C2’s review of Just Like Heaven (Smythe-Smith, Book 1) by Julia Quinn
Historical Romance published by Avon 31 May 11

The Smythe-Smiths are here!  The Smythe-Smiths are here!

Who are the Smythe-Smiths?  Ask any Julia Quinn fan and they will tell you – the Smythe-Smiths host an annual musicale.  An infamous musicale. Why infamous?  Because *whispers* the Smythe-Smiths are not particularly musical.  Readers of Ms. Quinn’s books have often attended the musicale, but the Smythe-Smiths remained a bit of a mystery.  Finally, we get to meet them and, maybe, find out what in the world they are thinking with the whole musicale thing.

Honoria Smythe-Smith is a violinist in the Smythe-Smith quartet. Girls in the family are expected to be part of the quartet after they make their debut in society.  The only escape is marriage.  Some of the Smythe-Smiths really have no idea the damage they do to the ears of the ton during their annual musicale.  Others, like Honoria, are very aware but continue to do their familial duty.  Honoria even manages to do it with a smile on her face, because she loves her family and enjoys the time she spends with her cousins (even if the rehearsals really don’t help).

Honoria’s brother, Daniel, left England under a cloud of censure after wounding another peer in a duel.  Since he knew he wouldn’t be around to look after Honoria, Daniel asked his best friend, Marcus, to watch over her.  Marcus Holroyd, Earl of Chatteris, grew up very quietly with his stern father.  His life changed drastically when he went away to school and met the outgoing Daniel Smythe-Smith.  Marcus frequently went home with Daniel and was quickly absorbed into the loud, fun-loving Smythe-Smith family.  Marcus met Honoria, the youngest of the family, on his first visit – she was seven and he was twelve.  Oh, faithful reader, I do enjoy stories where the hero and heroine have known each other since childhood.  It lends an extra sweetness, says me.

When Honoria and some Smythe-Smith cousins are visiting the country – well, Cambridge, which isn’t so country – Honoria runs into Marcus (his family estate is nearby).  Since one of the reasons Honoria and the other young ladies are visiting is to meet eligible young men, her hostess insists that Marcus be invited to the house party she is planning.  Honoria is reluctant – she knows Marcus will hate it – but agrees to send him a personal invitation.  Best invitation ever!

…  I beg of you, do not accept.  You shall be miserable, and then I shall be miserable, fretting over your misery.

With affection, et cetera & et cetera,
Honoria

A few days later, Marcus runs across Honoria in the woods near his property line.  She is plotting – she plans to twist her ankle (faker!) in order to get and keep the attention of one of the young men attending the house party…one Mister Gregory Bridgerton.  When Marcus finds her, she is digging a foot-sized hole.  When Honoria explains her plan to him, even Marcus (who over the years has quietly and without her knowledge discouraged unacceptable young and not-so-young men from pursuing Honoria) cannot find any real fault with Gregory.

Still, plans don’t always work out as they are meant to.  Instead of Honoria have a fake sprained ankle when Gregory is around to rescue her, Marcus really does sprain his ankle. Honoria has to rescue him…or at least hurry back to the house and send word to his staff so someone can assist him.  And, of course, there is an epic downpour while he is waiting for help. Poor Marcus! He catches a horrible cold and loses a favorite pair of boots because his ankle is so swollen one boot has to be cut off.

Before returning to London, Honoria visits Marcus to be sure he is on the mend and all seems well – or as well as a sniffly, limping earl can seem.  However, just after returning to her mother’s house, Honoria receives a message from Marcus’s housekeeper – he has taken a turn for the worse and she is worried.  Since Marcus has no family, Mrs. Wetherby didn’t know of anyone else to contact.  Of course, Honoria and her mother race back to the country to see what has happened.  They find a very sick young man.  Marcus is out of his head with fever and no one knows what happened.  Finally, they find the problem and Honoria’s mother knows what to do – or at least what to try – while they are waiting for the doctor to arrive. Yikes! Poor Marcus. Such unpleasantness.

As Marcus’s condition improves, he and Honoria get to know each other as adults and grow closer.  But just as Honoria and her mother are getting ready to return to London, Honoria finds a letter from Daniel to Marcus thanking him for looking after her and getting rid of some icky suitors.  Honoria decides that Marcus doesn’t really care about her, after all, and is just doing Daniel a favor by being nice.

Will Honoria hook Gregory Bridgerton?  Will Marcus follow Honoria back to London and win her heart?  Will any eardrums rupture during the musicale?  Don’t you want to find out, faithful reader?  Of course you do!

If you are already a fan of Ms. Quinn, you will enjoy Just Like Heaven. If you have never tried one of her books (OMG, do you live under a rock?!) but enjoy light Regencies with banter and heart, give Just Like Heaven a try. Does this book stand alone?  Yes, although the Bridgerton series is tons of fun and there are several familiar faces in this book…there’s even a slight connection to the more recent Bevelstoke series.  Why not read them all?  :-)

Grade: B+

Summary:

Honoria Smythe-Smith is:

A) a really bad violinist
B) still miffed at being nicknamed “Bug” as a child
C) not in love with her older brother’s best friend
D) all of the above

Marcus Holroyd is:

A) the Earl of Chatteris
B) regrettably prone to sprained ankles
C) not in love with his best friend’s younger sister
D) all of the above

Together they:

A) eat quite a bit of chocolate cake
B) survive a deadly fever and the world’s worst musical performance
C) fall quite desperately in love
It’s Julia Quinn at her best, so you know the answer is . . .
D) all of the above

Read an excerpt.

Connected books:

C2’s review of When Beauty Tamed the Beast (Happily Ever After, Book 2) by Eloisa James
Historical Romance published by Avon 25 Jan 11

In When Beauty Tamed the Beast, the second full length novel of her fairy tale series, Eloisa James gives us her version of another favorite story.  Her Beast is a cranky English doctor who is rumored to have suffered an injury that has left him impotent.  Piers Yelverton, Earl of Marchant, is mostly estranged from his father, but they do exchange letters occasionally – and his father, the Duke of Windebank, is insistent that Piers marry.  Piers sent his father a very long list of wife requirements  - included on the list, she must be “more beautiful than the sun and the moon.”Our Beauty is Miss Linnet Thrynne.  Linnet is a bit of a damsel in distress when we first meet her – due to an unfortunate choice of gowns, everyone in the Ton assumes she is pregnant with her latest suitor’s child.  Since the suitor is a prince, everyone knows he will not be allowed to marry her, pregnancy or no, especially since her late mother had a reputation for being…free with her attentions to men other than her husband.

When her father and aunt brainstorm a way out of the situation Linnet has found herself in, the Beast’s name comes up.  Apparently his father is obsessed with royal bloodlines and with continuing the family name – something Piers cannot accomplish, if rumors are correct. Linnet’s father and aunt decide they should talk to the duke and pretend that she really is pregnant – they think the duke will be able to convince his son to marry quickly and ostensibly claim the child as his own.  Then, after the marriage, when the truth comes out, it will be too late to change anything.  While Linnet doesn’t agree with everything they say, she decides to go to Piers’ estate – she is confident in her ability to charm him into marrying her, even without the incentive of the baby she isn’t carrying.

Confused?  All this set-up happens quickly in the book, thank goodness. Things really pick up speed when Linnet arrives at Piers’ castle – he and a cousin have turned it into a hospital of sorts.  Only the worst cases ever make their way there, but they have a decent success rate of those who find them. Piers and Linnet both immediately realize they do not suit and should not marry – and, of course, Piers immediately sees that she is not pregnant.  However, Linnet cannot return to London yet, since she is still ruined in the eyes of the Ton.  Also, she likes the duke and would like to see his relationship with his son improve – something the duke would like, as well – so they decide to stay and visit. Besides, if they left, we wouldn’t have much of a story, would we?

Even though Piers and Linnet have decided they aren’t getting married, they immediately strike sparks off each other.  Lots of banter and playful insults are tossed back and forth – so snappy and fun!  I enjoy that sort of almost-an-insult-but-not-because-I-think-you’re-cute thing. Entertaining!  It turns out that they have more in common than either would have thought – Linnet isn’t as sweet as she looks and Piers isn’t as hateful as he thinks he is.

I enjoyed watching these two characters fall in love despite their decisions to the contrary.  Each one knows he/she shouldn’t do it and will probably end up regretting it but they just…can’t resist.  Add in Piers’ estranged parents meeting years after their scandalous divorce, medical students (including one named Kibbles and one named Bitts), a seaside pool and an epidemic and you’ve got a most entertaining read. If you like cranky doctors and witty misses, When Beauty Tamed the Beast is for you.

Grade: A-

Summary:

Miss Linnet Berry Thrynne is a Beauty . . . Naturally, she’s betrothed to a Beast.
Piers Yelverton, Earl of Marchant, lives in a castle in Wales where, it is rumored, his bad temper flays everyone he crosses. And rumor also has it that a wound has left the earl immune to the charms of any woman.
Linnet is not just any woman.
She is more than merely lovely: her wit and charm brought a prince to his knees. She estimates the earl will fall madly in love—in just two weeks.
Yet Linnet has no idea of the danger posed to her own heart by a man who may never love her in return.
If she decides to be very wicked indeed . . . what price will she pay for taming his wild heart?

Read an excerpt.

Other books in this series:

Gwen’s review of One Touch of Scandal by Liz Carlyle
Historical romance released by Avon 28 Sep 10

Sybil and I were trying to figure out if this book was historical or paranormal.  We landed on “historical with important paranormal elements.”  How’s that for decision making?  Solidly in the middle.

In spite of our collective irresolute tendencies, I have decided that this could best be described as a good historical romance that uses the paranormal to help tell the story and move the plot forward.  Ahh, decisiveness. 

In One Touch of Scandal, Liz Carlyle has written a mid-Victorian era historical that has a hero with ESP and a heroine in a very serious pickle.  Hero, Adrian, belongs to an ancient organization that supports  and protects women and children with the Gift or those who are descended from people with the Gift. Heroine, Grace, is a governess who is suspected of murdering her fiancee/employer.

Adrian and Grace come together in a very believable and interesting manner that I won’t spoil for you.  In fact, that statement of believable and interesting could be said about the book.  The ending is a little sugary for my taste, but I still enjoyed it.

I am happy that both Adrian and Grace are flawed people who are sincerely trying their best to live with the hands dealt them.  I also like that they don’t have prideful TSTL moments.  It’s nice to read about a couple that I can identify with, not that I want to shake and say, “Get out of your own way, you idjit!”

The murder and suspense elements in the book are quite good.  There is a plot twist that is a ton of fun to read and downright scary good.  Loved it.

The only reason I’m giving this a B+, and not an A, is the ending.  It was good – just a bit saccharin for me.

If you’re a Liz Carlyle fan, you need this book.  If you like a little paranormal spicing up your historical, you’ll love this book.  It’s the start of a new series that I think will be tremendous fun to read.

Grade: B+

Summary:

Desperation drove her into the arms of a devil…

Grace Gauthier had taken a position as governess hoping to find security and peace in a life that had very little of either. She’s always yearned for a good marriage, a family, and a home, but it was not to be. And when the brutal murder of her employer leaves her unprotected and alone—as Scotland Yard’s prime suspect—she has no one to turn to except the mysterious and reclusive Lord Ruthveyn.

A dark-eyed Lucifer, Ruthveyn guards his secrets carefully. His shadowed past as the Queen’s most trusted agent in India is the stuff of whispered rumor, as is his mixed ancestry. Deeply moved by her plight—and haunted by her beauty—Ruthveyn is determined to save Grace by unmasking a killer. But his growing passion for her soon places his own heart at risk and threatens to expose his dark gifts—and his dark society—to the world…

Read an excerpt here.

Wendy the Super Librarian‘s review of Dangerous Allies by Renee Ryan
Historical Inspirational Romance published by Love Inspired Historical 14 Sep 2010

Nothing frosts my cupcakes more than the fact that “unusual” settings and time periods are welcome in the inspirational market, and we heathen readers get offered Regency Historical #6923 featuring Duke #10,256.  For that reason, I’ve started dipping my toes in the inspirational sub genre and I’ve discovered some pretty good reads.  However, this latest from Ryan was a bit of a mixed bag.

Jack Anderson is an American working with MI6 and is currently undercover in Nazi Germany posing as an SS officer.  His latest mission is to secure some blueprints for a top secret weapon, and he needs to make contact with Russian-born actress, Katarina Kerensky.

Katia is working as a spy for the British in the hopes of protecting the only family she has left – her mother.  Thanks to her acting skills, she’s pretty good at her job – playing the bubble-headed, vacuous actress role to the hilt.  But now she’s paired up with Jack Anderson, a man she’s not entirely sure she can trust.  The British need those blueprints, Katia needs to ensure her mother’s safety, and Jack is a man who lies for a living.  It’s a sticky web indeed.

The history aspect and the plot of this story are really fantastic.  It was so refreshing to read a WWII based story, dealing with two people determined to help thwart the Nazis.  Talk about compelling villains!  I really got a great sense of place, and the struggles experienced by both lead characters made for great fiction.

However, what didn’t work nearly as well were the inspirational aspects of the story.  I thought the reasons behind both characters’ crisis of faith were extremely believable.  Katia lost her father when he was murdered during the Russian Revolution, and both question the existence of a God who “allows” the Nazis to rise to power.  So, I got that.  What I didn’t get was that there were moments in the narrative when the “God stuff” was shoehorned into the story like a quota had to be met.  Sometimes these faith-based moments were organic to the story and “fit.”  Other times they were jarring and felt out-of-place.

I also wasn’t wild with the fact that Jack seems to turn around awfully quick from his crisis.  One moment he’s angry with God, shaken in his belief, and then the next minute, whamo!  He’s back to believing that God has a plan.  Hey, Katia is a lovely girl with many admirable qualities – but I needed more than just her existence to be the reason for Jack to find his way back to God.  Just saying.

If you’re a diehard inspirational fan, these issues might not bother you.  If you’re a reader who has turned to inspirationals, not so much for the “message,” but for the different settings and “cleaner” reads?  It’s something to take under advisement.  Inspirational elements are like anything else in fiction.  If it’s not organic to the story, it’s going to lack flow and feel jarring to the reader.  At least it did to this reader.

Grade: C

Summary:

In Nazi Germany, British agent Jack Anderson risks his life working undercover as an SS officer. And his latest mission—to uncover intelligence about a secret Nazi weapon—is his most perilous yet. Especially since he’ll have to work with Katarina Kerensky. The famous actress is too dangerous to trust—and too beautiful to ignore.

Desperate to save her mother from the Gestapo, Katia reluctantly agrees to work with the coolly handsome Jack. But can she trust a man whose sense of honor is tangled in a web of lies? In a race against time, Jack and Katia forge an alliance to take down the enemy…and learn whether love can survive in a world gone wrong.

Read an excerpt.

Wendy the Super Librarian‘s Duckies Do Series Review of The Ladies’ Sewing Circle by Portia Da Costa
Historical erotic romance short story ebooks published by Spice Briefs May – June 2010

I’m a fan of Portia Da Costa’s brand of erotica mostly because of her heroines.  She writes really fun, strong heroines.  The kind of girls I’d like to be friends with, have a drink at the local pub with, or watch chick flicks with while digging our way through a box of chocolates.  I also like that she has a strong contemporary writing voice.  So when I heard she was working on some Victorian-set erotic romances for Harlequin, I was immediately intrigued.  Will her “voice” work as well in historical as it does in contemporary?  And while the full-length historical won’t be out until 2012 (::sob::), Portia and Spice Briefs are tempting us with two naughty short stories while we’re stuck in the waiting room.

The Gentlewoman’s Predicament
1 May 10

Sofia Harewood’s first husband wasn’t much of a lover.  Sofia might not be “worldly,” but she’s pretty sure that sex is supposed to be better.  Some of her friends look particularly happy, and Sofia is determined to discover what she’s been missing out on.  She finds help in the form of one A. Chamfleur, the proprietress of “Intimate Advice For Gentlewoman.”  Already nervous about going to such an establishment, her uneasiness hits new heights when she discovers the A. stands for Ambrose and nothing like Amelia.

What I really liked about this story was that Sofia didn’t automatically assume that she must be “bad” at sex because her sex life with Husband #1 wasn’t all that grand.  All she knows it that it should be “better” and there’s not needless time spent on her feeling inferior in the bedroom.  If anything, her sessions with Monsieur Chamfleur bring out her sensual side!  The sex scenes are tender and erotic.  It would have felt out of character to have Sofia hanging from the chandelier after all, and her awakening is handled beautifully.  The romance element in this story is pretty thin, but the ending is perfect and sets up the series nicely.

Grade: B

Summary:

Sofia Harewood’s problem: finding a partner who can please her in the bedroom better than her disappointing first husband! She senses there should be so much more to lovemaking—and she’s determined to discover what she’s been missing.

Sofia’s mission takes her to A. Chamfleur, purveyor of “Intimate Advice to the Gentlewoman”…but the encounter is not at all what she had imagined. For A. Chamfleur turns out to be Monsieur Chamfleur—and he and his associates are more than willing to introduce Sofia to a new world of sensual delights….

