Spotlight: P. B. Ryan's Nell Sweeney series

Recently in one of our frequent emails, Jane asked me, "BTW, who is P. B. Ryan?" Indeed.

P. B. Ryan is Patricia Ryan, author of historical romances and a series of mysteries set in Boston in the late nineteenth century. It is this six-book series about an Irish governess named Nell Sweeney that I recently read and LOVED. Unfortunately, the books are out of print but have recently been released as inexpensive ebooks. Last week, I read the six of them back-to-back, downloading them as I went onto my nook.

It's really too bad that these are out of print because I think the covers are absolutely charming. As I mentioned, Nell Sweeney is an Irish governess living in Irish-hating Boston over a hundred years ago. However, Nell is much more than just a governess, she is a woman made of secrets, a keen intelligence and compassion. At the beginning of Still Life with Murder, she is working as an assistant/apprentice for a doctor in Cape Cod. One night while summoned to attend to a pregnant woman having a difficult birth, she is offered the job of governess to an affluent family. She readily accepts and is swept into life with the Hewitt family, much to her employer's husband's chagrin. Her first case as an amateur detective involves William Hewitt, eldest son of Viola Hewitt and thought dead after being held at a prisoner camp in the South. (These books take place not long after the Civil War.) Nell soon makes friends and allies who help her with her cases, the most interesting being Will, of course, even if Nell's secret past (?) and Will's opium addiction (!) gets in the way of any romantic relationship they may want to start.

This series is clever and so well done that I am heartbroken that there are no more to come. Smartly written and also a bit romantic, I will be rereading this series for years to come.

Review: The Witch's Daughter by Paula Brackston

My name is Elizabeth Anne Hawksmith, and my age is three hundred and eighty-four years. Each new settlement asks for a new journal, and so this Book of Shadows begins…
In the spring of 1628, the Witchfinder of Wessex finds himself a true Witch. As Bess Hawksmith watches her mother swing from the Hanging Tree she knows that only one man can save her from the same fate at the hands of the panicked mob: the Warlock Gideon Masters, and his Book of Shadows. Secluded at his cottage in the woods, Gideon instructs Bess in the Craft, awakening formidable powers she didn’t know she had and making her immortal. She couldn't have foreseen that even now, centuries later, he would be hunting her across time, determined to claim payment for saving her life.
In present-day England, Elizabeth has built a quiet life for herself, tending her garden and selling herbs and oils at the local farmers' market. But her solitude abruptly ends when a teenage girl called Tegan starts hanging around. Against her better judgment, Elizabeth begins teaching Tegan the ways of the Hedge Witch, in the process awakening memories—and demons—long thought forgotten.
Part historical romance, part modern fantasy, The Witch’s Daughter is a fresh, compelling take on the magical, yet dangerous world of Witches. Readers will long remember the fiercely independent heroine who survives plagues, wars, and the heartbreak that comes with immortality; to remain true to herself; and protect the protégé she comes to love.

If ever there was a time on this planet to be a witch, the seventeenth century wasn't it. The Salem Witch Trials went on in America in the latter half of that century as well. How awful it must have been for those people (and their loved ones) who were accused and executed for no other reasons than paranoia and mass hysteria. Everybody knows that there are no such things as witches, right?

In The Witch's Daughter, Bess learns the hard way that there are such things as witches. In the beginning, she lives in the village of Batchcombe, England with her two siblings and parents and fancies herself maybe being a lady someday. But all that changes after the plague rampages through and takes most of her family and many others, leaving distraught mothers wandering the town, mourning their children and hating Bess' mother for being left with a daughter. Soon after, Bess' mother is hanged for being a witch, leaving Bess to turn to a man who she is certain can't be trusted, Gideon Masters. With him, Bess learns that she is a real witch like her mother, and has plenty of power. Gideon wants that power for himself and wants Bess to be his mate/partner/so-called equal but after Bess catches him in the woods one night, doing all those naughty things with demons that evil warlocks like to do, she escapes and tries to put Batchcombe and Gideon behind her. Now immortal, Bess changes her identity and traveling around to Whitechapel, London during Jack the Ripper's terror and the frontlines of WWII, working to help others like a good witch should but knows that trouble is right behind her. Almost four hundred years after her family's tragedy, Bess is comfortable in a small town in England and against her nature, befriends a teenage girl who wants to learn about Bess' craft. Complacency makes Bess worry, however, and when Tegan meets a boy who monopolizes her time and attention and works to poison her relationship with Bess, Bess starts gathering her weapons for a final showdown with Gideon.

