sunglasses and hip hop lingo. Damn you, I’m going to end up with the next book, whatever happens. Do not read this book unless you’ve started the series. Start with Dark Lover at your own risk. You feel me?

TBR Challenge

Every year I start a challenge or two which I forget about two months after. I never end up completing my challenges. Hence, I’ve decided to set up my own.

My challenge is to finish all the books in my TBR by Dec 31, 2011.

There are approximately 75. (I have made extra allowance for the romance novels I haven’t counted). I think it’s do-able. Sort of.

The rules are:

1. All books read from the TBR must be reviewed (even if it’s just part of the mixed bag).
2. You must read at least 50 pages before giving up. If you do give up, you don’t have to review.
3. You are allowed to give a book away if you pick it up and think, What was I thinking?
4. You must not replace a completed TBR book with a new one. You need to finish at least 5 before you are allowed to add to it. (Pre-planned purchases are excluded—e.g. those in the 2011 new releases listing. This is because 70% of my TBR is impulse purchasing. If you buy a pre-planned purchase you must read it immediately without adding to the TBR! )
5. Are there any other rules I should add?

Please feel free to join me in this challenge. Let’s hope I don’t forget about this one.

Wandergurl’s recommended reads from 2010 and a self-imposed challenge to reduce her TBR pile.

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Marry Me by Jo Goodman

Wandergurl — Wed, 29 Dec 2010 23:00:21 +0000

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.

I have never read a Goodman before. All my Jo Goodmans have ended up with Kat because they all have tiny font and have just so much going on. (She loves them, by the way.) I don’t know if it’s because this was my first Kindle book, or if it was because it was one of her westerns—I have read somewhere that she does them best—but I stuck to this book, flipping, literally, page after page where I was kind of disappointed that I couldn’t make it go faster because the pages were too bloody small and couldn’t fit a lot. (I’m serious; I started to get frustrated.)

Goodman does drama the way it should be done—full on, but not overwhelming, with just the right touch of character. No one’s really annoying or overdone, the choices they make are realistic, they make sense and it’s never a simple problem that could have been solved if you had just communicated with each other, thank you very much. There are real underlying issues and they are dealt with appropriately.

It is not a happy book. There are trials and tribulations galore—seriously, this would not be my regular fare. I generally tend to pick comedies. Or J. R. Ward. (Sigh.) Some discussions in the book are also graphic. I am, however, very glad I picked up this one, and like every other Kindle-sucked customer, yes, I will buy another book from this author. It does have the kind of happy ending I like. Major plot points all tied up, villain retired, and no cuteness epilogue babies in sight.

If there was anything that I didn’t like it was that towards the end of the book (I think it was the end; it’s hard to tell) the author threw another conflict in. I felt that the conflict was not entirely necessary, as the previous conflicts were enough to carry the series through and there was no need for external forces to bring the couple even closer together, and even the issue with the initial conflict between Rhyne and her father could have been dealt with differently without the introduction of this one.

Yay or nay?

Yay. My first foray into reading with an actual ebook reading app was a success! I really quite liked this book, which says a lot since I don’t really do drama very well. I’d recommend this to anyone who likes a good, dramatic read.

This book is loosely related to Never Love A Lawman.

Title: Marry Me (excerpt)
Author: Jo Goodman
Publisher: Penguin (Australia), Zebra/Kensington (US)
A format: 9781420101768 (Australia – 15/1/2010, US – 1/12/2010)
Ebook: ISBN (1/12/2010)

Where you can buy this book

Pleasures of a Notorious Gentleman by Lorraine Heath

Kat — Wed, 08 Dec 2010 23:00:00 +0000

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.

Although Mercy has a bit of a martyr complex, her reasons for keeping secrets from Stephen are pretty compelling. It’s also hard not to feel for Stephen, who feels like he’s going insane from his lack of memories. The climax of their conflict is fairly predictable by the time it happens, but this doesn’t detract from the drama nor the need for copious tissues.

I also loved the scenes with Stephen’s mother and her lover, Leo—probably even more so than the main romance. (This intersects with Stephen’s story because his mother has her own secrets that she’s kept from her son.) It’s so much more ambiguous and complicated and heartbreaking. I can’t help but hope they get their happy ever after, too:

‘I do love you, you know.’

‘But not as much you do others.’

She opened her mouth to protest and he touched his fingers to her lips. ‘I do not resent the love you have for your sons and now your grandsons. I would never seek to usurp their place in your hearts. I cannot even resent the lover of your youth, because at least through him you knew what it was to be loved. But he is not here now. Tell me you do not think of him when you are in my arms.’

‘Never does he cross my mind when I am here with you.’

‘Liar,’ he whispered softly, and proceeded to ensure the words she’d spoken took on a measure of truth.

Yay or nay?

This is a dramatic, heartbreaking Victorian romance between two slightly damaged people whose secrets are an obstacle to the kind of love they want and need. Keep those tissues handy.

An e-galley of this book was generously provided by Avon via NetGalley.

Title: Pleasures of a Notorious Gentleman (excerpt)
Series: London’s Greatest Lovers (Book 2)
Author: Lorraine Heath
Publisher: Avon (HarperCollins)
A format: 9780061922954 (1/12/2010)
Ebook: 9780062078513 (1/12/2010)

Where you can buy this book

Other books in the London’s Greatest Lovers series

Touched by Fire by Kathleen O’Reilly

Kat — Mon, 29 Nov 2010 23:00:00 +0000

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.

However, his late father’s will specifies that Colin must marry soon, or he’ll lose control of an orphanage—one of Colin’s pet projects and a cause he isn’t willing to give up. He’s determined to choose a bride who won’t rouse his passions, but instead stumbles across Sarah Banks, who, of course, is the exact opposite of what he’s looking for.

Sarah hasn’t lacked for a marriage proposal, but has yet to find one that wasn’t inextricably linked to generous inheritance. When she pretends that her father had lost it all on a wager, it sends suitors scampering away but also leads to a rumour that she was part of the wager and that Colin was the winner.

Colin is all over the place in this novel, and it was … well, irritating. Sarah, who keeps chasing after him—at times, it seems, for no other reason than he has sherry-coloured eyes—with absolutely no regard for dignity or reputation is just as bad.

Colin gets to play the hero when several attempts on Sarah’s life are made. This adds a bit of excitement to the plot, but the pacing wasn’t quite right and the external plot and emotional arc didn’t always gel for me. Colin also has this fixation on being a ‘DragonSlayer’—a kind of persona he invented as a child, in response to wanting to be everything his biological father was not. The whole DragonSlayer aspect felt childish and repetitive to me.

Despite all that, the novel does show glimpses of what I love about O’Reilly’s writing. Giles, Colin’s butler, isn’t very believable as a Regency butler, but he provides much of the humour in the story. I also liked the sexual tension between Colin and Sarah. O’Reilly knows how to write angst without wallowing in it.

Yay or nay?

This is an enjoyable novel if you’re not fussed about Regency heroines with modern sensibilities. I don’t think it’s nearly as polished as my favourite O’Reilly books, but I keep it because I’m determined to have a complete set of her work.

As far as I know, you can only find the print edition of this book in secondhand bookshops. I found mine at The Bookshop in Coolangatta.

Title: Touched by Fire (excerpt)
Author: Kathleen O’Reilly
Publisher: Jove/Berkley
A format: 9780515132403 (01/2002)
Ebook: 9780786521746

Where you can buy this book

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