Mar 20, 2018 | fantasy, reviews, romance
The daughter of a Warrior King, Lara was trained as a healer. With her father dead and her incompetent half-brother on the throne, the kingdom is in danger of falling to warring Firelanders. Unable to depose her sibling or negotiate peace, Lara serves her people by healing the warriors—on both sides of the conflict—who are injured in battle.
Lara finds herself educated in her enemy’s language and customs in return for her attention and compassion. She never expects that her deeds, done in good faith, would lead to the handsome and mysterious Firelander Warlord demanding her in exchange for a cease-fire. To save her land and her people, Lara trades her freedom to become the Warprize.
Warprize, by Elizabeth Vaughan
I read a lot of fantasy growing up. Well, I shouldn’t put that in past tense, because I still read a lot of fantasy. Which means I’m always happy to find a new-to-me fantasy romance, especially when it’s as well written as Warprize.
It’s clear from the beginning that Lara’s world is under serious pressure. As a healer, she works to save lives. All lives, no matter what her half-brother the king would prefer, and so she defies his will to treat the prisoners of war. That also means she keeps her silence when she discovers one of the prisoners is a high-ranking general for the opposition — because she knows her half-brother would kill him if he knew the truth.
What Lara doesn’t realize is that her actions will bring her to the attention of the Firelander Warlord, who demands that she become the Warprize in exchange for a cease-fire. With his army nearly at the city gates, Lara agrees to give up her freedom and her body in order to save her land and her people.
What comes next is the meeting of two cultures — a meeting that doesn’t always run smoothly. There are more than a few occasions where Lara nearly does something out of ignorance of the Firelanders’ ways and it takes a while to clear up all the misunderstandings between her and Keir, the Firelander Warlord. Both of them make mistakes as a result, but it is clear why Lara falls in love with Keir over the course of the book and vice versa.
I liked that Lara wasn’t content to simply sit on her hands but instead insisted that she be allowed to use the skills that she had worked so hard to master. There were a few occasions where I wanted to shake my head at her naiveté but she grew past much of that over the course of the book so I could forgive her. (Hopefully there’s not a reversion in the second book, which I’m looking forward to.)
If I have any quibbles, it’s that the resolution (and motivation) for some of the events in the last third of the book are a little lacking. Some of that might be to allow space to build for the sequel, but at least some of it felt like it could have (and should have) been resolved there. The motivations of the main villain were unclear and it came across as a little flat as a result. Still, I really enjoyed the book and do plan on reading the sequel. I highly recommend you check it out if you’re a fan of fantasy romance.
Mar 14, 2018 | reviews, romance
A widow with a past… The last thing Victoria Barrett, the Viscountess Waters, has any interest in is romance. When the only man she’s ever loved was killed she endured an arranged marriage to a cruel man in order to survive. Now widowed, her only focus is on clearing her son’s name from the charge of murder. That is until the love of her life returns from the grave.
A leader of a once great agency… Nathaniel Archer, the Earl of Exeter and head of the Crown’s elite organization, The Brethren, is back on British soil. Captured and tortured 20 years ago, he clung to memories of his first love until he could escape. Discovering she has married whilst he was captive, Nathaniel sets aside the distractions of love…until an unexpected case is thrust upon him– to solve the murder of the Viscount Waters. There is just one complication: the prime suspect’s mother is none other than Victoria, the woman he once loved with his very soul.
Secrets will be uncovered and passions rekindled. Victoria and Nathaniel must trust one another if they hope to start anew—in love and life. But will duty destroy their last chance?
The Spy Who Seduced Her, by Christi Caldwell
Where to start? Well, this says it’s the first book of a series. This is true, in that it is technically the first book of what is I believe the third series set in the same world by Christi Caldwell. I’ve probably even read other books in the other two series …possibly. Things do start to blur together after a while.
Which means I’ve managed to continue my current trend of jumping into a series with characters who are already established and having no idea of what’s going on. Whoops. I didn’t mean to do that. And while you can technically make it through just fine without having the backstory (I mean, I did), I think this book probably loses something in the experience when you do it that way.
Victoria Barrett and Nathaniel Archer have been characters in other books. Victoria is the mother of three grown children and is finally free of her abusive husband – a man she married when she was left with no other choice following her lover’s disappearance. Now, however, her son is suspected of murdering his father. (Her daughters are both happily married.) She is desperate to protect him and shocked when her former lover shows up to lead the investigation.
