I managed to read 7 books for the challenge (total of 8 for the month), when for the past 5 months I’d only managed 2-5 a month, so I think I achieved what I set out to do and that was to get over this slump and read more.
The Outlaw Demon Wails by Kim Harrison
This was a book I had in my TBR box for a while, mainly because someone had spoilt something in the previous book, For a Few Demons More, so I was a bit put off reading that one and not about to jump ahead. I finally read For a Few Demons More before the challenge and decided to forge ahead with The Outlaw Demon Wails while the details of the last book were still fresh in my mind.
Rachel Morgan is determined to squash her inner adrenaline junkie and make wiser decisions that won’t land her and her friends in so much trouble. But a request for her help in obtaining an elf DNA sample from the ever-after leads to a revelation of Rachel’s true origins and changes her perspective on family and risk-taking.
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The Madness of Lord Ian Mackenzie by Jennifer Ashley
Beth Ackerley is a widow who has suddenly, unexpectedly, become an heiress. All she wants to do is sit back and relax with her money, possibly with a new husband. In the process of trying to get a husband, she comes into contact with Lord Ian Mackenzie, the youngest of the Mackenzie brothers, a family notorious for the drama worthy of a modern soap opera. Lord Ian, in particular, is infamous for being “mad” and eccentric, having been previously locked up in a mental asylum for a perceived illness that in modern times would be a disability that can be dealt with. Lord Ian decides that she must be his and sets about it in his own way, and there the story unfolds.
I loved the drama of this story. At first glance, Lord Ian could be any suitor trying to woo a woman—if not for his unconventional bluntness and his trying to prove himself suitable without even knowing that is what he is doing. Both characters have angst-filled backgrounds that Jennifer Ashley uses to show us how their characters have come to be
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Tempted All Night by Liz Carlyle
BOOK GIVEAWAY: Read on for a chance to win a free copy of Tempted All Night. The contest ends midnight on Friday, June 5 AEST.
I think I read a Liz Carlyle book once, and I mustn’t have liked it because I’ve avoided her books for some reason. So when I got a free copy of Tempted All Night at ARRC 09, it was a chance to reacquaint myself with Carlyle’s writing and see if I should start paying her more attention.
Tempted All Night didn’t immediately grab my attention, and I didn’t care much for the suspense plot, but some exquisitely written, finely balanced scenes between lovers Tristan and Phae had me alternately thrilled and in tears.
Tristan Talbot: hero in rogue’s clothing
Tristan Talbot, Lord Avoncliffe, is your typical historical romance rogue. He’s popular with the ladies—and not of the virginal kind—who generally see him as a frivolous, somewhat dim-witted, yet vastly entertaining companion. In truth, he’s a former mercenary whose past has jaded him to the point where he doesn’t care
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Mr Impossible by Loretta Chase (Carsington Quartet, Book 2)
To start off, I will say this will be an incredibly biased review because this is one of my favourite books of all time, and Loretta Chase is one of my favourite authors ever.
The Characters
Rupert Carsington is a bit of a loveable disaster. Wherever he goes, trouble follows. He’s a bit of a bumbling idiot, but he is smarter than he appears to be, it’s just that he seems to find himself in one scrape or another no matter what he does. He’s the kind of man that would have anyone in the family throw their hands up in despair and look up at the heavens wondering why they were forced to have such a child, even if he’s so earnest, and by God, he really tries, so they love him anyway. However, as the fourth son of an earl who is pretty much tired of dealing with him, he’s been sent to Egypt to “assist the consul” in diplomatic matters so that he can prove himself useful. Somehow.
Daphne Pembroke is the widow of a rich (presumably fat) old man whom she married at 19 because he was a scholar and she wanted to explore her scholarly passions.
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The Switch by Lynsay Sands
One of the things I love about historical romances is that there are so many of them that I haven’t run out of new bestselling authors to try. The Switch by Lynsay Sands was an impulse choice. I don’t know why I’ve never tried a Sands book before, but this one was so thoroughly enjoyable that I ended up reading excerpts aloud to my husband who, of course, thought I was utterly mad. But he married me that way, so he can’t complain.
Charlie and twin sister Beth Westerly are in the process of escaping from their uncle—who plans to marry Elizabeth off to a widower who was generally believed to have mistreated his 3 former wives—when they’re discovered by the Earl of Radcliffe. Radcliffe offers to help them travel to London so they can give Beth a Season. If she can make a suitable match before their uncle finds out, then she will finally be free of his control.
At least, that’s the plan Charlie gives Radcliffe. It’s not exactly what they’d originally planned because, well, they didn’t exactly tell him the whole truth. In fact, Charlie is Charlotte Westerly, she’s disguised as a boy partly so their uncle won’t quickly find them, and she’s the one slated to marry the thrice widowed suitor.
Poor Radcliffe starts feeling a little … disturbed.
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Untouched by Anna Campbell
You see, it’s like this: remember how horrible the hero of Claiming the Courtesan was and how much he lacked any sense of gallantry or consideration in the first half of the novel? Well, that’s because Anna Campbell saved it all up for Matthew, the hero of Untouched. Matthew embodies pretty much every trait I typically love about Regency heroes—sometimes perhaps too much—and it’s no wonder that Untouched won the ARRC award for Favourite historical romance for 2008.
