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Fantasy Romance

Regency

Book Review: Nothing Like a Duke

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Book: Nothing Like a Duke

Author: Jane Ashford

Status: Don’t bother.

This book was one in a series. It may have been better if I’d read the rest of the series, but I doubt it.

NothingLikeADuke

Premise: I’m sure there is a premise… Woman goes to a house party and the man she loves happens to be there, but she didn’t know he’d be there, and he didn’t know she’d be there. Yeah, I’m still not sure what the story was supposed to be about, and I read the book.

Plot: I couldn’t find one. The hero goes to a house party to forget the heroine for reasons. Didn’t read the other books, so I don’t know why. Heroine goes to the same house party for reasons. I never really figured out why she went. It’s not clear other than she wanted to see the ton, but why she does must’ve been in another book.

While nothing in this book was deep, the part that was very disturbing to me was the way the author treated PTSD. I don’t think she did any research on it, or if she did, it was very superficial.

  • The heroine was apparently captured, tied up, and helpless at one point in an earlier book.
  • We’re told this is a big deal toward the end of the book. We’re never shown her nightmares, her fear of men, her fear of being in tight places (which happens). Even her being caught in a brier bush is told to us from the hero rather than a very deep and dramatic scene for the heroine.
  • The “cure” for this was for her to be attempted to be raped by another man and for the heroine to escape on her own.

I know very little about PTSD. Maybe this would work, or maybe it would deepen her fears. I don’t know. But the way it was handled was not believable to me.

Romance: The hero, Robert, already loves the heroine, Flora, from another book. Flora also loves Robert and has no real reason not to want the romance to happen. I’m not sure why this book wasn’t over in less than 50 pages rather than the 352 it took.

Steamy Scenes: There were none. Not one. So this isn’t where the filler came from to get to the 352 pages.

Imagery: Nothing was ever really brought alive for me. Nothing felt sumptuous or beautiful. So, this isn’t what filled the 352 pages, either.

Characters: There is no character development. Robert starts out as Robert and ends as Robert. We’re told he’s celebrated by the ton, what all gentleman aspire to be. Perhaps we were *shown* that in previous books, but not this one.

Flora learns all people in the ton are people rather than caricatures, but that’s really not a lot of growth, either. We’re told Flora is smart so freaking many times I was ready to scream. And she’s beautiful. And she’s smart. And she’s charitable. And she’s smart.

One of the things I hated most about this book is that so much of it focused on a rivalry between the heroine and another female character over the hero. It started to boarder on the absurd, and frankly, I am tired of the trope. I prefer to see female friendships rather than competition over a man. It was such a blatant competition, the one woman literally called the other her competitor. Yuck.

 

All in, I’d rather do the dishes or vacuum than read this novel a second time.

Book Review: To Charm a Naughty Countess

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Book: To Charm a Naughty Countess

Author: Theresa Romain

Recommendation: Skip It

NaughtyCountess

Premise: A duke who is deep in debt due to his father’s indulgences needs a wealthy bride to save his lands when creditors come calling. He offers one of the most exalted titles in the land in return for a rich dowry. A rich widowed countess offers to help him. It just so happens that these two are still in love with each other even after the happenings of eleven years ago.

Plot:  Wait, there is one? Oh yes, they love each other. She’s rich. He’s titled. And…it takes a whole book for them to admit to each other their feelings. Yeah, there’s some filler as to why they can’t. Frankly, I started skimming sections looking for the plot. There was none. No murder that needed solving, no werewolves skulking around, not even a previous jilted love interest. Literally, just the two of them getting around to admitting their feelings. For the whole book.

Characters: I didn’t really see any character development on either the hero or heroine’s part. They do eventually get around to admitting to themselves and each other their feelings, but there’s no real driving factor to this.

Romance: The characters were in love with each other at the beginning of the story, though they didn’t yet know it. Or they knew it and wouldn’t admit it. This was fine, but as this was the entire story with no other plot to back it up, it felt thinner than it otherwise would have.

Steamy Scenes: There were two in the whole book. One about half way through, the other at the end. They were good, not enough to save the book, but good.

 

Overall, not a terrible read, but not one I’d recommend either. With all of the romance novels out there, you can find one with more of a plot, or more steamy bits to keep you engaged.

Book Review: Her Highness and the Highlander

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Book: Her Highness and the Highlander

Author: Tracy Anne Warren

Status: Worth a Look

This book was isn’t going to knock your socks off, but it’s a nice afternoon read.

Premise: A princess (from a fictional country) and her entourage are attacked on her way from her finishing school to London. She is the only survivor, and in her bedraggled state, no one will believe she’s royalty. She’s far from friends and family, and completely out of her element. A Scotsman on his way home from the Napoleonic Wars takes pity on her, helps her out, and eventually agrees to take her to London. Along the way, they fall on in love.
Plot: It’s pretty thin. We need a reason for the hero and heroine to be together. So, despite the massive battle that killed her entourage, captain of her guard, her uncle etc. no one finds any evidence of it. I guess they must’ve really been on back roads, and the bad guys must’ve had a veritable army to clean up the mess. Oh, no wait, it was one guy that cleaned it up. *shakes head*

I didn’t find it believable. But I suspended disbelief as we couldn’t have good guys finding her if she was going to need the hero to get her to London. Alone, of course.