Read an excerpt

The Gentlewoman’s Ravishment
1 June 10

Prudence Enderby has a healthy sex life with her husband, but that doesn’t mean she can’t have fantasies.  Her favorite fantasy involves being kidnapped by a handsome brigand or pirate, so imagine her shock, when on the way home from her Ladies Sewing Circle, she’s kidnapped!  The masked man who kidnaps her takes her back to his well-appointed home where pretty soon the wanton Prudence is having her secret fantasies fulfilled.

As a fan of erotic romance, I pretty much knew where this was going after reading the summary, but that doesn’t mean it wasn’t a good story.  The reader does have to be willing to roll with the fantasy element here, and also the fact that Prudence doesn’t do anything to try to escape.  And really, who could blame the girl?  The erotic elements here are extremely well-done, and while Prudence doesn’t need “awakening” – her wanton ways are hard to resist.  Plenty of sizzle and another great ending.

Grade: B

Summary:

“I’d love to be abducted and ravished by some handsome brigand or pirate…”

When the women of the Ladies’ Sewing Circle share their private fantasies, some are shocked by Mrs. Prudence Enderby’s secret desire. But Prudence cannot imagine life without such exotic daydreams—especially since they arouse her husband, too!

Yet Prudence never imagined she would actually be whisked off the street by a mysterious masked man who has his wicked way with her in a carriage. Taking her back to a boudoir appointed for pleasure, he continues to bring every one of her fantasies to life. But nothing could be more surprising than when Prudence finally learns who is behind this gentlewoman’s ravishment…

Read an excerpt

Both of these stories were quick, hot reads.  Once again Da Costa employs first-person narrative, which further reinforces that sometimes the best erotic romance is all about the heroine’s journey.  These are short stories, with short word counts, but the author does a nice job of including historical elements to give these tales a Victorian feel.  Everything from the clothes to the furnishings.  Certainly it’s hard to imagine nice Victorian ladies talking about naughty business at their sewing circle, but then again, maybe not?  I wonder if it’s too late for me to learn needlepoint?

Overall Grade: B

CindyS’s review of Ruthless by Anne Stuart
Historical romance published by MIRA 01 Aug 2010

I have to say that after loving her ‘Ice’ series I wasn’t sure what to expect and in the end, I was surprised by the charm of Ruthless.

Rohan, Comte de Giverney, Viscount Rohan, Baron of Glencoe etc is also known as the King of Hell. Basically he holds parties where everyone can do as they please and he’s even managed to add Latin phrases and dark cloaks to make it all that much more dramatic.  Yes, I know.  Clubs are so over done in historicals right now but then, it’s hardly about a club.  It’s about a man who for twenty years has only lived by one creed.  Do as you will.  For Rohan, there is no Heaven or Hell, or real reason for life.  He’s seen it all, had it all and sees no reason to change.  Even when he meets Elinor.

Elinor Harriman is in dire straits with a younger sister, two older servants and a crazed mother to look after. As it is, the family is living on the very edge of destitution due to Lady Caroline’s (Elinor’s mother) frivolous lifestyle. Years of living for pleasure only, has finally caught up with Elinor’s mother and disease is eating at her brain. The book opens with Lydia, Elinor’s younger sister, using her bright beauty to call off the landlord one last time as Elinor discovers that her father’s estates have been left to a distant cousin. Hope is all that is left and as much as Elinor hides things from her sister, Lydia is not nearly as clueless as Elinor hopes.  There’s not enough food, no money for rent and in the middle of winter the last few pieces of furniture may have to be used for heat.

How do the King of Hell and a woman on the edge of desperation meet?  Not as you might think and as the story unfolds, there is almost a fairytale quality to courtship that starts.

But wait.  This is Anne Stuart, so for as many fairytale moments there are darker, twisted moments and that is what brings the story to life.

Elinor has a true past.  Not a whitewashed ‘oh no, I was ruined because I was seen alone’ kind of past but a dirty, horrible truth that has etched itself into who she is.  She considers herself plain and unattractive and hardly worth noticing so instantly rebuffs any of Rohan’s flirting.  After all, he is toying with her as a cat does a mouse.  Rohan is gorgeous in a beautiful way that has any person he wants falling at his feet.  Working hard for anything is a laugh so discovering a woman who sees him and keeps on walking is a novelty.

I was expecting a dark hero, especially with the title of the King of Hell.  Instead Rohan is charming and solicitous to Elinor and really, all those around him that he considers a friend.  He likes to play Devil’s advocate so of course, he can come off as a complete ass and yet, if he truly hurts someone he does try to back off.  As much as Rohan’s past is filled with pain, his recent past is more about pleasure and fulfilling it without judgment or worry.  So there a few scenes that other readers might cringe over.  I was shocked at one point but when I thought on it I realized that Rohan truly knows no better so why would he do anything different.

The fairytale part of the story comes from Rohan’s need to save Elinor and her family.  Sure, not every member, and in the end he had a plan but knowing that he couldn’t help but send food and wood and clothes to Elinor and her family made me smile.  Anne Stuart’s heroes are not normally known for their sweet side so seeing this in Rohan was too cute.  But remember, Rohan is not always cute.

Another part of the story I found compelling is the time line.  I know we’re all so rushed nowadays and want the hero and heroine to just fall in love already but there is time between Rohan and Elinor’s meeting and I appreciated it.  Falling in love over a weekend and wrapping it all up in a HEA with a marriage proposal can be wonderful but it can’t happen every time!  I should also mention the secondary romance which is true to Ms. Stuart’s way of complete opposites finding true love with Rohan’s best friend Charles Reading and Elinor’s sister Lydia.  And I always appreciate the reality that Ms. Stuart brings to all her stories.  If the heroine is in danger, then she is in real danger.  The villain is never silly or comical, they might be dumb or misguided or even crazed but their intent is true and they will do everything in their power to reach their desired result.

In the end, this is a lighter book for Ms. Stuart when it comes to the romance between Rohan and Elinor and it was fantastic.  The best part, is this love story is set against a back drop of real life and all it’s dangers and quirks.  For those readers who have sometimes wished that Ms. Stuart wrote epilogues, you will be quite happy with the end as is and not need anything more to prove Rohan and Elinor’s love.

GRADE: B+

Few outsiders will ever witness the dark misdeeds of the Heavenly Host. And among this secret society, where exiled Georgian aristocrats gather to indulge their carnal desires, fewer still can match the insatiable appetite of their chief provocateur, the mysterious Viscount Rohan.

Pursuit of physical pleasure is both his preferred pastime and his most pressing urge, until he encounters the fascination of a woman who won’t be swayed. And while his dark seduction appalls the pure and impoverished Elinor Harriman, she finds herself intrigued…and secretly drawn to the man behind the desire.

Birdie’s review of Bound by Temptation by Lavinia Kent
Historical Romance released by Avon Feb 10

Have you ever put down a book, unfinished, but still recommended it to a friend? Or read a new-to-you author, didn’t finish the book, and picked up another by that author? I have done neither of these things but with Bound by Temptation, I probably would.

Clara, the Countess of Westington is trying to change her life. She married for love, she married higher up than her stations, and when her husband died, Clara went a little wild. She’s become famous for her daring ways and her generous charms but Clara has decided that enough is enough. She’s tired of being the “bad girl” and just wants to settle down and live a quiet life. Helping out her motivation is her stepson’s, the Earl of Westington, desire to marry a respectable girl. He’s in love with a local woman who’s father doesn’t really approve of Clara. So Clara has promised to behave herself and save her stepson a lot of heartache.

I’m not usually one for the strong, independent, I-am-a-sexual-goddess heroine but Clara got to me anyway. She was vulnerable when she needed to be, strong when the situation called for it, and smart. A lot of those type of heroines fall into the too stupid to live category but Clara (as far as I read) never did.

Kent’s writing style is sharp. The prose and pacing is very tight and I was never jerked out of the story by an odd turn of phrase or amateurish writing. The plot was interesting and kept me guessing as to what would happen next. So on paper, it sounds like I should love this book, right? Um, wrong.

My problem lies entirely with the hero, one Jonathan Masters. Look, I know we all love a hero who starts out like a jerk but can be reformed by the love of one lovely lady. And I know that sometimes those heroes act like asses right up until the very last minute. I get it. I sometimes like it. But this time? Not so much.

Jonathan Masters is everything that is respectable. He worked hard to pull his family from the depths of scandal and poverty, but along the way he sacrificed one sister to a loveless marriage (to a much older man) and another sister has gone missing because of his demanding, hard ways. When Masters meets Clara (um, he kidnapped her because he thought she stole a watch from him and he wanted to teach her a lesson …that should have been my first clue) I thought things would begin to turn around with him. Especially after he and Clara had a delightful interlude in a secluded part of the country house. But, no, it didn’t. And good gracious is the man a prig! He preaches. He snorts in disgust. He professes to disapprove of Clara yet can’t keep his hands off her. I stopped reading at this point. Page 207. Check it out.

“Any why should his interests be the same as hers?” Clara felt fire rising in her belly.

“Because he is her husband. Man and wife are one person and that person is the husband.” He spoke with all seriousness.

Ok, Birdie is done reading this book. I love historicals just as much as the next reader. And I know that, historically speaking, men did think this way. But it was the middle of the book and he hadn’t softened one bit. I couldn’t read another page of this man’s boring, arrogant drivel.

The thing is, a lot of readers would love this book. A lot of readers soak up the hero who will be changed. This time, I didn’t. I couldn’t stick around to read that moment because I knew it wouldn’t make up for Masters’ insufferableness.

I might read Kent again, and I would recommend this book with a few cautions, but for me this book was a DNF at page 207.

Grade: DNF

Summary:

Clara, the Countess of Westington, is one of the ton’s most scandalous women.

Jonathan Masters has spent his life striving to be one of its most respected members.

Of all the beds in London, she had to wind up tied to his.

Read an excerpt.

Lawson’s review of How I Met My Countess (Bachelor Chronicles, Book 6) by Elizabeth Boyle
Historical Romance released by Avon 29 Dec 09

The Bachelor Chronicles continue . . . well, sort of . . . in this book. In Love Letters From a Duke, it’s discovered there are three widowed Lady Standons that married the previous heirs before the events in Duke happen. They are all apparently young and now living off the good graces of the Hollindrake family. The first of the Lady Standons to fall is Lucy, formerly Lucy Ellyson, who has a very interesting past.

A good part of the start of this book is a flashback. Lucy is the daughter of George Ellyson, master spy and the last point many see in England before being sent in the field. Most of the men that come through the Ellyson household are infatuated with Lucy and her sister, including the newest recruits to the War Office, Justin Grey, Earl of Clifton and his brother Malcolm.

After time spent learning the tricks of the trade from all the Ellysons, Justin (called Gilby from by Malcolm from his earlier courtesy title) and Malcolm realize how much danger they could really be in. And both brothers begin to fall for the Ellyson sisters. With many promises made by Gilby to Lucy (Goosie, which was a bit too cute), the brothers are called to Lisbon to work for the good of England.

Seven years later Lucy is a widow and one of the three Lady Standons. Justin is back in England and told by Malcolms solicitor that his wealth is left to Lady Standon. Justin goes looking for Lady Standon (though he doesn’t know the one he wants is Lucy) and the two former lovers must put some of the past behind them, before finding out why they didn’t reconcile before that point.

As honorable as Justin was, he’s a bit of a stick in the mud. After spending time seeing the worst of humanity working for the War Office, he doesn’t really have a lot of understanding of human emotion. He expects a perfect woman to be his countess, but falls for Lucy instead. When he meets her again he lets the years and silence on her end cloud his judgment when Lucy would need him the most.

Lucy is a bit of a contradiction. She’s practical but apparently prone to clumsiness and scandal because of some of her antics. Most of that is in the second half of the novel, when she goes from her country life to a different life in London among society. It’s understandable why she doesn’t get along with the other Lady Standons, as she has many secrets as well as a desire to leave London and go back to the country where she feels life makes more sense.

The conflicts in the story seemed plausible, but overblown. I suppose that’s the point when many of the characters have had something to do with the War Office and espionage has been a way of life. As nice as it was to see Clifton get his story, and as much as I enjoy Boyle’s writing, the more books in the series make it seem like it’s just an excuse to keep seeing what Temple, Jack and Felicity are up to more than anything. I’ll keep reading Boyle’s books, and I’m interested to see what the next book brings, with Elinor’s story with Jack’s brother, the Duke of Parkerton. It’d be nice to see what happens next in Boyle’s Marlowe series though, and let the spies live in peace.

Grade: C

Summary:

The Earl of Clifton intended one day to find the perfect countess…

…until he met Lucy. The improper and impetuous daughter of an infamous spy, Lucy Ellyson saved Clifton’s life and taught him everything he needed to know about serving his country in the dangerous shoals of the war torn Continent… even how to fall in love. He vowed he would come back to her, he would make her his unconventional and unlikely countess, but the war and duty kept them apart for too long and when he finally returned, she was gone.

Lucy’s father had told her that the Earl of Clifton would never return for her, warned her that she would never find a place in a society that would scorn her birth. And he was right. For when Clifton returns, it isn’t to reconquer her heart, but merely to ask for her help in finding an elusive dowager, never realizing that the Marchioness of Standon—the woman who holds the keys to his family fortune—is none other than Lucy herself. It doesn’t take Clifton long to realize that his greatest mission yet may be to face the tragic secrets of their past and rediscover the passionate love that once ignited them both…

Read an excerpt.

Other books in this series:

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Lawson’s review of Wicked Sinful Nights by Julia Latham
Historical romance released by Avon 12 Jan 10

The myth of the League of the Blade continues with the brother of Adam from Taken and Seduced in this story. The second in the Raised by the Blade trilogy has Robert Hilliard traipsing about Medieval England to prove himself to the League. The third will no doubt follow the youngest Hilliard brother.

Robert Hilliard is sent to investigate the murder of Viscount Drayton. Suspected, but not accused, of the murder is Sarah Audley, the nursemaid to Drayton’s young son, now the Viscount. Many also believe Sarah is the late Viscount’s mistress as well, since he took her in after unproven rumors she may have killed her husband. Robert in disguise, with his fellow Bladesman, stay at the Drayton keep to conduct their investigation.

Robert begins to believe that Sarah is innocent of everything she’s been accused of and sets out to find the proof. While doing this he begins to admire Sarah’s resiliency and independence. He then begins to think of the life he missed due to his unusual upbringing by the League sequestered from society. Robert also struggles to be a gentleman with the widowed Sarah, though he begins to fall for her quickly.

Sarah knows she always has to work for what she has. She can read and write, though that didn’t save her father’s estate, nor herself when her husband died. When Drayton hired her, she felt she could finally have a home and cared for Drayton’s young son, Francis. When Drayton dies, Sarah fears she may be forced from the place she now calls her home. Robert’s arrival complicates things, especially when she finds out the gossip about her being Drayton’s mistress and possibly killing him. Both Sarah and Robert work to clear her name from suspicion, find the real killer and find their own happiness.

Sarah was a good heroine, if a little complacent. She is a woman of her time, figuring out how to work for her living based on her skills, instead of living by what a man could provide for her. She does begin to whine a bit near the end about where she’s going to go next, convinced she’ll be tossed out on her ear and Francis will be raised by someone else.

Robert’s predicament is that he is a young man who enjoyed his freedom and didn’t live up to the impossible standards set for him by the League. Since he has to prove he’s capable of being a member of the League and not just another noble out for pleasure, his easy-going nature is subdued in the book. The experiment to raise the Hilliards obviously failed, but the League seems to not want to admit the mistake or understand the behavior of the boys coming out of that situation.

Other than that, the murder is solved satisfactorily in the end, with the suspicions correct in some ways. What didn’t work was the constant attempts to implicate Sarah, which distracted from Sarah and Robert’s story. The story would have worked better as well if the League’s reasons for sending Robert weren’t so flimsy and the subterfuge necessary on Robert’s part to investigate Sarah. But then there wouldn’t be a book at all.

Grade: B-

Reckless Sir Robert Hilliard has one last chance to remain a member of the League of the Blade, the daring fraternity of elite knights that secretly raised him. A Bladesman has been poisoned, and Robert must uncover enough evidence to hang the murderess. It seems quite simple, really…until he meets the red-haired beauty and falls hopelessly under her spell.

He may be handsome, but Sarah Audley quickly discovers that Robert’s no knight in shining armor. He’s out to convict her for murder! Though Sarah vows her innocence, forces beyond her control are gathering against her. Even worse, she cannot deny her own flaming desire for this man who’s so dangerous…and so irresistible.

To satisfy their burgeoning passion, Robert may have to sacrifice his only dream. But he’ll gain something even more precious–Sarah’s undying love.

Read an excerpt

Other books in this series:

Lawson’s review of Sold to a Laird by Karen Ranney
Historical Romance released by Avon 24 Nov 09

I haven’t read any of Karen Ranney’s books, but I had this one in my TBR box and thought I’d give it a try. It was definitely different than I’d expected and this is something that happens from time to time. One thing the reader should know going into this story is the title is horrible. It does nothing to describe any part of the story and that does take away a little bit of what the story could have been about.

Douglas Eston is a self made man, but he’s also cautious. So he decides to seek some supporting funding from the Duke of Herridge. What he doesn’t expect is the Duke’s daughter to come in demanding compassion for her mother, the Duke’s wife. The Duke then gives his daughter to Douglas as a wife for agreement to fund Douglas’ business venture. Douglas didn’t expect to get a wife, but he knew he needed to protect the one he suddenly has.

