Jan 30, 2018 | reviews, romance
When Sir Horace Stanton-Lacy is ordered to South America on Diplomatic Business he parks his only daughter, Sophy, with his sister in Berkeley Square. Forward, bold, and out-spoken, Sophy sweeps in and immediately takes ton by storm.
Upon her arrival, Sophy can see that her cousins are in a sad tangle: Ceclia is in love with a poet, Charles is engaged to a dour bluestocking, her uncle is of no use at all, and the younger children are in desperate need of some fun and freedom. They all need her help and it’s providential that Sophy arrives when she does.
The Grand Sophy, by Georgette Heyer
How does one even go about reviewing a Georgette Heyer book? She’s regarded as the mother of Regency romances and for good reason, in my opinion. Her books fall into the category of ‘clean’ romance in that it is rare for the hero and heroine to kiss.
But really, her books fall into a category all their own, where the romance is subtle, the dialog both archaic and witty, and the characters far more opaque than those found in a modern romance novel. There are signs of the times she wrote them in — for example, it’s hard to believe that the sadly casual anti-Semitic characterization that shows up at one point in this book would be acceptable to an editor today. Likewise, the fact that the heroine and hero are first cousins can be a turn-off for a lot of modern readers.
Still, if you wanted me to name one book that was my favorite to go back and reread in the Regency category, this would be it. I didn’t discover Heyer’s books until I was in graduate school and The Grand Sophy wasn’t my first — that honor goes to Frederica. But on a trip to Germany for a short course, I stopped by an English language bookstore and picked up the Heyer book I didn’t recognize. This means I have incredibly fond memories of the story unfolding over an afternoon in Salzburg.
The heart of this book is Sophy. She has grown up abroad with her father, a diplomat, and as such has been given an unusual degree of freedom. She knows the conventions of polite society and exactly how far she can push things and she’s not afraid to do so when she thinks it will help the people around her be happier. That’s certainly the situation she finds when she moves in with her aunt because her father is being sent on a diplomatic mission to Brazil — the household is in a fine mess and someone needs to straighten them all out. Fortunately for them, that’s just the sort of thing Sophy excels at.
I hesitate to say anything more because part of the joy of this book is the first discovery. Some elements will be familiar to any reader of Regency novels but it feels like they are distilled to their purest essence here, in part because they weren’t tropes at the time this book was written. As you would expect for a romance, all turns out right in the end. Sophy’s visit might leave one feeling confused and bewildered, but it will also leave one’s life immeasurably better — and it will ultimately be your own decisions that make it so because Sophy achieves her aims making the end result of one’s choices clear.
Of course I love the other characters are well. In my opinion, this book is Heyer at her best and if you can get past the relationship between Sophy and Charles, there is so much to enjoy here. Every reread is just as wonderful; the only thing I regret is that I can’t read it again for the first time. It’s not perfect and I don’t want to gloss over the anti-Semitic characterization of the moneylender in the book in particular (more-so than the cousins, that is the one thing that makes me cringe every reread), but it still one of the books that I can’t get enough of. If you haven’t read it already, do yourself a favor and enjoy one of the classics the genre has to offer.
Jan 23, 2018 | reviews, romance
First a Marine, then a black ops agent, Victoria Morgan knows the military is where she belongs…until a sniper’s bullet changes her life. Trying to prove she’s not washed up, she rescues a young man from kidnappers. When the dying boy transforms into a cougar—and bites her—she learns of an entire hidden society. He begs her to inform his grandfather of his death and to keep the secret of the shifters’ existence. She can’t refuse, but what if the creatures pose a danger to the country she swore to protect?
As guardian of the shifter territory, Calum McGregor wields the power of life and death over his people. When a pretty human female arrives in their wilderness town, he and his littermate become increasingly concerned. Not only is the little female hiding something, but she is far more appealing than any human should be.
While investigating the shifters, Victoria begins to fall in love with the werecat brothers and the town as well. For the first time in her life, she might have a real home. Her hopes are crushed when a deadly enemy follows her from the city, and the shifters discover she knows their secret. Now nobody is safe—least of all Victoria.
Hour of the Lion, by Cherise Sinclair
I should preface this review by saying this is far from the first Cherise Sinclair book that I’ve read (and enjoyed). Still, I didn’t pick up this book until it came through as a sale on Bookbub, because (and stop me if you’ve heard this before) paranormal romance can be hit or miss for me and while I don’t dislike menage books, they’re also not something I tend to seek out.
I’m also saying that I should have had more faith in Cherise because wow, this book was outstanding.
