Just like a prospective duchess, it was charming and witty and able to stand alone.
The Dowager Duchess of Halford is desperate for her son Griffin, the current duke, to get married. He absolutely refuses. She drags him to Spinster Spindle Cove to check out prospective candidates and says that he can pick anyone and she will turn that girl into his duchess.
Pauline Simms is having a really shitty day. Everything that could go wrong has gone wrong, but she is trying to make the most of her life as a serving girl in a tavern. Her day is about to get better or worse, depending on your point of view, when the duke picks her to be his duchess.
Griffin and Pauline make a deal: if she fails in a week he will give her the money she needs to open her dream bookshop in the village. The catch is that Pauline is actually really good at her duchess lessons. And serving girl or no, she would make an awesome duchess. Will love prevail? Of course, it will.
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I love Loretta Chase and this story did not disappoint. I only wished it had been longer.
The Earl of Rawnsley has quite possibly gone mad, and is dying besides, and now lives in the moors of Dartmoor. Gwendolyn Adams has just been asked to marry him to secure an heir before he dies. (This actually made a lot of sense to me in a romance novel context.) Is he really mad? What’s in it for her? And is he really going to die?
Dorian, the Earl, is your classic tormented hero—tormented by the actions of his past, a hard-handed, unforgiving family, and the ‘spirits’ that he supposedly sees. He just wants to be left alone to die in peace. Given his past history, he is incredibly worried about what will happen to him when he finally succumbs to this madness (warning: the descriptions of mental institutions in that time are pretty heartbreaking, and while author Loretta Chase doesn’t go into a lot of detail, things happen to a certain character and it is well described). When he unexpectedly inherits the earldom, he has no intention of continuing the title, but suddenly this lady shows up on his doorstep and somehow also saves his life.
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The series that made me—and the rest of the world—fall in love with Julia Quinn. If you haven’t read this series, start now! If you have, then this is the cherry on the cake.
Special note for fans: Julia Quinn will be a keynote speaker at the 2013 Romance Writers of Australia conference at Fremantle in August. Click here for more details.
Actual text message from the year 2000:
BFF: Wandergurl! Anthony Bridgerton is getting married. We have to get The Viscount Who Loved Me.
Me (Thinking, Who the fuck is… ohhhhhhhhhhh.): Yes! Of course! We have to get someone to bring it from America.
Back in the early 00s when I was growing up in the Philippines, you didn’t get books on time and the bigger independent bookstores didn’t really exist yet. It’s easier to get things now, but back then, your best chance for immediate access during a release date was to have someone vacationing in America to bring it back to you. After reading The Duke and I in a rental book club called ‘The Armchair Reader’ (and buying the book when the book club closed down) I was determined to get the rest of the series.
Aside from the actual stories of the books, obtaining them involved their own stories. I had one of our clients, a big, burly bearded Texan bring one back for me from Austin. My managing director brought back my Amazon order with a Bridgerton and The Lord of the Rings, extended edition. My giant elfish geek of a friend went to a bookstore and never let me hear the end of it after he had to ask for Romancing Mr. Bridgerton. (He also very nicely climbed a ladder and alphabetised my romance novels at my request. Thank you, dear.) Another was brought back by a Goth friend from San Francisco, who also happened to read romances and thought Sir Phillip with Love wasn’t bad—except the title sucked.
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An exciting, fast-paced and very, very sexy steampunk romance series.
I am now hooked on a new series, the Clockwork Agents by Kate Cross, and I’m cheating a bit and doing a two-in-one review, largely because what I liked in both books was the same. (I blame Mirna of Rendezvous books for another excellent recommendation.)
This steampunk series is set in Victorian England and is filled with interesting inventions, gadgets and robotics—Cross does a good job of integrating corsets, guns and gadgets. I especially liked the world building and the combination of steampunk and spy vs spy plot. I wouldn’t say it’s entirely historically accurate—they say fuck and shite!—but as this is a steampunk novel, I expected the authors to take some liberties.
Heart of Brass features Lady Arden Grey, whose husband Luke disappears on a mission for the Wardens of the Realm, a covert organisation created to protect the British Empire. Seven years later, an assassin is sent to kill her in retribution for her killing of a Company agent (their rival spy organisation) and she recognizes him as her husband, who has no memory of who she is or any of his past. Arden is a strong, very resourceful heroine, who never lost faith in her husband, Luke, who starts off being a bit of a prick before he gets his memory back.
There’s also a side plot with Arden helping out Scotland Yard in investigations using her special gadgets—she’s an inventor—and solving a mystery as to who is murdering young girls. I don’t think this side plot was necessary, though, and in some ways it detracted from the main story of Arden and Luke figuring out who brainwashed him and trying to help him get back his memories. That story was meaty enough to not need a distraction. There are also a few things I found a bit convenient—like how they have a master surgeon who has a magic elixir that can fix everything, but we don’t know what it is. I hope that’s explained when she gets her own novel.
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Because who wouldn’t want to wake up next to a hot-hunka-chunka-burning-love Highlander with a kilt (but not in one)?
Georgette Thorold, otherwise a lady and a widow besides, wakes up one morning to find herself:
a) in Scotland
b) with a ring on her finger
c) naked next to a really hot guy
So she does what any girl in her position would do—she runs away!
Throughout the course of the day she discovers that she may have imbibed a wee bit much the night before, can’t remember a thing, and may have encountered all manner of whatevers and done all manner of things in this tiny Scottish town. Also, is she really married?
I will admit to asking for this ARC largely based on the pretty cover. It did not disappoint. Jennifer Mc Quiston’s debut novel is fresh and funny and kept me largely guessing. The first half of the book is devoted to Georgette and her Scotsman trying to figure out WTF happened the night before, like a romance version of The Hangover sans tigers. (Watch the movie!)