On her way to meet her cousin, Grace Paget is abducted and wakes up to find that she’s been mistaken for a prostitute and is expected to be a sex slave to Matthew, the Marquess of Sheene. Although Matthew seems like a kind man, he can’t help Grace because he himself has been held captive for 11 years by a greedy uncle who doesn’t wish to relinquish control of Matthew’s fortune. At first, Matthew suspects that Grace has been sent by his uncle, but as he realises that she’s truly an innocent victim in his uncle’s machinations, Matthew struggles to resist their growing attraction.
Grace begins to understand the horrors that Matthew endured at his uncle’s hands.
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The Taste of Innocence by Stephanie Laurens (Cynster Series, Book 14)
My first romance was a historical that I read about a decade ago and I blame Pride and Prejudice, Sense and Sensibility and Jane Eyre for piquing my interest. Whatever the reason, I got into historical romance well before I picked up a contemporary, and one of my early favourites was Stephanie Laurens. Her Cynsters were strong, confident, even arrogant in a hot way, but when they fell in love, they fell hard and it takes a strong woman to handle their passion and overbearing protectiveness. Now that she’s exhausted an entire generation of Cynster men, she’s moved onto the younger male relatives of the Cynster wives, who have been moulded into the Cynster image through years of exposure to their powerful in-laws.
The Taste of Innocence is Charlie Morwellan’s story (his half-sister Alathea married her childhood friend Gabriel Cynster in the fifth book, A Secret Love). After watching love ensnare his closest friends Gerrard Debbington and Dillon Caxton, Charlie decides to take the bull by the horns and choose a comfortable wife whom he can admire but not love. Like the Cynsters, the Morwellans have a history of marrying for love, and Charlie’s father allowed the emotion to control him to the point where the family estate and fortune was almost lost, and Charlie has learned from this mistake.
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Claiming The Courtesan by Anna Campbell
Update: A shorter version of this review won the Reader Challenge award at the 2009 Australian Romance Readers Convention. Thanks to everyone who voted for us!
I wasn’t planning to read Anna Campbell’s highly controversial debut novel. Wandergurl refused to take one for the team, and I get very disturbed by rape scenes, so I wasn’t willing to risk it. But when I read the excerpt to Tempt the Devil and I found a copy of Claiming the Courtesan in Elizabeth’s Bookshop, I finally took the plunge.
So let’s get it out of the way: yes, he rapes her. More than once. And no, Campbell doesn’t sugarcoat it.
Justin Kinmurrie, Duke of Kylemore, has been obsessed with Soraya for six years. After being her protector for a year, Kylemore is still no closer to understanding his notoriously beautiful mistress. When his mother tries to manipulate him into marriage, Kylemore instead proposes to Soraya … who refuses him.
Because, in fact, Soraya—Verity Ashton—is determined to leave behind her career as a courtesan to live a nondescript life. Destitution had given her no real choice but to accept the protection of a wealthier, older gentleman, but she always planned to leave the demimonde to live quietly with her younger siblings once she had enough money to support her family.
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Caine's Reckoning by Sarah McCarty (Hell's Eight, Book 1)
Caine’s Reckoning has not been an easy book to find. First, Spice (Harlequin’s erotic line) isn’t published in Australia. Second, my husband had to scour bookstores all over San Francisco to find a copy, which he finally did in some obscure Borders Express store somewhere. Yay for husbands! I really wanted to love this book, and I can see why it’s generated so much buzz (aside from the fantabulous cover), but it fell a little short of my expectations.
Desi, the heroine, is forced into sexual servitude, and the only way Caine can save her is to marry her. I expected very dark, very intense sex scenes that would show how Desi deals with and is healed of the horrors she had to endure. Instead, I felt that her recovery was extremely rushed. While the sex scenes were very erotic and very well written, they didn’t have much emotional resonance. I didn’t understand her sexual choices at all, and at times I felt that she made them just to please Caine, rather than for herself.
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Castle of the Wolf by Sandra Schwab
Sandra Schwab has a great voice, and she conveys a wonderful sense of atmosphere in Castle of the Wolf. However, the story underutilises the paranormal element. Or, another way to look at it is to say that the paranormal element is superfluous. Without it, the story would still stand on its own, and I’m baffled as to how this story became a paranormal in the first place. This was distracting because I kept expecting the hero to shapeshift (the heroine calls him her “wolf”) but no, the paranormal element is really quite … wussy.
Von Wolfenbach, the hero, is deliciously dark and broody, but veers into immaturity at times. The pranks he plays on Celia to try and scare her into leaving the castle are juvenile, and the way he keeps stomping off in a huff can get irritating. The villain’s motivations are underplayed, and he’s too much of a caricature for me. Likewise, some of the characterisation seems forced. The bedroom scenes are wonderfully sensual, however, particularly when the erotic playing cards are used. You can read an excerpt here.
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