Tuesday 24 September 2019

[Review] When the Marquess Was Mine, by Caroline Linden



Title When the Marquess Was Mine
Series: The Wagers of Sin #3
Author: Caroline Linden
Publisher: Avon
Number of pages: 400
Publication date: September 24th 2019



Synopsis:
In the game of love…

Georgiana Lucas despises the arrogant and cruel Marquess of Westmorland even before learning that he's won the deed to her friend Kitty's home in a card game. Still, Georgiana assures Kitty the marquess wouldn't possibly come all the way to Derbyshire to throw them out—until he shows up, bloody and unconscious. Fearing that Kitty would rather see him die, Georgiana blurts out that he's her fiancé. She'll nurse the hateful man back to health and make him vow to leave and never return. The man who wakes up, though, is nothing like the heartless rogue Georgiana thought she knew…

You have to risk it all

He wakes up with no memory of being assaulted—or of who he is. The bewitching beauty tending him so devotedly calls him Rob and claims she's his fiancée even as she avoids his touch. Though he can't remember how he won her hand, he's now determined to win her heart. But as his memory returns and the truth is revealed, Rob must decide if the game is up—or if he'll take a chance on a love that defies all odds.


Review:
I received an eARC at no cost from the author, and I am leaving a voluntary and honest review. Thank you.


Caroline Linden has become one of my go-to authors. Her books are always romantic and amusing, and this one was no different.

The main trope that’s present in the book is amnesia, and it’s a trope that sometimes it works, and sometimes it doesn’t. Here, I think it worked perfectly.

Georgiana is a sweet girl, who saves a man’s life by saying he’s her fiancé, instead of the man the family she is with hates. Lord Westmorland – Rob – is a rake/rogue, and he won a house in a bet. But he’s not a bad guy so, to make sure the house is never lost again, he decides to give it to the man’s family, so that they know what happened, and can keep their property safe. But Kitty, Georgiana’s friend, has been warned that a bad man is arriving at her house to kick her, and her family, out of their home. And Kitty is fierce, so she has all the guns ready to protect what’s hers.

When Georgiana finds a man beaten almost to death, she decides she can’t leave him to die in the street, and gets him to Kitty’s house, and when she sees his face, and discovers that he’s Lord Westmorland (and she was the only one there who had actually met him), she knows she has to lie to make sure Kitty will help him. And, because Rob was beaten in the head, he loses his memory for some time.

Georgiana tends to Rob, and when he wakes up, they start spending more time together, and… I’m sure you can guess what happens. Georgiana and Rob’s love is something at risk, because she’s engaged to someone else, so when Rob’s brother comes to get him, and Rob’s gets his memory back, they come up with a plan, and decide not to see each other again. Of course, days past, and they keep thinking about each other.

There are some family problems regarding Georgiana’s family, and this is more developed at the end of the book. There’s also some mystery that is mostly dealt with at the very end of the book, so it’s not very important throughout the book, but it does drive the story at the end.

It’s a sweet story, with romance and funny moments, with a rakish hero, and a sweet heroine who finds her voice.



Tuesday 17 September 2019

[Review] To Wed a Wild Scot, by Anna Bradley



Title To Wed a Wild Scot
Series: Besotted Scots #2
Author: Anna Bradley
Publisher: Lyrical Press
Number of pages: 259
Publication date: September 24th 2019


buy the book from The Book Depository, free delivery
Synopsis:
Some brides like it wilder…

A single lady of birth, beauty, and large fortune should not have this much trouble making a match. Yet after two failed betrothals, Lady Juliana Bernard is in a bind. She must find a husband at once or lose guardianship of her beloved niece. Her childhood friend the Duke of Blackmore is her last, best hope, but once she tracks him down in Scotland, she receives startling news.

First, the duke is already engaged. Second, it’s his brother Logan’s fault Juliana is now lacking a bridegroom. So, what’s a lady to do when she’s lost her betrothed? Marry his scandalous brother, the Laird of Clan Kinross.

Wooing does not go well at first. But just as Juliana begins to welcome the boisterous but tenderhearted Scot into her life (and her bed), secrets come between them once more. And it will take a determined husband indeed to ensure that a marriage begun in haste leads not to heartache…but to love.


