Reading Fanatic Reviews
Historical RomanceA Wicked Earl’s Widow by Aubrey Wynne
Available at Amazon, Barnes & Noble, iBooks, Kobo, Scribd, 24 Symbols, Thalia, Mondadori, Angus & Robertson, Indigo (Chapters), and Bol.de
A Wicked Earl's Widow*
Well Written, But Heroine Lacks On Occasion
Eliza, the heroine, finds herself at the mercy of her father yet again when she thought she was beyond his grip. He is an abusive man who has harmed both her and her mother over the years, and he wed her to a known rake (the Wicked Earl of the title) as a means to his own end, not caring about her happiness one wit. Though it took time, she and the earl eventually did come to have a genuine love match before he was killed in a riding accident when she was pregnant with their first child. Eliza’s father now wants to use her to marry again for his benefit, and he even threatens his granddaughter to try to force Eliza to comply. Her loving in-laws develop another plan, and on her way to hide out from her father, Eliza meets Nate when she attempts to stop hooligans from attacking an old woman.
I absolutely adored the hero, Nate. He is charming to watch as he becomes at first fascinated and then infatuated with the heroine; she affects him like no other woman, and the author actually did an excellent job of showing this. Right from the start, he could see that there was something more to her, a deeper and darker past that made her who she was and gave her the complexity that drew him in. I thought the author did a good job showing the effects of abuse in Eliza in a believable way. Eliza is at turns docile and obliging while at other times is filled with a rage that doesn’t seem to be within her character unless you know her background. I thought the scene with her whipping the hooligan showed her mental and emotional state with surprising complexity and truth. I loved little Althea. She was absolutely precious and could be as fiery and protective as her mother, as she showed in her first meeting with Nate.
I didn’t particularly appreciate how Eliza was so quick to want to give in to her father’s demands at various points in the story. She was never as alone as she thought, and she did have protection from a variety of sources. I just hated that whenever things started to look like they were (or even might) be going sideways that one of her first thought was that she should just go back to her father, accept the heinous older man as her husband, and give up her child to protect her from being drawn in to her grandfather’s vicious world. I also thought the title was wrong for this book. The use of the words “Wicked Earl” make you believe that this book has some naughtiness at some level to it, but that couldn’t be further from the truth. In fact, this is actually a very well-thought-out and well-written story of a woman who has been traumatized most of her life finding true happiness, love, and her happily ever after.
The Duke and the Damsel by Cinnamon Worth and Kay Springsteen
Available at Amazon only
Free with Kindle Unlimited
The Duke and the Damsel*
Not Able to Get Past Not Liking Hero
In a departure from most Regency books about a compromise, both the hero and heroine at the heart of the story are determined not to be thrust into an unwelcome marriage. The heroine had decided that being a spinster was her best course of action after she lost an early love. If she is to marry, she wishes to do so only for love, but that is becoming more and more unlikely the older she gets. When they are discovered in a compromising state, the hero believes that he can buy the silence of the observers, but the heroine’s uncle has other ideas. To help the young woman, the hero decides to choose potential suitors from amongst his friends that might make an ideal husband for her.
I felt like this story had several plot holes. We’re told a little about the heroine’s first love, but we don’t really know the full story of their romance and what their relationship was truly like that would make her decide it was best to remain a spinster. There’s also a bad guy in the story, of course, but that just kind of fizzled out without any resolution. I found the language of the book to be somewhat stilted. I imagine the author is trying to mimic what she believes are Regency speech and language patterns, but it just doesn’t work and is more distracting than engaging. When the hero and heroine first meet, he comes across as a real jerk, and since the story is of novella length, I didn’t learn enough about his character or see enough of a growth arc to get past my initial bad feelings about him. For me, for a romance to work, I have to like the hero—finding him swoon-worthy is even better—and I have to believe that he is the best choice for the heroine. Unfortunately, that did not happen here.
A Wallflower’s Folly by Amanda Mariel
Available at Amazon, iBooks, Google Play, Scribd, Thalia, and Bol.de
A Wallflower's Folly*
A Poorly Written Regency
I love a good Regency Romance—it is my favorite sub-genre of historical romance—but unfortunately, this is not one of them. The book is very short and suffers from a malady common to novellas: the dreaded information dump. And this happened not just once but twice. First, there was a data dump from the heroine and then a data dump from the hero. Despite that this excessive and repetitive information, I still didn’t feel like I got to know these characters. The book is full of so many errors with grammar, punctuation, spelling, and usage that it was exceedingly distracting. Did the heroine have “ill-manors”? The wrong form of too/to was used on more than one occasion. Words like “deuce” were misspelled (duce… really??). I could go on for paragraphs at how many things were just wrong, wrong, wrong. The book ended very abruptly as well.
I actually thought this was a good premise for a Regency romance (and was even looking forward to reading it), but it was so poorly executed that I cannot recommend it at all.