Romance: They fall in love along the way to London. They’re so in lust with each other, that they need to quickly marry so they can have sex. Par for the romance genre, if a bit unbelievable. The author did try to make the princess seem like she’d be okay giving up her extremely privileged life to live with a commoner.

Steamy Scenes: This is really where the author shone. The steamy scenes were steamy, the prose pretty without getting in the way of what was going on between them. She used none of my automatic close the books words, so we’re good there.

Characters: There is no character development. Not really sure how they would develop as both seem pretty perfect from the beginning. This is your typical romance fare, so neither character is going to grow or develop in the story.

 

All in, a decent read. I finished it on a blustery afternoon, and it wasn’t gripping enough I couldn’t put it aside with ease to make snacks for the kids. At the same time, it entertained and didn’t disappoint with the ending.

Book Review: An Unexpected Wish

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Book: An Unexpected Wish

Author: Eileen Richards

Recommendation: Save your time and wash the cat

Wish

I love a good romance. Heck, I like a decent romance.

Unfortunately, this was more like watching the writer play “Barbies” than actually reading a romance.

The entire novel could’ve been condensed into a short story. There wasn’t enough plot to hold up a full length novel, so the author substituted melodrama, lots of running away, and contrived situations to get the page count.

(Spoilers Ahead)

The premise of the novel is a young woman is in dire straights as she attempts to support herself and her sisters on a paltry inheritance left by her mother. Their brother has tossed them out for reasons the author never does a good job explaining (because their father praised Anne’s accomplishments and wanted his son to live up to them? Really? So the son tosses all three of his sisters on the street, with literally just the clothes on their backs when their father dies? Really?)

In a desperate attempt to have enough food and burning fuel to get through the winter, Anne makes a wish for a handsome husband that will provide for her and her sisters.

Low and behold, shortly after making the wish, the rich hero arrives and starts paying all sorts of attention to her.

Let’s state again the heroine and her sisters are on the brink of not having enough food or fuel to get through the winter. We’re talking about starvation or a life of prostitution to survive.

But the heroine decides she can’t possible marry the hero because he loves her only because of her wish. Let me tell you, if I became a New York Times best-selling author because of a wish, I’d take it with both hands and never look back.

What makes this even more disingenuous is that the heroine had no problem marrying her younger sister off to “save the family”.

Frankly, the story should’ve ended with the handsome hero offering for her, and Anne saving the family.

If the author wanted a full length novel, she needed something more to keep the hero and heroine apart. The “oh, he couldn’t possibly love me for real because of I made a wish” held absolutely no water. Let me tell you how much I disliked the heroine after hearing this a dozen or so times, and there were several dozen more times of listening to her say it still to come.

I mean, seriously. This is what she wanted, what she needed, to keep her sisters from starving. To keep them freezing come winter. And to reject it because of superstition?

Most hungry people would marry him and thank the fairies, not throw their “wish” back in the fairies’ face.

Now, enter deadbeat brother who has lost the entire family fortune to gambling (with the hero, nonetheless) and is looking for his sister to part with her mother’s jewels to save him from some very relentless creditors. And, he’s told every hoodlum in London that his sister has these jewels. Of course, there are no jewels or Anne would’ve sold them already.

You can guess where this is going. The brother must be redeemed, but the path to his redemption is unbelievable. One minute he’s willing to sell his sister to the hero for his “get out of debt” free card, and the next minute he’s suddenly willing to go to India and work off his debt to the hero. Nothing I saw created that change. Just sorta, yep, we need a happily-ever-after ending, so he’s gotta change.

Not even the “twist” ending was believable.  Why would Cecil Worth bother with the whole use of the Fairy Steps in the first place to trick Anne into thinking she was getting a wish? Anne had no suitors. If he was suddenly interested in her because of the jewels, he had no need to go through with the ruse. Never explained, and makes no sense given his character. But, you know, the plot needed a villain and a plausible explanation for the wish.

Speaking of plot, it mostly consisted of lots of running from here to there for the heroine as she goes from dodging one suitor to another. Seriously. Let’s run away to the Lodge. oh no, hero is there. Let’s run back home. Oh no, brother is there. Let’s go for a walk in the woods. Oh no, other suitor is there. Ugh. I think fifty percent of the book was the heroine running around for “reasons”.

There’s the obligatory steamy scenes towards the end, but they’re as cardboard and unbelievable as the rest of the story.