The Witch's Daughter seemed daunting to me at first; three hundred pages of (what appears to be) tightly-spaced ten point font is not something you can just rip through in one sitting but that's pretty much what I did: read it all in one evening, right after dinner. It started a bit slowly but once I got to the first flashback about Bess' village, I was hooked. Told mostly through flashbacks in between bits of the present, The Witch's Daughter is a compelling story about what inner strength really is.

Review: The Perfect Scandal by Delilah Marvelle

If there is anything Tristan Adam Hargrove, fourth Marquis of Moreland, has learned to avoid, it’s scandal. For the dark and dashing lord is not only an honorable gentleman who would never seduce a woman for his own gain, he is also the author of How to Avoid a Scandal, the infamous red book that has swept like wildfire through the better part of London society.

When a raven-haired beauty arrives as his new neighbor, he knows better than to succumb to the desire he feels. He knows little about her—only that she is high born, a protégé of the Crown and completely unsuitable for the base passions he hides from the world. If only he had never glimpsed the vulnerable beauty one fateful night. If only her lips were not so ravishingly red. If only it were not already too late to save her and himself from the untamed passion he is about to unleash in the name of love.

Delilah Marvelle wraps up her Scandal trilogy with a third story involving dashing men with unusual sexual proclivities and the women who love them with The Perfect Scandal, a daunting romance between a complicated man and a passionate woman. This may be my favorite of the trio; Tristan and Zosia complement each other very well and the subject matter, as with the first two books, is handled in a compassionate manner.

Tristan has some dark secrets, aspects of himself he is ashamed of and terrified of sharing with anyone. He has isolated himself, a masterful trick for a man living in the bustling city of London as well as being one of the most well-known members of the ton. His grandmother tries to run his life and choose the woman he'll marry; his parents died when he was young in a sort of double suicide after his mother's long battle with madness and depression and she raised him after the fact. After he meets the unconventional Zosia, Tristan realizes that he has a long way to go before he can love her as she deserves.

Zosia is from Poland. She's a half-Russian countess from a family who perished in a tragic fire that caused her to lose part of one of her legs, Zosia is in hiding from the hated Russian aristocracy who wish to marry her into their ranks. Marrying an englishman will give her even more protection from Russia and King George himself has promised to find her a suitable husband. Then, she meets Tristan, her next door neighbor, and decides that he is the one for her, even if it takes some convincing on her part.

As I mentioned, Tristan and Zosia may be my favorite of the three couples in this series. Their romance was (as always) a bit naughty but they both are giving people who want the best for each other. I liked how much inner strength Zosia had and how unconcerned she was for propriety; she would more or less holler at Tristan out her bedroom window and seeing him get so disturbed by her doing this was amusing. Tristan, as the writer of that infamous book about scandals, is the essence of proper. It was a relief to see him finally, shall we say, let his hair down.

Delilah Marvelle has greatly impressed this reader with this trilogy. Not many historical romance (or otherwise) writers have the deft hand she possesses when it comes to sensitive subjects (rape, sexual addition, cutting, bondage). I will definitely read more books by this author in the future.

Review: Scandal by Amanda Quick

From a stately country house in Hampshire to the dazzling drawing rooms of London society comes an exquisite tale of an elfin beauty, a vengeful lord, and a wild, sweet love that is sheer poetry.

With her reputation forever tarnished by a youthful indiscretion, lovely Emily Faringdon is resigned to a life of spinsterhood–until she embarks on an unusual correspondence and finds herself falling head over heels in love. Sensitive, intelligent, and high-minded, her noble pen pal seems to embody everything Emily has ever dreamed of in a man. But Simon Augustus Traherne, the mysterious Earl of Blade, is not at all what he seems.