Nathaniel Archer had lost everything and so made the Brethren his life, but when he learns that the lady he’s always loved is connected to an ongoing murder investigation, he takes matters into his own hands despite the rules he’s lived by since becoming the leader of the Brethren. It tears open wounds imperfectly healed on both sides but offers them both a second chance at something they thought lost to them: love.
I liked that both the hero and heroine in this story are older – that’s not something you see a lot in romance novels in general and certainly not in Regency-era stories in particular. But Victoria has three grown children and it’s been over twenty-two years since they last saw each other. They’ve both changed as people from the young lovers they were, and a lot of this book is about moving past the regrets and pain to find forgiveness and the chance for new growth.
That said, some of the emotional responses felt a little flat to me, and I think part of that was because I wasn’t invested in the characters as much as I could have been. It’s pretty clear from the references that many of the side characters are couples whose stories were told in other books, and so this provides an opportunity to catch up with them – but it also means that for those of us who haven’t read the stories, there’s very little there to build our understanding off of. I feel like if I had that background, the characters would have been a little more rounded and it wouldn’t have felt quite as rushed.
So if you’re already a fan of her various series, you probably don’t need my review to tell you to pick this up – but if, like me, you’re new to Christi, it might be worth starting elsewhere, where there are fewer established characters to negotiate around.
Mar 7, 2018 | reviews, romance
She’s not who she seems…
On her 25th birthday, Charlotte Appleby receives an unusual gift from the Faerie godmother she never knew she had: the ability to change shape.
Penniless and orphaned, she sets off for London to make her fortune as a man. But a position as secretary to Lord Cosgrove proves unexpectedly challenging. Someone is trying to destroy Cosgrove and his life is increasingly in jeopardy.
As Charlotte plunges into London’s backstreets and brothels at Cosgrove’s side, hunting his persecutor, she finds herself fighting for her life—and falling in love…
Umasking Miss Appleby, by Emily Larkin
Take Regency England. Make magic real, but so rare as to be secret from the majority of the population. Add one young woman, desperate to escape her fate as an unpaid half-maid in her aunt and uncle’s house, who is granted one gift of magic from the Faerie godmother she didn’t know she had. With some quick thinking and advertisements for paid positions in hand, Charlotte chooses shapeshifting and promptly becomes Christian, a young man who applies to be Lord Cosgrove’s secretary.
Lord Cosgrove needs a secretary, of course, because his last one was injured in an attack aimed at him. He suspects it is because he is a fervent abolitionist, working in the House of Lords to encourage the end of the slave trade. His work has been made more difficult by the death of his wife, shortly after he discovered she had slept with his best friend. Rather than let him divorce her, she attempted to manipulate him with threats of suicide — and accidentally succeeded.
The physical attack is not the only challenge he’s facing; someone has been breaking windows at his London residence and leaving nightsoil on his doorstep. Lately the attacks have been increasing in frequency and finding the perpetrator consumes much of his attention. As his secretary, Charlotte is invited along to observe and give her opinion afterwards. This leads to some awkward situations for her, as she has no idea how to act in a brothel or any of the physical aspects of being a man. I really enjoyed some of these, as they seemed completely in character for a young woman of quality who all of a sudden had to figure out how to deal with having a penis.
Her ability to change shapes is also put to good use throughout the story. Cosgrove is happy to provide his somewhat hapless secretary with advice and Charlotte takes it on more than one occasion — particularly when it comes to scratching a physical itch in order to get over it. The scene where Cosgrove finally discovers Charlotte’s gift plays out in a completely understandable way, both for the time period and for what one might still understand happening today. Magic might have been real, but the reactions were all human.
In the end, I really enjoyed this book and look forward to reading the next in this series. The writing was solid, the characters interesting enough to hold my interest, and there were a few twists I didn’t see coming. I certainly recommend it if you don’t mind a spot of fantasy in your Regency romance.
Feb 28, 2018 | reviews, romance
I have to sell myself to the vampires. I know it’s not safe, but there’s no other option. Not for the amount of money I need. It’s either become a blood courtesan or watch my mom die while we lose the only home I’ve ever known.
So I leap before I look and soon I’m sharing a bed with vampire Kristos Anastos. He’s hot, rich and his fangs hurt so good. The courtesan thing is better than I thought it would be…until bullets start to fly.
Kristos believes he’s the target, but it soon becomes clear it’s not him they’re after. It’s me. And if I want to live, I’d better figure out why.
I thought I was just a college student, a good kid raised by a single mom down on her luck, but I have secrets even I don’t know about.
