Tag Archives: historical romance

February 13, 2013 · 11:52 am

One Good Earl Deserves a Lover by Sarah MacLean

Sarah MacLean

I admit, I’m not really up for reviewing this right now. I just want to review it so I can put it away. I finished it over the weekend, and I don’t really have anything else to review right now, so here we are.

One Good Earl Deserves a Lover (what a lame title) is a historical romance, good for a quick read with some sexy bits. It’s brain candy, which is exactly what I needed at the end of last week.

Pippa is the heroine – she’s a girl in glasses who loves science, and she’s engaged to be married in two weeks to Lord Castleton, and she looks forward to living out her days with her dogs and scientific experiments. But before she gets married, she needs to know exactly how to go about being a wife and no one seems willing to tell her about the more intimate details. So she seeks out Cross, a co-owner for a famous London gaming club with a devilish reputation. Just by asking him for his help in answering her questions about what happens in the marriage bed, she threatens to ruin everything he’s worked for.

And so on and so forth. I’m feeling lazy, so let’s bullet-point this. Things I liked:

  • That Pippa was a nerdy girl. You don’t see that a whole lot in historical romance, but she liked reading and anatomy and horticulture and all that fun stuff. It might have been a bit overdone in spots, but still.
  • There were a couple steamy scenes, for those of you that really care only about those parts.
  • She’s not a jerk to Lord Castleton, the guy she’s engaged to but who she obviously does not end up with.
  • It was overall entertaining, and Pippa has a few really great stand-out moments.
  • I really like the cover… the colors and the wallpaper and just really pretty.

Things I didn’t like:

  • Cross had a bunch of different co-owners of his gaming hell and I could barely keep them all straight. And the whole drama surrounding his past was a bit silly.
  • Well, overall this whole plot was a bit silly…
  • The romance between them didn’t really feel genuine.
  • There was a lot of redundancy. The characters kind of repeated the same lines and sentiments over and over. A little more plot or action would have been nice.

This was a cute fluffy romance, but definitely not the best. Good for a quick mindless read.

Sarah Says: 3 stars

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October 19, 2012 · 5:00 am

An Offer From a Gentleman by Julia Quinn

 

This is the third book in Julia Quinn’s Bridgertons series. I read the first two a while back, but then never got around to requesting the next ones from the library. Luckily I have an awesome friend named Jenn who is sending me the books in this series as she reads them, so I finally get to go on with them!

Oh and don’t worry – I read them in order because I’m picky like that, but you don’t really have to worry about reading these in order. Each book focuses on one of the eight Bridgerton siblings finding true love :-)

So, An Offer From a Gentleman! It’s about Sophie, who was the unacknowledged bastard of the Earl of Penwood. He took care of her and everyone knew she was his, but she got pushed aside when he got remarried to Araminta, and her and her two daughters move in. When the Earl dies, Sophie is left with nothing – she grows up as a servant to her stepmother and two stepsisters.  But Sophie is able to sneak out in disguise for one wonderful night, attending Lady Bridgerton’s masquerade ball and meets the man of her dreams when she dances with Benedict Bridgerton.

He is one of the older Bridgerton sons, and he’s never shown much interest in romance or getting married – until he meets a beautiful mystery woman at his mother’s masquerade. She disappears at midnight and he’s left pining for her – until he ends up rescuing a beautiful housemaid that seems so familiar…

See the Cinderella element here? I loved that – it was so fun. Poor Sophie – she’s SO mistreated by her stepfamily and ends up working so hard just to survive. And then when she runs into Benedict again, it seems her dreams have come true – until she realizes that he doesn’t recognize her from that one magical night. But he saves her, and they get all romantic and sweet and awwwww.

This book wasn’t as funny as some of Julia Quinn’s newer books – and I really like funny romance. So that was a bit disappointing. And even though Sophie and Benedict were so cute together and of course I cheered for their happy ending, Benedict isn’t my favorite romantic hero. He was definitely a knight in shining armor at one point in the story, but in another later part he kind of demands that she be his mistress and refuses to consider that he could marry a housemaid, and that was a little weak. Of course this is romance so it all works out in the end, but that irked me about him. Oh and for those that really like the sexy bits – there was only one real sex scene in this book. That was actually preferable for me, but if that’s what you mainly look for in romance you might want to skip this one.

Overall though, this was a fun read and I really like the Bridgerton family. Especially the mama :) I’m looking forward to reading the next one, Romancing Mr. Bridgerton, because I think I’ll like Colin Bridgerton more than Benedict.