Lady Sarah doesn’t like the fact that she’s been sold as a bride, but she feels safer now out of her father’s sphere of control. When her mother does die, she is at a loss for everything. She has spent her life caring for her mother, following her mother’s example and shielding her mother from her father’s wrath. Sarah now needs to find out who she is.

Sarah then requests to go to Scotland to tell her grandfather of her mother’s death. The journey and stay does help Sarah find out who she is, but it is different than she expected. She also gets to know her husband and finds that he is better than any other she could have asked for. Some of her ideas do make her a snob, but they are more defense mechanisms against her father than anything else.

Douglas never hid his nature from anyone and the conflict over his life and character seems to be a minor part of the story. In fact, Sarah’s issues tend to overwhelm anything else in the book, including her hero. Douglas is an alpha male, but not in an aggressive sort of way. But he doesn’t need to change, as Sarah does, and that relegates him to a lesser part of the story.

The other thing I found out from Karen Ranney’s website is the fact this is the first in a trilogy. They’re all supposed to be tied together because of the Tulloch mirror. This surprised me, as the mirror didn’t seem to have that much to do with the story and was introduced in the second half of the book. I don’t know if I’m interested enough to find out.

Grade: C-

Summary:

Lady Sarah Baines was devoted to her mother and her family home, Chavensworth. Douglas Eston was devoted to making a fortune and inventing. The two of them are married when Lady Sarah′s father proposes the match and threatens to send Lady Sarah′s ill mother to Scotland if she protests.

Douglas finds himself the victim of love at first sight, while Sarah thinks her husband is much too, well, earthy for her tastes. Marriage is simply something she had to do to ensure her mother′s well-being, and even when her mother dies in the next week, it′s not a sacrifice she regrets.

She cannot, however, simply write her mother′s relatives and inform them of her death. She convinces Douglas – an ex pat Scot – to return to Scotland with her, to a place called Kilmarin. At Kilmarin, she is given the Tulloch Sgàthán, the Tulloch mirror. Legend stated that a woman who looked into the mirror saw her true fate.

Douglas and Sarah begin to appreciate the other, and through passion, Douglas is able to express his true feelings for his wife. But once they return to England and Douglas disappears and is presumed dead, Sarah has to face her own feelings for the man she′s come to respect and admire.

Read an excerpt.

Other books in this series:

Pamela Clare is the author of one of my all time favorite historical novels, Ride the Fire, and sadly we have been waiting to see if her most recent series (MacKinnon’s Rangers) set in Colonial America would ever be finished.

We haven’t been waiting on the author but the publisher to give her the go ahead, since the setting sadly just ‘doesn’t sell’.

::pause for a cry::

Well Pamela just posted some FAB news!@!@!@

It will be a bit of a wait but Connor’s book will be out in 2012. She has moved all her books to Berkley (if you don’t already read her AMAZING I-TEAM series – it is Romantic Suspense pick it up!) Really you have time to pick up her whole back list if you have fallen behind or if you haven’t tried her out yet. Her historicals are grand and her Romantic Suspense is just getting better and better. You can find tons of reviews for both here just follow the tag…

Congrats Pamela!

And yay me! Can I call it or what *G*.

Wendy the Super Librarian‘s review of The Birthday Present (The Countess Trilogy #3) by Alison Richardson
Historical erotica short story ebook released by Spice Briefs 01 Nov 2009

What can I say?  Sometimes it’s an intriguing writing style that keeps me coming back for more, even when I logically know that a story shouldn’t work for me in the slightest.  Which is why I decided to finish out the trilogy, and get some closure, for Richardson’s lusty, wicked and snobby heroine, Countess Anna von Esslin.

It’s been two years since the events of An Impolite Seduction and Anna is now living in Munich.  What is truly troublesome is that she’s been celibate this whole time.  Part of this is because Anna has found her tastes have grown more refined with age (not just any willing young buck will do), but also because her rival, that low-born Scot, James McKirnan has been steering any man remotely desirable away from her salon.  So she’s well and truly desperate when her cousin Robert offers her a birthday present.  A mystery lover who will only take her while she is blind-folded and who is so skilled that he soon has Anna panting after him.

Yeah, we all know where this is going right?

Richardson’s writing style continues to deliver most of the goods here.  Where there were a few instances of tell over show (especially in regards to dialogue), readers once again get a delightful first person narration from Anna’s point of view, and several wicked observations that induce some laughs.

The characters continue to be somewhat of an issue – most notably Anna.  While I do not subscribe to the school of thought that the heroine has to be “likeable” – there has to be “something” there for the reader to grasp on to.  While the author wraps up the saga of James and Anna in a neat package by the end, I’m still left with the question of why, as the reader, I should care what happens to either of these two.  James at least has moments where he’s not totally debauched and vile – and while it’s certainly historical accurate, Anna’s snobbery and scheming can wear very thin in short order.

At the end of this third and final story, I find myself continuing to ponder this series.  Richardson can write, of that there is no question.  These stories have been erotic, evocative, delightful, and even amusing.  If the author were to publish a full-length novel, or even more short stories, I would no doubt happily buy and read them.  All the while, praying that the heroine will be someone who truly deserves any positive outcomes that play out over the course of the story.  Frankly, I was never sure that Anna did.

Grade: C+

You can read reviews for all three stories by clicking on the series tag.

Summary:

Countess Anna von Esslin has done something very uncharacteristic: she hasn’t taken a lover in over two years! None of the men in Munich meet her standards…especially her rival, James McKirnan.

Then the Countess is given a surprising birthday presents—a mystery lover who will only see her when she is blindfolded. He fulfills Anna’s every desire…but when the blindfold comes off, will she like what she sees?

No excerpt found

Other books in this series:

Lawson’s review of To Desire a Devil (Legend of the Four Soliders) by Elizabeth Hoyt
Historical romance released by Vision 1 Nov 09

Hoyt’s Legend of the Four Soldiers ends circling back to the beginning a little with the St. Aubyn family. Emeline’s brother who has been thought dead for seven years has appeared in London. Reynaud’s arrival is a shock to many, including the uncle that took over his title. Those that have been waiting for the revelation of the traitor of the 28th Foot at Spinner’s Falls will get that story resolved as well as see the happy endings of all those of the series so far.

When Reynaud St. Aubyn interrupts a political tea in his father’s town house, he really doesn’t know what’s going on. He’s feverish and happy to have made it back to London after seven years of captivity among a tribe in North America. After several days of recovery, he comes to know the niece of his uncle, the new Earl, Beatrice Corning, who has been caring for him.

Beatrice has been fascinated by Reynaud for years. She’s started for many hours many nights at his portrait, painted just before he went to the colonies. The real man is much more fascinating, dark, mysterious and damaged from his captivity. He’s also driven to reach the goal he’s had for the last seven years, which is to do anything to regain all that he’s lost. His title, lands, money and family. Unfortunately his uncle is attempting to prove his insanity to keep the title.

Placed in the middle and forced to make a choice, Beatrice works for her own ends trying to get a bill passed that would provide for veterans. Reynaud tries to get Beatrice on his side so that he doesn’t look insane and he can regain his title. The traitor works to cover his tracks so he won’t hang for his decisions.

Beatrice is a sweet, strong heroine, but she never seemed fully fleshed out. She’s devoted her life to helping her uncle, but she doesn’t agree with his political leanings. She devotes quite a bit of time to her friend Jeremy, who came home from the war horribly scarred. She spends time with her friend Lottie, who has some troubles with her marriage, which disillusions Beatrices towards love and marriage. While there are many facets to her personality, as a character, she seems a bit flat.

Reynaud is about the same. He sets out to use Beatrice and claim her as his own, but there isn’t much emotion involved in either decision. His focus is on the goal of regaining his life and damn anyone who wants to get in his way. He does get drawn into the search for the traitor by Vale, but that feeds is ultimate goals rather than is something that he feels he should do.

The story does have some interesting points, but they are just blips on the radar that get a bit overwhelmed by the somewhat interesting, but unfortunately flat characters of Beatrice and Reynaud. The other thing is Hoyt’s use of a fairy tale to open each chapter. While somewhat entertaining and showing a different side to the characters, the fairy tale, in the end, just distracts from the story. From the excerpt at the end of the book, it appears Hoyt will continue the use of fairy tales in the next series. While a concept that sets her apart from other writers, the fairy tales are almost like a schtick and don’t help the main story as they did in Hoyt’s first series.

Grade: C-

NOTHING IS MORE INTOXICATING-
Reynaud St. Aubyn has spent the last seven years in hellish captivity. Now half mad with fever he bursts into his ancestral home and demands his due. Can this wild-looking man truly be the last earl’s heir, thought murdered by Indians years ago?

OR DANGEROUS-
Beatrice Corning, the niece of the present earl, is a proper English miss. But she has a secret: No real man has ever excited her more than the handsome youth in the portrait in her uncle’s home. Suddenly, that very man is here, in the flesh-and luring her into his bed.

THAN SURRENDERING TO A DEVIL.
Only Beatrice can see past Reynaud’s savagery to the noble man inside. For his part, Reynaud is drawn to this lovely lady, even as he is suspicious of her loyalty to her uncle. But can Beatrice’s love tame a man who will stop at nothing to regain his title-even if it means sacrificing her innocence?

Read an excerpt

C2’s review of The Infamous Rogue by Alexandra Benedict
Historical romance, released 28 July 2009 by Avon

What’s a pirate to do when he can no longer scour the seas for booty? *Heh. Booty.* Captain James Hawkins was once the infamous pirate Black Hawk. He and his brothers sailed the seas, preying on whatever ships caught their fancy. However, when their only sister married a duke of the realm, the Hawkins brothers decided to put away the Jolly Roger *snicker* so she would never be embarrassed or endangered by their actions.

James and his brothers have become sea merchants – their ship no longer slipping up silently on unsuspecting vessels and relieving them of their cargo but, instead, carrying legal goods bound for or returning from exotic ports. James is slowly being smothered by society’s constraints but what can he do? He refuses to hurt his sister in any way.

While suffering through a society ball, he escapes into the garden, hoping he can breathe easier there. Instead of feeling refreshed, James feels a knife at his back and hears a voice say “Why aren’t you rotting in hell, Black Hawk?” It is a voice James did not expect to hear ever again…that of his one-time mistress, Sophia. To say they parted under bad circumstances would be…well, accurate, actually.

Sophia Dawson, daughter of a pirate and an island wench, has come to England to marry nobility. She wants to escape the censure and stigma she grew up with in the islands. Seven years ago, she left James Hawkins after he refused to marry her. Her parting gift – a solid gold watch with the inscription ”May you rot in everlasting hell”. Oh yes, faithful reader, Sophia has style when it comes to vengefulness.

James is baffled by Sophia’s desire to become part of the very society he loathes. He cannot understand how the free-spirited lass he was involved with could ever want to confine herself that way. Plus, he is still angry about the way the relationship ended. He wants her to suffer like he suffered and feel the way he felt when she left him.  Oh, and his pet snake is named after Sophia…he’s vengefully creative, too.

It seems the harder Sophia and James try to avoid each other, the more they are thrown together. And when they are thrown together sparks fly. Each insists they want nothing to do with the other but it never quite works out that way.

The Infamous Rogue is the first in a series – I’m sure each of the other three brothers will get his turn at finding a Happily Ever After. Heaven knows I love me some pirate books…but I didn’t love this one as much as I would have liked. The characters were interesting, the plot was fine – the sub-plot was a building block for the rest of the books, I’m guessing, because it could have been left out, otherwise. The dialogue was good, especially between the brothers (and the sniping between James and Sophia was fun, too). Still, awkward sentence structure and some odd word choices were distracting as I read the book. Bottom line – *smirk* *seriously…enough with the teenage boy humor* – will I check out the next book in the series? I think I will.

Grade: C+

Summary:
They paid no mind to society’s prying eyes . . .

The daughter of a wealthy bandit, Sophia Dawson once lost herself in the arms of Black Hawk, the most infamous pirate ever to command the high seas. But now, determined to put her sinful past behind her, she prepares to enter society as the bride of a well-born nobleman who knows nothing of her scandalous youth. All goes according to plan until her ex-lover—now a respectable sea captain but just as handsome and dangerous as ever—appears and once again tempts her with desire.

From the moment he sees Sophia again, James Hawkins wants only one thing: Revenge. He’ll see to it that the reckless beauty pays for abandoning their heated affair. And so begins a battle of wills that can end only in utter ruin . . . or wicked surrender . . .

Read an EXCERPT
Other books in the series:

Lawson’s review of Written on Your Skin by Meredith Duran
Historical romance released by Pocket Books 28 Jul 09

This is the second book, or more correctly, the companion to Duran’s Bound by Your Touch. While I enjoyed Duran’s debut, Duke of Shadows, I wasn’t as wowed by her second book. The interesting thing is this book occurs concurrently with Bound by Your Touch, but it certainly stands on it’s own. I enjoyed Phin from that story and am glad that his book came so quickly after the first one.

The story opens in Hong Kong and Phineas Granville, going by the name Phineas Monroe, is posing as an arms dealer from Chicago to stop Gerard Collins, a smuggler and all around bad guy, from shipping more arms to Ireland to the Fenians. Phin is happy his assignment is almost over as Collins is set to be arrested soon, but he’s been irratated by Collins’ stepdaughter, Mina Masters. In trying to get away from Mina, he instead ends up on the dance floor with her only to fall forward because he realizes he’s been poisoned.

Mina saves his life and he is able to escape, but their paths cross four years later in London when Collins escapes and kidnaps Mina’s mother. Mina aims to get Phin’s help to find her mother by cashing in the debt he owes her for saving his life. With some creative wrangling, Mina gets him on her side, but with manipulations by the government as well as the traitor that was involved in Hong Kong, both Mina and Phin have to trust each other quickly to get the ending they both want and deserve, and of course, so much more.

Mina definitely has not had the easiest life. She’s been pampered and well cared for, but Collins was verbally and emotionally abusive to her as well as physically abusive to her mother. Desperate to save her mother from Collins’ wrath, Mina has a set plan in mind and shows all the cunning and cleverness she’s capable of to get Phin to help her. Seeing her masks fall off and for her to be herself with Phin was very interesting, because her examination of herself and letting go so that she could trust Phin made her character fascinating.

Phin was very similar in his manner of distrust toward Mina. When he sees she’s telling the truth about things and is not a spy on him sent by his former superior. Phin is carrying various physical and emotional scars from his decade in the clandestine service, mostly because he didn’t like what he had to do while he served Queen and country. Because of their hurt and naturally distrusting natures, the verbal sparring between Mina and Phin set of sparks, not to mention what happened in the bedroom.

Since this book does happen concurrently with Bound By Your Touch, there are two scenes that overlap from that book, but are instead from Phin’s point of view, which definitely is a fresh perspective. Where Phin had been off to is explained well and the mystery in this book is dealt with in a more satisfying manner in the end that matches the characters and their journey throughout the book.

What’s keeping me from giving this book an A is something that I realized after I put the book down. While I loved Mina and Phin and what they grew to by the end of the book and what they saw they could become together, Mina never really cracked Phin. Though she does end up breaking down and growing up, with Phin’s help, and she does help Phin see the things he should be proud of instead of what he regrets, when the same thing happens to Phin, Mina usually ends up physically man-handled. Though she does take it very well and is able to turn the tables on him a bit, it made me a little uncomfortable that his need for physical dominance (though he never hurt her) was what brought things into focus.

Phin otherwise was a good character, seeing being himself was just as worthy as being responsible and dutiful. For fans of great dialogue and smart characters that work very well together, this is a must read.

Grade: B+

THE SOCIETY BEAUTY WHO SAVED HIS LIFE…

Beauty, charm, wealthy admirers: Mina Masters enjoys every luxury but freedom. To save herself from an unwanted marriage, she turns her wiles on a darkly handsome stranger. But Mina’s wouldbe hero is playing his own deceptive game. A British spy, Phin Granville has no interest in emotional entanglements…until the night Mina saves his life by gambling her own.

THE JADED SPY WHO VOWED TO FORGET HER…

Four years later, Phin inherits a title that frees him from the bloody game of espionage. But memories of the woman who saved him won’t let Phin go. When he learns that Mina needs his aid, honor forces him back into the world of his nightmares.

IN LIVES BUILT ON LIES,
LOVE IS THE DARKEST SECRET OF ALL…

Deception has ruled Mina’s life just as it has Phin’s. But as the beauty and the spy match wits in a dangerous dance, their practiced masks begin to slip, revealing a perilous attraction. And the greatest threat they face may not be traitors or murderous conspiracies, but their own dark desires….

Read an excerpt

Lawson’s review of My Wicked Marquess by Gaelen Foley
Historical romance released by Avon 30 Jun 09

Gaelen Foley’s first book with Avon starts off a new series. The Knights are not in this series anywhere, so don’t hope for any appearances of those characters. Instead, this book starts off a series centered around members of a notorious club in London, the Inferno Club. Things are not what they seem however, and the intrigue, secrets and lies start to pile up in this first installment.