Blood is money and mine may be worth the most of all.
Reborn, by Michelle Fox
This is one of those reviews where I should start by saying I don’t think I’m the target audience for this book. For some reason, vampire books just don’t work for me. (The clear exception here is Nalini Singh’s Guild Hunter series but that’s because pretty much everything she writes is a win for me. So if you know any more like hers, please point me in their direction. Thanks in advance.)
I should also add that I’m not a fan of first person in writing. It’s not a hard and fast rule, of course — I’ve read a few books where it’s worked for me — but it’s an extra hurdle to my enjoyment of the story.
What this all means, of course, is that it shouldn’t be surprising that a vampire romance written in the first person with a heroine who more than once reminded me of Twilight was not exactly my cup of tea. Or even remotely close to my cup of tea. (I don’t even like tea. This is a silly analogy.)
Myra is a college student studying business. Her mom, her only parent, is ill with some sort of cancer and in order to pay for the drugs keeping her mom alive, Myra has decided to become a blood courtesan. One of her ‘friends’ recommended her to one of the top houses, although she lied about the fact that Myra is a virgin with no sexual experience. Because Myra is desperate for the money, she doesn’t clear up this misunderstanding with the Madam, who decides that she does clean up well enough and sends her to meet with Kristos, the vampire who gives each girl their trial encounter.
Of course, Myra is clumsy (this sounds very familiar) and completely fumbles her entrance. Rather than putting Kristos off, this intrigues him. Of course, dinner is interrupted by gunfire and Myra is injured in the process of escaping from their assailants. Kristos takes her back to his home to care for her injuries and they gradually discover that it is Myra and not Kristos that is the target. In the meantime, Kristos has a bad case of insta-lust (as does Myra for him) and Myra has trouble following directions. She’s also very conflicted about the possibility of becoming a vampire.
Credit to the author, the reasons vampires are after Myra are explained in this book, to the extent that anything is explained. There’s no cliffhanger and the story is resolved. On the other hand, my biggest complaint about this book is that it feels so shallow. None of the characters have any depth. I was intrigued by the concept of blood courtesans but nothing was really done with it. And, well, there was never anything to make me believe the insta-lust was anything other than that.
Like I said above, I suspect a lot of my disappointment with the book is because I’m not the target audience. It was reasonably well written, especially when judged against the yardstick of Twilight, so it likely plays well to those who enjoy this sort of thing. As for me, I think it’s back to Regencies for a bit as a palate cleanser.
Feb 21, 2018 | reviews, romance
She’s gone over the river and through the woods, but who will protect her from the Big Bad Wolf?
Rojita is in trouble; all she needs to do is get to Abuela in Everland, but she’s being chased by El Lobo, one of the West’s most notorious gunslingers. It isn’t until she’s thrown herself head-long into danger that she realizes the old adage about frying pans and fires applies. She’s in desperate need of a protector, and hires the first man who comes along to get her safely to Everland.
Bounty hunter Hank Cutter is more than ready to retire to a lonely little cabin in Arizona, to hang up his gun and find peace. He’ll begrudgingly help the reckless young woman get to the nearest train station, because he figures she’d get into even more trouble on her own. But when El Lobo struts back into his life–Hank still has the scars from their last encounter–he knows that he can’t leave Rojita at the gunslinger’s mercy. Maybe he’s nobler than he’d thought, because he’s soon setting a trap to save the lovely, impetuous Red. The only problem is that she’s still keeping a secret that could destroy his trust.
Little Red, by Caroline Lee
As things are busy around here, short has been the name of the game for the past few weeks. I can squeeze out an hour or two for a quick read. Anything more is …well, it hasn’t been happening. Honestly, finding that hour has been a challenge. But I’m a sucker for fairy tales and wanted a change of pace (like I have a lot recently, it feels like) and so Little Red fit the bill.
This is a Western romance, set sometime in Wyoming in the 1800s, and it’s advertised as “clean,” which means all the sexy-times take place off camera. (And oh do I have some opinions on that word as a descriptor, although I have no issue with books where the author chooses not to write sex scenes.) That being said, there are definitely strong indications that there is sexual interest on both sides. So if you don’t want any acknowledgment of men and women as sexual beings, this still isn’t the book for you.
If you’ve read my book, you know that this isn’t an issue for me.