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Escapist fun, yes, but it’s also firmly on the side of women and the ties that bind them. A delight to read.
This review is part of the Australian Women Writers Challenge. Click here for a list of books I’ve read so far.
I’ve enjoyed Australian romance author Anne Gracie’s work in the past, but she’s one of those authors whose backlist is so intimidating, I’ve never got around to catching up. I think that’s about to change after reading this book.
Abigail Chantry, orphaned young and whose parents were disowned by their families, has been living on the edge of respectability. When she’s accosted on the way home and told that her sister, Jane, is being kept against her will at a brothel, she has no choice but to rescue her sister and the two women who came to her aid—Daisy, who grew up in the brothel but wants to be a dressmaker, and Damaris, a missionary’s daughter sold to the brothel owner on her way home to England.
Unable to keep her post as a governess and desperate for money, Abby breaks into a nearby mansion. She finds it devoid of valuables, but discovers an invalid, Lady Beatrice Devenham, being mistreated by her servants. With the consent of Lady Beatrice, Abby and the girls connive to take over the household and nurse the old lady back to health.
Meanwhile, Lady Beatrice’s nephew, Max, receives word that her aunt is being neglected, and returns to England to find the household taken over by impostors—the Chance sisters, whom Lady Beatrice claims as nieces. Needless to say, he’s not impressed. Likewise, Abby is outraged at being accused of trying to fleece Lady Beatrice when it was Max who had failed to monitor his aunt’s welfare.
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You know this is a good book when I’m compelled to read the entire series.
When they find themselves accidentally renting the same castle in Tuscany, three lords and three ladies make a bet to devote themselves to scholarly pursuits for an entire year without intimate interaction with the opposite sex.
In this book, the second of the Affairs By Moonlight series, Elizabeth Harewood, now the Countess of Somerton and mother of a precocious five-year-old son, encounters Roland Penhallow, the ex-love of her life. She’s escaped to this castle to hide from her husband, who is abusive and somewhat depraved. She cannot afford to give away here whereabouts, as she is afraid he will take her son away. Roland has been in love with Elizabeth for years and sees this opportunity as a chance to get her back. Will this work itself out?
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For fans of Julia Quinn, Eloisa James or Connie Brockway. If you’re a first-time reader of their work, however, consider one of their full-length novels instead.
One whiskey-fueled Christmas night, Taran Ferguson of Finovair decides to take matters into his own hands and kidnaps a bunch of women so that his heirs can have heirs and his line doesn’t die out. So Taran and his clansmen hustle over to the Earl of Maycott’s, grab a bunch of heiresses —and, accidentally, a Duke—and take them home, where they will be trapped for a few days since snow has since covered the pass. Taran is hoping that love will blossom between the girls and his two heirs (via his sisters): Byron Wotton, Earl of Oakley and Robin Parles, a French count with no real title. Everyone is both horrified and amused by his crazy antics, and of course, they all fall in love.
There are three interlocked stories in the novel, featuring Byron, Robin and Duke. I would love to give you a summary of each story but part of the fun is finding out whom they end up with, so I will not kill three fairies! Instead, I’ll describe the girls for you and maybe you can guess.
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A novella that has a certain sweetness that I’ve come to expect from the Eloisa James’ fairy tale series. One for readers looking for a quick read. Oh, and pirates—arr!
Sir Griffin Barry is an ex-pirate turned privateer pardoned by the crown. He’s back home after 14 years—he ran away after getting married at 17, got drunk and found himself press ganged into a ship, became a pirate and later named his ship ‘The Flying Poppy’ after the wife he left, and began an ‘illustrious’ career. After a near-death experience with his BFF, James (the Duke in The Ugly Duchess), he’s back in England, pardoned, retired from piracy and determined to win his wife back.
So off to the country he goes, to win back his Poppy. Except she doesn’t want him back. Oh, and he got her name wrong. It’s really not Poppy.
This novella is sweet and charming. I liked Griffin—his past and the reason he left his wife were, to me, perfectly understandable. I mean, if your father ‘dooms’ you to marriage at 17, and you run away after the wedding to get shit-faced drunk, well, I get that. That you get press ganged and then become a pirate and then don’t come home for 14 years—well, I’m glad you finally grew balls and came home in the end.
Griffin is charming and funny and I liked his efforts in trying to regain his life. He’s not in denial and knows that, in coming home, he has to evolve into a different person. Despite this being a short story, Eloisa James is able to demonstrate Griffin’s development as a character.
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A fun romp and a good spy romance. But it’s not The Duke.
Carissa Portland, a ‘lady of information’ (AKA a gossip), comes upon what appears to be an irate husband who’s out to get Sebastian, Viscount Beauchamp. Unbeknownst to her, he’s actually Beau’s fellow agent and a member of the infamous Inferno Club. Being the lady of information that she is, it doesn’t take her long to find out everything and they end up having to get married. Beau has better things to worry about. His BFF and former co-spy has become a mercenary, their secret organisation is being investigated, and there’s trouble on every front.
Carissa could have been an annoying busybody, but I rather liked her. She’s intrepid, and her attempts at investigation to assist her husband are, in my opinion, quite practical and not stupid. She has a good head on her shoulders and she doesn’t come across as ineffectual. She gives it a go and is a pretty decent spy without entirely meaning to be. She also has an additional storyline, which author Gaelen Foley resolves well—it doesn’t turn into a big drama-fest or become a clusterfuck of miscommunication.
That said, I started out being rather bored with this book.
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