The Duke by Kerrigan Byrne Review

The Duke by Kerrigan Byrne Review

⭐️⭐️⭐️

       This was the first title I've read by Kerrigan Byrne. It won't be my last, but I do need some recovery time and some lighter fare before I tackle another novel this serious.

        Once upon a time, Imogen Pritchard was a young woman forced to work for an unscrupulous man by night to pay her deceased father's debts and a nurse by day to support herself, her mother, and sister. One of those nights was spent comforting a soldier right after he lost his entire family and before he left for war.

         Collin Talmage, Duke of Trenwyth, has never forgotten his night spent with a prostitute named Ginny and has spent years searching for her. He's returned from war a broken and angry man and directs some of that anger at his new neighbor, Imogen. That is, until he realizes that Imogen is in danger and he doesn't want anyone else protecting her.

         I really liked Imogen and thought she was a strong heroine. I don't particularly remember any TSTL moments from her. I liked that she did what she had to to take care of herself and her family. I did, however, miss what was so bright and happy about her, as Cole put it. She didn't seem to me to be any happier than he was.

         That thought brings me to Cole and how incredibly dark the story was. I love a hero with a dark past that is trying to overcome it but Cole and the entire story were so incredibly dark. I'm going to need to read two or three lighter stories just to get past it. So I was definitely invested in the story and their feelings, which is always a good thing.

          Honestly, I felt like there wasn't much in the way of an actual romance here (hence the three stars). Usually when I finish a romance I can think of at least a few instances when the romance began to blossom and I love those moments. I didn't get that with this book. They meet in the beginning, they don't like each other for part of the book, and then suddenly they love each other and it's HEA. Makes the HEA harder to believe.

         Reading this made me kick myself for giving The Highwayman to the library without actually reading it first, but I need to read something more fun before picking up another from this series.

                                                                  -Reader

The Scottish Duke by Karen Ranney Review

The Scottish Duke by Karen Ramsey

⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

       This was the first title I've ever read by Karen Ranney, and I've already preordered the next title.

       Forced to become a maid after her father's death, Lorna Gordon has admired Alex Russell, the Duke of Kinross from afar. When he hosts a ball in his home, Lorna grabs a chance to sneak into the ball and have a scandalous encounter with Alex that leads to even more scandalous consequences.

        Alex has had trouble trusting others his entire life. When he learns of the results of his night with a beautiful stranger he assumes she only wants money or his title. He soon learns, however, that Lorna wants neither and that she is an enigma he desperately wants to understand. Each will have to learn that sometimes a little trust in another is required for a happy ever after.

        I really enjoyed this title. I wasn't bothered by the early sex scene but I was quite happy that the rest of the book was not spent with Alex not knowing who Lorna was. I'm reading another title with a similar beginning and the hero still doesn't know who the heroine is. It would get tiresome reading two books like that at once.

       Lorna was a fantastic heroine. Sure, she had a TSTL moment at the beginning but she ended up paying for it and it was her only moment like that. I loved her independence and spirit. I really appreciated the fact that she didn't just fall into being a duchess like she was born to do it like you sometimes see in historical romances.

         Alex was a bit harder to get to know, which was appropriate because he was harder for Lorna to get to know too. He was capable of being quite a jerk when he wanted but who isn't? Happily, his turnaround wasn't a whiplash inducing quick one at the very end. His coming to care for Lorna was slow and believable.

        I found this title to be very entertaining and am looking forward to the next!

-Reader

The Viscount and the Vixen review

The Viscount and the Vixen by Lorraine Heath

⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

       This book literally kept me awake at night trying to finish it because it was so good!

        Viscount Locksley swore to never marry a woman he could grow to love after growing up with a father driven mad by his wife's death. When Locke first meets Portia Gadstone and assumes her to be a fortune and title hunter bent on taking advantage of his father, he decides he could never love her and marries her instead.

         Portia only agreed to marry Locke's father out of desperation thinking his title could offer her the protection she needed. She is horrified, however, to be marrying Locke instead. Until she realizes she could never grow to love a man like him.

         As they spend more and more time together, however, they realize that love is always worth taking a risk for.

         I will admit I was annoyed at first at what I thought was insta-lust for both Locke and Portia. And I was quite convinced that this book would be like the previous one with the hero and heroine doing little more than groping each other. I was wrong, however. While there WAS insta-lust, it is followed by a slow and moving love story. Locke and Portia get to truly know each other and grow as a couple.

