Reading Fanatic Reviews
Historical RomanceAn Earl’s Redemption by Joyce Alec
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An Earl's Redemption*
A Few Surprises for a Regency Romance
I thought that this story suffered from too much of an information dump right at the start. This is a somewhat longer novella, almost novel length, so the author did have time to sprinkle in the backstory as needed rather than reveal everything all at once. Parts of this story, though, were slightly different spins on what is typical for Regency romance. I liked how it was the hero who suffered from the ton’s disapproval for his actions during the previous Season. Usually, it is the lady’s reputation that is in danger in a Regency. The heroine is put upon by her family, and she is determined to forge her own destiny rather than stay within an uncaring family fold. So, she is not immune to the hero, despite his reputation. Much more is in the works in this story, including a naughty widow who would like to make the hero her next conquest. All in all, I found parts of the story amusing, but it did have the issues with too much backstory as well as problems with grammar, punctuation, and usage.
The Summer Duke by Jillian Eaton
Available at Amazon, Barnes & Noble, iBooks, Google Play, Scribd, 24 Symbols, Thalia, and Bol.de
The Summer Duke*
Hero Too Unlikeable After the Compromise
I usually like the books by this author, but I found both the pacing and characters to be off in this book. The inciting compromising incident which sparked their forced marriage took up nearly 40% of the book, not leaving much room for the conflicts and tension in their marriage to fully be explored, played out, and resolved. In that pivotal first scene, the characters actually seem to have a fair amount of chemistry, but the duke pulled back sharply, despite his undeniable attraction to the heroine, once he decided to go through with a marriage rather than ruin the heroine. Maybe it would have been better to have seen some of it from his perspective right after the wedding instead of starting with the heroine’s viewpoint. Instead, he just seems like a petulant child; “I’m not going to be a good husband because I didn’t want a wife.” The heroine was amusing at times, but she definitely lacked a spine. How could proclaim to love him after the way he treated her. And the way she attempted to “woo” him back… ack, rankled my every sensibility as a reasonably intelligent woman. Ick. I also thought that the author did some strange head-hopping in the initial scene. In the ballroom, we were in the heroine’s head in the first chapter when suddenly perspective shifts to a group of young women; the heroine couldn’t possibly have overheard them. I enjoyed the references to Jane Austen and her works, but this book, as a whole, just didn’t work for me.
Rogues Like It Hot by Various Authors
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Rogues Like Ir Hot*
Nine Steamy Reads
I am a sucker for a collection of Regency romance! Even if I don’t like every book in a set, I will usually like enough of the books to make it worth my while. This book had the standard dukes and marquesses along with a couple of pirates and a prince of a made-up realm that existed in the channel between real Regency England and France. Some of these books don’t appear to be available singly. I’ll admit I wasn’t too wild about the pirate stories (because pirate romance is not really my thing), although the authors still did a good job writing them. I thought, too, that some of the heroes were more rakes than rogues… and I prefer my Regency rogues to be just a little naughty, but not too much. Still, I found the books in this collection to be enjoyable, steamy reads.
Married to the Rake by Samantha Holt
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Married to the Rake*
Characters Fascinating, but Plot Dull
This book was a little frustrating at times because, while I enjoyed the characters of both the hero and the heroine, I felt like the plot was a bit dull. The book has a good premise: the hero and heroine are from neighboring families who have participated in silly feuds since medieval times; these have escalated into hatred between the families, as evidenced in the current generations by their fathers. The hero, Brook, wants to mend this feud because he sees the toll it is taking on his father. The heroine, Chloe, while she doesn’t trust him because he is a Waverly and has a reputation as a notorious rake, wishes for the feud be over for her brother’s sake for when he inherits. So essentially, the plot of follows recurring complications that are similar in nature. Brook and Chloe set up something that they think will help, they fail, and they try again. There was no sense of progressive complications, no escalating conflict. I found the heroine’s self-loathing because of her looks to be disheartening; self-acceptance, if it is used as a theme in a book, needs to be handled sensitively, and I do not believe it was done so here. I also have an issue with the cover. I’m not sure which timeframe this is supposed to be, Regency or Victorian, but ladies from neither era would have worn a dress with so much skin showing. If this is meant to be an undergarment, it isn’t period either. Still, I liked these characters and their interaction; I just wish there was more to the plot.
