[Review] Eyes On, by Esme Brett

Title Eyes On
Series: --
Author: Esme Brett
Publisher: Esme Brett
Number of pages: 59
Publication date: November 21st 2019

Synopsis:

A steamy and sassy novella.

Ever pretended to be a stripper to save someone from an awkward situation? Taylor Francis hadn’t. Until he had.

Francis runs a successful event company and lounge bar. Greta Winters is an old-money socialite. Their paths would never usually cross: Francis avoids women in Greta’s tax bracket like a New Yorker avoids Times Square. But in the face of unexpected public embarrassment, he won’t leave her to the wolves.

The impulse rescue sparks an attraction Francis can’t get out of his head. But Greta is wary of being charmed by this too slick, too smooth, too gorgeous lothario. Which would be much easier if his voice didn’t make her think of sweaty limbs and twisted sheets. Mostly his limbs. And her sheets. And his –

Damn. She’s in trouble.

[16,000-word contemporary romance with a HEA. Contains graphic language and on page sex.]

Review:

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

This book is written by an amazing bookstagrammer, @feministromance , and that’s how I found out she was writing a book, and I volunteered to read her novella, Eyes On, knowing it would be written in a sassy, funny, sexy way. And it was!

As I’m sure you’ve noticed, I mostly read historical romance, and so this contemporary novella was just the break I needed.

Fair warning: if you don’t like sex on the page and strong language, skip the book. It’s well written, but it will not please everyone – as with all books, of course.

This book has a plus-size heroine, a man who embraces all that she is, safe and consensual sex, amazing sexy times, witty banter, what more could you ask from a short erotica novella?

For me, it doesn’t get the 5* because I feel like novellas are too short to really get into the characters, and Esme gave us so much info that could have been expanded for a longer story… Anyway, that’s just me, novellas and I just don’t see to match as well as we should.

I don’t want to give nothing away, as the synopsis already says all you need. So, if this is your kind of book, don’t walk, run to buy it!

[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.

[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

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.

[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

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.

[Review] How to Love a Duke in Ten Days, by Kerrigan Byrne

Title How to Love a Duke in Ten Days
Series: Devil You Know #1
Author: Kerrigan Byrne
Publisher: St. Martin's Paperbacks
Number of pages: 448
Publication date: August 27th 2019

Synopsis:

These men are dark, bold, and brave. And there is only one woman who can bring them to their knees...

Famed and brilliant, Lady Alexandra Lane has always known how to look out for to herself. But nobody would ever expect that she has darkness in her past—one that she pays a blackmailer to keep buried. Now, with her family nearing bankruptcy, Alexandra strikes upon a solution: Get married to one of the empire’s most wealthy eligible bachelors. Even if he does have the reputation of a devil.

Love Takes No Prisoners

Piers Gedrick Atherton, the Duke of Redmayne, is seeking revenge and the first step is securing a bride. Winning a lady’s hand is not so easy, however, for a man known as the Terror of Torcliff. Then, Alexandra enters his life like a bolt of lightning. When she proposes marriage, Piers knows that, like him, trouble haunts her footsteps. But her gentleness, sharp wit, independent nature, and incredible beauty awakens every fierce desire within him. He will do whatever it takes to keep her safe in his arms.

Review:

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

Trigger warning:

at the beginning of the book, the main character, Alexandra, is raped, and to defend herself, she kills her aggressor.

I think there are few HR authors (from time periods I like) out there whom I have not yet read, and Kerrigan Byrne was one of them. After hearing such high praise about this author, and having been given the opportunity to read How To Love A Duke In Ten Days, I couldn’t refuse. And at the end of this book, I said to myself: why did I wait this long?!

This book has such a strong friendship between the heroines of this series. I always love a book where female friendship - well, any friendship, really - is championed. They support each other, they are always there when needed, and they don’t judge. Isn’t that wonderful?

Alexandra had a traumatic event in her teenage years at school, and Francesca (Frank) and Cecelia (Cecil) - her friends, and fellow red-heads - helped her hide what happened, and at the same time supported her with her feelings and the fear she - rightfully - developed after such an event. Now that Alexandra had a secret that needed to be kept with their lives, Frank and Cecil wanted to assure her their loyalty, and so the three friends told each other powerful, damaging secrets, so that they would all be connected by something stronger their school years.

Alexandra became a doctor through the Sorbonne, an archaeologist, in reality. She buries herself in work, and her only true connections are with her school friends. One day, she received a note from Francesca, saying she was getting married, and she was needed. The cryptic note was especially odd since the three women had sworn never to get married.

Frank is supposed to marry Piers Gedrick Atherton, the Duke of Redmayne. When Alexandra gets reaches the station and awaits her friend Cecil, she meets a huge, strong horse - a man to, and the description fits just as well! - and she manages to calm the horse down, and the man, whom she believes to be a man that worked at the stables, is the first man to arouse her in a certain way.

Due to her past, she believes no man can ever be trusted, and they must be feared, but with this man she doesn’t really feel afraid. Even though he was a very large man that could pick her up easily, she feels he’s more of a protector than anything else.

Believing she won’t see him again, Alex and Cecil go to the castle of the Duke of Redmayne, and meet with Frank in their rooms. And out of the window, Alex sees the man from the station, and she assumes that he works at the castle. I’m sure you already know, dear reader, that he was indeed the Duke of Redmayne.

Frank is worried because she believes that someone wants to hurt her, or her friends, and she doesn’t want to marry Redmayne.

Alex is also being threatened in a way - she was being blackmailed. She didn’t know who it was, but they knew what she and her friends had done. And she wanted to protect them at all costs, but her family doesn’t have any more money, so she decides to make a trade: she’ll marry the duke, he’ll protect them, without knowing what had happened at school. Frank and Cecil don’t want her to do that, but she persuades them that Piers is a good man, and she somewhat trusts him. And she wants to be a mother, so she knows she’ll have to overcome her trauma for that to happen.

The book happens is a small time frame - the 10 days, give or take - and that doesn’t really give the characters a lot of time to connect with one another. I did like Piers - even though he was a bit too rough for me personally - but I get that Alexandra liked that part of him, because he could protect her, and at the same time he was a good man and so he wouldn’t overpower her.

I really liked the way Kerrigan Byrne dealt with such an important, difficult, traumatic issue, how she described it and its impact on the life of the characters. It shaped some of it, but the love that develops between Alex and Piers showed that it didn’t have to rule her life.

There’s some mystery, and sometimes a bit too much happening, but it was a great book, a great start with this author, with romance, friendship, strong and interesting characters. What more could I ask for?