Anyway, the story starts with Rojita on the run from El Lobo. It’s not going well, in part because she doesn’t really know much about traveling across open country on her own — but she can’t take the train because El Lobo will find her there. Impulsive doesn’t even begin to describe Rojita, but on the plus side the book doesn’t try to play this off. Even the hero Hank has to come to terms with it. He was a bounty hunter but is now looking forward to finally going to settle a piece of land to call his own.
He also has a heart, so he’s unwilling to simply abandon Rojita to the wilderness. Instead he plans to escort her back to the train, because there is no reason for El Lobo to be pursuing a young woman up in Wyoming. It’s only after they reach town and El Lobo finds Rojita that Hank realizes she was telling the truth — and that his conscience won’t let him do anything less than escort Rojita all the way to her grandmother’s house in Everland.
It’s fun to see how many fairy tale and nursery rhyme references you can spot in Everland, which is clearly aimed at being the setting for a number of books in this series. On the other hand, the sheer number of characters combined with the length of the book mean that it’s nearly impossible to get to know any of them, even those that play a slightly larger role. Likewise, the short nature of the book means there’s a strong case of insta-lust going on (and transitioning into insta-love) without a lot of backstory for Hank. We know he ran into El Lobo before, but the details are never clearly explained.
Still, this was a fun and fast read. I enjoyed this retelling of Little Red Riding Hood and will certainly check out some of the others when the price is right. The writing was well done and I would gladly read something longer by the same author so she has a chance to do more character development. (Added bonus: this cover design is just gorgeous.)
Feb 13, 2018 | reviews, romance
Two sought-after sisters, a slew of suitors—and a vow to hold out for true love. How many proposals will it take to get to “I do”—especially when the stakes are high…
There have been six suitors so far, all vying for the attention—and generous dowry—of the beautiful, elusive Eleanor Sutherland. What does this woman really want? Who has what it takes to melt the heart of the so-called Lady Ice? These are the questions Camden West keeps asking himself. But rather than wait for answers, Cam takes matters into his own hands… for he has a secret weapon.
Cam knows that Ellie’s sister, Charlotte, harbors a scandalous secret—one that could bring ruin to the Sutherland name. If Ellie marries him, Cam promises to keep mum. But is she willing to sacrifice her own happiness for her sister’s reputation?
To Ellie’s surprise, it becomes clear that Cam doesn’t need her money, nor is he interested in her status. Soon, what begins as a sham engagement transforms into something deeper, and more passionate, than Ellie could have imagined. Is it possible that all Cam truly wanted was her? And is that reason enough to say yes—or is handsome Cam hiding something else? Even for a lady in love, only the truth will do…
Lady Eleanor’s Seventh Suitor, by Anna Bradley
I’ll start this review by being clear that I have some mixed feelings about this book, and much of that revolves around Cam. I feel like his actions are the elephant in the room that has to be addressed before I go any further, and it’s something the blurb leaves out. (It’s also in the first two chapters in the book so I don’t feel like this is a spoiler.) Cam doesn’t just know that Charlotte harbors a scandalous secret — he deliberately sets up the situation that would cause the scandal, prevents Eleanor from stopping it, and makes sure he is there to witness it, all so he can blackmail Eleanor into marrying him.
It is a measure of the writing that I could even come to feel sympathy for him as a hero by the end of the book, but I can also understand why some readers would be completely turned off by this and unable to get past it. Cam is a very flawed, damaged human being who makes mistakes and takes a while to recognize them and sometimes this is frustrating because Eleanor is an awesome heroine and at times you want to scream at the book that she deserves so much better.
That said, it was a delight to sink my teeth into a book that was so well-written and had such real people as characters. A little melodramatic, perhaps, but we all know people like that. I really liked both Charlotte and Cam’s cousin and look forward to reading their book enough that I will probably pick it up without waiting for it to be on sale. You can believe in the growth of the feelings Cam and Eleanor have for each other — it’s not just insta-lust, although there’s a teeny bit of that, but the relationship builds beyond it.
I can appreciate how hard it is to walk the tightrope between making the hero the villain and making the relationship believable and I think the reason it works for me (to the extent that it does — I wouldn’t say she pulled it off 100% but it’s close enough that I could enjoy the book in the end) is because we see Cam grow. Yes, he’s more than a bit of an ass at the start, but he actually seems to recognize that and learn from his mistakes. The biggest question then is what happens when those mistakes also impact other people, in ways you can’t easily make right, and that’s why I need to read the sequel soon.
If you think you can make it past the initial set-up, I highly recommend this one. It’s not perfect, but the writing is good and it made me think about the occasional disconnect between how we perceive ourselves and how others see us.