Victoria is a Marine and black ops agent who’s been forced to take a medical leave of absence after being shot. She’s itching to get back into the field and prove that her injuries aren’t going to keep her down, which is probably why she gets herself in over her head trying to rescue a woman from being kidnapped. She fails to save the woman but is determined to save the severely beaten and malnourished young man trapped in the basement with her, even after he shifts into cougar form and bites her.
Unfortunately, she’s too late to do that either, but she can’t deny his request to inform his grandfather of his death and to keep his secret. Her quest to do so takes her to the small wilderness town his grandfather lives, where she meets the local sheriff, Alec McGregor — while attempting to break into the cabin she’s planning to rent, since the realtor was running late and she desperately needed a bathroom. His brother, Calum runs the local bar where Victoria ends up looking for work.
He also happens to be the guardian of the territory, responsible for making sure humans don’t discover the existence of shifters and maintaining order within the community. Victoria’s presence in town is complicated enough without the fact that something about her sets every one of his possessive instincts on high alert.
I won’t go too much more into detail because I don’t want to spoil the plot, but suffice it to say that things move along at a good pace with believable characters and character growth, particularly for Victoria. Her past has left her scarred and not just physically, and she has to move past that in order to find her “happily ever after.” Alec and Calum might have less obvious scars but they still have some growing to do in order for the relationship to end up working, especially when Victoria’s past comes back to haunt them all.
I also like that there are reasons why the shifters end up in menage relationships that make sense in the context of the world. The world-building as a whole is well done and while there are definitely some unanswered questions, that just gives her something to work with in future books — books I definitely intend to read. If you’re looking for a hot (hot!) read with well developed characters and a plot that makes sense, I highly recommend this book.
Jan 17, 2018 | reviews, romance
Tempted by Midnight
Once, they lived in secret alongside mankind. Now, emerged from the shadows, the Breed faces enemies on both sides—human and vampire alike. No one knows that better than Lazaro Archer, one of the eldest, most powerful of his kind. His beloved Breedmate and family massacred by a madman twenty years ago, Lazaro refuses to open his heart again.
Sworn to his duty as the leader of the Order’s command center in Italy, the last thing the hardened warrior wants is to be tasked with the rescue and safekeeping of an innocent woman in need of his protection. But when a covert mission takes a deadly wrong turn, Lazaro finds himself in the unlikely role of hero with a familiar, intriguing beauty he should not desire, but cannot resist.
Melena Walsh has never forgotten the dashing Breed male who saved her life as a child. But the chivalrous hero of her past is in hard contrast to the embittered, dangerous man on whom her safety now depends. And with an unwanted—yet undeniable—desire igniting between them, Melena fears that Lazaro’s protection may come at the price of her heart….
Stroke of Midnight
Born to a noble Breed lineage steeped in exotic ritual and familial duty, vampire warrior Jehan walked away from the luxurious trappings of his upbringing in Morocco to join the Order’s command center in Rome.
But when a generations-old obligation calls Jehan home, the reluctant desert prince finds himself thrust into an unwanted handfasting with Seraphina, an unwilling beauty who’s as determined as he is to resist the antiquated pact between their families.
Yet as intent as they are to prove their incompatibility, neither can deny the attraction that ignites between them. And as Jehan and Seraphina fight to resist the calling of their blood, a deadly enemy seeks to end their uneasy truce before it even begins….
Midnight Untamed
The mission was supposed to be simple. Infiltrate an enemy’s stronghold outside Rome and eliminate its leader. For a Breed warrior as lethal as Ettore Selvaggio, AKA “Savage”, stealth assassinations are only one of his many cold-hearted specialties. But the last thing Savage expects to find behind enemy lines—in his target’s bed—is a woman he once adored.
It’s been years since Savage last saw beautiful Arabella Genova. Years he’s strived to banish to his past, along with the fierce desire he once felt toward Bella . . . and the irresistible calling of her blood that stirs in him even now, despite the fact that she belongs to another male.
But when fate throws Savage and Bella together again in a race for their lives, will his long-lost love prove to be the one woman he can’t live without, or the perfect weapon to destroy him?
Midnight Breed Bundle, by Lara Adrian
Novellas are tricky for me. I like long stories; when I read fan fiction, I always find myself arrowing in on the 100,000+ word masterpieces. By those standards, a novella is …well, short. There’s less character development. Less time to get inside the heads of the characters and understand what makes them tick.
(I’m also not sure if I can write a novella but that probably says more about me than anything else.)