The first time the reader meets the hero and heroine of the story they are on opposite sides of the street. Daphne Starling is on her weekly trip to an orphanage she supports and is in need of rescue from the local street gang. Out of the building across the street a man stumbles out, drunk, and draws the ruffians off. Daphne learns later he is Max St. Albans, Marquess of Rotherstone, and though she realizes that he was feigning drunkenness, he was coming out of a brothel, which she doesn’t approve of.

Max is a member of the notorious Inferno Club and back in London after a long tour of the continent. His real purpose for his travels was as an operative for a secret order that fights the evil machinations of another even older secret order. Now that Napoleon has been defeated and the Prometheans are weakened, Max has come home to London to find a bride and on the list provided by his solicitor, Daphne’s name makes Max curious. Though Daphne has a sterling reputation, she’s been subject to recent gossip as a jilt.

Max begins his pursuit of Daphne, partially to irk his childhood nemesis Lord Albert Carew but mostly because she brings light to his dark and dreary double life. As Max methodically works to get Daphne to marry him, Daphne tries to show Max love, caring and the meaning of an equal partnership in a relationship. Each has their personal battles to fight and the lies keep stacking up and threaten this new relationship more than either thought possible.

Instead of addressing the characters first I’d rather talk about the story. For many that subscribe to the conspiracy theory idea that there are secret societies that are really running things and there’s a war going on behind the scenes that few really know about, this story will be right up your alley. Not only is Max a spy, in the James Bond 20th century sense, but his secret society, the Order of St. Michael, was founded by crusaders. The story about the centuries long struggle between the two societies would fit in really well into the adventures of Dr. Robert Langdon, but it’s too much of a historical stretch for this reader.

Both Daphne and Max are pretty stereotypical leads. She’s the saint of the ton who’s the subject of vicious gossip because she bruised Lord Albert’s ego by rejecting him. She knows everyone and is well liked in general except for the snobby few that believe the jilt gossip. She wants to marry for love and has a doting and indulgent father and a petty stepmother who wants her out of the house. Daphne also is pretty oblivious to things that don’t really revolve around her such as her father’s finances and her familial duties.

Max feels he’s never been loved and just wants a wife to give him heirs. When Daphne’s caring inspires him to go after her he tries to get all her love without giving any in return. While keeping his work for the Order secret, he lies to her continuously and it takes way too long before he comes clean. He thinks he can manipulate people to do what he wants all the time and everything should go along with his plans. Again, it takes him way too long to see that philosophy doesn’t work, especially with a wife around.

I’ll most likely read the next book in this series, because Foley is a writer that I keep hoping can live up to The Duke, but the last few have come up way too short in comparison. The spark of what Foley is capable of is evident in the telling of the stories of the Order versus the Prometheans and the lead up to the next book in the series at the end, but it just shows how notably absent that style was in the rest of the book.

Grade: D+

  Summary:
.
To restore family honor the Marquess of Rotherstone faces his most dangerous mission—finding the perfect bride . . .
.
To London’s aristocracy, the Inferno Club is a scandalous society of men no proper young lady would acknowledge. But though they are publicly notorious for pursuing all manner of debauchery, in private they are warriors who would do anything to protect king and country.
.
The Marquess of Rotherstone has decided it’s time to restore the family’s good name. But as a member of the Inferno Club, he knows there is only one way to redeem himself in Society’s eyes: marry a lady of impeccable beauty and breeding, whose reputation is, above all, spotless.
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Someone quite unlike Daphne Starling. True, she’s temptingly lovely, but a jilted suitor has nearly ruined her reputation. Still, Max cannot resist her allure—or the challenge of proving London’s gossips wrong. He would do anything to win her hand . . . and show that even a wicked marquess can make a perfect husband.
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Read an excerpt.

Lawson’s review of What Happens in London by Julia Quinn
Historical romance released by Avon 30 Jun 09

This book is the sequel to The Secret Diaries of Miranda Cheever, following Miranda’s best friend Olivia. I don’t know how many have been wanting this story, but I’m glad to see that Olivia got her story and perhaps her twin brother Winston will get his as well. There are some comic elements in this story, but don’t be scared away if you’re not a fan of “teh funnah” as it’s well done and not of the slapstick variety.

Olivia learns from her friends that her new neighbor, Sir Harry Valentine has a dreadful rumor passing around about him. Supposedly he may have killed his fiancee and Olivia could be living next door to a murderer. Olivia doesn’t believe it, but she decides to watch Harry from her bedroom window to see if she can discover anything about him. What she sees is him sitting behind his desk reading lots of papers, and sometimes wearing a silly hat. When she meets him in person after many days watching him, she takes a near instant dislike to him.

Harry knows his neighbor has been watching him for a number of days, but he doesn’t know why. Thinking she’s no more than a spoiled debutante, he writes her off, but when their paths keep crossing he doesn’t do anything to try to change his opinion of her. Instead he’s ordered by his superiors at the Home Office to watch her, as she is being courted by a Russian prince who possibly is in England to be up to no good. With Harry and Olivia thrown together more than either would like, their feelings of animosity change rapidly, though it’s possible the danger tied to the Russian could ruin everything.

I’ve never been a big fan of the dislike turning to love sort of story. What works in this one is that even though at first, and for a bit of time, Harry and Olivia don’t like each other, they still talk to the other. In this talking they start to learn about each other and the romance is able to blossom in a believable fashion. There are some hiccups along the way, but it doesn’t hamper the sweet and at times funny story.

Olivia, having been introduced in Secret Diaries as the opposite of Miranda. She’s bubbly, charming and very pretty. She feels though that people see the outward beauty and not what’s on the inside. Olivia, though, has her own quirks that make her a good character. Instead of reading gothic novels, she likes to read the newspaper, isn’t dazzled by a Russian prince just because of his title, and likes to get the better of Harry when she can.

Harry is someone of depth himself. He works as a translator for the War Department and his skills with language is why he’s ordered to watch Olivia and the Russian prince. He’s funny as well and has a good friend in Sebastian, whom he joined the army with to get away from his father, a drunk (though not a mean one). He has fun when he sees Olivia watching him through her window and his attempts at teasing her tend to not go as planned.

There’s a great scene involving the Russian prince, Sebastian, Harry’s brother Edward and the recitation and enactment of a lurid gothic novel that possibly could go over well in Russia. It’s a bit of comedy that’s not slapstick and a great moment that had me laughing out loud and chuckling over long after I’d finished the book. Comedy aside the intrigue with the Russian prince is placed in as more of a plot device and in the end doesn’t really seem to fit in the rest of the book, but it’s so minimal that it’s not overwhelming to the rest of the story.

Though the first half is a bit choppy, with the not liking each other, when Harry and Olivia talk enough to get past that it’s a charming story with some good comedy and a little bit of intrigue that delivers.

Grade: B+

Summary:
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When Olivia Bevelstoke is told that her new neighbor may have killed his fiancée, she doesn’t believe it for a second, but still, how can she help spying on him, just to be sure? So she stakes out a spot near her bedroom window, cleverly concealed by curtains, watches, and waits… and discovers a most intriguing man, who is definitely up to something.
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Sir Harry Valentine works for the boring branch of the War Office, translating documents vital to national security. He’s not a spy, but he’s had all the training, and when a gorgeous blonde begins to watch him from her window, he is instantly suspicious. But just when he decides that she’s nothing more than a nosy debutante, he discovers that she might be engaged to a foreign prince, who might be plotting against England. And when Harry is roped into spying on Olivia, he discovers that he might be falling for her himself…
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Read an excerpt.

Other books in this series:

Lawson’s review of A Hint of Wicked by Jennifer Haymore
Historical romance released by Forever 1 Jun 09

I remember reading a story a bit like this one a long time ago. The name of the book and the author have escaped my memory, but I remember that it centered around a man who had been involved in the Napoleonic wars and was coming home. The twist was he had hit his head, had amnesia and it was years later and he had been given up for dead. There is that same storyline in Haymore’s story, but there’s so much more. This story also includes a love triangle and of course a choice that has to be made.

Garrett James and his cousin Tristan James have always been in love with Sophie. The three of them grew up together and since Garrett was older, Tristan walked away from his love for Sophie and married another woman. Tragedy befalls the friends, however, when Garrett goes to Waterloo with his unit and he doesn’t return. Eight years later he has been declared dead and Tristan and Sophie are now married. Tristan, being Garrett’s heir, has assumed his title, Duke of Calton, and both have gone on with their life without Garrett.

When Garrett suddenly returns there are a number of legal questions surrounding who Sophie is married to and both men want to fight to keep her. Things don’t go smoothly for there’s a horrible scandal, not only with Garrett’s return and both men fighting to be Sophie’s husband, but there are rumors that Garrett is not the man he once was and Sophie’s being abused by Garrett. Not only must Sophie now choose which man will have her heart but also she must protect her family from those out to destroy everything she holds dear.

Sophie is a beautiful heroine, inside and out. She doesn’t want to make a choice between her two friends and husbands and she’s always been the peacemaker. She wants the decision be something that everyone can live with and have no animosity between the three of them. While Garrett was gone Sophie had to become a strong, independent woman, which Tristan helped her with and their friendship blossomed into love while Garrett was gone. When Garrett returns he’s been mentally, emotionally and physically scarred by the war and she senses that he has changed as well and perhaps he’s not the man she remembers.

Tristan is a caring, intelligent man. Though he couldn’t have Sophie, he married another woman who gave him a child, but she died in childbirth and Tristan, though sad, knew he could make Sophie his. He’s an alpha male, but more of the strong, quiet type, being subtle in what he does and running things smoothly from behind the scenes. When Garrett appears suddenly he’s very angry that Sophie is being taken away from him, but he never stoops to the level of using the rumors about Garrett’s behavior and mental state for his own gain.

Garrett is another type of alpha. He’s a tall, broad man who is used to grabbing what he wants and taking it. When his memory returns and he returns to England to be the duke again, he feels betrayed by both his wife who is now married to his best friend, and his best friend who took everything his life was. Garrett is a bit of a bully because he doesn’t remember how to behave as the duke and is confused by his new life. Everything has changed in his absence and he doesn’t know how to handle anything.

These three points of view throughout the story tell of how people grow and change throughout their lives and the choices aren’t always the easiest and can hurt people. One must make those choices though, or else no one would get on with their life after tragedy. The interactions between the three of them are also real, emotional and show that someday they could all be close again, even after Sophie’s choice (hah, yep, Sophie makes a choice!).

The villain of this book is also one of the scariest I’ve read in awhile as he’s devious, sly, and his machinations are so subtle and mean that he fools so many people for so long and eventually. . .well I can’t say more, or it’ll be spoiled. Needless to say that his plans play into the emotion of the rest of the story. The only thing that I didn’t like was the gullibility of Garrett when it came to the villain and his unwillingness to trust the people from his past. However, given his trauma with the war and shock when he comes home to see his wife and best friend and his confusion from loosing his memory, it is understandable that he’d be in a state where he misplaces his trust.

There are some really good risks that Haymore takes with the characters and it all pays off in the end and makes for a great book. If you haven’t read it yet, you need to go and get this book ASAP. And Haymore’s next historical will be about the man that Sophie doesn’t choose, so I’m going to be waiting for that one.

Grade: A-

CAUGHT BETWEEN DUTY AND DESIRE…

Sophie, the Duchess of Calton, has finally moved on. After seven years mourning the loss of her husband, Garrett, at Waterloo, she has married his best friend and heir, Tristan. Sophie gives herself to him body and soul…until the day Garrett returns from the Continent, demanding his title, his lands-and his wife.

TORN BETWEEN TWO HUSBANDS…

Now Sophie must choose between her first love and her new love, knowing that no matter what, her choice will destroy one of the men she adores. Will it be Garrett, her childhood sweetheart, whose loss nearly destroyed her once already? Or will it be Tristan, beloved friend turned lover, who supported her through the last, dark years and introduced her to a passion she had never known? As her two husbands battle for her heart, Sophie finds herself immersed in a dangerous game-where the stakes are not only love…but life and death.

Read an excerpt

Lawson’s review of Taken and Seduced by Julia Latham
Historical romance released by Avon 31 Mar 09

Time for another medieval romance from Julia Latham. This one again follows the story of a member of the League of the Blade, the society in Latham’s early Tudor England that protects the innocent and seeks justice for the wrongs of society. The League is the only thing that ties this book to Latham’s other three, as the characters here are new and possibly give a set up for another series following more of the knights and the ladies that come into their lives.

Adam Hilliard has been raised by the League, but feels their justice has not been extended to his family. He sets out on his own to kidnap the youngest daughter of the Marquess of Martindale, without letting the League know what he’s doing. Adam believes that the Marquess murdered his parents and wants to use his daughter, Lady Florence as leverage to be able to challenge him to combat and hopefully get the truth about his parents. Though he does his best to keep things in hand, Florrie provides a challenge, as she’s different than he expected.

Florrie hasn’t spent much time away from the secluded castle in Yorkshire. Her father kept her hidden and she behaved more as a servant to her family rather than a daughter of the house. Though afraid at first, she sees her kidnapping as a way to have an adventure with some new friends before she has to give up the small amount of freedom she has to go to a convent and completely cut off from the world and her family.

When Adam learns along the way how her father really feels about Florrie, he is more determined to face the man, especially when Florrie does everything she can to work her way into his heart. Florrie makes it her mission not only to have an adventure, but to find out the truth behind her kidnapping and why Adam is as driven, yet doesn’t seem to understand the odd way he behaves around her. When they reach London, both have a decision to make about their future and hope there is room for love.

What could be an interesting story is bogged down by Adam’s need for revenge, his singlemindedness until it’s almost too late, and the constant reminder that he was raised by the League of the Blade. When his parents died, the League took him and his brothers to a secluded castle and educated them in the ways of fighting, stealth and other things a Bladesmen would need to know. What they lost out on was dealing with living day to day in the real world. This, in the end, makes Adam a deadly, yet naive character and I felt there was much eye rolling on my part as I was reading his handling of certain situations.

Florrie is also naïve, but she comes off more in the way of a sheltered lady, rather than someone who is happy to be oblivious to the nature of life as Adam sometimes is. Due to a childhood injury, she’s left with a severe limp, but she’s coped well with it and has an optimistic outlook on life, though it’s definitely not a rosy outlook. She understands the nature of people and is willing to go with life as it happens, mostly because she’s been handed a harder life due to her injury and her father.

What starts to grate and give much eye rolling besides Adam is the constant repetition of Florrie’s destiny of entering a convent, Adam’s refusal to reveal anything of himself while he wants to know everything about Florrie, his constant need to be the protector, even over his brother Robert who is a man himself, Florrie thinking she can change Adam from his quest and Adam thinking that what he’s doing is justice and not revenge. That’s quite a list. Latham’s books, while entertaining, of course aren’t really historically accurate, but the characters in this one don’t really save it to being about average as the other three she’s written.

Grade: D+ C- (Florrie did save it, though Adam just needs to grow up quite a bit more)

Read more reviews of the related series by following the series’ tag.

Summary:
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Adam Hilliard, secret Earl of Keswick, lives for one thing: to kill the man who slew his parents. Raised in secrecy by the League of the Blade, he would do anything to restore his family’s honor.
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Lady Florence Becket is the key to his revenge. But when he kidnaps her, Florrie is neither frightened nor furious, as most other young ladies would be. The bold and powerful stranger who spirited her from her father’s castle could give her the freedom and adventure she craves.
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She is moved by his quest. He is captivated by her courage. They have no defense against the passion ignited by a single kiss. Adam has taken her from all she’s ever known–but now Florrie will delight in her scandalous seduction.
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Read an excerpt.

Lawson’s review of Memoirs of a Scandalous Red Dress (The Bachelor Chronicles, Book 5) by Elizabeth Boyle
Historical romance released by Avon 28 Apr 09

Gwen gave a review of Confessions of a Little Black Gown, which is definitely different than the way I felt about that book. But then I mentioned in my review of Love Letters From a Duke that I didn’t like Felicity, now Duchess of Hollindrake. When I read Black Gown, I’ve got to say, she just made me like her even less, and really her overbearing presence in that one took away from Tally’s story, as well as their cousin Pippin and her life. So I picked up Red Dress I was bracing myself for more grating meddling and smugness of being a know-it-all from Felicity. It’s so nice that I was completely wrong.

Red Dress follows what I’m sure a lot of Boyle readers have been wanting since This Rake of Mine, which is Pippin to finally get her dashing pirate, Thomas Dashwell. What happens instead is the book opens on the deck of a Royal Navy ship with Pippen, now Viscountess Gossett, at a ceremony that places her son John as the captain of the vessel. That’s right, we’re now 22 years after the events of Black Gown and Pippin is a widow with two grown children. Pippin thinks she sees a piratical figure in the crowd and mistakes it for Dash, and she faints.

Her children, thinking the best of their mother, want to ship her off to the country, as town life and the loss of their father has overset her too much and she needs to be somewhere peaceful. Instead Pippin sees the same figure in the square in front of her house and packs a bag to travel with him toward Baltimore. Though not Dash, it is in fact his son Nathaniel, and she’s been asked to save Dash’s life.

What she finds on the ship is a broken man, no longer the naval hero he was and while he kisses the same, it’s not the same Dash he was. With Pippen back in his life he attempts to overcome his weaknesses and rediscover who he really was. Pippin must also tell the truth about what happened more than 20 years before and when these two souls, though older than they were, rediscover their love it’s the best ending of all. At least if they can safely get across the Atlantic that is.