The Way We Met by Patricia M. Jackson
Available at Amazon, Barnes & Noble, iBooks, Kobo, Scribd, 24 Symbols, Mondadori, Angus & Robertson, and Indigo (Chapters)
The Way We Met*
The Meet-cutes of Ten Couples Across Time
What a lovely collection of ten somewhat long short stories that each highlight how a particular couple met. The stories range in time from the late 1800s to now. They are written alternating between the hero’s and the heroine’s perspectives in the first person. I would have liked to have seen the POV mixed up a little in these stories, as the first person can be a little tedious to read for such a long time, especially when you’re constantly switching characters. In these stories, the author is able to give a real sense of both time and place, from Ellis Island in the late 1800s to Midwestern farms. Even though these are relatively short, she is able to make each of the characters distinct. In the brief span of time that we see these couples, I felt like I got to know the characters and became invested in their stories. Each story could be read in about the time of a break or a lunch, perfect for reading while at work.
Lacewood by Jessica James
Available at Amazon, Barnes & Noble, iBooks, Kobo, Google Play, Scribd, 24 Symbols, Thalia, Smashwords, Mondadori, Angus & Robertson, Indigo (Chapters), and Bol.de
Lacewood*
An Odd Combination of Parts
I am not quite sure what to make of this book. I think the author had an interesting premise, but it was not fully realized on several fronts. I found the first part of the book to be so dull that I almost did not continue. Nearly 10% of the book is just taken up with how the heroine got to New Hope and her walk around Lacewood manor. Another significant portion just following this seemed to just detail home repair and the heroine’s growing involvement with the future hero. Things get more interesting when the heroine finds out more about the old home’s previous owners through artifacts and letters.
But then the book does a strange flip. Part 1 takes place in the present, and then part 2, which doesn’t happen until after the 75% mark, takes us back to the Civil War past of the manor. The last 7% or so is part 3 and takes place in the present again. These broad jumps in time made the book feel disjointed. Rather than have parts, and such lopsided parts, I think the book would have been better if the past storyline had been integrated with the present one. For example, the author could have interleaved pertinent past chapters within the current storyline as interrupters, especially if they illuminated what the current heroine found. It would have made for a more cohesive story and overall plot line. I also felt that the author’s prose was too flowery in places, especially in the beginning section, and was a little too heavily dependent on descriptive words like adjectives and adverbs that actually distracted from the reading because it was overloaded with unnecessary details.
While I completely bought into the Civil War romance (even if the hero of that arc seemed too good in general and an unbelievably fantastic love letter writer), I didn’t get any chemistry from the contemporary couple. Their romance didn’t hit all the right notes (conventions and obligatory scenes) that a love story should have. The big themes that the writer promised would be shown in the blurb were not realized in the book itself (though we were TOLD they were addressed by the characters). In all, I found this book unsatisfying.
For This Knight Only by Barbara Bettis
Available at Amazon, Barnes & Noble, iBooks, Kobo, Google Play, Scribd, Mondadori, Angus & Robertson, and Indigo (Chapters)
For This Knight Only*
Middle Good; Beginning and End Need Work
In this novel, I had a hard time liking Sir Roark at the beginning. I didn’t like the way he treated Lady Alyss with such a heavy hand when he was the one who was lying to her to get her castle and land. Through the middle portion of the book, I thought he became a better character as he grew and learned that the true treasure he had lied to get was actually Lady Alyss. I did like Lady Alyss’s character, though I thought she was a bit stupid at times. She often acted without thinking, putting herself in danger more often than I think a woman would have in those times. At the beginning of the story, in one of the first chapters, the author takes Lady Alyss right to the point of nearly killing a man as the chapter cliffhanger, and I was sorely disappointed that the author did not bring us back to that point when Lady Alyss’s perspective resumes. Rather, her story started up again some weeks later; as a reader who had seen the terror of the moment, I think the author owed us the end of that scene!
I thought that the beginning and the end of this story were weak, the beginning for what I mentioned with both Sir Roark and Lady Alyss. The ending had a series of surprises that came one after the other in rapid succession, and I think everything wrapped up too quickly. So much happened in so little time that it didn’t seem or feel realistic. More time was needed to fully explore the many facets of the end.
The Rogue’s Bride by Jayne Castel
Available at Amazon only
Free with Kindle Unlimited
The Rogue's Bride*
Sadly, The End of the MacLeod Sisters’ Series
Since I had read the previous two stories in this series about the MacLeod sisters, I was definitely curious to see what Caitrin’s story would be. It was evident in book one (as well as book two) that she had suffered much at the hands of her husband, who died in the first book. Because of her brutal treatment by her husband, she is loath to marry again, and she simply wants to remain as chatelaine at Duntulm and raise her son. But that will not be simple when Alastair MacDonald returns to Duntulm to claim the role of chieftain and laird of the manor. When Alastair and Caitrin were young, they were the best of friends, but for him, it turned to love. When he proposed, she laughed in his face, choosing to wed his brother; she didn’t see them as anything more than friends. When he returns home, it is clear that he has neither forgiven nor forgotten.