 

Sarah Says: 3.5 stars

 

 

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May 31, 2012 · 9:42 am

A Night Like This by Julia Quinn

A Night Like This by Julia Quinn

 

Oh Julia Quinn, you did it again.

A Night Like This is the second book in her Smythe-Smith quartet, and I’m happy to say that it was just as good as the first one (Just Like Heaven).

So, because I’m feeling lazy, here’s the description on the back of the book:

Anne Wynter might not be who she says she is . . .

But she’s managing quite well as a governess to three highborn young ladies. Her job can be a challenge—in a single week she finds herself hiding in a closet full of tubas, playing an evil queen in a play that might be a tragedy (or might be a comedy—no one is sure), and tending to the wounds of the oh-so-dashing Earl of Winstead. After years of dodging unwanted advances, he’s the first man who has truly tempted her, and it’s getting harder and harder to remind herself that a governess has no business flirting with a nobleman.

Daniel Smythe-Smith Might be in mortal danger . . .

But that’s not going to stop the young earl from falling in love. And when he spies a mysterious woman at his family’s annual musicale, he vows to pursue her, even if that means spending his days with a ten-year-old who thinks she’s a unicorn. But Daniel has an enemy, one who has vowed to see him dead. And when Anne is thrown into peril, he will stop at nothing to ensure their happy ending . . .

So, SWOON. For some reason, I was totally feeling the romance in A Night Like This than most other romance novels. Julia Quinn does a wonderful job at writing light-hearted books that are also super sweet and romantic. While there were definitely a few really funny moments, the hilarity didn’t seem as obvious as in Just Like Heaven.

Anne Wynter has a secret past that is coming back to haunt her, and she misses being a part of something real, part of a family. She does a great job with teaching the girls and they like her, but her position is quite clear until Daniel notices her and starts blurring the lines between governess and friend. I totally like Anne though – she’s smart, resourceful, and a bit impertinent. And her while her big secret definitely turns out to be a bit scandalous, it made me like her even more.

Daniel is also likable, but maybe not quite as memorable. He has his own demons from his past to face, but nothing dramatic. He is a good male character though – honorable, respectful, and good-natured. He also has good close friends – Marcus (from Just Like Heaven) and Hugh. I was actually thinking while reading this book that Hugh would make an interesting male lead, and I’m happy to say that according to Julia Quinn’s website, he will be the main male character in the next book. Yay!

I really liked that Anne and Daniel had a lot of alone-together time that allowed them to get to know each other, without anything too sexy sexy going on. They shared memories and had a lot of great back-and-forth joking going on. And there were plenty of little super-romantic passages that I underlined in my book so that I could go back to them later.

So basically this book turned me into one great big sap. But I couldn’t help it, it just made me smile and was a great book to read on lazy mornings with my cup of coffee.

Sarah Says: 4 stars

 

 

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May 28, 2012 · 8:41 am

DNF: The Duke is Mine by Eloisa James

The Duke is Mine

*Sigh* I had such high hopes for this book, mainly because of the gorgeous cover.

I got almost exactly halfway through The Duke is Mine before finally calling it quits. In the interests of simplicity and laziness, I’m going to bullet the reasons…

  • Olivia, the heroine, is betrothed to a young duke-to-be who very clearly has some mental / developmental problems, and she makes fun of him a lot. I know that back then they didn’t really treat mental illness with much respect, but it rubbed me the wrong way.
  • The romance of the story is between Olivia and Tarquin*, the duke that her younger sister is pinning her hopes on. So right off the bat, we learn that in order for the romance story to work out, she’d have to break her betrothal to another man AND screw over her sister. Nothing sexy about that.
  • Olivia is apparently a curvy girl (which for this time-era probably means she was all of a size 8 or so – not fat by any means really), and that’s great. But she constantly bemoans the fact that she’s fat and no one could possibly think she’s attractive, especially next to her graceful, thin younger sister.
  • Between Olivia’s whining that she’s fat and her constant regret that she’s engaged to someone so undesirable, I was pretty bored.