         I loved Portia with her optimism despite the hand life had dealt her. And she felt just enough guilt for what she was doing to make me sympathetic towards her. And I thought Locke was a great guy. He was arrogant in many things but was always so gentle with his father and took excellent care of those around him even while grumbling about it.

         This was a great almost end to a overall great series. I can't wait to read Locke's parents' story and Ms. Heath's next title, An Affair with a Notorious Heiress!

          -Reader

Waiting For an Earl Like You by Alexandra Hawkins Review

Waiting For an Earl Like You by Alexandra Hawkins

⭐️⭐️⭐️.5

       I enjoyed this title. It was a lot of fun and flowed very well.

       Miss Olivia Lydall and her neighbor, Justin Reeve Netherwood, Earl of Kempthorn, known as Thorn, have never much liked each other. Thorn has always considered Olivia a nuisance that trailed after he and his twin brother, Gideon. Olivia has always found Thorn to be too serious for his own good and instead befriended Gideon.

       Deciding Olivia is too smitten with his brother, Thorn pretends to be Gideon in an effort to steer her away. This plan backfired, however, as Thorn gets to know Olivia better and finds himself attracted to her. The only problem is that Olivia believes Thorn to be Gideon. How can he convince her to love him for himself instead of who she believes him to be?

       I found this book to be entertaining from the very beginning. I really liked Thorn and his reserved personality. I thought he was perfect for Olivia's more reckless nature. Trouble followed her everywhere! I fell in love with Thorn and the way he was a much sweeter man than he let on to everyone but Olivia.

       Hawkins definitely did the twin switcheroo right! There were some consent issues (more on that in a moment) but they weren't due to Olivia not knowing who she was with. That is usually the worst part about twin switch romances; the heroine can't really consent because she doesn't really know who she's consenting to. That was not a problem here and it was so refreshing.

      Now, I did have a few issues with this book. I have not read the first two books in this series and there were so many characters in both of the feuding families that at times it was hard to figure out who was who and it brought me out of the story every time.

       I mentioned consent issues. During one scene Olivia keeps telling Thorn no and he just continues kissing her and touching her until she gives in. That's not okay. She should've been able to say no and get him to stop. I did not like that at all.

      The word "quim". It makes me want to barf. You can tell me until you're blue in the face that that was an actual word they used and I still wouldn't care. It's still disgusting.

       Easily the worst thing in the entire book was Olivia's complete TSTL moment. She'd been intelligent but reckless the entire book but her stupidity in one scene negated all of that. Her lack of propriety during the same scene made me grind my teeth. She did the same thing that had gotten her in trouble before! 😡😡😡

       I will be honest; I enjoyed this book but I don't know that I'm going to rush out and get the others in the series or read the next one when it comes out. I'm not ruling that out either, though.

       I received an eARC from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

-Reader
     
       

A Scot in the Dark by Sarah MacLean Review

A Scot in the Dark by Sarah MacLean ⭐️
      Sarah MacLean is kind of a hit or miss author for me but I had been REALLY, REALLY excited about this one.
       Lillian Hargrove has been lonely and ignored all of her life. Because of this, she allows an artist to paint a scandalous portrait of her that will definitely ruin her. Alex Stuart, Duke of Wernick, is perfectly happy to ignore all things English, until he learns he has a ward that has brought scandal upon herself. In order to save Lily's reputation, Alec decides it's high time she has a season and gets married. Lily wants to marry for love and doesn't agree with Alec plans.
       As I said, I was really excited for this book. I've been waiting eagerly for it which is probably part of the reason it's such a disappointment. After four days of reading, I was only one page 104 so I decided to call it a dud and quit. The whole "You're getting married" "Oh no I'm not" schtick got old so fast and from what I read of other reviews apparently continues throughout.
       Probably my biggest irritation with this book (and with MacLean's Never Judge a Lady by her Cover) is the fact that getting Lily married isn't necessarily going to save her reputation. All of London was still going to see her naked! I'm all for the suspension of disbelief up to a point, but that was just hard to swallow. Imagine what an exciting and fun novel this could've been if Warnick and Lily had instead concocted a plan to steal the portrait and destroy it!! It would've been fantastic. I will probably read the next title, even though I'm not overly enthused about it.