What was the best part of this story was the flashbacks that go into more detail about the relationship of Dash and Pippin, from the very beginning, the kiss on the beach from This Rake of Mine, through their reunion in Love Letters From a Duke and of course, the events in Black Dress. It was really sweet to revisit parts of these books (without Felicity) and see how they did fall in love with each other over the course of the years.

The second best thing was seeing Pippin all grown up, having raised her children, and seeing the Victorian era through the eyes of a Regency lady. Her frustration with the fashions, how her children view her and the fact that she feels life may have passed her by, until she meets Nathaniel and Dash, show a mature woman who longs for what might have been, even though she’s been happy with what she had.

What pains her still is the reason why she left Dash to his fate and married someone else, and the fact that he’s in the state he’s in because of what she did. Of course, there are a couple of his actions that make Dash not the best person in the world, but he still is a dashing hero when he gets his feet back under him and his charm helps to keep him the pirate Pippin fell in love with.

Dash, of course, has that charm in abundance, but he’d wallowed in self pity for so long he didn’t see he was hurting those around him. He has his own secrets, which while sad, show that he always loved the sea and what he could do there and when he met Pippin wanted to include her into his life, rather than sail away from her like he’d done everything else.

Such well drawn characters, a compelling story, and giving Pippin and Dash their happy ending in such a real and satisfying way makes this one a must read for anyone who’s read any of the rest of the series. Boyle’s next series follows more matchmaking from Felicity, which I’ve got to say I’m not thrilled about. But I like Boyle and her writing and I’ll read them for those reasons and ignore Felicity as much as possible.

Grade: A-

Summary:
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What if all you have are the memories of a pirate…
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…and the scandalous red dress that nearly brought you to ruin? Remembrances of the kisses he stole? Or his seductive, rakish smile as he charmed his way into your bed, stole your innocence and your heart? To proper and respectable Philippa, Lady Gossett such memories are best locked away. At least so she thought until a stranger arrives on her doorstep and offers her a chance to tempt fate once again… to tempt Dash back into her life and quite possibly into her bed…
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But the man Pippin loved all those years ago, and the man she discovers are hardly the same. Captain Thomas Dashwell has a score to settle with the now widowed Lady Gossett, the vision in red who has haunted his life for so long—ever since that fateful night when she betrayed him and married another. She’s the one woman he’s vowed to hate until the end of his days… and the one woman he can never forget…
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Read an excerpt.

Other books in this series:

Welcome back to Duck Chat!

Today we’re chatting with Harlequin Historical author Julia Justiss. Julia has a wonderful backlist full of historicals such as The Wedding Gamble, Wicked Wager, The Untamed Heiress, and A Most Unconventional Match. (She has some of the best covers out there, too!) Her current release is a novella in the One Candlelit Christmas (which I read and thoroughly enjoyed) that was out last December for the holiday season. 

Julia is married and lives in East Texas with her family. She’s had a very interesting life which includes a lot of traveling before her husband retired from the Navy. Once they did settle in Texas, she was able to put all her energies into writing full time. She has won numerous awards for her stories, including a Golden Heart for The Wedding Gamble.

When reading Julia’s interview, keep in mind she’s giving away a copy of One Candlelight Christmas, which also features stories by Terri Brisbin and Annie Burrows, so leave a meaningful comment or question to be in the running!  Now let’s chat with Julia!

DUCK CHAT: You have a new addition to your Wellington family series coming out in October of this year, From Waif to Gentleman’s Wife. First can you give us some background on the series and then tell our readers about the new book?

JULIA JUSTISS: It isn’t exactly a series, in that there was never a “planned” number of books to come out in sequence. Sarah Wellingford, heroine of my first book, The Wedding Gamble, came from a large family and I’d always envisioned doing the stories of her siblings and her husband Nicky’s two best friends. As it turned out, my second novel featured some totally unrelated characters. In my third, The Proper Wife, I returned to the Wellingfords with the story of Sarah’s childhood love Sinjin and her best friend Clarissa. A number of books featuring other heroines and heroes then intervened, until the appearance last July of my twelfth book, A Most Unconventional Match, which showcased Sarah’s younger sister Elizabeth and Hal Waterman, one of Nicky’s best friends. In November 2008 “Christmas Wedding Wish” appeared in the anthology One Candlelit Christmas, telling the story of the second eldest Wellingford sister, Meredyth. My next book, From Waif to Gentleman’s Wife, out in October 2009, tells the story of Sir Edward Austin Greaves, the second of Nicky’s best friends.

That takes care of Sarah and Nicky’s closest friends, but Sarah still has some unattached siblings, so there may be more Wellingford stories in the future.

DC: If you could retire any question and never, ever have it asked again, what would it be? Feel free to answer it.

JJ: I don’t know that there is one. Except maybe “where do you get your ideas.” The answer to that is “everywhere.” From stories I like that I’d like to see with a different twist. Stories I didn’t like that I’d like to end or progress differently. People I like. People I don’t like. Current news stories. Historical events or characters. Those intriguing little bits of historical trivia that just beg to be expanded into a full-length story.

Writers are like the Pig-Pen character in the old Peanuts cartoon strip, who went around always surrounded by this cloud of dirt. Except writers are always surrounded by this dusty cloud of Ideas.

DC: I’ve heard writers often say their stories take them in surprising directions, or dialogue flows from some unknown place. Is it the same with you? Do your characters surprise you sometimes?

JJ: I’m an outline writer rather an a “pantser” (as in “seat of your pants,” meaning the writer goes where the story takes her, without planning it in advance). It helps reduce the panic when I sit down at the keyboard if I have an idea of where I need to go next and because my day job leaves me with such limited writing time, I can’t afford to write a scene I later decide I don’t need. But even with fairly detailed planning, stories seldom follow the outline exactly.

Characters you think will be important may turn out not to be; events that you think will go in one direction may veer off in another. When the story is really flowing, the dialogue just “comes.” So there are always surprises!

DC: Do you ever argue with your characters while you’re writing? Who usually wins?

JJ: No arguments—because I listen to them. If they take the story in a direction that I hadn’t anticipated, I just follow.

DC: You have an interesting project with several other authors coming in 2010. Dubbed “The Silken Rope Scandals,” can let us know, first, how the idea for the project came about?

JJ: I’m enormously excited about this project, which represents several “firsts.” Although individual authors have created historical series, as far as I know, this is the first historical continuity by a North America publisher. As is usual in a continuity, the participating authors were invited by the editorial directors to take part in the project, but there was no editor-generated “bible” issued for the writers to follow. We were given complete freedom to develop the overall story arc, decide on the main characters, chose whose story we wanted to tell and devise its plot—subject, of course, to editorial approval. Fortunately, the editors loved our concept, accepted the outline of the overall arc and approved the individual story synposes (synopsi?) with very little alteration. Alas, our series working title, “The Silken Rope Scandals,” was ultimately retitled Regency Silk and Scandal.

DC: What is sure to distract you from sitting down and working/writing?

JJ: Like most writers, I have a hard time getting started. Sitting down is no problem; I’m always eager to check e-mail, visit the few blogs and review sites I follow and update the news on my website. What usually distracts me from moving on to the actual writing is research information, either tidbits posted on one of my historical author loops, on a blog, or in a website link. Historical writers are like magpies, always attracted to some shiny bit of obscure fact because who knows when it might be just the thing you need to flesh out a scene? So it must be read and then copied into the appropriate file.

Research will always distract me, which is why when I’m writing, I make up what I don’t know and only go back to check the facts after I’ve finished the book. If I stopped to check out background information as I wrote, I’d never get the book finished!

DC: How do you feel your male or female characters have evolved over your career? Do you think you write them differently now than you did when you started?

JJ: I don’t know that my “style” of character has changed. I’ve always written strong, independent women who see the hero as an equal, a complement to them, not as someone to support them or solve their problems or rescue them. I’ve written both alpha and beta heroes, but they always respect their women and are not threatened by a lady who can hold her own with a pen, a pistol, or a horse.

My stories are all character-driven, and I write about characters who interest me. The stories flow from them, not me—I just follow where they lead! However, I guess I could say that my characters now tend to be less the conventional Marriage Mart maiden or matron and more involved in less well-known locales and situations.

DC: Who are the other authors involved in “The Silken Rope Scandals”?

JJ: Louise Allen has the first and seventh books; Christine Merrill has the second and eighth; I have the third; Gayle Wilson the fourth (her first return to Regency historical after several years of writing contemp suspense, so I’m really excited about Book 4); Annie Burrows the fifth; and Margaret McPhee the sixth.

DC: Is there a genre you haven’t tackled but would like to try?

JJ: I’d like to do some contemps. My ideas range from the interesting-but-probably-not-marketable, like the crippled murder-mystery-solving bookstore owner heroine who teams up with the artificial-leg-ex-military hero who now runs a security firm. The possibly marketable romance set in East Texas where the big-city heroine inherits a ranch after the sudden death of her father, who bought the place at a tax sale as a retirement hobby—the ranch formerly belonging to the hero, who lost the land that had been in his family for generations after he was imprisoned for a crime he didn’t commit, who breaks out of jail to prove his innocence and get his land back. Then there’s the series I’d like to do on adventurous women, like the Navy fighter pilot; the rescue diver; the engineer-designer of the first practical laser handgun whose prototype gets stolen by the bad guys and she goes undercover to get it back, clashing with the government agent assigned to the case…

DC: LOL, well, after hearing that, I think you might make one of them work!  What advice would you give to your younger self?

JJ: Be more disciplined. Write faster. Get more books out.

DC: Your contribution to the project is titled The Smuggler and the Society Bride. Can you give us a smidge of a sneak peek, please?

JJ: The background of all the stories is a scandal in the father’s generation involving three friends and spymasters. One is having an affair with the wife of another; after angry words are exchanged, one man is found murdered, the friend with whom he’d quarreled supporting him, holding a bloody knife, by the third member of the team. Although the suspect insists he found his associate already stabbed and dying, he is tried, convicted of murder and hung—with a silken rope, as was the right of a peer of the realm. At the hanging, the murdered man’s gypsy mistress curses all those involved in her lover’s death. Someone in the children’s generation decides to implement the curse.

My heroine, Lady Honoria Carlow, is the daughter of the friend who let his best friend die on the scaffold despite his claims of innocence. She is set up to be ruined in such a way that she has no choice but to leave London. Angry at fate, life and the family that did not believe her, the victim of some diabolical scheme, she flees to a distant aunt in Cornwall. While mulling over her life—and trying to figure out who conspired to destroy her—she meets the intriguing captain of a local smuggling ship. Though he’s the last sort of man an earl’s daughter should find attractive, there’s something compelling about Gabriel Hawksworth—a man who has secrets of his own to conceal—that Honoria finds impossible to resist.

DC: If you had never become an author, what do you think you would be doing right now?

JJ: I’ve always wanted to run an indie bookstore in a college town that had a coffee bar by day and wine bar by night, with student art on consignment hanging on the walls, a little stage for poetry readings, one-act plays, concerts, and other entertainments.

DC: What else is on the horizon for Julia Justiss?

JJ: I’ve just completed the rough draft for the Harlequin Historical e-book Undone program, an e-book only, sexier short stories format similar to the Spice Briefs that are marketed from the eHarlequin website. This story features secondary characters from my upcoming Wellingford book and will be out in September. I’ve got three more books under contract, the next of which should be the story of Caroline, an independent young woman who has serious and somewhat unusual reasons for avoiding wedlock, and Max, the unrepentant rake she proposes to have “compromise” her so she’ll be considered ruined and safe from matrimonial pursuit. Except that Max discovers he has a conscience after all and isn’t sure he can ruin and then abandon this very intriguing young lady.

However, there are several secondary characters from the October Wellingford book who are calling out for stories of their own, so Max and Caroline might not be next after all. I’ll see what my editor thinks after I turn in the final draft of the Undone.

A treat for those of you who have not read One Candlelit Christmas:

