Reading Fanatic Reviews
Historical RomancePledged to Mr. Darcy by Valerie Lennox
Available at Amazon, Barnes & Noble, iBooks, Kobo, Google Play, Smashwords, Mondadori, and Angus & Robertson
Pledged to Mr. Darcy*
Misses the Mark
I will admit that I am a sucker for Jane Austen fan fiction. In fact, when I bought my first Kindle some years ago, I gorged myself on all the available Pride and Prejudice fan fiction, both on Kindle Unlimited and ones I bought straight out. So I always love to discover both a new story and a new author in this sub-subgenre of Regency romance. I was intrigued by the very first chapter of the book. We start in the sitting room of Mr. Collins vicarage at Hunsford just after Elizabeth has received a terrible letter from Jane. She is reading this when Mr. Darcy comes in to make his infamous, and infamously bad, first proposal. He doesn’t even notice her upset so lurches forward with his inept proposal, which is even worse than the one usually portrayed in the movies. She doesn’t give him a direct answer and instead tells him about the contents of the letter. Jane has told her that their father has died and much of the rest of the family is sick from a sudden illness that is sweeping through town. Mr. Darcy immediately offers to take Elizabeth back to Hertfordshire so she can be with her family.
I actually thought that having Elizabeth receive such a letter from Jane was a great start for a Pride and Prejudice variation. However, after that, the book kind of fell apart for me. Once they got back to Hertfordshire, it seemed like everybody was just dying off at the level of a Shakespearean tragedy: Mrs. Bennet, Mary, Kitty, some servants, and even poor Mr. Bingley. As an RN who has studied infectious and communicable diseases, I find myself wondering what could have been so virulent and always fatal? There are few (none?) that are both.
I didn’t like this Mr. Darcy; for a P&P variation to work for me, I have to be able to fall in love with him along with Elizabeth. One of the keys to Mr. Darcy, I think, is that he must be absolutely constant in his love or Elizabeth once he figures out that’s how he feels about her. To me, this is an immutable part of Darcy’s character that must be in a variation, or for me, the story will fall flat. Much of what happens to Mr. Darcy in the later part of the original, how he becomes a better version of himself, hinges upon this constancy of love (even when it was unrequited). In this variation, as he sees Elizabeth struggle with the deaths of most members of her family, while he expresses compassion and understanding to the remaining Bennets, he actually doesn’t feel himself to be in love with her anymore now that her bright smiles and witty rejoinders are gone and hopes that in the time of her mourning—she has asked that they wait six months to marry to mourn her parents—that they will grow closer and he will again feel that same love that he purports to have felt before the deaths. All I can say is: no, no, no! Even though Darcy has not been humbled in the proposal scene as in the original and the movies, that constancy of love should be present, or it just isn’t a viable Pride and Prejudice variation. While I think the story had some potential, I thought it was those too dark and Mr. Darcy too inconstant to be a truly good spin on the classic.
Love Spells by Emma Kaye
Available at Amazon, Barnes & Nobles, iBooks, Kobo, Mondadori, Angus & Robertson, and Indigo (Chapters)
Love Spells*
Two Interrelated Time-Travel Tales
These are two interrelated novelettes that feature time travel that goes both ways between modern times and Regency England. The first one is a little longer and more developed; a 21st century writer has a spell cast on her that takes her back in time… or is she just sleeping on her beach vacation? The Regency world seems a little enchanting at first, but there is more to the world than she imagines. But was any of it what she thought it was? With two related stories, I don’t want to give away too much! I thought in the second novel was too short. It felt like it had barely started, and then it was done. There is an excerpt from another story at the end.
Brody’s Bride by Kathleen Lawless
Available at Amazon only
Free with Kindle Unlimited
Brody's Bride*
Complex Romantic Tale of the Old West
This second-chance-at-romance Western tale is surprisingly full of subplots, crazy characters, and double crosses that often happen in stories of the Old West. A greedy land grab? A murderous old man? Precious minerals? Perhaps lost treasure? Long-lost mother showing up? This author has packed a lot into a novella, that’s for sure. Laura has come back to Bullet, Arizona, because she fears that her love from ten years ago is at the crux of the machinations of a dastardly older man who wants Brody’s property. She was able to ingratiate herself with that man’s son and let him think that it was his idea that she become the new schoolmarm in Bullet. But what she really wants to do is figure out this man’s plot against her teenage love. Her and Brody’s relationship ended poorly because she made a bad decision. He has remained unwed, and his heart was broken by her because of her treatment of him back then.