OK, these might be a little spoiler-ish, so skip to the end in case you still want to read this book…

  • Tarquin is kind of a cool duke – he’s a mathematician and all interested in math and equations and stuff. I like smart people in my romance. But Olivia makes no secret of how boring she finds that sort of thing, while her younger sister is totally into it and can even hold a conversation with Tarquin about it. Which means that while the younger sister is perfect for him, the lust factor alone makes him want to be with Olivia. Fine if this was more of an “erotica” book, but not cool for a romance. Personality counts too, dammit.
  • Also, Tarquin’s been screwed over by lust before, so you’d think he’s value compatibility more than lust, but nope.
  • For those of you interested in the sexy bits more, I flipped ahead, and the one scene that I read sucked. Too much talking, and something else annoying that I don’t really want to go into.
  • When I realized that I just really wasn’t enjoying this book, I went online and read some other reviews. Apparently it barely resembles the princess and the pea story, and apparently the ending is really weird.

So, there we have it. You wouldn’t think I’d have so much to complain about for just half a book, but there you have it. I’m quitting this and moving on to something else.

 

~Sarah

 

* Tarquin is a great name though.

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March 21, 2012 · 7:00 am

The Tattooed Duke by Maya Rodale

  • Title: The Tattooed Duke
  • Author: Maya Rodale
  • Publisher: Avon
  • Pages: 371
  • ISBN: 9780062088925

So, browsing about Wegmans earlier this month, I of course was looking at their selection of books and ended up buying two, one of which was this one. The Tattooed Duke I really picked up on a whim. The whole tattoo thing caught my eye because come on, dukes didn’t rock tattoos back in the day, and then I flipped through it for a minute and noticed these funny little chapter subtitles. For example: “Chapter 5: In Which Scrubbing Floors is Romantic” and “Chapter 15: In Which the Duke Does Some Sleuthing”. It looked like fun, so I bought it and I’m happy to say it was really enjoyable.
 
Sebastian Digby has been trotting the globe having adventures when he’s called back to England because his father dies, and he is now the new Duke of Wycliff. He reluctantly returns home to find that the dukes before him have left the estate penniless, and that the elite of London scorn him for his wild ways, too-long hair, and small gold hoop earring. Once they find out about his wild tattoos and outlandish adventures overseas, they turn their back on him and refuse to fund the expedition of his dreams: a trip to the famed land of Timbuktu. Meanwhile, his pretty new housemaid almost makes him want to give up his dreams of exploring Timbuktu so that he can stay in England and flirt with her…
 
Eliza Fieldings is a writer for London’s favorite gossip newspaper, but she might not be for long if she doesn’t complete her latest assignment: to find out everything she can about the badboy duke. So Eliza poses as a housemaid in the Duke of Wycliff’s household, and she finds herself instantly attracted to him. As they grow closer, she’s torn between her desire to get the story so that she can keep her job, and her desire to give in to loving Sebastian. 
 
As you can see this is not your run-of-the-mill historical romance, and I thought it was GREAT. I loved seeing a heroine that isn’t some rich heiress, but also isn’t some poor peasant girl who needs a great marriage to save her finances. She’s an intelligent girl who loves to write, and she has a job and works really hard. Eliza is independent, witty, and tough. She even carries a knife at one point! HELL YES FOR HEROINES WHO CARRY WEAPONS!!!!! That’s the first I’ve ever seen of that in a romance, or in most books really. It should definitely happen more often.
 
Sebastian is a fun hero too – he has a scandalous past, but nothing that he’s ashamed of. He’s also determined not to become just like all the other dukes of Wycliff before him, which means he tries to keep from falling into bed with Eliza, as much as he wants to. He has a sense of wanderlust and refuses to conform to society’s expectations of him, which made him really likable.
 
Besides the great characters, there was no insta-love! Sure, there was insta-attraction, but that’s okay. They actually had conversations and talked to one another a lot, which somehow gets left out of a lot of romances. There was a fun and unique plot as well. For those of you who read romance purely for the sexy times, I’ll warn you that there’s no sex until the end of the novel. That’s how I prefer my romance novels actually, but that’s cause I care more about the characters, story, and romance than the sexy bits.
 
All in all this was a successful and really fun fluffy read. And apparently it’s part of Maya Rodale’s “Writing Girls” series, so there are other books out about some of the secondary characters as well. I’m not too big on series in romance, but I may give one of the others a try.
 
Sarah Says: 4 stars

BTW… Doesn’t the tattoo on the duke look like a face? Luckily the tattoos as described in the book sound much cooler.

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December 21, 2011 · 6:48 pm

A Wallflower Christmas by Lisa Kleypas

Hey ya’ll. So, another Christmas romance! Surprised? Probably not. It’s such a busy time of year, and this is all my brain can really handle when I’m so exhausted.