Too Clever by Half by Nancy Yeager
Available at Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Kobo, Mondadori, Angus & Robertson, and Indigo (Chapters)
Too Clever By Half*
Witty Banter and Amusing Games, but Too Short
This book has a delightful beginning. The hero and heroine are in competition to get a grant for their worthy causes. The author did a good job portraying the hero’s chauvinism. The heroine wanted to win the grant for the higher education of women; the hero at first could not understand why women would need or want such a thing. After all, if they could run a household, raise children, and provide good dinner parties, of what use would more education be and how could it possibly help them fulfill the role of their sphere? The heroine does educate him somewhat, and he starts to come to some new conclusions on his own. It is hard to imagine being a woman of those times, straitjacketed into a narrow societal role, even if you wanted more.
Watching their interactions at the beginning was a delight. Tessa, the heroine, is indeed a smart woman who is underestimated by the men around her, but she’s not afraid to use her feminine wiles to get her what she wants. She is quite amusing. The hero is much more uptight, and he wants the money to help worthy young men who would not be able to afford a Harrow education to get one. I liked watching their relationship evolve. I quite enjoyed the banter and the games that went on between the hero and the heroine, especially at the start of the book, but I felt that this novella was too short to fully give much in the way of true conflict or show in-depth characterization. I also have an issue with the cover. This book is supposed to take place in Victorian England, and the cover dress looks more like it belongs at a froufrou high school prom (or is perhaps a really bad bridesmaid’s dress). Victorian women would have never shown so much skin. All in all, though, I did find a story very enjoyable, and what I got to know of the characters, I liked.
Care of the Duke by Eliza Heaton
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Care of the Duke*
Romantic Novella with Good Characterization
What a sweet and lovely story! Anna is the sickly daughter of an earl. Her mother and maid coddle her to the extent that she is not even allowed out of her bedroom most of the time. However, when the book starts, the entire family is off to enjoy a hunting party in the north. Anna makes the acquaintance of the owner of the house, the Duke of Richmond, while not knowing who he is. In this moment, the duke is able to just enjoy the company of a lovely young woman without her viewing him as one of the most eligible bachelors in England. They fall into easy conversation, and during the house party, they get to know each other better.
I really enjoyed this relatively short read. Even though it is a novella, the author actually has done a good job of characterization for both Anna and the duke. In the opening scene, Anna reveals some of her inner struggles as she relates what the landscape she is traveling through looks like; this was rather cleverly done exposition that creates empathy for Anna. We meet the Duke when he is in a brooding mood as well, so we learn a bit of his backstory and the emotion behind it. These are two wounded souls who come to find comfort, compassion, and genuine caring in each other. It doesn’t seem unnatural or forced, as it often does in a novella. Their relationship was lovely to watch unfold. While the duke was understanding of her delicate nature and frailty from years of ill health, he did not coddle her like the others in her life. They both knew that she wanted more than to be treated as an invalid, and he was good at making that happen for her. I thought the end was a little strange, as what the author called an epilogue really seems more like a continuation of the story (even if it was a few months later). I would have liked to have seen a proper epilogue. I would like to think that under the excellent care of the duke’s physician, as well as being in a loving relationship, Duchess Anna would continue to regain her health. A delightful historical romance with that setup that is different from most.