Anyway, I can appreciate it when the novellas are bundled, like this set are, but that also makes writing the review tricky. Especially since my reviews tend to be long and it feels a little like the review would end up being nearly as long as the novella. (Not quite. It’s a feeling, nothing more.) For this set in particular, I also feel like the reviews might get a little repetitive, because it felt like the stories were a little repetitive. I might not recommend reading all three in one sitting.
The Midnight Breed series is another take on vampires, where the Breed (as vampires are called) are born that way. They mate with women who share some genetic component of what makes them Breed; these women are known as Breedmates and can be identified by the special birthmark that appears somewhere on their body. If a Breed male drinks from a Breedmate, he is bonded to her and can feel her emotions until she dies. To complete the bond, the Breedmate also drinks from the male.
What’s not clear from these novellas is, among other things, whether this bond is required in order to procreate or if there is some other benefits to doing so. Also unclear are a lot of things about being Breed in general — each Breed male or Breedmate has some special gift, unique to them, but the reasons for these gifts (or how the Breed came about or what restrictions being Breed places on the males in exchange for the physical gifts) are left a mystery. Some of this is probably because they are novellas and there’s not a lot of time for exposition and some of this might have been because it could be part of an established universe. I was unclear which was which.
As can happen a lot in this subgenre, at least in my experience, all three stories have at least some amount of insta-lust going on. (Lust is definitely the right term here, although it gets dressed up as love; the novellas might be short but they don’t skimp on the sex scenes. If that’s not your cup of tea, beware.) A lot of the tension in the books comes from the external threats posed by humans who are upset by the Breed’s existence and want to eliminate them, but it feels like this is something overlooked when dealing with it would get in the way of the love story. (For example, the first novella starts out with the death of two very important people coming together to talk peace between humans and the Breed, the consequences of which are never realized in the course of the story. Or any of the subsequent novellas either.)
On the other hand, there are a few parts that I enjoyed? Stroke of Midnight was my favorite, despite the very strong insta-lust that drove the main portion of the plot. It was easy to related to two people trying to live up to their families’ expectations. The heroine from Tempted by Midnight was at least not willing to let the hero wallow in his self-pity and guilt, although I might have wanted to slap her for a few other things. Midnight Untamed had a few new questions to add to the mix but also just …was, I guess?
I think these novellas probably work best if you are a fan of this particular subgenre and looking for something quick to scratch the itch. They’re well-written and judging from the Amazon reviews have their fair share of fans; I just look for something more than insta-lust to develop the relationship and didn’t really find it here.
Jan 9, 2018 | reviews, romance
Have you heard?
The future Duke of Barrington has just been gambled away by his father. To an heiress!
The delicious details thus far…
Nicolas, Lord Hatherly, never intended to marry—nor add to the “mad” Hatherly line—but now he must honor his father’s debt to a social-climbing merchant or lose the family estate.
A notoriously wild marquess, won by her father at a game of cards, is the very last thing Miss Alice Tombs wants. She’s spent the last three seasons repelling suitors in spectacular fashion so she’d be at liberty to explore the world. She’ll just have to drive this one away as well.
Until Nick proposes an utterly tempting arrangement: one summer together to prove the legitimacy of their union, then Alice is free to travel while Nick revels in the time he has left before the Hatherly Madness takes hold.
It will be easy to walk away after a few months of make-believe wedded bliss—won’t it? Alice and Nick are about to find out…one sultry night at a time.
This ought to be fun…
Blame It On the Duke, by Lenora Bell
Well, the holiday season is done so in theory I have time to read again, right? Right. Working on that. (There’s just one more set of baking to do and maybe I’ll take down the decorations at some point and… you know, we’ll just pretend the to do list is blank right now. I feel a lot better that way.) Anyway! I did squeeze in this quick read yesterday and it made me happy, especially since it’s been a bit since I sunk my teeth into a Regency novel.
The book opens with Nicolas hosting one of his famed extravaganzas when his father (who is not in his right mind) crashes the party to announce that he has gambled away his son. Unfortunately for Nicolas, if he refuses to marry the daughter of the merchant who won him, the man will take Sunderland House instead – and Nicolas is utterly convinced that removing his father from the familiar house will kill him. Since Nicolas swore long ago that he would never have children, this leaves him between a rock and a hard place.
Of course, Miss Alice Tombs has her own opinion on the matter and it is decidedly not favorable. Marriage was on her list of things to do eventually, but only after she presented the lost chapters of the Kama Sutra she had found with her uncle’s papers to scholars in India – along with her translation. Unfortunately, her brother’s abrupt marriage to a French opera singer has left her plans in disarray. When Nicolas proposes that they make the most of their current situation, Alice seizes the opportunity to demand some erotic tutelage from him in the name of improving her translation.