The writing itself is okay, but the use of line break to denote a change in point-of-view or scene are non-existent. Pulled me out of what little story every time there was one. The dialogue can also get pretty awful. Here’s an actual excerpt from the end of the book, as we discuss for the 100th or is that 1,000th time that the hero might actually love her:

“You think he loves me?”

John nodded. “When you were taken, he went still. He was icy calm. But his eyes burned. It was clear that someone he cared about deeply was in danger.”

Oh yeah, then there was my least favorite romance trope. The heroine being kidnapped. And because its snowing, her captor totally doesn’t give chase when she slips into the forest after getting motion sick. But, you know, the hero is totally just going to pay a ransom when he can find her footprints in the snow. *eye roll* The author must’ve been getting to the end of word count and didn’t want to spend much time on this.

All in, I walked into this book looking for a bit of pleasure reading. Some book candy while my kids watched a movie on Friday night. I wanted a fun romance, maybe some good steamy scenes, and a happily-ever-after. I got the HEA, but that was about it.

 

Book Review: Tremaine's True Love

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Title: Tremaine’s True Love

Author: Grace Burrowes

Rating: 3/5 Stars

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Overall, an easy read. You don’t have to think too much, and you get your happily-ever-after. It’s your typical Regency Romance with nothing to really set it apart in a good way or a bad way from the rest of the genre.

I don’t believe this is the first book in the series, but it stood alone just fine, and I haven’t read any other works by this author.

I found the first few pages very convoluted and difficult to follow. Perhaps because I hadn’t read the other books in the series. I almost put it down and moved on, but the writing did get much better.

 

Characters

The premise of the story is Tremaine is looking to buy some very expensive sheep from the Earl of Bellemonte, and the earl is debating selling the sheep as he interviews Tremaine as a marriage prospect for one of his four unwed sisters.

The heroine is a spinster who also happens to be a healer. Her healing and compassion become the reason she and the hero don’t get together quickly so there’s a book.

While both are likable enough to me, neither of them are very deep. There are no meaningful character arcs in this book, but I don’t really expect them in regency romance novels.

I liked that it took time for the hero and heroine to build up an attraction to each other. There was none of the love-at-first-sight stuff that makes me roll my eyes.

But I wish the author would’ve spent more time with them.There was a massive cast of characters, and other romances going on at the same time.

Most jarring, the author kept switching point-of-view in the story. I expect to hop between the hero and heroine, but not the heroine’s sisters, brothers, and whoever else. At the start of each scene, I’d have to take a moment to figure out whose eyes I was seeing through. Other than this, the writing itself was tight and well done.

 

Plot

The plot is pretty sparse. Although, I will give the author some credit for looking up common diseases of the time as well as medical practices.

Still, 99% of the issues in the story revolved around a very incompetent doctor. I can’t comprehend why the heroine’s father or brother kept him in town without finding another much, much sooner. Made me think very ill of them as earls.

I also grew weary of all the “deep insights” into each other all of the siblings had, insights that didn’t really go anywhere or lead to anything. Perhaps the author was trying to use this as character building, but it didn’t work.

Of course, didn’t think too highly of anyone’s problem solving skills when it didn’t occur to any them until the very end of the book to get a competent doctor so the heroine could be with the man she loved. *eye roll*

 

All in, an easy read and a diversion  from all the stuff going on in our lives right now.  How about you all? Read anything excellent lately?

 

Book Review: It Takes Two to Tangle

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Rating:2/5

Title: It Takes Two to Tangle

Author: Theresa Romain

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You know those hero qualities I told you about that I don’t like?  And what it takes to make me dislike the heroine? And when I mentioned that I actually like for there to be a plot?

This book manages to strike out on all three counts. I did give it two stars because at least the writing was decent, the meager plot didn’t fill me with rage, and I didn’t want the author to invent creative ways to kill the characters.

 

Characters

Let’s start with the hero. If ever there was a brooding character, this is the one. He buys an officer’s commission, his brother’s connections get him to the rank of captain. He ends up coming home physically and mentally broken after the war. And all he wants is the most beautiful, vivacious woman in the ton so he can resume his place. . . Um, yeah.

He comes out of it, sort of, by the end. I should’ve listened to the reviewers who warned me about the hero.

The heroine wasn’t much better. The heroine is prone to making bad decisions. She made lots of poor choices in her youth, and she doesn’t seem to have learned from them as she blatantly states in the book that she’s willing do it all over again for the hero “for love”. I have a hard time feeling much for her. She could’ve been Cyrano D’Bergerac. But wasn’t. Not even close.

 

Plot

The plot is slim at best. The hero wants the most desirable lady in the ton, who happens to have the heroine as a companion. Through some mistaken assumptions, that could’ve been resolved with a 30 second conversation, we have the plot of the story. It’s a sit-com plot thrown into novel length.

I suppose there’s something of a character arc for the hero as he feels less entitled at the end than he did at the beginning, and he’s accepting his change in circumstances. Not enough to make me like him, and I never came close to liking the heroine.