[Giveaway] Winners of the Madeline Hunter Bookmarks' Giveaway

Hi everyone! We have the winners of Romancing Romances' first international giveaway!

First of all, thank you to Madeline Hunter, for sending these amazing bookmarks. I hope you like them as much as I did.

As mentioned in the original post, each winner will receive three (3) bookmarks!

Here are the winners:

I've sent emails to the winners, and you have 48h to answer!

Thank you so much to everyone to entered this giveaway. I hope to do another one soon, so don't forget to follow the blog, to learn all the news first hand 😉

[Giveaway] Madeline Hunter's Bookmarks

Hi everyone! Welcome to Romancing Romances' first international giveaway!

First of all, thank you to Madeline Hunter, for sending these amazing bookmarks. I hope you like them as much as I did.

I'll be giving away 3 bookmarks (for yourself, and for you to share with your friends, or your library, for example) to 3 winners! Three people will win this giveaway!

Here are the rules:

1) This giveaway is open between August 1st 15h (GMT time) and August 12th 23:59(GMT).

2) All participations that do not fill the requisites and/or do not follow these rules, will be considered void.

3) It is Mandatory to either follow the blog or follow the Facebook page of Romancing Romances.
If you follow Romancing Romances both through the blog and facebook, you'll get an extra entry.

4) It's MANDATORY to do a public share of this giveaway in a social media (Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, etc).

5) The winners will be chosen via random.org.

6) The winners will have their name published in the blog, and will be contacted by email.

7) Only one participation for person. International. Void where prohibited.

8) Must be 18 or older, or have parental permission to enter this giveaway.

8) Romancing Romances is not responsible for any lost/misplaced orders.

[Review] Project Duchess, by Sabrina Jeffreis

Title: Project Duchess
Series: Duke Dynasty #1
Author: Sabrina Jeffreis
Publisher: Zebra
Number of pages: 352
Publication date: June 25th 2019

Synopsis:

A series of stepfathers and a difficult childhood have left Fletcher "Grey" Pryde, 5th Duke of Greycourt, with a guarded heart, enviable wealth, and the undeserved reputation of a rogue. Grey's focus on expanding his dukedom allows him little time to find a wife. But when his mother is widowed yet again and he meets the charmingly unconventional woman managing his stepfather's funeral, he's shocked to discover how much they have in common. Still, Grey isn't interested in love, no matter how pretty, or delightfully outspoken, the lady...

Beatrice Wolfe gave up on romance long ago, and the arrogant Duke of Greycourt with his rakish reputation isn't exactly changing her mind. Then Grey agrees to assist his grief-stricken mother with her latest "project" schooling spirited, unfashionable Beatrice for her debut. Now that Beatrice is seeing through Grey's charms to his wounded heart, she's having trouble keeping him at arm's length. But once Grey starts digging into her family's secrets, she must decide whether her loyalties lie with her family...or with the man whose lessons capture her heart...

Review:

I received an ARC through a giveaway, and I am leaving a voluntary and honest review. Thank you.

This is the first book in a brand new series about... Dukes!

Grey was a great character, I liked how fierce he was, how he grows throughout the book, how he deals with some things that are problematic (although here I do think some things could have been different, but I’ll expand on that next).

I wasn’t a fan of Beatrice… I didn’t connect with her. I understood some of her reactions, I think she had to go through a lot, and she handled herself the best she could, that’s not the point. I just… didn’t like her.

I liked the middle part of the book the best. The beginning felt a bit slow, and the end was rushed without actually having much happen… It did leave me with enough interest to read the next book in the series, especially since I liked the secondary characters more than the main ones. Joshua and Gwyn have a great chemistry, and I can’t wait to read their story.

Now, this is important. This book handles forms of abuse. Abuse from men towards women. Not rape, but still sexual abuse. Unwanted touching, blackmailing, disgusting comments… Beatrice did have to endure a lot from someone she should have been able trust: her uncle.

Grey is super concerned if the heroine was raped – spoiler alert – she wasn’t. And, of course, he is relieved but, at the same time, it ends up being a bit of a dismissal of the other things Beatrice had to go through. Heroes, especially in (today’s) historical romance, seem always ready to go and defend the heroine’s honour (“let’s go and punch/hurt/kill the aggressor” kind of thing) and, even if it’s something protective, in a way it almost diminishes Beatrice’s role in standing up to herself – which she does.

Apart from that, I did enjoy the book enough to want to keep reading the series.

[Review] The Dancing Lady: The Ninth Day, by Mimi Milan

Title The Dancing Lady: The Ninth Day
Series: The 12 Days of Christmas Mail-Order Brides #9
Author: Mimi Milan
Publisher: Eaton House
Number of pages: 158
Publication date: December 9th 2017

Synopsis:

A flamenco dancer in disguise and a driven diner owner fighting his own desires. What could possible go wrong?

Her dream was to become a celebrated entertainer. So, how did Josefina de Zapatero end up with the life of a sporting lady? Determined to escape a repulsive past and oppressive future, her salvation appears in the form of a mail order bride request for a domesticated cook. The fact that she can barely boil water shouldn’t matter too much, though. She has learned to dance circles around her competition. Surely, she can cook up something to please the man. Right?

Having suffered a life of lies and loss, Ignacio Villanueva has learned the importance of making wise choices. He’s determined to find an upstanding woman who will be the helpmate he needs to make his restaurant successful. Honesty and the ability to cook well. That’s all any man really needs. Isn’t it?

It's a match of stubborn wills and unexpected thrills when the two of them pair up. Will the new menu at Noelle’s favorite Mexican restaurant include a marriage meal made for two… or a recipe for disaster?

Review:

I received an ebook as gift from a giveaway done by the author. Thank you.

Although in general I liked the book, it did have some issues for me.

For example Josefina (Fina from now on) spends most of the book struggling with telling Ignacio (Nacho from now on) what she actually did for a living and who she truly is. Nacho spends the whole book saying he doesn't want someone like he's previous wife (and what I gathered from that was that he didn't want someone who did what Collette did). Nacho ends up discovering that Fina pretty much did what Collette did (however they are not the same, and I would like to stress that) but it should have been a more developed theme, how Nacho handled the revelation that Fina told him. And Fina told him in 2 paragraphs - what?! She spent the whole book not knowing how to tell him and we don't even get that full conversation, just (almost) a note saying that she spilled the beans and he knows and now she doesn't know how he'll react? And he reacts like it was nothing? Something like "oh I am not happy you lied but I don’t care" after spending the whole time saying he didn't want someone who lied and who did what Fina did....

It was just resolved to easily and too fast for me. There was no intensity in the end, no climax... Sadly, it felt unsatisfactory. It has a lot of potential, I just feel it wasn't as well explored as it could have been.