So, if you’re a historical romance fan you’re probably familiar with Lisa Kleypas’ Wallflower series. It’s about four young “wallflower” ladies in England who meet and become friends, and agree to help each other find husbands. They all have some barrier – one girl is super shy, another is kind of poor, and the other two are American (which at that time was I guess a bad thing, cause they were unrefined and not of nobility). And you know, there’s four books in the series (one for each of them) and I read the first one a while back and remember thinking it was cute. I still have the others in the series, just haven’t gotten around to them yet. Anyhoo, this little novella is a cute edition.

American Rafe Bowman (the brother of the two American wallflowers) is in London for the holidays – to visit his newly married sisters, and to get engaged himself. His father has chosen the rich and beautiful Natalie for his son to marry – but first he must meet and impress Hannah, Natalie’s lady in waiting.

So, Rafe is a smart and ambitious young man making his fortune on Wall Street and through manufacturing in America, but he’s also brash, crude, and a womanizer. He’s almost sure he’ll end up marrying Natalie, for her generous inheritance and to please his father and get his piece of the family business. However sweet, proper Hannah is convinced that he is no where good enough for Natalie, and does her best to get in the way. Like the normal rake, Rafe is intrigued by the challenge that Hannah poses, and can’t stop thinking about her. And romance blooms over the Christmas season.

So, as a romance novel it’s no secret where this ends up – Hannah and Rafe fall in love and get married. I’m unsure how I felt about the story though. For one, this is a short little book – only about 200 pages. Rafe is initially kind of unlikable, since he’s kind of rude and a bit of a man-slut. But of course we learn about how he’s really just a sad, mistreated child inside and he’s really a good guy, blah blah blah. Almost no backstory was given for Hannah – we learn that she’s Natalie’s lady in waiting, which is really just an unpaid servant. We never really learn what happened to her family and how she came into her present situation, just that she has the hopes of marrying a respectable man in a good profession. Now as proper and kind of goody-goody Hannah was, and how crass and jerkish Rafe was, I kind of liked them. I liked how relaxed Rafe was, and his sense of humor. I liked that Hannah was intelligent, and that she just kind of got herself into awkward, funny situations.

I guess for me this was a little too insta-love. They meet and fall in love in the matter of a few days to a week – Rafe really just goes on and on about how lusty Hannah makes him, and all of the sudden that translated to love. I guess it all just happened too easily – this would have been better with a little more story and more courting. An extra 100 pages would have made a big difference.

Anywayyys… this was a cute romance novel, and a quick read. And I bet Wallflower fans will definitely enjoy re-visiting some of their favorite characters. And I did enjoy the mentions of Christmas – decorating a giant Christmas tree, reading Dickens’ A Christmas Carol, etc.

Sarah Says: 3 stars

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July 2, 2011 · 12:12 pm

Just Like Heaven by Julia Quinn

 

Just Like Heaven Pictures, Images and Photos

I’ve probably said it before, but Julia Quinn is my favorite historical romance author. And this book is a great example of why she’s so awesome. This was the perfect light, fun afternoon read.

Honoria Smythe-Smith grew up in a large family, but as the youngest she was always a little apart from the rest. She grew up idolizing her older brother Daniel and his best friend, Earl Marcus Holroyd. Now she’s 21 and the last still living with her mother. Daniel is out of the country, and Honoria is starting to feel desperate to move out and start a family of her own – she hates living in an empty house with her mother. When Honoria runs into Marcus while out one day, it starts the rekindling of their childhood friendship. When they were kids, Marcus was practically part of her family, but with Daniel gone she doesn’t see much of him anymore.

When Marcus falls into Honoria’s mole hole (seriously) and twists his ankle at a social event, Honoria is quick to help him recuperate. He’s an only child and has no other family. And him getting injured may be the best thing that’s ever happened, because they start to realize that friendship could be the perfect starting point of romance.

OK, so this was a great romance for a few reasons. Firstly, it wasn’t insta-love, which is usually what romance novels are. Since they’ve known each other for fifteen years, there’s already a decent foundation there. There’s also no huge dilemma or problem or big misunderstanding. They’re friends, and they bond while Honoria is helping to nurse him back to health. And there’s no super-sexy-stuff until the very end, which is how I prefer my romance novels. I don’t read them for the graphic stuff, I read them because they’re light-hearted and funny and they make me smile. This book totally did.

Also, I liked both of the main characters. Honoria was sweet and not too dramatic. And she totally steps up and does what she needs to for the people she cares about. And Marcus is a surprisingly funny guy for being such the shy, quiet type. There were quite a few parts that had me laughing out loud. Plus, they both like sweets. It’s just great to read about a male main character trying to get his hands on an eclair.