Driven by dark, smoldering passions and a tragic secret buried deep within his soul, Blade has all of London cowering at his feet, but not Emily . . . never Emily. For even as she surrenders to his seductive charms, she knows the real reason for his amorous suit. And she knows that she must reach the heart of this golden-eyed dragon before the avenging demons of their entwined pasts destroy the only love she has ever known. (from B&N.com)

The other day, I did what I usually do when the book I'm chewing on doesn't agree with me - I went to my historical shelf and looked for something easier to handle. I read lots of books like this one (there's just so many millions of them floating about the universe (or so it seems) that it's only probable that I'll brush up against one from time to time) but I'm not quite sure that I have ever seen one like Scandal by Amanda Quick. The main female character, Emily, is so utterly annoying and ridiculous that I'm still in awe of her. Amanda Quick, aka Jayne Ann Krentz, is one of my favorite historical authors and I am gobsmacked that she of all people came up with an unparalleled nitwit such as Emily.

Emily is intelligent. She manages her family's finances; more specifically, she manages to keep her gambling addict of a father from the poorhouse by successfully playing the stockmarket and choosing successful ventures. However, when it comes to men, she is an idiot. Losing her reputation at nineteen to a prettyboy Byron wannabe, she settled into a life of quiet spinsterhood in a small village outside the direct influence of London. One day, she received a letter from a stranger, a man who claimed that he had heard through the literati grapevine that she was a fellow lover of poetry, and they became pen pals. Turns out that her pen pal is a man whose father was ruined in a card game by her father and she's living in his old home! Simon has waited a long time for revenge and he's decided to use Emily to get it.

Here's where it goes bad. Emily is a HUGE sucker for romantic literature. (Ironic, isn't it, how she didn't fancy Mr. Darcy when her book club read P&P?) Simon uses her awful poetry as a lure, reeling Emily in slowly. He then shows up in her neighborhood after he's sure she's an absolute fool in love over him and seduces her without going all the way (a late night tryst was a sure thing to check that she was, in fact, INTACT). They marry and he makes sure that they consummate the marriage on their wedding night. At this point, I was thinking, hmm. Looking into a man's eyes and thinking that they seem cold to you when he's talking about love and metaphysical attachments is probably not a good sign, sister. However, throughout all of this, Emily goes on and on about how Simon is good and honorable and not at all cruel and dangerous to him and everyone else who will listen. Here is a rather long example of their interactions that appear throughout Scandal, where Emily apologizes to Simon for speaking to her father and tries to understand why he's being cold to her. It is fairly consistent with the rest: (from pages 140-142)

    "I understand and I am truly sorry," Emily said quickly. "You must know that. But it all happened a long time ago. It concerns our parents, not us. It was the work of an earlier generation. Now that you have St. Clair Hall back, you must let go of the past. It will only continue to torment you if you do not. Simon, you must look to the future."
    "Really? And what, precisely, do you propose I contemplate when I gaze upon the future?" Simon asked dryly.
    Emily took a deep breath. "Well, there is the matter of our relationship, my lord," she suggested tentatively. "As you pointed out last night, it has been considerably enhanced and deepened now by our physical union. We share something very special. Surely you will want to let go of the sadness of the past and concentrate instead on the joys of our greatly expanded methods of communication."
    He looked down at her, brows arched in icy amusement. "Are you suggesting that I forgo the reminder of my vengeance against your family in favor of the joys of the marriage bed?"
    Emily was increasingly uncertain of Simon's odd mood. A deep foreboding swept over her as she peered up at him through her spectacles. He looked very dangerous suddenly; a dragon had invaded the south garden, a dragon looking for prey.
    "Last night," Emily said slowly, "you said that for us the pleasures of the marriage bed would be unique. You told me they would be connected to the pure and noble passions of the metaphysical realm. That our union took place on the transcendental plane as well as of the physical plane. Surely that sort of relationship is very special and should be nurtured and cherished, my lord?"
    Anger crackled in Simon's golden eyes. "For God's sake, Emily, even you cannot be that naive. What took place between us last night had nothing whatsoever to do with any damn transcendental place. It was a matter of simple lust."
    "Simon, you cannot mean that. You yourself explained about the connection between the physical and metaphysical realms." She blushed but did not lower her gaze. She knew she was fighting for something very important now. "Our passions are transcendent in nature. Remember how you described the way our lovemaking in the physical world was bound to enhance our communication in the metaphysical realm?"
    ...
    She bit her lip. "So you lied to me about wanting to enhance our unique metaphysical communication?"
    "Emily, I did what I had to do in order to calm you bridal fears. We got the business over and done in a reasonable fashion and there is now no chance of an annulment."
    "That is all you cared about? Making certain there would be no grounds for an annulment this morning?" she asked softly. "You did not feel that last night we were both cast adrift on love's transcendent golden shore?"
    "Bloody hell. For God's sake, woman, will you cease prattling on about romance and metaphysics? I have had enough of your romantical nonsense. This is a marriage, not a verse from an epic poem. It is time you faced reality. You are no longer a Faringdon. You are now my wife. We shall manage to deal comfortably with each other if you keep that fact uppermost in your mind at all times."
    "I am hardly likely to forget it, Simon."
    "See that you don't," he said, his golden eyes blazing. "Emily it is time you understood that I require one thing above all else from you."
    "You require my love?" A spark of foolish hope still burned within her, Emily realized with chagrin.
    "No, Emily," Simon said brutally. "What I require from you - what I will have from you at all costs - is your complete and unwavering loyalty. You are now the Countess of Blade. You are a Traherne. You are no longer a Faringdon. Is that entirely clear?"
    The last, tiny flicker of hope died. "You make yourself very clear, my lord."