Bullet is a nest of vipers, most working at the behest of Hawkes (the bad older man), as well as a place where good people are just trying to live their lives. The most interesting characters are the men who live at Brody’s ranch, the Copper Moon. They called themselves brothers, and while some are, they are more brothers bound by hard work, a shared history, and a desire for a better future. I really enjoyed the brother characters, and I look forward to their future romances, as the title of the series suggests. All in all, I enjoyed this complex story about the happenings in the small town of Bullet sometime in the late 1800s, and I’m eager to learn more about these characters and seeing what else unfolds in this small town.
Redemption for the Rakish Earl by Jilian Rouge
Available at Amazon only
Free with Kindle Unlimited
Redemption for the Rakish Earl*
Heat Level Goes to STEAM Very Fast
Goodness! I don’t know quite what to make of this book. When I read about the couple’s passionate relationship, I wasn’t quite prepared for what happened in the first chapter. My goodness, the author raises the heat level to Steam very fast. The writing of the text actually felt a little clunky to me, and not just the sex scenes, as the author has the characters speak and think in ways that are unlike how real people express themselves. She also engaged in a bit of head hopping, which I can find distracting. Even though this is a historical novel, some of the sensibilities seem more modern than post-Regency. The heroine’s views on marriage, in particular, seemed far too modern. But there is more than romance at the heart of this story. In fact, it appears that historical suspense is becoming quite a sub-subgenre of romance and suspense. After their passionate scene nine years earlier, the couple is reunited, but they have more to get beyond than their past mistakes as it appears that someone is out to do them harm. I had a hard time warming up to the hero. The way he acted after the initial passionate encounter with the heroine was truly rakish, and he wasn’t really repentant about his habits. Instead, he returned to the heroine’s sphere because it was challenging to keep the married women he’d slept with and their husbands at bay. All in all, I’ve read better historical romance and better romantic suspense.
Regency Rumors by Bethany Swafford
Available at Amazon only
Free with Kindle Unlimited
Regency Rumors*
A Good Regency Suspense
In this Regency suspense, the reader can figure out pretty quickly that there is something strange going on both at the Burnham household and with the heroine’s family. But the author doesn’t give away too many details too fast. We know that something has happened to the Sinclair family’s reputation, but we don’t know what precisely nor do we know what greater problem this has caused. Juliet, the heroine, is first mistaken for someone applying for a job as a lady’s maid in the Burnham household, but then she decides to take the job–rather foolishly–in order to help both sate her curiosity and see if she can do damage control for her family. She gets involved in a world that’s far different than her imaginings.
The author did a good job building the suspense and just the oddness factor of the Burnham household, where Juliet worked in disguise. I will admit I felt a little frustrated at times not knowing more of the greater picture, but it was so intriguing that I kept going. I quite enjoyed this little romp into Regency suspense and rumors.
An Imperfect Engagement by Alyssa Drake
Available at Amazon, Barnes & Noble, iBooks, Kobo, Google Play, Scribd, 24 Symbols, Thalia, Mondadori, Angus & Robertson, Indigo (Chapters), and Bol.de
An Imperfect Engagement*
Wild Ride… with a Cliffhanger
This is the first book that I have read in this series, and that is unfortunate because this book is certainly not a standalone. The author does try to explain some things at the beginning, but the plot gets thick really fast, so there isn’t much time for backstory. So I did find it a little confusing. I might have to go back to that first book, though, because this one is quite a ride, and I am curious to see how it all got to this place. I thought, though, that the characters really didn’t seem particularly historical; instead, they seem to have modern sensibilities and just happened to live in what we would call historical times. The book has some issues with grammar, punctuation, and usage–including some unusual ones–so that was distracting at times. But the author does know how to write a good suspenseful and romantic tale that just kept me forging ahead despite the confusion about the greater story and minor annoyance at the grammar. She’s able to set time and place well; I could imagine myself in that dingy apartment at the beginning. This book does end on a cliffhanger, so if you don’t like those kinds of stories, you might want to pass this one by; I understand the first book of the series ended similarly.
Delectable Wicked Rakes by Dawn Brower and Amanda Mariel
Available at Amazon, iBooks, Google Play, Scribd, 24 Symbols, Thalia, Mondadori, Angus & Robertson, Indigo (Chapters), and Bol.de
Available at
Delectable Wicked Rakes*
Tag
Despite being promised all six books in the blurb at my favorite book review site, the ARC I received only contained two novels. By the way, this irks me. I don’t mind being given only one or two books in an anthology to review, but be honest with me about it. Don’t promise six books and then give two!
Here are their reviews.
Stolen by My Knave by Dawn Brower: I have read several books in this series, though it has been some time since I last visited this world. While the author does provide some information necessary that we learned in the other books of the series—even though I was familiar with this series—I sometimes still found myself scratching my head trying to remember all the interrelationships, who crossed to what time and when, etc. Probably for a series like this, it is best to read them one after the other so you don’t forget the minutiae. I definitely felt like I needed a family tree and a chronology. I enjoyed the witty banter between Jack and Elizabeth, and I absolutely adored the references to Pride and Prejudice, especially how Jack learned from it. Jack is a jaded man, and I thought he was a little too glib for too long to be a truly good hero.