The Key to Her Heart by Blanche Dabney
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The Key to Her Heart*
Romance Didn’t Have Enough Time to Develop
I found this to be an odd story. Except for the prologue, the hero and heroine don’t meet until after the 33% mark. Because they met so late in the novel, there really isn’t enough time to develop a proper romance. It felt like the early time spent in Scotland dealt with mostly inconsequential things, like Daisy getting her bearings and trying to figure out what was going on. This book did have a different element when it flipped back to the present. It was mildly amusing, though in a serious way, that Jock really thought that a demon possessed her because of all of her talk about the future. The idea of the scourge, though, seemed a bit extreme. Wasn’t the use of that only for priests? In other ways, too, the author makes the Highlanders very superstitious, with a healer not even wanting to help Daisy in case she was possessed and his soul would be damned because of his involvement with her. I don’t think this is historically accurate; not everyone would be a religious zealot. I’m not precisely sure when this book is supposed to take place, but it is clearly in medieval times. Some of it just felt off to me in these respects. I didn’t feel like there was enough external conflict going on. There was some, but it felt like it was just kind of stuck on and not fully integrated into the entire story arc. In all honesty, even the Highlander aspect of this story seemed like it was more for window dressing than the actual firm bedrock of a setting; it actually didn’t seem integral for the story or the characters. So for me, the story fell flat in several respects, including an undeveloped romance and not much really going on in the story.
Freeing Fortune by Ashley J. Barner and Jennifer Sanders
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Freeing Fortune*
A Fictional (?) Regency Character Comes to the Modern World
Imagine that your favorite book boyfriend was brought from his fictional world into your own when you accidentally speak some words from a secret magical spell! That’s the way this book starts when a Darcy-esque Ben Fortune is brought forth from Regency times by the heroine to modern times. In Parts, this book reminds me of the delightful TV series called Lost in Austen, where the heroine of that story went back to Regency England, switching places with Elizabeth Bennet. But in this book, Ben is in our time. It’s fun to see our world through his eyes. He is a complex man with ideals that are similar to our own in many cases; he’s a great hero, both then and now. This book extends the idea of Lost in Austen in a really interesting way. Essentially, Ben coming to our time from his place in a novel actually creates strange changes first in the novel and then in actual history. Move one man from his “fake” time centuries ago, and much can change: the butterfly effect. I really enjoyed all the references to Pride and Prejudice and other historical romances, both their novels and their movies. The author got one tiny detail wrong. Heathcliff wasn’t a Regency hero; the Bronte sisters were Victorian writers (writing a good 20+ years after the Regency era), and Wuthering Heights is considered to be Gothic. It certainly isn’t Regency. Aside from that, I found this book to be an absolute delight.
Wyndcross by Martha Keyes
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Wyndcross*
Well-Written Regency Romance Debut
What a delightful Regency read! After reading so many of this subgenre lately that had stilted language that was trying to affect a historical tone, it was a pure pleasure to read an author who not only knew how to properly do a faux historical dialogue but also wrote it in such a clever and witty way. Right from the start, I loved the banter between William and Kate. This book has several levels going on, including a subplot about smuggling and an arc that is built on many layers of deviousness and deception. I found the characters to be well drawn. This book was just a great read if you love well written Regency, like I do.
The Disgraced Bride by Rose Pearson
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The Disgraced Bride*
Story Arc Good; Language Use Distracting
This story combined ideas that are quite often seen in Regency romance but rarely together. There is a spinsters’ guild; spinsters and avowed bluestockings definitely seem to be recurrent themes in Regency lately. The heroine is suffering in society because of the downfall of her father. She still hopes to marry, so she goes to London in hopes of finding a suitor. The hero did have some involvement in her father’s nasty business, but he feels sorry for the heroine, as he knows that she is at no fault but is being punished for it, and he wishes he could do something to help ease her way in society.
I found the writing in this book to be a little stilted, particularly the dialogue. I can tell the author is striving to make it sound like historical speech, but not only were some phrases awkward, the characters unfortunately all sounded alike in mimicking this variant of historical-like speech. I also found it confusing that two of the female characters were named Emma and Emily, one of them the heroine and the other being the head of the spinsters’ guild. There were some issues with grammar, punctuation, and usage (beyond the UK spellings), but nothing that was overly distracting. I found that I actually liked the arc of the story, but I was put off by the very unnatural-sounding language.
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