Emily's prattling about "love's transcendent golden shore" continues throughout the whole of Scandal and it drove me crazy, just as it did Simon. From a writer who creates such intelligent and shrewd women, I could just not understand by Quick/Krentz would go this direction with Emily. Perhaps this is her version of whimsy?

As for Simon, I'm not agreeing with his motives or methods but I found him less annoying, if not exactly likable. A man willing to trample over anybody and everybody for revenge isn't the type I'd want to spend my life with. The title of Earl of Blade is certainly apropos, is it not?

Scandal is definitely not Amanda Quick's best work. An annoying heroine and ruthless hero make this an irritating trip into regency England.

Review: Once Upon a Scandal by Delilah Marvelle

Lady Victoria Jane Emerson left behind her girlish notions of romance when Jonathan deserted her without a backward glance. Now the time has come when she must finally choose a husband, and she has vowed to marry someone who will never break her heart.

Jonathan Pierce Thatcher, Viscount Remington, has returned home, free of all his family’s debts. Only to discover that by some miracle he has been chosen to vie for the hand of his beloved Victoria. To convince his only love to once again believe in the magic of love and the promise of desire will be his greatest challenge yet. And one he cannot fail!

Delilah Marvelle is making one heck of a splash into the world of historical romance with her Scandal series. They're not technically her first books but these are definitely getting more attention in the mainstream market. Once Upon a Scandal is the second in this series and I found it to be just as good as the first.

Victoria was less than a year away from her coming out season in London when Jonathan made a play for her heart. A complete romantic, Jonathan wooed her with sweet words and only one kiss. They were already friends but he wished to have a promise from her before he left for Venice that she would wait for him to return. It should have been seven to ten months, tops, but instead he was gone for five years. And he wouldn't tell her why he couldn't return. From Victoria's perspective, it felt like he dumped her as an afterthought. He stopped replying to the letters she wrote and forbade her cousin, his best friend, from telling her the truth about him. It broke Victoria's heart, a heart that was already fragile after losing her mother and twin brother years before, and so she never married. Fast forward five years. Victoria's father is dying from tertiary-phase syphilis and doesn't even remember her. She is informed that three men have agreed to vie for her hand in marriage and she must marry one before her father is too ill to stand at her wedding - her inheritance depends upon it. Guess who shows up that night to be one of the three? Jonathan. Victoria has to speak to each for an hour before making her decision and than marry them within a week. How does someone make a decision like this, especially with these circumstances? Where has Jonathan been the last five years? And does Victoria still love him?