So basically, this was a great fluffy romance read. Was it super emotional or passionate? No. But it was light and breezy and I’m totally in a good mood just after finishing it. So it’s a win for me.

Sarah Says: 4 stars

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April 1, 2011 · 7:16 pm

>When Harry Met Molly by Kiernan Kramer

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Normally, I’m very hesitant to try new romance authors. However, I came across this one at the library – the title caught my eye, and Julia Quinn’s blurb on the cover convinced me to borrow it.

Molly is a feisty daughter of an earl, who has been closeted away in strict schools for the last 8 years. She’s dying to escape from that boring life, and means to elope with a friend of the family’s when her plans go awry.

Harry is the son of a duke, who had a career in the army but ran into a disgraceful situation. He’s back home and spending time sleeping around with any compromisable woman. He and his friends are sick of being chased by scheming mamas and maids trying to get married, and therefore are sucked into a wager – they must each bring a mistress to a weeklong event, and the man whose mistress is voted most “delectable” will get to avoid being chased into marriage for one whole year.

Harry and Molly hate each other. However, they’re thrown together when Molly’s intended abandons her, and when Harry’s mistress abandons him. Harry agrees to be Molly’s chaperone home if she’ll first join him for a week pretend to be his mistress. If he doesn’t show up with a mistress, he’ll have to marry someone ASAP. Molly agrees, and if she wins, Harry will have to find her a suitable husband. And course, they start to feel a spark between them.

I’m getting kind of bored with historical romances. They all seem to follow this basic formula:
feisty, beautiful girl + handsome, rich horndog = romance blooms unexpectedly

So while I kind of liked Molly, she seemed very much just the typical romance main character. Of course, this book did have it’s differences. Molly befriends several other mistresses (aka whores), for example. And there’s a hateful, evil little man involved in the bet that of course makes matters more difficult. If you really dig historical romances, this will probably be just your kind of thing. For me, it was okay but a little predictable.

Sarah Says: 3 stars

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May 8, 2010 · 9:48 am

Comanche Moon

>I know, I know. It’s been a while since I posted a review. But for one thing, I have more time on my hands now that I switched jobs. Secondly, this book was just that good.

Comanche Moon book cover

Comanche Moon by Catherine Anderson is the first in a series that has recently been re-released since they were originally published over ten years ago. I had read a Catherine Anderson romance before and really liked it, and was in the mood for something kind of different, so I tried this out. Good choice on my part! I loved this book!

Set in the mid 1800′s, Hunter of the Wolf (Hunter for short) is a mixed-breed Comanche Indian who lost a wife and unborn child years ago – she was tortured and murdered by white men. He avenged her, but there is a prophecy about Hunter that he will one day fall in love with a white woman and leave his people for her. He does not believe it, his hatred of whites runs so deep. But he shows up to kidnap the girl who may be the one in the prophecy to appease his gods.

Loretta is a mute girl, living with her aunt’s family. Her parents were murdered before her eyes seven years ago, and she watched her mother get brutally raped and killed – by Comanches. She hasn’t said a word since that day. One day Comanches show up to take her away, and she bravely lets them take her to save her relatives. Her captor, a Comanche named Hunter, obviously hates her, just as much as she absolutely despises him and all other Comanches for what they did to her parents.

But somehow, these two bond and come together in defiance of both of their peoples.

I love forbidden-love stories, so this got points right away for that. At first Loretta kind of annoyed me, but she and her female relatives (Aunt Rachel and cousin Amy) really grew on me. They all possess courage and a lot of spirit. Amy in particular is very spunky. Hunter is a really likable hero – you feel terrible for what happened to his first wife, and he’s an honorable man. Stubborn some times, but always true to himself and protective of those he loves. There are a lot of great supporting characters as well, which is rare in romances. They all played important roles, and most were really enjoyable.

This book doesn’t go in the way of most romances – there’s a lot of greif, tears, and bloodshed. In a way, it doesn’t even feel right to call this a romance, because it doesn’t read like one. Except for the few sex scenes (just two or three in about 500 pages), it really focused on the difficult relationship between Hunter and Loretta and all of the different obstacles in their way.

Anyways, this really was a great novel. I could hardly stand to put it down, and as soon as I leave work today, I’m going to go buy the sequel, Comanche Heart.

4.75 stars out of 5 ( lost .25 just for my initial annoyance with Loretta)

~Sarah

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