Vengeance plots like this one are sometimes hard to read. As a reader of romance, I want to be able to fall for the hero like the heroine is supposed to, but Alastair is not that swoon-worthy hero because he truly cannot let go of the past–even if at one point in the book it seemed like he did so as they called truce and started rebuilding their friendship. I think I was as heartbroken as Catriona at his final act of vengeance, and I wondered if the author could truly convince both Caitrin and me of his worthiness after this rather heinous act. I will say that the author surprised me. All along she had shown his flaws and weaknesses without restraint–he definitely had PTSD after a particularly bad and losing battle against the English near Durham, and I could understand him and his actions more than I thought I would when he confessed all to Caitrin at that pivotal juncture. I still think after all of her suffering that Caitrin deserved a better hero, but the route the author chose works well enough even if I found it a little unsatisfying. I think when an author makes a heroine such a sympathetic person because of all that she has gone through, as she has done here, she needs an equally sympathetic hero to balance her out, and I don’t think that was achieved. That said I have enjoyed this series of books, and I am looking forward to the next series that she teased about at the end that promises to have romances for two of the characters that were in this book. I’m quite looking forward to Sorcha and MacNichol’s romance.
Last Words by Shari J. Ryan
Available at Amazon and Scribd
Last Words*
Stunningly Beautiful Novel About the Triumph of Love and Human Spirit
I read and review a lot of books. I’m generally able to dictate a review rather quickly. But when a book truly is exceptional and moves me, I feel like my meager words cannot do it justice. This is one of those outstanding books I am trying very hard to do proper justice to. This is simply an amazing book about the power of true love to triumph over hate and time. The book is an emotional journey not just for granddaughter Emma in the story but for the reader as well. In this book, the author has rendered beautifully both the greatest potential of the human soul as well as what we are when we are at our worst. The writing draws you right into Grandma and Emma’s story effortlessly. The story alternates between the points of view of Grandma (in the form of her diary) and Emma. The author has given them each a distinct voice; you know which is which even without referring to the note at the top of each chapter. Grandma’s story gives Emma a vision of what true love is and empowers her to live a better life with a man who treats her right. Grandma and Charlie’s story is full of so much pain but also love and hope in what was one of the darkest hours of human history. The author tells the harrowing tale with a brutal honesty that is at once inspiring and heartbreaking (though that word does not do it justice). As Emma starts to turn her life around, her story is the perfect counterpoint to her grandmother’s story, adding sweetness and a little levity. An exquisite, beautiful work that should be read by people who enjoy good love stories that touch the heart.
Two Scandals are Better Than One by Nancy Yeager
Available at Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Kobo, Mondadori, Angus & Robertson, and Indigo (Chapters)
Two Scandals are Better Than One*
Steamy Victorian Suspense
Luci is concerned about her missing father and goes to a gentleman’s house party—code word for a den of iniquity—in hopes of gaining information that will help her find him. She doesn’t quite realize the dangerous world she is dipping her toe into. She is surprised to find Steady Eddie there, who has been a friend of her of the family since she was a child. She had a crush on him until she realized that he was much too dull for her to truly consider as a life mate. This is why it is such a surprise to find him at this party that is only a step above a brothel. While he doesn’t recognize her at the party, he is intrigued by her scandalous persona, and he soon finds out who she really is. Once he knows what is going on, he insists on helping her figure out what’s going on with her father so he can protect her.
I so enjoyed this romantic Victorian suspense! Early on, the author did an excellent job portraying Edward as a proper English gentleman in a very uncomfortable setting; he usually didn’t go to debauched house parties; he wanted just one night of craziness. She was even able to give him speech patterns that make him sound like a toff but not so much that it sounds like unnatural speech; I think this is a hard line to straddle, but the author did this perfectly. The hero and heroine have fantastic chemistry. He is willing to put himself in harm’s way to protect her and help her figure out the mystery. The more time they spend together, the more steamy the book becomes, but the progress of their romance seemed appropriate to their characters. I love the suspense element in this plot and enjoyed seeing what the characters had to do as they became more deeply involved in the criminal underworld. The ending was very satisfying.
Luci and Edward are a delightful couple to watch as they try to unravel all that is going on while falling more deeply for each other. This is the second book I’ve read of the Harrow Five series, and I look forward to the next installment. If you like historical romance with a bit of suspense, you will most likely enjoy this book.
Emily’s Choice by Bethany Swafford
Available at Amazon only
Not with Kindle Unlimited
Emily's Choice*
Lack of Romance
I love a good Regency romance, but unfortunately in this book’s case, I felt it lacked in several key areas. The central characters did not seem to grow or change. While the book did have some humorous or intriguing scenes, it often seemed more for effect than substance (like furthering the plot or showing characterization). I did not find the heroine particularly engaging, and the hero felt remote. In the early parts of the book, at least, I felt like the author used far too many exclamation points. The characters couldn’t have been that excited over what they were discussing. The dialogue seemed unnatural, with characters using words and phrases in combinations that aren’t typically done either in real life or other historical fiction. While I am generally not opposed to adverbs, as many seem to be in fiction writing today, I thought that this book used too many that did not actually illuminate what they were supposed to. The book lacked progressive complications within the romance plot itself (though there were other complications) and a substantial crisis and climax. The hero and heroine weren’t together enough for the romance to build. I actually went online to see if this was actually categorized as a romance, as it didn’t feel like much of one to me.
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