Delilah Marvelle does not make life easy for her couples, does she? (See my review for Prelude to a Scandal.) I consistently find it appalling, the way that women were treated back then for I do not doubt that this scenario was likely forced upon some poor girl back then; possibly now too. Many men also didn't have it all that easy either, I suppose. Anyway, Once Upon a Scandal is a bittersweet love story. The sex theme is back, too, in a different incarnation, yet still applied to the man in the equation. Sexual abuse in literature or fiction is generally forced upon the woman and I appreciated that Marvelle is turning the tables on that. (Not that I like reading about sexual abuse in any fashion.) I also liked that Jonathan's version of romance didn't involve sexing up Victoria, exactly, as well as his devotion to her and their love. On the flip side, I felt that the villain, Marchese Casacalenda, was rather uneven. He does all these horrible things (i.e. rape, murder) because his influence and money has bought him impunity and then at the end, he voluntarily acquiesces and accepts bodily harm? That felt inconsistent and didn't make sense. On the whole though, I found Once Upon a Scandal to be a riveting story.

The Perfect Scandal, starring Marquis Moreland, one of Victoria's suitors, is the final book in this series. I will definitely be reviewing that one as well.

Once Upon a Scandal can be found in stores on January 18, 2011. The Perfect Scandal will be out on February 15, 2011.

Review: Ten Ways to Be Adored When Landing a Lord by Sarah MacLean

Since being named "London's Lord to Land" by a popular ladies' magazine, Nicholas St. John has been relentlessly pursued by every matrimony-minded female in the ton. So when an opportunity to escape fashionable society presents itself, he eagerly jumps - only to land in the path of the most determined, damnably delicious woman he's ever met.

The daughter of a titled wastrel, Lady Isabel Townsend has too many secrets and too little money. Though she is used to taking care of herself quite handily, her father's recent passing has left Isabel at sea and in need of outside help to protect her young brother's birthright. The sinfully handsome, eminently eligible Lord Nicholas could be the very salvation she seeks.

But the lady must be wary and not do anything reckless and foolish...like falling madly, passionately in love.

Sarah MacLean's debut, Nine Rules to Break When Romancing a Rake, knocked my socks off. Ten Ways to Be Adored When Landing a Lord was good but didn't make 'em twitch.

Isabel is already beautiful if not one step above poverty and the last thing she wants is a man. Nicholas is successful and wanted by every eligible respectable (and some not) woman in London. So my question is: why did MacLean go so completely opposite of NRtBWRaR? I wouldn't expect her to write the same book over and over but she found a formula that worked for her. This book wasn't even set (mostly) in London. TWtBAWLaL didn't have the same spark and the romance bits felt a bit repetitive but not necessarily boring.

The third book in the St. John series, Eleven Scandals to Start to Win a Duke's Heart, comes out on April 26, 2011. I have high hopes for that one as I want to see Juliana, the illegitimate half-sister to Ralston and Nicholas, kick some haughty duke butt because that guy definitely needs a kick in his butt. Once you've read Ten Ways to Be Adored When Landing a Lord you'll know who. And why it's got the perfect title.

Review: Nine Rules to Break When Romancing a Rake by Sarah MacLean

A lady does not smoke cheroot.
She does not ride astride.
She does not fence or attend duels.
She does not fire a pistol, and she never gambles at a gentlemen's club.

Lady Calpurnia Hartwell has always followed the rules, rules that have left her unmarried - and more than a little unsatisfied. And so she's vowed to break the rules and live the life of pleasure she's been missing.

But to dance every dance, to steal a midnight kiss - to do those things, Callie will need a willing partner. Someone who knows everything about rule-breaking. Someone like Gabriel St. John, the Marquess of Ralston - charming and devastatingly handsome, his wicked reputation matched only by his sinful smile.

If she's not careful, she'll break the most important rule of all - the one that says that pleasure-seekers should never fall hopelessly, desperately in love...

Wow. I have not been this excited about an regency romance author like Sarah MacLean since I first read Julia Quinn. Or Loretta Chase. Or Lisa Kleypas. I loved this book! I can totally see why it's been on every Best Of list so far this year and I was so excited once I finished it last night that I made sure to buy a copy of Ten Ways to Be Adored When Landing a Lord today. Don't worry, I did.