What follows is somewhat predictable in the sense that of course hearts get involved despite the best efforts of Nicolas and Alice. Nicolas is quite understandably terrified of what madness the future might hold for him, especially since he watched his father go mad on a voyage to India in search of rare orchids. At the same time, he’s determined to treat his father with as much dignity as possible and works hard to provide him with a home and stable environment, even though it would be much easier to simply ship the duke off to a private asylum. Indeed, the book deals with some of the less savory aspects of the private asylum system in Britain at that time, although not in any real depth.
Given Alice’s interest in improving her understanding of the sensual for her translation, it is unsurprising that the physical relationship between the two of them is a major focus. Still, there is plenty of character development outside the bedroom and I feel she did a good job of balancing the two. This is the third book of a series so there are references to the previous characters; there were a few times where it felt like I would have enjoyed it more knowing some of the backstory (and getting to see Nicolas and Alice through the eyes of the previous H/hs).
My biggest complaint is that the timeline at the end becomes a little compressed and there are a few loose ends that I would have liked resolved – small things that don’t impact the main couple, like seeing Alice’s mother happier and perhaps a little more about the servants’ change of mind (specifically what drove it, particularly March). I would have loved a little more of Alice’s aunt as well. Overall, the book was well written and an enjoyable romp, if existing primarily in the alternate reality shared by many modern Regencies. I would happily pick up the first two books in the series and look forward to seeing if Jane’s story is next.
Jan 3, 2018 | reviews, romance
Faced with an abhorrent betrothal, Cailin Macmillan flees her father’s castle and quickly learns that a woman traveling alone in Medieval Scotland is an easy target for ruthless English soldiers. When Highland patriot Connor Fraser comes to her aid, his steadfast dedication to king and country is challenged by his overwhelming desire to protect Cailin—even if he must marry her to do so.
Accused of murdering one of her attackers and determined to rely on her own resourcefulness, Cailin dresses as a lad, intent on seeking refuge at the camp of Robert the Bruce. Can she elude an enemy from her past—a vindictive English lord bent on her utter demise—or will she fall prey to his carnal intent and be executed for a crime she did not commit?
Highland Legacy, by B. J. Scott
Some days you’re just desperate for an escape and you’re willing to overlook a lot in exchange for a book that takes you somewhere else for at least a little while. That pretty much summarizes my mood while reading this so be aware that I would probably consider this book in the category of “having multiple things that need to be overlooked.” I still haven’t figured out if that’s a function of the subgenre (because medieval Scotland is absolutely a different subgenre from Regency even if they’re both lumped under historical) or just the authors that I’ve read, but. Reader be warned.
Cailin has been a disappointment to her father since her birth, mostly because she’s not male. When he announces she is to be betrothed against her will, she flees the castle. Unfortunately, she flees right into the path of two English soldiers who see nothing wrong with having a bit of fun with a Scottish lass. Her virtue is spared only because Connor Fraser comes along in time, killing one of her assailants and knocking out the other. After a kiss that leaves them both nearly senseless, he sends Cailin back to her father’s castle and continues on with his mission.
Unfortunately for Cailin, one of her two assailants — the dead one — was the brother of the local English lord and he also shows up at her father’s castle demanding justice for his brother’s death, which he blames on Cailin. Only her disguise as a stable boy keeps her from being handed over to the English right there, but it’s clear she cannot remain there. Lacking any other plan, she rides off in pursuit of Connor, planning to follow him to seek refuge with Robert the Bruce.
Of course, little goes according to plan and she finds herself married to Connor after he declares her to be his wife in front of his brothers and other witnesses. They are pursued by the English searching for her but make it safely to Robert’s stronghold, where the news Connor brings leads them to prepare for war. As a favor to Connor, Robert sets aside the marriage, despite the fact that they consummated the match — but then Connor requests that they be handfasted instead, so that if a babe is born it has the protection of his name. Cailin is then sent off to a convent to hide while the men prepare for war.
This gets us, at most, two-thirds of the way through the book. There are still more battles, the English lord comes back multiple times, and Cailin ends up being pregnant for quite a while. (No, really, the way it was written it seemed to be that she was pregnant for the entire year of a handfasting, which …maybe I missed something? I probably missed something. I hope I missed something.)
Still. I enjoyed it well enough and would pick up the sequels if I could get them on sale (or through the Kindle Unlimited program). Sometimes you just need that time to be elsewhere, and this scratched that itch well enough. It’s not going onto the keeper category, though.