CHAPTER 1

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“Merry! Merry, they’re here! Come quickly!”
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From the dining room where she was supervising the footmen placing another leaf in the long table, Meredyth Wellingford heard her younger sister’s urgent voice summoning her to the entryway. “Coming, Faith” she called.
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A lilt in her step, Meredyth smiled as she walked to the front hall. How she loved the holidays! The scent of greenery adorning stairs and mantles mingling with the spicy tang of simmering wassail and the odor of roasting meat; mistletoe kissing balls and sharp-edged holly; carols sung around the hearth before the blazing Yule log. But especially, she loved having her family at home, the siblings gathered once again under Wellington’s roof as they had been for all their years growing up.
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The first to arrive should be her younger brother Colton returning from Oxford with his best friend Thomas Mansfell. Since Wellingford was on the way from university to his friend’s home farther north, Thomas was a frequent visitor, normally spending a few days with them each time the boys made their way to and from school.
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Just as Meredyth met her sister in the entry hall, they heard boots tromping up the front steps, followed by a sharp rap at the wide front door that Twilling, their old butler, hastened to throw open.
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“Faith! Merry!” Colton cried, sweeping them into a hug as they ran to greet him. “How good it is to be home!”
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“How good it is to have you,” Merry replied, an ache in her heart as she stepped back to inspect the youngest member of the Wellingford clan. With their mother having never really recovered after his birth, Meredyth and her older sister Sarah had tutored and cared for Colton all of his life before he left for school. In place of the smiling, eager boy she’d sent away to Eton now stood a young man taller than she was, his burnished brown locks highlighted with gold, his blue eyes glowing. Her little brother was becoming a handsome young man, Meredyth realized with a shock.
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“The hall certainly looks festive,” another masculine voice said, pulling her from her contemplation of Colton.
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“Thank you, Thomas, and welcome,” she said, turning her attention to her brother’s friend. “You are planning on staying for a few days before journeying home, I hope! I’ve had your usual room prepared.”
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“Oh, yes, do say you’ll be staying!” Faith interposed. “It is so agreeable to see you again.”
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“Good to see you too, brat,” Thomas replied, giving one of Faith’s gold curls a careless tug before turning back to Meredyth.
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“I should love to rest here for a few days before returning to the rigors of Christmas at the Grange. And I hope you don’t mind, but I took the liberty of telling my brother Allen that he could stay here as well. He arrived from London to join us on the trip north just as Colton and I were leaving Oxford.”
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“Of course he’s welcome,” Meredyth replied. “You’ve spoken of him so often, although we’ve never met, I feel I know him already.” Indeed, over the years Thomas had frequently recounted the exploits of the older brother he admired, his expertise at riding and fencing, his service as a dashing young subaltern carrying messages for Wellington during the Waterloo campaign, the expertise with which he’d taken over the management of the family estates.
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Thomas grinned “I’m glad! It would have been most embarrassing to have to send him on his way alone! He stopped to see about the horses—but here he is now.” He gestured to a tall, dark-haired gentleman whom Twilling was just admitting into the hallway.
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“Ladies, may I present my brother Allen? Allen, here are Merry and Faith Wellingford, two of Colton’s sisters.”
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“Miss Faith, Miss Wellingford, a pleasure!” the newcomer said, bowing over their hands in turn. Addressing Meredyth, he added, “I’ve heard so much about Wellingford from Thomas, I’m delighted to visit at last—if you are certain, as he insisted, that having an extra guest foisted upon you without notice won’t be an inconvenience.”
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As the gentleman straightened, Meredyth barely suppressed a gasp. Unlike her fledgling brother, Allen Mansfell was a man already fully mature—and a strikingly handsome one. Though Meredyth was tall for a lady, the visitor towered over her. Sable brown locks brushed the forehead of his square-jawed, slightly smiling face, while eyes of an arresting green captured her gaze, making her feel for an instant as if the two of them were the only occupants of the hall.
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A bit disconcerted, she dropped her eyes, letting her appreciative gaze travel from his broad shoulders down a trim torso to muscled thighs well-displayed by his chamois riding breeches. When, cheeks pinking, she forced her eyes back up to his, a tingle of attraction sizzled through her, stronger than anything she’d felt since the death of her fiancé James a heartbreak ago.
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Shaking her head, she tried to re-gather her wits. “If you’ve listened to what Thomas says about me, I’m surprised you dared venture to the house.”
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He laughed, that disturbing, shiver-inducing stare still fixed on her. “I assure you, everything he recounted was most complimentary.”
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“I hope you left us some decorating to do,” Colton said, glancing around the garland-hung hallway. “After being cooped up with musty old books for a term, Thomas and I are keen to ride about the countryside.”
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“Faith and I began with the entryway, but haven’t progressed much further. We shall have need of you gentleman to fetch in more pine, holly and mistletoe. I thought we’d leave some of the gathering until Sarah, Elizabeth and Clare arrive with their clans. Riding out with you should amuse the children.”
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Colton grinned at her. “That’s Merry, already managing everyone and half the group aren’t even here yet.”
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“She is an excellent manager,” Thomas pointed out. “Viewing Wellingford now, Allen, you cannot imagine what it looked like when I first visited here! The manor in disrepair, cottages falling into ruin, fields lying fallow. Merry’s done a wonderful job of refurbishing the house and farms and seeing the land brought back under cultivation.”
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Were Thomas not almost as close to her as a sibling, Meredyth might have been embarrassed by his bald description of the sorry condition of Wellingford at the time of their father’s death. As it was, knowing that via Thomas his brother Allen would be fully aware of how badly their gamester father had neglected Colton’s inheritance, she felt no need to explain or apologize. “Time, a competent estate agent and an influx of funds can accomplish a great deal,” she replied.
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“Having wrestled with the upkeep of Papa’s properties, Miss Wellingford, I am well aware that it takes much more than those to keep a property in good heart,” Allan said. “The land and farms we rode through looked exemplary and this house is lovely. Your hard work is quite evident.”
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“Oh, indeed!” Colton interposed. “Merry is so excellent a manager, I believe I shall keep her on when I marry and return to Wellingford for good.”
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“I doubt your bride would care for such an arrangement,” Meredyth replied tartly, feeling her face heat. With the blunt insensitivity of a young man, she knew Colton didn’t realize he’d just branded her as his spinster sister, well and truly on the shelf. Which, of course, she was, but ‘twas not a fact she appreciated his pointing out in front of the very attractive Mr. Mansfell.
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Though some eight years senior to the seventeen-year-old Thomas, Allen Mansfell must still be at least two years younger than she. Her discomfort intensified by that lowering thought, Meredyth told herself sternly that she must get over the unseemly sensual response he’d sparked in her.
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Noting from her expression that her sister was piqued at being left out of the conversation—and conscious of a sudden need to escape Allen Mansfell’s too-compelling presence, Meredyth said, “Faith, why don’t you take our guests into the front parlor? I’ll have Twilling bring in some spiced wine while I see about preparing your rooms.”
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Turning to Mr. Mansfell, she added, “I’ll have your chamber ready shortly. If there is anything I can do to make your stay at Wellingford more comfortable, please don’t hesitate to ask.”
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To her surprise, Allen took her hand and bowed over it. “I’m sure you will make me comfortable indeed,” he murmured, the warmth of his voice and the heat of his gloved hand sending another little shock through her.
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Hastily withdrawing her tingling fingers, Meredyth curtseyed and turned away, acutely conscious of his gaze upon her back as she ascended the stairs.
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Escaping from his view down the hallway, Meredyth proceeded to the guest wing to inspect the room she meant to assign Allen, needing to determine if anything more than fresh linens would be needed. As her gaze lingered on the large high bed, she recalled Mr. Mansfell’s velvet-voiced remark about how comfortable she would make him. A surprisingly intense flush of heat suffused her body.
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She was being ridiculous, attributing to his idle remark an innuendo a gentleman would never direct toward a gently-born spinster. ‘Twas bad enough she’d blushed like a schoolgirl under his gaze. She’d best get hold of herself around him before she did something that alerted him to the effect he had upon her. The thought of him realizing it and reacting with distaste-or even worse, pity–was too humiliating to contemplate.
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Fortunately, he would only be at Wellingford for a few days. With the rest of the family arriving any time now, she’d be too busy overseeing meals, lodging and entertainment for her sisters, their spouses and children to reflect on the mesmerizing effect of a pair of vivid green eyes or the quivering in her belly produced by a handsome face and a virile physique.
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It wasn’t as if she’d encountered no attractive men in the years since her engagement ended. What was it about Allen Mansfell that sparked her body to a sensual awareness she’d thought submerged for good after James’s death?
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The dull ache that had replaced the first searing pain of losing her fiancé throbbed in her chest. Swallowing hard, she drifted to the window, staring sightlessly down at the winter garden as the memories overtook her.
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How in love they’d been! How vividly she recalled the excitement of kissing him, the way she’d felt as if she were melting from the inside out when his tongue caressed hers and his strong hands fondled her breasts. Not for the first time, she regretted the sense of honor and responsibility that had made them curtail those thrilling explorations short of complete fulfillment.
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They’d have all the time in the world to enjoy each other when he returned from his posting in India, James had promised as he gently pushed her away. Drawing a finger over her kiss-swollen lips, he’d pledged to pleasure every inch of her once she was his bride, when they need no longer fear that their joining might create a child.
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That last night before he left she’d been tempted, oh so tempted, to draw him back into her embrace, rub her breasts against his chest, fit her body around the hardness in his breeches and coax his lips open, touching and teasing until his control broke and he took her then and there down the path to ecstasy. Only the knowledge that conceiving his child would mean disaster had stopped her.
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Faced now with the probability that she’d never bear a child of her own, she wasn’t so sure she’d made the right choice.
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It wasn’t that she’d set her face against marriage. Of course, for the first year or so after losing James she’d not thought it possible she would ever wish to wed anyone else, but time had worn away that certainty as it had muted her grief. In the intervening years, the necessity of remaining at Wellingford to tend her dying mother, followed by a succession of other needs and duties, had kept her here, far from the ballrooms of London where she might have found another love.
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Not that it was completely impossible she might yet marry. She’d go to London with Faith in the spring, accompany her little sister to all the events of the Marriage Mart. But by now almost ten years older than her sister and the other girls making their bows, she would likely be consigned to wearing caps and sitting with the dowagers.
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Besides, unlike many of the maidens soon to join Faith in the drawing rooms of society, Meredyth cherished no dreams of wedding for wealth or title. She’d already sidestepped the rich neighbor who’d come wooing, wishing to join her dowry lands with his. Gently rebuffed an old family friend, a widowed viscount looking for a new mama for his clan. Possessed of a valued place among her family, a budding brood of nieces and nephews to spoil, land and a dower house in which to live once Colton brought home a bride to be the new mistress of Wellingford, she would not turn her heart, her worldly possessions and her future over to a husband in exchange for anything less than a love as powerful as that she’d felt for James.
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Turning to give the bed one last lingering glance, Meredyth sighed and walked back out. Despite Allen Mansfell’s ability to make her senses zing, demonstrating that passion burned within her still, for a lady as long in the tooth as Meredyth Wellingford, finding true love again would take a miracle.
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Savoring a glass of spiced wine in the parlor below, Allen Mansfell propped an elbow against the mantle and looked on indulgently as Miss Faith Wellingford tried—with no success—to flirt with his brother Thomas, who alternately teased and ignored her while discussing with Colton a proposed hunting expedition for the morrow.
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A pretty enough child, Miss Faith resembled her older sister Elizabeth, said to be beauty of family, who’d recently married his friend Hal Waterman. With her lovely face and artless charm, Miss Faith would probably have little problem finding a suitable husband next spring when, as she earnestly informed him, she’d be making her debut.
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At the thought, Allen suppressed a quiver of distaste. Next spring would probably find him back in London as well. Though after Susanna’s faithlessness, part of him recoiled at the thought of ever offering his hand and name to another lady, once his initial hurt and fury abated, he knew the reason he’d first sought her out—a desire to marry, settle down on his estate and delight his mama by providing her with grandchildren–would propel him back to Marriage Mart again. Not that he had any intention this time of risking his heart.
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Unfortunately, the London season provided the most convenient and comprehensive gathering of maidens of suitable breeding and lineage from which a gentleman might find a wife. Though ‘twas ludicrous to think of choosing an infant like Faith.
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It was Susanna’s confident self-assurance that had first caught his interest last spring. Unlike most of the other maidens, she was able to converse intelligently—and flirt alluringly–instead of falling into giggles or blushing at every word he uttered. To say nothing of the blatant promise of her lush body…
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Angrily he thrust away the memories. He’d raged and mourned long enough. He would not allow her perfidy to cast a damper over his spirits any longer.
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If he were compelled to wade into waters of Marriage Mart once again, he thought, Miss Faith’s sister Meredyth was much more to his taste. Tall, slender, her hair a paler blonde that the gold of her little sister’s, her eyes gray-blue rather than cerulean, she carried herself with a graceful elegance. Then there’d been that surprising spark of awareness accompanied by a jolt of warmth that fairly burned through his gloves when he’d foolishly uttered that naughty remark about how comfortable she could make him. Elegance and—unlike Susanna—integrity in one subtlety sensuous body made for quite an arresting combination.
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Nor had he been mouthing empty phrases when he’d complimented her on the management of Wellingford. He’d been genuinely impressed by the well-tended fields, fences and cottages past which they’d ridden, their excellent condition all the more impressive considering in what a shambles the entire estate had been just a few years ago.
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Randolph Wellingford’s profligate habits, addiction to gaming and shocking neglect of his estate had been quite the on-dit when Allen first left Oxford for London. Indeed, many at his club had murmured ‘twas a blessing for the family when the man met an early death, riding out half-foxed one cold winter morning in an attempt to win some ridiculous wager. Meredyth Wellingford must be intelligent, diligent and a thrifty manager to have accomplished so much at Wellingford.
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The thought struck him then, as appealing as it was sudden. If he must marry—and marry he must–why not choose a more mature lady, one he knew by reputation to possess a sterling character and by personal observation to already have the skills necessary to be mistress of a large estate? An older lady who might be as amenable as he to a marriage based on similar tastes and mutual respect. A lady whose subtle attractiveness promised satisfaction of his appetites without the torment of lust and jealousy Susanna had roused in him.
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A lady who just happened to be planning to accompany her little sister to London for the upcoming Season.
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Allen swallowed the last of his wine and set down his glass, smiling. He’d use this few day’s sojourn at Wellingford to become better acquainted with his charming hostess. And if he continued to be as impressed—and titillated—by Meredyth Wellingford as he’d been upon their first meeting, he might just have found the answer to his marriage dilemma.

Lightning Round:

- dark or milk chocolate?   – Dark
- smooth or chunky peanut butter?    – Chunky
- heels or flats?    – Really high FMP for going out; flats and barefoot for home
- coffee or tea?    – Coffee
- summer or winter?    -  Cool not cold; don’t like heat (and I live in Texas—how smart is that?)
- mountains or beach?    – Both. Love walking by the water (not laying out tho) Love mountain trails and woodland streams.
- mustard or mayonnaise?   – Mayo
- flowers or candy?    – Flowers
- pockets or purse?     -  Pockets; not big on bags but oh, get me some SHOES!
- Pepsi or Coke?    – Coke
- ebook or print?    — Print. My eyes bother me after reading on a screen for awhile.

And because we’ve had fun with them so far:

1. What is your favorite word?   – faith
2. What is your least favorite word?     – Camaraderie, because I can never, ever spell it right
3. What turns you on creatively, spiritually or emotionally?    – Calm serenity in my personal life
4. What turns you off creatively, spiritually or emotionally?    – Anxiety, esp about family or my kids
5. What sound or noise do you love?   – Flowing water: fountain, waves on a beach, etc.
6. What sound or noise do you hate?    – “background noise” tv or music
7. What is your favorite curse word?    -  Damn—it’s mild enough to use liberally
8. What profession other than your own would you like to attempt?   – Fighter pilot; I love to fly but I get motion sickness.
9. What profession would you not like to do?    – **Anything** that deals with numbers
10. If Heaven exists, what would you like to hear God say when you arrive at the Pearly Gates? – “Well done, good and faithful servant.”

DC: Thank you so much, Julie, for being with us today!

Wendy the Super Librarian‘s review of Flower Arrangement by Adelaide Cole (no author site found)
Historical erotica ebook short story released by Spice Briefs 1 Mar 09

While perusing the eHarlequin ebook site, Flower Arrangement caught my eye for a couple of reasons: 1) It’s a shorter read, and I’m a bit of a ‘ho for short reads; and 2) it’s an erotic historical story set in 1903 London. When I actually opened the story to start reading, I noticed a couple of things.  First, when they say Brief, they mean it; this story clocks in at 27 pages on my Sony Reader.  And second, the story is strictly erotica.  Anyone hoping for an “erotic romance” is going to be sorely disappointed.

Emma is an independent-minded girl with ambition. Selling flowers on street corners had been a somewhat lucrative gig, until her supply dries up. So she lands herself a job as a maid in an affluent household where she hopes to save enough money to open her very own flower shop. She quickly develops a lustful crush on the man of the house, Master Riggs, and assumes it’s strictly a one-way fantasy. Imagine her surprise with the handsome master takes a shine to her, and proposes an “arrangement.” Satisfy his carnal desires and she’ll be that much closer to realizing her dreams.

Basically what we have here is the 1903 version of the young woman who works as an escort to pay for grad school. It’s hard to not think of Emma as a prostitute – because essentially she’s trading her sexual services for money and a ticket to a better life. The story did supply my one basic requirement for erotica – and that’s that the heroine has control over her own destiny. Certainly Emma enters into this adulterous affair to “get ahead” [Gwen ed.: heh] – but one never feels like she couldn’t have told Master Riggs to go screw himself, that she couldn’t be bought. Emma wants to have some fun with the man, and why not use him to get where she wants to go?

And that’s going to be the stumbling block for a lot of readers. If you’re looking for a (very) quick, hot read that’s straight-up erotica, this story is certainly going to fit the bill. However, if you’re a reader who needs the romance to go along with the hot sexing? Yeah, keep on walking. Nothing to see here.

Grade: C

Summary:
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London, 1903
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Emma is a maid with ambition. She dreams of opening her own flower shop one day, determined never to lose her independence…or the pleasure she finds in lifting her skirts for a handsome boy.
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Emma also dreams of what it would be like to share that pleasure with the master of the house—a fantasy that Master Riggs apparently shares. For when hears about Emma’s plans, he proposes an arrangement: he will help Emma achieve her ambition if Emma will help satisfy his desires in exchange…
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No excerpt found.

Never Love a Lawman by Jo Goodman

384 pages is what it shows on amazon… wonder if that is right… I know the galleys aren’t in yet cuz wow that would be like Jo Goodman’s shortest book in a long ass time.

Sound very westernish, doesn’t it.  Of course, it says historical on Amazon.  hmmm…what do you think? JO!!!!!!!! Come tell us what your book is about. Please and thank you

Liviania’s review of Private Places by Robin Schone, Claudia Dain, Allyson James, and Shiloh Walker
Historical Erotic Romance Anthology released by Berkley Trade 5 Aug 08

Private Places gathers together four talents in erotic romance for a strong anthology. Each has a different style and theme, but all but one fit together well. Walker’s is a nice palate-cleanser. Only one of the novellas disappointed me, though I’m sure there are many who would enjoy it.

The Decidedly Devilish Duke by Allyson James

Years ago Michael and Amelia might have married, but their pride got in the way. Now Michael finally has the chance to marry her since her husband died and left her dependent on a despicable relative. But someone is claiming that Michael’s wife is not really dead. James doles out the secrets of their past at a good pace and develops them well. The plot involving Michael’s wife seems more rushed since most of the character’s actions to bring about the resolution occur off-screen. While I found A Night at the Theater to be a better story, I think Michael and Amelia were a better couple.

Grade: B+

Summary:
A wickedly erotic card game has high stakes: marriage. And a cunning widower and a desperate young widow learn that passion is the ultimate wild card . . .
Read an excerpt here

A Night at the Theater by Claudia Dain

Zoe lost her position as an actress to Miranda and wants revenge. Experienced courtesan Sophia knows how to do it: set Zoe up with Miranda’s former lover Duke Aldreth. He’s also rich enough to keep Zoe well if she pulls of the seduction. Sophia wants to convince Lord Dalby (enemy of her former lover Lord Westlin) to marry her. Dain includes a number of entanglements among the characters and two relationships but makes it all work. Sophia and Zoe are practical woman and very different from the normal romantic heroine. I enjoyed watching Sophia’s plots unfold as the night progressed. Definitely my favorite of the anthology.

Grade: A-

Summary:
Revenge is on the playbill for two young courtesans attending the theater in London. And far more entertaining than the play is the off-stage drama of a very public seduction or two . . .
Read an excerpt here

Hunter’s Mercy by Shiloh Walker

Shape-shifter Jack returns home to take care of his dead best friend’s sister, Mercy. In the since he left other creatures moved into his territory and killed her husband, causing her to hunt them despite being severely outclassed. I liked Jack’s voice and enjoyed the story, but it seemed a little out of place in this anthology. It’s both the only paranormal and the only one not set in London. However, Walker manages some worldbuilding in about one hundred pages and develops interesting supporting characters. My favorite was former slave Lydia who knows a more about what’s happening than she let’s on.

Grade: B

Summary:
In America’s early days, a woman is out to kill the demons who destroyed her life. But when she becomes the prey, a shape-shifter turns up to save her. Now, if only she could think of a way to repay him . . .
Read an excerpt here

The Men and Women’s Club by Robin Schone

Robin Schone headlined the anthology but I found her entry the least satisfying. Joseph Manning lost his virginity to Ardelle Dennison and wants to repeat the experience, now that their club for talking frankly about sex has been discovered. Ardelle has a number of demons to work through regarding her sexual history and she gets over them too quickly for my taste. It’s also hard to tell what is going on with the club since it isn’t actually featured in the story. Apparently a widow in it told her son about it and is not on trial (with Ardelle and Joseph witnessing against her – Schone goes for subtle, but hits obtuse (in my opinion). I didn’t care enough about the characters to read it again and try to follow the plot.

Grade: D

Summary:
Their private vice is a club that explores the boundaries of passion – but when it’s exposed in an 1887 London trial, a man and a woman learn how very dangerous desires of the flesh can be . . .
Read an excerpt here

Overall Grade: B-

Overall Summary:
Four all-new hot tales of yore, by the queens of erotic fiction.