-Reader

His Scandalous Kiss By Sophie Barnes

His Scandalous Kiss by Sophie Barnes⭐️⭐️
      Before I even start this review, I have a confession: I'm a quitter. I quit reading books I'm not enjoying because I have so many others to read. And I've also never been one of those readers that can force myself to read something I don't find interesting (lots of literature assignments were left unread in high school and college, let me tell you).  

      I previously read Lady Sarah's Sinful Desires and was rather underwhelmed. It wasn't necessarily bad, but the secret wasn't all the exciting and neither was the book. For that reason, I skipped The Earl's Complete Surrender altogether. Sophie Barnes is not a go to author for me by any means and I didn't feel any loss at not reading that second book. I don't feel like you have to read the first two books in the series to know what's going on in this one, which was nice. Sarah and Spencer (Lady Sarah's Sinful Desires) make appearances but all you really need to know (at least to the point I read to) is that they were in the first book.

     I expected this book to be more of a Beauty and the Beast trope than Phantom of the Opera. Once I realized that, I decided to give it a go anyway because I have no experience whatsoever with the latter. Frankly, Richard just wasn't grouchy enough for my tastes. And so we come to probably my biggest issue with this book; the main conflict was external, and not overly interesting. Richard and Mary come to like each other almost immediately and the only things really keeping them apart are problems from the outside world. I personally prefer for my hero and heroine to not like each other much until they just can't deny their attraction anymore. Without that internal conflict, there's just not much to keep me reading. I finally gave up on page 186.

-Reader

I swear I'll never read from this author again...okay, one more try.

      Once again, I have purchased a book from an author that I've sworn never to read ever again. I've done this a few times with this author, but always find myself so intrigued by her plots that I end up buying another of her books anyway.
      Before I explain why I keep swearing off her books, let me first explain how I ended up with another one. I live in a tiny town. We have five restaurants (only two of which have drive-thrus) and not much else. The library is great because you can request books from other libraries. However, when new books come out the wait is usually pretty long. The closest thing we have to a bookstore is Walmart: one side of a small aisle is devoted to books with only eight feet of that actually devoted to fiction paperback. A vendor is responsible for stocking the books, usually at multiple stores. the vendor at the particular Walmart I shop at often doesn't stock new books until a day or two after their actual release date. This means I'm often stuck waiting until Thursday or later for a book released on a Tuesday.
      The closest actual bookstore (Barnes & Noble) is an hour away from my house. I generally need an excuse besides books (or so my husband thinks) to make the drive to go to B&N. I happened to find myself in the city it's in the other day for something else entirely and couldn't pass up a chance to go. There wasn't a particular book I was looking for but I hate to leave without something. So I happened upon a book from this author I haven't read, and read the plot. And I suddenly HAD to have it. So I bought it in something of a daze and I will just pray I enjoy it.
      Why the distrust of an author, you ask? Because her books are often the same: they basically devolve into nothing but sex scenes around the halfway mark. I read romance, I enjoy sex scenes. But they get tedious when the hero and heroine are fucking every chapter (guess how much I didn't like 50 Shades...hint: I couldn't get past the sample). Nothing is really resolved because every argument ends in sex. And I always end up losing respect for the heroines because they lose their self respect as soon as the hero touches them. But they get an orgasm out of it so it's okay, right? (No, no it's not. At all). I also always end up feeling like the author doesn't know how else to resolve things and needs a certain page count so SEX. Voila.
       One of her books took such a crazy left turn that I vowed never to read her again before being sucked in by a plot that sounded amazing. And it could've been. Instead, the hero was an asshole and the heroine gave up every time they fought because he'd start kissing her. She went from being an intelligent woman to a quivering puddle of horny goo every time he touched her. So I made another vow not to read her again until a few days ago. Obviously I'm not great at keeping vows (except my marriage vows, lol). The book I purchased a few days ago is about 6th in line in a long line of to read books so I have some time to prepare myself. Here's hoping it goes better this time!

-Reader

If I Only Had a Duke by Lenora Bell Review

If I Only Had a Duke by Lenora Bell

⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

        Really enjoyed this one. Almost gave up seeing the sights on a vacation to read it!!

        Lady Dorothea Beaumont wants nothing more than to survive one more season as a wallflower before she officially becomes a spinster and spends the rest of her days in Ireland with her aunt. And to gain permission to raid her neighbor, the Duke of Osborne's art collection. 