Nine Rules to Break When Romancing a Rake was the loveliest, sexiest, most funnest historical romance that I have read in quite some time. The best part? It's Sarah MacLean's debut! Of course she's now set an extremely high standard for all her future books to meet but who cares? Even if all her other books are stinkers we'll always have this one.

Sarah MacLean's style is pitch perfect for her genre. She put together my two favorite elements for a great historical romance novel:

• She took a wallflower and made her into a social butterfly that believes she's beautiful. Callie was firmly "on the shelf" at the beginning of this book and by the end marries a marquess. It'ss a love match no less. (Devil in Winter by Lisa Kleypas is probably my favorite example of this.)  
• She made the main man powerful, forceful but not violent, and utterly convinced that he is incapable of love. That is, until he meets her - THE ONE. He then spends the rest of the book trying to figure out why he feels the way he does. What is wrong with him? Why can't he stop thinking about her? Why does she confuse him so? (Leopold Villiers from Eloisa James' A Duke of Her Own works here.)

I just loved Calpurnia. I loved how brave she really wasn't at first, just frustrated with her life and ready for it to be different. I think we all can sympathize with that. Getting her stubborn on and finally deciding to do all those things she's wanted to but denied for so long was just as satisfying for me to watch as it was for Callie. I loved the humor in this book, and the pain too - I found myself tearing up several times. I fell a bit for Ralston myself; who could resist a man who vowed to keep his heart to himself after his mother left them when he was a boy? *sigh*

I've got a serious decision to make here: do I read Ten Ways now or do I wait until I've finished another book I've really looking forward to - Bloodshot by Cherie Priest? Hmm. Look soon for my thoughts on MacLean's YA novel, The Season. Her third in this numbered series, Eleven Scandals to Start to Win a Duke's Heart, will be out on April 26, 2011.

Review: Nicola Cornick's Scandalous Women of the Ton trilogy

Over the past year, I've become a fan of Nicola Cornick and so when I saw that Netgalley.com was offering Mistress by Midnight as an egalley I quickly requested it, bought Whisper of Scandal from B&N, and picked up a paperback copy of One Wicked Sin when I saw it at Target. This first trilogy, called The Scandalous Women of the Ton is about all the usual Victorian historical romance things but they're done well enough that I didn't mind that they're not all that original.

Whisper of Scandal starts off this series with Lady Joanna Ware. Joanna is the society darling widow of a famous explorer who is lauded for his discoveries and has a reputation of a saint. The saint's colleague, Lord Grant, is forced into a situation with Joanna when a provision in her husband's will grants her and Lord Grant custody of his illegitimate daughter, a small child who is living in an orphanage in northern Russia, near the Arctic Circle. Alex (Lord Grant) has many strong (read: negative) opinions about Joanna and her lifestyle but it's not until he gets to know her that he realizes just how unhappy her life really was with her husband. Joanna and Alex are both well-written characters, each as strong and vulnerable as the other, and I liked them both.



One Wicked Sin features Lady Joanna's supposed best friend, Lottie Cummings. Lottie spent most of Whisper of Scandal sleeping with every man who caught her attention and her husband had finally had enough. She has since been divorced and disowned by her family; now she's a prostitute in a brothel.  When she is approached by Ethan Ryder, a devastatingly handsome Irish illegitimate son of a duke who is prison for fighting against England for France who wants her to be his mistress and come live in the small village in which he is sequestered, she realizes she can't say no. She also realizes that she won't be able to keep her heart from falling for Ethan. Ethan has other ideas including using Lottie as a diversion for his real passion: dismembering England's prison system. There is some weak political intrigue here but it didn't add anything worthwhile to the plot. Lottie and Ethan are two desperate people who left me a bit cold; their romance was pretty sad and while I was happy for them by the end - which had a rather ridiculous rescue - I didn't like them all that much on the way.