USA Today bestselling author Robin Schone shares a tale of a man and a woman in a notorious club, who learn how very dangerous desires of the flesh can be. Claudia Dain heats up this collection with the story of two voyeuristic young courtesans who might just take part in a very public seduction at the theatre. Allyson James has a card-playing, cunning widower and a desperate young widow learn that passion is the ultimate wild card. And finally, Shiloh Walker introduces a short story of a woman saved by a shapeshifter. Now, if only she could think of a way to repay him…

Rarely does such blush-worthy, heated erotica exist—and almost never all in one book.

Next we have another excerpt, steamier excerpt from What a Scoundrel Wants, the Zebra debut from Carrie’s Lofty. Don’t forget to read the first excerpt, and check out this Duck Flash for contest info!
In this dazzling, original tale, Carrie Lofty imagines a new chapter in the well-loved Robin Hood fable. Meet Robin’s rakish nephew, Will Scarlet, a man whose talents with the sword and the ladies are legendary–until his desire for one woman changes everything.

A Passionate Lover…

A swordsman for the Sheriff of Nottingham, Will Scarlet has finally emerged from his famous uncle’s shadow. But when he’s unwittingly drawn into a bloody battle between the Sheriff and a nobleman, it’s impossible to tell friend from foe. A woman’s screams lead Will straight into the carnage to save her–but the ravishing young lady is not the helpless maid she appears to be…

An Amorous Lady…

Meg of Keyworth lost her sight to illness years ago, but that hasn’t stopped her mission to save her imprisoned sister, who’s been arrested by none other than Will Scarlet. Meg wants to hate Will for betraying her family, but he sparks heated desire in her heart–a desire that only he can satisfy. Meg is lovely and loving, and bedding her is sensual bliss. To please her in every way is what he wants most, for Will knows he will cherish her forever….

Excerpt

“I should examine your shoulder when you finish chopping wood,” Meg said.

“Why?”

Because I enjoy torturing myself. Because I want to touch you.

She swallowed heavily. “To check for signs of infection.”

“If you want me out of my tunic, you only have to ask.”

“I should let it fester until your arm rots,” she said, her cheeks on fire.

“That’s hardly charitable.”

“Better than you deserve.”

Will leaned closer, slowly, his breath warming her cheek. “Open your mouth.”

Her lungs shuddered to a halt. “What?”

“I said, open your mouth. I have something for you.”

“You’re being absurd.” Her heart was a terrified animal, shivering and demanding flight. But her feet refused to move.

“Trust that at this moment I have no notion of doing you harm.”

The soft timbre of his voice nestled seductive images behind her eyes. She pinched them shut. “And why should I trust you?”

“I fear your ability to transform into a ball-twisting wench.”

“You deserved that.”

“Blessed be, woman, no man deserves that.” Will edged closer still, his hair tickling the skin of her forehead. He slipped a hand around the base of her neck, softly kneading and massaging her tense muscles. She may as well have been a kitten held by its scruff, so completely did he imprison her. “Open your mouth before I have to hold you down and pry your lips apart.”

Every sharp retort and defensive reply shriveled to naught. She swallowed the pathetic whimper that wanted to beg for mercy, some reprieve from the onslaught. First Hugo and his hideous, baiting insults. Then Scarlet–the worry and guesses and vain attempts to understand him. Protecting against his influence was like trying to catch smoke. He was some powerful potion in masculine form, intent on driving her to madness.

“Open for me, Meg.”

The intimate nature of his command shocked her. Dread flared, digging into her bones and settling between her legs. A throbbing ache blossomed, her body thriving on a spiteful blend of danger and curiosity. Heat licked over her skin like flames, setting good sense ablaze.

She opened her mouth.

He touched his finger to her tongue. An explosion of sweetness enveloped her mouth, nearly buckling her knees with the unexpected pleasure. Thought fled. She closed her lips around his finger and sucked, discovering every last crystal of sugar he offered.

Scarlet pulled his finger free. His breath was fast, strained, and very close. “More?”

She gave the smallest nod. He petted her lower lip, painting tiny grains along her thin, sensitive skin. She caught his finger again and licked the sweetness. The hand at the back of her neck tightened, near to pain. A combination of man and sugar swathed her tongue, slid down her throat, set her body on fire. Her breasts felt heavy and hot. A familiar hollowness opened inside her, aching to be filled. He offered more sugar. But she wanted more of him.

She swirled her tongue around his finger, sucking again. He moaned and shuddered. She could take no more. Burrowing eager fingers into a shaggy length of hair, she dragged his face to hers. Lips met in a heady explosion of heat and sweetness. His tongue thrust into her mouth. The syrupy remains of the sugar mingled with his own spice. His arms circled her back, deepening the kiss. Tight nipples crushed against the solid leather shielding his chest, arousing and frustrating her in turn.

Her hips found his. The insistent ridge of his erection offered proof of his desire. He groaned her name and arched her back, dusting quick, hard kisses along the length of her neck. She resented the high bodice that barred him from traveling lower, but flicks of his tongue wet a trail to one ear. He nibbled and suckled, threading his fingers into her hair. Lightheaded, she clung to his body as if a heartsick year had passed since she last held him, since he last held her.

Will.

And like a drowning woman finding a single gulp of air, she found herself–and ran.

Copyright Carrie Lofty 2008

Devon’s review of Hallowe’en Husbands by Lisa Plumley, Denise Lynn, and Christine Merill
Historical Paranormal Romance Anthology released by Harlequin Historical 1 October 2008

This anthology features three stories, set in different places and times, against the backdrop of Halloween. The crisp autumn atmosphere was nicely captured, that mysterious element in the air that makes you think anything might happen. Despite some issues, I enjoyed all three stories, and would seek out other books by the authors.

Marriage at Morrow Creek by Lisa Plumley

The first stop is Arizona Territory, 1884, against the backdrop of a traveling medical show. Rose (“the plain sister”) is desperately in love with Will, the bagman for her father’s show, and desperate to win him. Encouraged by a mysterious new acquaintance, Rose decides to go for it. I have nothing against a girl going for what she wants, but Rose was so desperate, determined and deluded, it was kind of annoying. I felt like she strong armed the clueless Will into submission. He went from not even noticing her to thinking perhaps he had cared for Rose for a long time. His feelings changed so quickly, I wasn’t buying it. His reasons for not wanting to get together with Rose felt like excuses.

Still, this was a cute and sweet story, with a touch of magic. I liked the small town, Americana setting with its homespun Halloween celebration. The paranormal element was nicely done, if a bit predictable. I didn’t care for the name-dropping. Many characters from Plumley’s past books drop in, with no real purpose. Overall, this was a pleasant change of pace. I just wish there was more magic to the romance.

Grade: B-

The only thing Rose Tillson ever wanted was a life of travel beneath the Western stars—and to marry secret sweetheart Will Gavigan! All Rose needs is a small dose of Hallowe’en magic to make Will realize she’s the girl of his dreams….

Wedding at Warehaven by Denise Lynn

Next we head to 12th Century England for a story of tension between old Pagan ways and newer Christian beliefs. This story got off to a great start, with a wild pagan celebration. I should mention that it was the sole story without a paranormal element, despite all references to the demonic. I guess Medieval types were obsessed with demons. Randall Fitzhenry, knight and royal bastard, is sent to Warehaven to put a stop to the locals’ Godless ways. He is to consolidate his power by marrying the lady of the keep, even though he believes she’s a witch. Birgit of Warehaven wants nothing to do with the brute.

I liked the two characters and their battle of wills. They were both well drawn and interesting, and the chemistry was nice. Then Birgit acted like a complete dunderhead and withheld info from Randall that put her and others in danger. There was no good reason for that decision. The ending was a bit abrupt, with Birgit’s father showing up to do the deus ex machina thing and settle everything neatly. My favorite of the bunch, and I may yet become a Medieval convert.

Grade: B

When Brigit of Warehaven casts a simple spell to reveal her true love’s identity, she never expects to wed him that same night! But until the mischievous trickeries of All Hallows’ Eve are over, Randall FitzHenry cannot truly claim his bride’s heart….

Master of Penlowen by Christine Merrill

Master of Penlowen is set in Regency England, and also got off to an exciting start. There’s an abduction, a breathless rescue on horseback, and a creepy estate. Merrill creates a suitably Gothic atmosphere, as Arabella finds herself stuck for the night in the house full of secrets and its handsome but strange owner.

This was a creepy, compelling read. I found the hero, Richard, less than appealing for some reason. He seemed kind of greedy, and wimpy too. Richard did exhibit some charm, and the beginnings of chemistry with Arabella, but I didn’t believe that they fell in love over the course of the night. I mean, during their big love scene, they were kinda possessed, and there was a skeleton nearby. It was ick. I wasn’t really feeling that. Gothic fans may well enjoy it though.
Grade: C+

Arabella Scott cannot decide whether she’s been saved or abducted when she is rescued from highwaymen by a darkly brooding stranger. In his eerily cold, dilapidated home, she has no choice but to trust her cavalry officer rescuer.

Overall Grade: B-

Wendy the Super Librarian‘s review of Murder on the Eiffel Tower (A Victor Legris Mystery) by Claude Izner
Historical mystery hardcover released by St. Martin’s Minotaur 2 Sep 08

While the United States is a publishing powerhouse, there are plenty of books published overseas that might never find an American distributor. Case in point, Claude Izner’s debut historical mystery set in late 19th century Paris was first published in 2003 and is just now seeing the light of day in the U.S in 2008. Given that historical romances haven’t exactly been breaking the mold with fresh, original locales, I find historical mysteries to be a refreshing change of pace when I get burnt out from reading about English dukes or American cowboys. However, while Murder on the Eiffel Tower cleansed my palate when it came to the locale, I can’t say the book was entirely successful for me.

The highlight of the 1889 World Exposition in Paris is Gustave Eiffel’s magnificent tower. It’s causing a sensation around the world, not just with Parisians – some who think it’s marvelous and others who think it’s an eye sore. However the excitement turns to shock when a woman collapses and dies while visiting the tower with her niece and nephews. It’s suggested she died as the result of a bee sting, but then a cryptic letter begins arriving at the newspapers and more dead bodies turn up.

Enter, stage left, bookseller Victor Legris who spends no time over the course of this story actually working at his book shop. He’s either mooning over a beautiful red-headed painter he just met or snooping around for clues. As more dead bodies pile up, Victor finds the bee sting theory completely preposterous. The question is, will he uncover the truth, and get the girl, before the villain targets him next?

Even though it clocks in under 300 pages, this story takes a while to find some footing. One of the biggest issues is the head hopping and the introduction of several characters, all at once. Predominantly in the early chapters, it’s hard to tell if this uneven head hopping is the result of the original text (in French) or the result of the work by the translator. As overseas readers will attest, not all translations are created equal. Normally I enjoy head-hopping, when it’s skillfully employed, but here, compounded by the fact that the author introduces multiple characters in one sitting, it causes some confusion. I’m not a dense person, but it took some time for me to sort it all out.

I also found the character of Victor quite bothersome. For one thing he spends most of the early chapters mooning over a painter he meets and not doing much in the way of sleuthing. Luckily, the author eventually kicks it up a notch and the sleuthing commences with Victor suspecting just about everybody and their dead grandmother. However, I didn’t really care for the guy. Yes, I know men in the 19th century had mistresses. Some of them married. Heck, guys in the 21st century have mistresses. Doesn’t mean I want to read about it. And frankly, I didn’t appreciate the fact that he practically dumps his mistress (even though she’s married) before the sheets are cold when a newer, prettier face catches his eye. I found it unsavory, for lack of a better word.

The setting here is particularly well done, although if readers want some hand holding they’re going to be disappointed. The sister writing duo of Izner doesn’t spell things out for readers not familiar with French history, culture or landmarks. What I know about France can basically be summed up to Napoleon and de Gaulle, but I felt completely comfortable in Izner’s world once I got my feet wet.

Murder on the Eiffel Tower reminds me of the days when mystery novels were a bit more genteel. Even though there is some nondescript sex, this is a book I’d be very comfortable recommending to someone who wants a “cleaner” read without all the unsavory sex and violence mucking up the works. I thought the monologue at the end on the part of the villain was a bit over the top, but the author does explain all the twists and turns to satisfaction. While this first book in the Victor Legris series largely left me unmoved, and I’m not really compelled to continue on with it, it may work for those readers who love 19th century Paris, throwback puzzle mysteries, or just want to escape Regency England for a little while.

Grade: C-

Summary:

The brand-new, shiny Eiffel Tower is the pride and glory of the 1889 World Exposition. But one sunny afternoon, as visitors are crowding the viewing platforms, a woman collapses and dies on this great Paris landmark. Can a bee sting really be the cause of death? Or is there a more sinister explanation? Enter young bookseller Victor Legris. Present on the tower at the time of the incident, and appalled by the media coverage of the occurrence, he is determined to find out what actually happened. In this dazzling evocation of late nineteenth-century Paris, we follow Victor as his investigation takes him all over the city and he suspects an ever-changing list of possible perpetrators. Could mysterious Kenji Mori, his surrogate father and business partner at the bookstore Legris operates, be involved in the crime? Why are beautiful Russian illustrator Tasha and her colleagues at the newly launched sensationalist newspaper Passepartout always up-to-date in their reporting? And what will Legris do when the deaths begin to multiply and he is caught in a race against time?

Devon’s review of Double Enchantment (Relics of Merlin, Book 2) by Kathryne Kennedy
Historical Paranormal Romance released by Love Spell 26 Aug 08

Earlier this year I read and greatly enjoyed Enchanting the Lady, the first in Kathryne Kennedy’s Relics of Merlin series. Luckily the follow-up, Double Enchantment, is quite strong as well. I feel corny saying this, but these books are enchanting. Set in a Victorian England full of magic, the setting is vivid and unusual, the characters interesting, and the romances are lovely. Romance readers who like fantasy should take notice.

Jasmina didn’t seem like she was going to be an appealing heroine at first. A member of the magically talented aristocracy, she firmly believes in her class’ superiority. Thus she is content to look after her self-absorbed and very flawed parents, to the extent of eschewing marriage. Although there are definite signs that her parents are screwed up (huge ones), she has never questioned her family’s priggish worldview. Until a spell goes awry and she gets involved with a hot stallion.

Sir Sterling Thorn is a stallion shapeshifter and baronet, a class despised as animals by the aristocracy. A disinherited elder son, struggling to start his own vineyard, Sterling would not have expected the beautiful Jas to take notice of him. But she does, to his delight. Unfortunately Jas is magical creation, quite the opposite of the icy, controlled, but real Jasmina. The two strike sparks off of each other from the get go, as they work together to figure out the mystery behind doppelganger Jas, which seems to have something to do with Sterling’s sister’s disappearance.

Jasmina turns out to be far more sympathetic than first expected, as she sheds her rigid façade. She is empowered and made vulnerable by her attraction to Sterling. Jasmina fears that it is really Jas that he loves. As an aside: is it just me, or do “Jasmina” and “Jas” sound a bit exotic and contemporary for the times? Don’t care for the name myself. Sterling was quite the dreamy hero—passionate, charming and protective. Despite the twin factor, it was always very clear that Sterling had distinct, separate feeling for two distinct, separate woman, and that his real feelings were for the real woman.

I really enjoy the milieu of this alternate Victorian England: the upper-class with their social events, the Underground with its black magic, and the sense of magic embuing everything. It’s great fun, and quite different from other “worlds” in paranormal romance. The plot is also interesting and original. I am looking forward to reading more of this series.

Grade: A-

The Summary:

Lady Jasmina was in a world of trouble. A simple spell had gone disastrously haywire and now there was a woman running around London who looked exactly like her—a woman with no sense of propriety whatsoever. All Society was whispering, and a baronet she’d never met was suddenly acting like he knew her…in a most intimate way. To find her twin and set things right, they’d have to work together—braving the fog-shrouded streets, a mysterious group called the Brotherhood, and a passion stronger than any magic.

Read an excerpt here
Read Sandy’s review here

Gwen’s review of Nature of the Beast by Hannah Howell, Adrienne Basso, and Eve Silver
Historical paranormal romance anthology released by Kensington 26 Aug 08

This is a collection of three historical paranormal stories all centered on vampires and their women.  All three have some nice action and all three have lovely romances.  Not all three are of equal quality, but it’s a good anthology.   One of the few Historical Paranormal Romances that I have liked.  Often when these sub-genres are blended, something suffers.  These stories handle it well.

Dark Hero by Hannah Howell

Normally, I really love Howell’s writing.  I can’t say I loved this story, however.  It was good, but not great and really nothing to write home about.  I can normally look right past colloquialisms, but I got really tired of them in this story.  Perhaps because every time any of the characters opened their mouth, all I read was “dinna” and “doona” and the like.  It got really old by the end – like listening to Janice from “Friends”.  Remember her?  Chandler’s nasal girlfriend?  Small doses were all I could take.  The romance was very nice if a little rushed, and the paranormal elements were there but were light.  This story borders on forgettable (and I can’t believe I just typed that – they’re going to take away my HH Fangirl Club card).
Grade: C+

Summary:

Unlike most of his clan, Berawald MacNachton chooses to live in comfortable seclusion, far from the enemies who hunt his kind-until Evanna Massey and her young brother intrude upon his solitude. Beautiful and mysterious, Evanna is unlike any Outsider Berawald has met, spurring a dark longing that echoes in his heart-and his blood.