Enticed by Lady Elianna by Amanda Mariel: Cinderella, Regency style. After her father’s death, Elianna was essentially made into a servant by the new earl (they even call her thus to her face). They don’t even give her the honorific of Lady anymore, and to outsiders, they simply refer to her as either a servant or companion, never mentioning her relation to them or her status as a lady. Because of fear, I guess, Elianna never speaks out about this, even when she can. She is willing to be ill-treated by those who are actually her family, and even when someone asks more about her, she tells the same lies that her cousin’s family spout. Actually, I found that recurring theme rather irritating after a while. Why wouldn’t she tell the truth when asked or speak up to the hero on the many occasions when he asked? Instead, she just accepts her fate, and she seems unwilling to try for more of a life; she just bemoans her fate. And she is so apologetic to the dastardly relations—gag. There didn’t seem to be good enough reasons for her to act like this. And I also didn’t quite believe that the hero was so fascinated why her so quickly. The melodrama factor got ratcheted up too many degrees, making the story ridiculous. Even the way things resolved in the epilogue… like so many books of this type. So many romance tropes were used, without apparently being sardonic, that I nearly had to force myself to keep reading; I will admit to having a morbid fascination to see how many cliches this story would have. I found myself wondering if the author meant this as farce: let’s see how cliched I can make this and still have people buy and like it.
The Duke of Ravens by Jennifer Monroe
Available at Amazon only
Free with Kindle Unlimited
The Duke of Ravens*
Too Melodramatic
What a peculiar historical romance. I’m not quite sure what to make of it. I was put off right away by a word choice mistake in the first sentence. The book also suffered from several information dumps, which I always find annoying as I think background information is better when it is scattered throughout a novel as needed or shown in some way. I also thought that the author made the heroine’s life with her awful husband far too melodramatic to be believable. The author didn’t always use the proper forms of address for nobility. There is a suspense plot in this, and I thought that was better done than the romantic aspect of the book. The suspense plot does have some red herrings. Some characters’ behavior didn’t make sense until the end, which made for a confusing read at times. The cover doesn’t go with the book at all, as the hero would not have dressed like that for the bulk of the book.
An Unexpected Redemption by Emily Hamsher
Available at Amazon, Barnes & Noble, iBooks, Kobo, Google Play, 24 Symbols, Thalia, Mondadori, Angus & Robertson, Indigo (Chapters), and Bol.de
An Unexpected Redemption*
A Hot Mess!
Despite good intentions, this book is a hot mess! The author strove to write a story that hinged on the beauty of grace and redemption, but some serious faults overshadowed this. The book has a prologue and then jumps ten years ahead, and we don’t really understand how we got from A to B for a while, so it was a little confusing. The author had some rather prodigious information dumps at the beginning, which for me always slows down the pace of a story (and never in a good way). There were many glaring errors in word choice, grammar, usage, and punctuation, enough to be overly distracting from the story. For instance, the word “urethral” was used instead of “ethereal” when describing cherubs, and as you might imagine, that was quite a jarring error! Often in conversation, the word “naught” (nothing) was used instead of “not” (a negation). There were strange punctuation errors all over the place. At a certain point in the book, I felt like I was more making a game of spotting the mistakes and correcting them in my head than actually enjoying the story. I think this story has potential, and the author certainly does as well, but it certainly was not realized here.
A Dangerous Temptation by Jillian Eaton
Available at Amazon only
Free with Kindle Unlimited
A Dangerous Temptation*
An Unlikely but Believable Couple
I have read several of Jillian Eaton’s books now, and I have enjoyed them. This book is no exception. The author is very good at manipulating both the reader’s emotional heartstrings and the characters’ thoughts and actions. The prologue, showing the hero coming upon his newly murdered wife five years before the bulk of the story, immediately makes the reader have great empathy and sympathy for the hero. She immediately switches it up with the scene of this book’s hero and heroine’s meet-cute told from the perspective of the heroine. The switch is jarring because of the sharp differences not only in the circumstances of the scenes but the voices of the characters. The heroine comes across as smart but a little naïve and as someone who has a good sense of humor and sense of self. The hero and heroine have a near instant and actually believable chemistry that is off the charts and only continues to grow as the book progresses. Because of the loss of his wife, the hero is a wounded soul seeking to avenge his wife’s death. The heroine isn’t quite willing to give him up despite the darkness she can sense within him or the difference between their social standings.
I enjoyed this book very much, both the romantic aspects between this unlikely couple and the suspense plot of finding and bringing the hero’s former wife’s murderer to justice. A solid historical romantic suspense!
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