Review:
I received an eARC at no cost from the author, and I am leaving a voluntary and honest review. Thank you.


This was my first Anna Bradley’s book – and I loved it!

There’s so much bantering, and funny moments, and love in this book! Yes, there’s also miscommunication, and some moments when the reader is clutching the book, waiting to see what’s going to happen next, but it just made everything more exciting.

Juliana Bernard is a woman that decides to take her future in her hands, not just for herself, but for her sweet niece, and she hopes her friend, the Duke of Blackmore, might help her. But when she reaches him, she finds out he’s already with someone whom he’s in love with, and she does not want to break apart two people who clearly love each other. Juliana feels like she has no other option, and when he suggests his brother Logan.

Logan is a true Scot, and he’s been keeping Juliana (and her letters) from reaching his brother, for reasons he believed were good, but he starts to understand that maybe that wasn’t his best move. He’s a bit of a brute at the beginning, and it’s not very easy to like him right away. But when we get to see more of him with his family, and clan, it becomes easier to believe he’s a good hero.

When he meets Juliana, a proper English lady, he wants nothing with her, even if she intrigues him. Even though he is a Scot, and the last thing he wants is to marry an English lady, he also has the heart of a gentleman, and so, even though they decide not to marry at the beginning of the book, he starts to get to know her, her strong character, her sweetness, how good she is with everyone, how she has the people in his clan ready to marry her and protect her. Maybe an English lady wouldn’t be such a bad idea, after all…

When they start to be better acquainted with each other, and stop hating – not hating, disliking – one another, things start to change. But, as usual, it couldn’t be this easy to fix everything, right?

Miscommunication and past secrets come up, and threaten the peace that had started to grow between our main characters, and they have to fight to stay together. They have huge trust issues, which is a big part of why they don’t get together sooner.

A romance with angst and very different, flawed characters that end up finding love together.



Tuesday 10 September 2019

[Review] The Girl With The Pearl Pin, by Lynne Connolly



Title The Girl With The Pearl Pin
Series: The Society for Single Ladies #1
Author: Lynne Connolly
Publisher: Lyrical Press
Number of pages: 232
Publication date: September 10th 2019


buy the book from The Book Depository, free delivery
Synopsis:
Founded by the wealthiest woman in London, an unconventional crime-solving club brings together single lords and overlooked ladies from every rung of society. It’s a perfectly scandalous match...

As London’s most sought-after bachelor, the Duke of Leomore stuns society when he announces his engagement to a woman who has just been branded a thief. Yet as his painfully shy “bride-to-be” understands, it is merely a ruse until The Society for Single Ladies apprehends the true culprit—and a ploy to further delay Leo’s obligation to wed. For him, marriage will be a purely practical affair. Still, why does a stolen kiss with his faux fiancée conjure such tempting visions of romance?

As if being falsely accused weren’t mortifying enough, Phoebe North is now the talk of the town. And while she knows Leo did the honorable thing to protect her reputation, she can’t help but long for more. It would be an impossible match given their unequal stations, and Leo has made his view of marriage quite clear. Yet his kiss and flirtatious ways say something else. If only she could persuade him of how delightful it would be to thumb their noses at convention—and become fools for love...


Review:
I received an eARC at no cost from the author, and I am leaving a voluntary and honest review. Thank you.


This was my first time reading a book by Lynne Connolly. To be honest, I don’t actually know what I was expecting.

This book is a bit slow, particularly in the beginning, but it gets better closer to the end.

The best thing about the book for me was the Society for Single Ladies, yet we saw so little of them… Hopefully they’ll get a bigger spotlight in the next books.

I liked Phoebe more than Leomore, he was a bit too possessive for my liking, but in the end he gets better. Phoebe is a clever young woman, and she deserves to be happy.

The mystery didn’t really work for me, I was pretty sure of the result right from the beginning.

Angela, Phoebe’s best friend, is one of the best characters of the book, and I think her story will be more interesting.

The romance wasn’t bad, but it could have been better… There just wasn’t enough chemistry for me between the main characters.

This is the kind of book that doesn’t really stick with you, it’s pleasant, but that’s just about it.