Bride of the Beast by Adrienne Basso

This was a very cool little story.  Excellent emotional development and action.  Loved the “preamble” but the ending was so rushed it sucked the joy right out of me.   Nevertheless, the hero and heroine were really nicely done and I was really rooting for them.  Even if I felt like I was happily on the pony express for most of the story to suddenly be launched on the shuttle for the ending.  This and the next story make the book worth buying.

Grade: B-

Summary:

When Haydn of Gwynedd first met Bethan of Lampeter, she was a brave and fearless young girl, risking her life to save his. Now Bethan has grown into a striking, courageous woman who needs Haydn’s help to defeat her tyrannical stepfather. Haydn’s dark gift compels him to offer marriage in name only, but he cannot deny the passion that sears them both…or his fierce desire to make her his for all time…

Read an excerpt.

Kiss of the Vampire by Eve Silver

This is the first historical gothic of Silver’s I’ve read.  I am a total fan of her Shomi titles (published as Eve Kenin), so I’m not surprised that I loved this story.  It was wonderfully gothic without being melodramatic and has a very interesting love story that was believable, even with the brevity of the story.  The story’s imagery is very well drawn – well, “painted” may be a better verb.  Silver paints such a complete picture of the hospital, I could see it in my mind’s eye, smell it, and feel it.  The hero was wonderful and, while I liked the heroine, I really connected to the hero.  The ending felt rushed, but that may have been as much a product of it being a short story as anything else.

Grade: B+

Summary:

Devoted to her work at King’s College Hospital, Sarah Lowell is shocked to discover that someone-or something-is killing the weakest patients, draining them of their blood. Killian Thayne, an enigmatic surgeon, offers Sarah his protection, but his sensual, commanding presence presents another kind of danger, urging her to risk everything for the splendor of his eternal embrace…

Read an excerpt.  (no excerpt at the link at the time the review was written, but may be there by publish date.)

Overall grade: B-

Howell’s and Basso’s websites are is woefully out of date – I don’t think Howell’s books have been updated since 2006.  I can’t stress enough the importance for an author to have an up-to-date web presence in this digital age.  Most of their marketing is done via the web, thru blogs like this one, and other sites like amazon.com.  An author’s site does not have to be fancy or even deeper than a page or two, but it should have an author’s most recent releases, upcoming releases, etc.  No heavy lifting and there are some super easy tools out there for building sites – even a simple blog is better than nothing.  I’m tempted to reduce their story’s grades just because of this but I’ll restrain myself.

Overall summary:

In this captivating new collection from Hannah Howell, Adrienne Basso, and Eve Silver, three women meet the irresistible vampires who are their destiny-and discover a passion satisfied only by complete surrender…

Bound To Please by Hope Tarr is the first historical published by Harlequin Blaze. Read Wendy the Super Librarian’s review, then click on the cut for an excerpt.

He’s not going to take this treatment lying down. At least, not for long…

Fifteenth-century Scotland is a tough place to be a woman in charge. Brianna MacLeod, new laird of her clan, needs a child to establish her position. And the best way to do that is to demand the sexual services of her sworn—and very sexy—enemy!

Ewan Fraser never foresaw being kidnapped, tied up and expected to perform stud service. Yet being bound for the delicious Brianna’s pleasure isn’t all bad. In fact, the more time he spends in her bed, the more he’s determined she’ll be the one who ends up enslaved….

**Excerpt**
1460 ~ St. Andrews, County Fife, Scotland
“Because of your brother my husband and babe both lay in the kirk yard. Your brother, Callum owes me a life, Ewan Fraser, two lives to be exact, and I mean to collect payment on the debt through you.”

“My brother had no hand in your lord’s death. I swear it upon mine honor.”

In the midst of vouchsafing Callum’s innocence, the significance of her statement struck him like yet another fist to the gut. God’s blood, she meant to murder him! Until now he’d assumed she would hold him prisoner and then ransom him back to his brother but not so it seemed. Panic slammed into him, the force exceeding any physical blow he’d so far received.

Scenes from his past twenty-two years skittered through his thoughts. He found himself regretting no deed in particular but rather the many deeds he’d now never have the chance to do. Travel to Edinburgh. Teach his future son to fish. Give Brianna MacLeod a proper kiss. After the clumsy embrace they’d shared as children, he’d spent years hoping for the opportunity to do better by her. Who knew how long he had before she sent him off to meet his Maker, but for certain traveling and procreating would never happen for him now. Looking up into her cool gaze and composed face, it occurred to him that one final wish might yet be fulfilled.

“Your honor, indeed,” she scoffed. “Fraser honor holds no worth in this hall, sir.”

“In that case, lady, I commit myself to your tender mercy. I only ask that you grant me a warrior’s death and have the big one over there—” he gestured to the graybeard towering behind her “—strike my head from my shoulders with a claymore or a sword as befits my station.” After all he’d suffered, subjecting him to disemboweling or burning at the stake hardly seemed sporting.

“Strike off your head!” Her green eyes popped and the luscious lips he contemplated kissing fell open as though making way for his tongue.

Ignoring the hammering inside his skull—he’d be past all fleshly feeling soon enough—he nodded. “Aye, but before you see the deed done, I crave a boon. One kiss from milady’s honeyed lips and then I’ll greet St. Peter with a hearty hey ho.”

The corners of her full mouth twitched, the closest she’d so far come to a smile. “You’re a knave, Ewan Fraser, and like as not you deserve to be drawn and quartered in payment for all the maidenly hearts you’ve broken.”

Drawn and quartered, dear God what a bloodthirsty wench she was. He’d best make the kiss a good one, lingering and deep, whilst he still had the full complement of his manly parts. “First let us have that kiss, milady.”

He started up from his knees to claim it. Head swimming, he struggled to find his footing on the stone flagging. Before he could, the chamber dipped and swayed, the floor falling in beneath him. Stars poked through the encroaching blackness, performing a dizzy dance before his burning eyes.

Watching her prisoner fall over onto his side, Brianna could scarcely credit the proof of her eyes. Ewan Fraser, bold warrior and tanist to his clan, had fainted. Dark hair plastered his damp forehead and his handsome face looked flushed whether from fever or temper or both she couldn’t say. One powerful arm locked about his torso. The protective posture stretched the soiled saffron shirt across his broad shoulders and back, revealing the whip marks bleeding through the torn cloth. Whip marks!

Fury lanced through her. She swung about to Duncan, who’d followed her to the edge of the steps.

Aware of the petitioners watching goggle-eyed from the benches as though a passion play was in progress, she dropped her voice and hissed, “I told you he was not to be harmed.”

She might have had him abducted to serve a greater good, but she was no torturer. Once her end was achieved, she meant to return him to his kinsman hale and whole. Hurting him had never been a part of her plan. Still, badly beaten though he was, at least they wouldn’t have to call in the bonesetter. Bruises and scrapes and torn flesh would heal with time but more often than not a broken bone meant lifelong laming.

Duncan bowed his grizzled head. “I have failed you, milady, and yet I canna say how I could have brought him to you any other way. Fraser or not, a bolder, braver warrior I have never before faced.”

She swiveled to Duncan’s son, Hugh. The young warrior had been charged with guarding Ewan and keeping him out of sight until the court was dismissed. Bruises rimmed his one eye and his stance was markedly hunched.

Voice still lowered, she said, “And you were to have kept him away from the court.”

“And so I would have, milady, only he…”

The smooth-shaven face flushed, and Brianna prompted, “He what?”

“He kneed me in the uh…ballocks.” Darting a look in Duncan’s direction, he added, “My father speaks true, milady. The Fraser’s own stubbornness causes him to come to you thus. He fought like Satan’s own. Earlier today it took the three of us to subdue him and even then he wouldn’t leave off his fashing.”

Three warriors had been charged with abducting him, and Ewan had come close to besting them all. Brianna felt her chest tightening with ill-placed pride and some other emotion she had yet to name. Face flushing, she returned her gaze to the fallen man. It was too late to undo the clumsy capture, but from there on she meant to see Ewan made as comfortable and treated as civilly as circumstances would allow even if it meant tending him with her own hands. The latter thought sent a starburst like thrill shooting through her.

As if sensing her nearness, his closed eyelids fluttered. He blinked, and then opened. His right eye was swollen shut but his left appeared unharmed. The moonstone pale orb pierced hers, stealing her breath and muddling her thoughts.

“Sweet Brie, whatever befell the braw, bonny lassie who was to have been my bride?” His voice trailed off, his eyes rolling back in his head and his body slackening.

So he remembered their betrothal pact. An invisible knot cinched Brianna’s throat. Tender emotions she thought to have locked away with his flute flooded her. Their fair day meeting must have meant something to him, too.

She started toward him, but Duncan’s hand found her elbow. “He speaks in riddles, milady. With your permission, I will see him removed to the dungeon until he is well enough to be brought to you.”

Brianna shrugged free of his hold. “You will do no such thing. Lord Ewan is not a common criminal but a noble hostage. He doesna belong in a dungeon cell but in a chamber befitting his rank and station. Have him carried to the laird’s chamber, my chamber, and mind this time your men do my bidding with a gentle hand.

***

An hour later, Brianna strode down the rush lit corridor to the laird’s chamber, a chalice in one hand and a taper in the other. Looped over her wrist was the basket filled with Milread’s special salve. After dismissing the court, she’d sent her old nursemaid to minister to Ewan’s needs, including bathing. Mention of willow twigs, rose petals, or true love was strictly forbidden.

Her steps slowed as she approached the bedchamber. For the past ten years she’d carried about the memory of Ewan Fraser as a lanky boy with crystal clear eyes and a good-natured grin. The eyes hadn’t changed a whit but everything else about him had altered mightily. The Ewan Fraser waiting for her within was very much a man and a braw beautiful man at that. A braw beautiful man she would bed assuming the thrashing they’d dealt him hadn’t rendered him incapable.

A guard stood outside her door. She recognized him as Seamus, the “broken man.” The young warrior was without kith or kin though Duncan swore he was one of his most trustworthy guards and able fighters. Still, his long pointed chin, narrow darting gaze, and scar puckered cheek reminded her of a rat.

Seamus bowed. “Good eve, milady. Lord Duncan bade me stand watch over the prisoner and…you.”

Ewan’s barging into her great hall while her court was in session had wrought havoc with her intention to keep him quietly confined until her plan bore…fruit. By now the whole castle must know that he’d been brought to her private rooms.

Glad of the early evening shadows to mask the heat that must be branding her cheeks, she nodded. “So I see.”

“Sleep well, milady.” He held the door for her, his gaze brushed over her, his mouth twisted into a smirk.

Telling herself guilt must be making her imagine things, she stepped inside and drew the door closed behind her. Shadows engulfed her, relieved only by the flickering of the fire set in the grate and a brace of candles mounted in wall brackets. Her gaze swung to the bed—and the dark form lying chained in the center. Ah, Ewan…

Iron manacles banded his wrists, his powerful arms drawn high over his head, the carved bolsters serving as anchors for the heavy chains. Seeing him thus, her heart lurched, her regret as piercing as any physical pain. If only they’d been free to fulfill their fair day covenant, they might have come together as man and wife with open arms and free wills and joyous hearts instead of this travesty of a union forged of regret and revenge.

She walked up to the chest at the foot of the bed and paused. Shadowed though it was, she fancied she felt Ewan tracking her movements with his eyes. She’d ordered him stripped and bathed for the practical purpose of needing to care for his wounds. Until now she hadn’t given much thought to how she would feel about putting her own less than perfect body on display. Tall, full-breasted and full-hipped, she wasn’t the plump, pretty child who once had fit so neatly against Ewan’s lean, boyish form.

But they weren’t children anymore or lovers or even friends. A wave of sadness struck her. Steeling herself to ignore it, she set the candle down atop the desk along with the basket and chalice. Reaching up, she removed her veiled headdress. Beneath it, her hair was gathered into a single long braid. She had the fleeting thought she ought to comb her fingers through the waves and leave it loose as she had on her wedding night, but decided against doing so. Drawing any parallel to that ill-fated night would seem like a portent of doom.

Instead she unpinned her plaid. She unwound the length of wool and laid it aside along with the broach that bore her clan crest, a bull’s horns and the motto “Hold Fast” in Latin. She cast another glance upwards to the bed. He hadn’t stirred. Mayhap he truly was asleep. Fingers clumsy, she unfastened her sleeves and then unlaced the front of her gown; the latter she pulled over her head. Modesty had her stopping at her shift. The fine linen whispered just above her ankles. She took off the chain with the seal ring, too, and put it in the drawer. Making a mental note to remember to put it back on later, she folded her clothes and set them in a neat stack on the chair seat. By the time she finished, her hands were clammy cold and shaking.

She retrieved the chalice and basket and rounded to the side of the bed. Leaning over, she whispered, “Ewan, do you sleep?”

His eyes were closed. Long lashes shadowed his high cheekbones. Either the brutal handling had worn him out or he was pretending, for he didn’t as much as blink. Skin heating, she skimmed her gaze over his body, naked except for a swathe of linen thrown over his thighs. Even blanketed by cuts and bruises and angry red welts, he was impossibly beautiful. Broad of shoulder and lean of waist and hip, pale skin stretched taut over sinewy muscle and long bones, he brought to mind a statue carved in marble or alabaster, only Ewan was no cold tomb statue but a living breathing man.

She drew back, a foreign throbbing settling between her thighs. At least one order of hers had been obeyed. He was clean. His damp skin smelled of Milread’s rosemary mint soap as well as some other scent that was his alone; the latter had her thinking of the smell of air just after a cleansing springtime shower. The old woman had washed his hair as well. The pillow beneath his head was damp and the dark tresses shone like polished ebony. One damp lock fell over his forehead and over his swollen shut eye. Overcome by a sudden tenderness, Brianna reached down to brush it back.

Ewan snapped open his good eye and glared up at her. “Come to gloat, milady?”

She jumped back, dripping tallow onto the bedcovers. “You startled me.”

“Really?” The black brow framing his good eye arched upward. “You’ll pardon me if I find that a wee bit difficult to fathom.”

In the thrall of his moonstone gaze, Brianna felt the breath lock inside her lungs. Even masked in bruises, his lean face was a masterpiece of male beauty. She ran her gaze over his high bow, molded aquiline nose, and firm, full mouth—the very same mouth that had gifted her with her first real kiss all those many years ago—and felt a spurt of sticky warmth trickle down her leg.

Embarrassed by her body’s response, she set the basket down and held out the cup. “I’ve brought you something.” She hesitated and then settled next to him, her hip brushing his side.

He pressed his lips together and cut a wary glance to the cup. “What is it?”

“Caudle.” Reading the question in his eyes, she elaborated, “Mulled wine with bits of brown bread, sugar, eggs and spices to render it flavorful. It is an English recipe. My old nurse taught me to make it. It will ease and nourish you.”

“Poison me, more like.” He clamped together his swollen lips, beautiful all the same, and shook his dark head. “I’ll no drink so much as one drop. If you mean to murder me, then do the deed out in the open as a laird would. Poison is the weapon of cowards—and women.” His disdainful expression conveyed he considered the two to be cut from the same cloth.

Leaning over him, Brianna found herself fighting the urge to laugh. She slid her arm beneath his neck and shoulders to raise him and pressed the rim of the cup to his swollen lips. “If I wanted you dead, Ewan Fraser, you’d be dead ere now, so drink.”

In the end hunger and thirst took precedence over pride. He drank, gingerly at first but then with great greedy gulps. Brianna felt a stab of guilt but tamped it down by reminding herself that fair day memories aside, Ewan Fraser was still her enemy. His brother’s crime made him so and they not shared the same blood but as twins had bided together in their mother’s womb. Beyond the necessities of shelter and sustenance, he didn’t deserve her consideration.

She eased his head down on the pillow, and then set the empty cup aside and reached for the basket. Though his upper body was immobile, his gaze followed her every move. She brought out the jar of Milread’s special salve.

Twisting off the top, she warned, “This might sting a wee bit but mostly it should soothe.”

“What is it?”

“It’s no poison if that’s what you’re worried for.” She dipped two fingers inside and then held up cream-coated fingers to show him. “There’s yarrow, red clover, and yellow wood sorrel and other ingredients that aid in flesh mending.”

He sniffed, one dark brow lifting again. “Don’t tell me you’re a healer, too?”

She shook her head. Keeping her touch light, she started on his shoulders. “What little I know of herbs and such my old nurse taught me. Her remedies include everything from amulets to remove evil eye curses to love potions…for silly young maids,” she added, not wanting him to think she’d ever sought out such nonsense.

“Love potions, aye?” He eyed the basket with open skepticism. “Are there any in that wee basket?”

Heat hit Brianna’s cheeks. She shook her head. “Nay, I wouldna wish the curse of being in love on my worst enemy.”

He shrugged and then winced as though the movement caused him pain. “What would you wish on me then?” Not giving her opportunity to answer, he added, “If its ransom that you seek, you should know my brother would just as soon see my head on a pike as part with his coin.”

Gathering her thoughts, she capped the jar, dropped it back inside the basket, and set the latter aside. Lifting her gaze, she said, “It’s not ransom I seek but peace—and a baby. A child with both our bloods will heal the hatred between our clans more so than any treaty. That, Ewan Fraser, is why I’ve brought you here.”

BOUND TO PLEASE BY HOPE TARR