         Dalton, that very duke, is living a double life; the shameless rogue he has convinced all of London he is and the vigilante he is by night while trying to find the man that destroyed his family. He doesn't need Thea as a distraction, but she can provide a distraction from his other activities. Following one dance with him at a ball, Thea becomes the Season's Original, a title she DOES NOT want. Thea demands Dalton escort her to her aunt's as repayment for destroying her plans. Along the way, they come to realize they need each other more than they ever could have guessed. 

         I loved Thea. I thought it was fantastic to watch her learn who she was. I liked that she really found her courage when dealing with Dalton and had no problems standing up to him. Her sense of humor cracked me up several times, too. Also, I loved that she didn't like snuggling with Dalton. I myself hate snuggling and had never read about anyone in a romance novel not loving it.

         Dalton was a very sweet guy hiding behind a wall of grief and guilt. It was obvious the way he took people into his protection that he wasn't the selfish rogue he'd like everyone to believe. 

         Con was probably one of my favorite characters. He made me laugh out loud several times with his matchmaking antics. And I liked that he had his own tragic backstory. 

         I thought the story itself moved along fairly well. I love Thea and Dalton's letters to each other at the beginning and they really helped pull me into the story. I felt the first half was slightly more entertaining than the last half but it still moved along at a good pace. It was a light read, exactly what I was looking for. 

          The only issues I had with this book were very minor. For instance, I have naturally curly hair. Over the years, I have learned to regard it much the same as a wild animal; I care for it as best I can while giving it some space and try to remember it is sometimes aggressive and unpredictable. I have had my hair pinned up enough times to know that there is no "fluffing" it after. Thea's curly hair was apparently magical because it always did what she wanted. And remained curly after being pinned up all day. I call BS on that one. But that is just a minor issue. 

          I will definitely be picking up the next in the series!!

          I received an ARC of this book from Avon in exchange for an honest review. 

-Reader

          

         

A Brief History of My Life in Reading.

I was destined to be a reader. 

I grew up on a small hog farm in the boonies. I also happen to be allergic to anything with fur and those allergies cause asthmatic symptoms (or, more simply; I see a pony, I wheeze and gasp). Benadryl allowed me to breathe with the consequence that I wasn't able to stay awake. Unfortunately, I was given it so many times that it stopped working altogether when I was still young. The inability to breathe and exercise + my insistence on overeating = a chubby kid. 

The elementary school I went to was tiny. And 27 years ago there weren't anti-bullying campaigns in my school district. Kids were expected to stand up to bullies or not (I promise I'm coming to a point). I was lucky enough to have an asshat in my class; he made school life hell until 5th grade when we were no longer in a class together. Thanks to him, I had no friends until then either. I'm rather proud to tell you that I DID finally stand up to him in junior high. But that's neither here nor there. 

Except in books. I could go outside and experience things in books. I had friends in books. I wasn't a chubby girl that couldn't do things other kids were doing in books. Every time I picked up a book, I was taken out of my room and into a different world. 

I was a chicken as a kid and everything scared me. So naturally, I read books that were creepy and scared me too. I owned and read nearly every Goosebumps book published. That ventriloquist dummy was the stuff of nightmares. From there I eventually found myself reading almost everything Stephen King had ever written. Then I read Dean Koontz. And I will admit, I always liked his books better than King's. Insert collective gasp here. At some point I realized I liked Koontz's books better because they were lighter...and they had romance. 

My mom introduced me to Sandra Brown's books my freshman year of college. I remember rolling my eyes at the thought of a romance novel. A few months later, I had read everything of Brown's. I continued to gobble up contemporary romances until I was looking for something new to read one day in Walmart and ran across Snowy Nights with a Stranger, an anthology of historical romances. I, like so many people still do today, scoffed at the idea of a historical romance. I bought the book anyway and read it. And I've rarely read anything that wasn't historical romance since. 

I love historical romances. The heroines that struggle to be themselves in a world that expects only one thing of them; marry well. The heroes that very well could be complete assholes but somehow manage to be the good guy anyway. The fact that they can't just get together and go on a date but the author has to find a real reason to keep throwing them together. I love it all. 

In this blog, I plan to discuss the historical romances I'm reading; some old, some new. In addition to that, I'll be discussing common themes I like and dislike. And the types of characters I like and dislike. 

Thanks for reading!!

-Reader