Mistress by Midnight wrapped up this trio with Merryn Fenner, Lady Joanna's younger sister. Merryn is a bluestocking, the English version of a nerd, and leads a double life: when she's not attending lectures and poring through books she works secretly for an inquiry agent to gather evidence against Garrick Northesk, Duke of Farne and Lord Grant's half-brother, for the murder of her and Joanna's brother Stephen in a duel years before. Stephen had been sleeping with Garrick's wife and ended up fatally wounded by gunshot. Merryn has been obsessed with her belief that Garrick shot Stephen in cold blood, not in the alleged duel, and should be brought to justice. Of course, she hadn't counted on her attraction to Garrick, also a childhood crush of hers, and finds it extremely difficult to maintain her hatred the more she is around him. Garrick is keeping a huge secret, one that would shatter Merryn's love for her brother, and he can't bear to be the one responsible for breaking her heart. I liked these two a bit more than Ethan and Lottie, but was disappointed in Merryn. Consumed by her grief for the brother she'd put on a pedestal, she sacrificed everyone else's feelings in the process, including Joanna's. For all her determination, she is quite naive and easily manipulated. If you're going to do your worst to ruin a man you'd better have done your homework and she didn't. Merryn came off as a stubborn child, one who would have cut off her nose to spite her face, and I didn't like her which surprised me; the other glimpses of her in the first book gave me another impression. I did like Garrick, a fairly honorable man put into an awful position. Otherwise, the mystery and drama were pretty good and kept me wondering until the happily ever after ending. Cornick's website (go HERE to see it) has hinted that there will be more in this series next year.

Review: One Enchanted Evening by Lynn Kurland

THE PAST

Montgomery de Piaget attracts responsibilities like blossoms lure bees. Where other knights have bonny brides, laughing children, and noble quests, he has the task of rebuilding the most dilapidated castle in all of England. A bit of magic might aid him - if only he still believed in that sort of thing.

THE PRESENT

When Pippa Alexander is invited to England to provide costumes for an upscale party, she jumps at the chance to showcase her own line of fairytale-inspired designs. And even her older sister's decision to act as Fairy Queen can't crush Pippa's hope that this time, she'll wind up wearing the glass slippers. Not that she believes in fairy tales, or magic that whispers along the hallways of an honest-to-goodness medieval castle...

AND THE FUTURE...

But the castle is full of more than cobwebs, and danger lurks in unexpected places. And only time will tell is Montgomery and Pippa can overcome these obstacles to find their own happily ever after...

Lynn Kurland is the master of medieval time travel romances. She has two interconnected series about two dynastic families, the MacLeods and the de Piagets, each having plenty of members who met their true loves in another century and often intermarrying with one another. Her romances are filled with humor and tender romance without the explicit sex scenes, which is rather refreshing. Each one I've read has been an enjoyable read but Kurland's books assume the reader's familiarity with her other books; in One Enchanted Evening, family members and characters from as many as five previous works appear.

I liked One Enchanted Evening but had a few problems with it. There wasn't much action. Montgomery had the task of rehabbing a castle that he inherited and that involved rousting the cousins in it who didn't want him there. I think they were supposed to be the real element of danger but they seemed more like an easily handled nuisance to Montgomery so it was hard to take seriously any threat they may have been. Also, the blurb on the back cover made Montgomery seem like someone who had ditched the whole concept of the paranormal as a teenager for necessity but when Pippa and her sister appear out of thin air he immediately accepts her explanation with no skepticism at all. I was just surprised that he caved so quickly because often in this genre men who make that kind of 180-degree switch cling to it a bit harder. Apparently, Kurland's men have a bit more common sense when it comes to the paranormal. And Pippa's sister Cinderella (even hippies need to have some standards), what a piece of work she was - I hope Kurland isn't planning to give her a book any time soon. Irritating and annoying, I couldn't find any reason to like her. Keeping herself detached from the reality of their situation by taking valium might have been preferable than facing the situation but I don't think valium is the type of med to induce euphoria or delusions in the fashion which Cindi was living with: as she had time traveled in a big white ballgown, she believed herself to be Queen of the Faeries, ordered the men to participate in a beauty pageant, and announced her wedding to Montgomery. And they believed her and even started preparations for it! People sure seem gullible in the 13th century.

Kurland's next romance, One Magic Moment, will be out on May 3, 2011 and is about Pippa's sister, Tess. Will she pick a de Piaget or a MacLeod? Pick up a copy and find out. (This review also appears on LibraryThing.)

Review: Clockwork Angel by Cassandra Clare

Magic is dangerous - but love is more dangerous still.

When sixteen-year-old Tessa Gray crosses the ocean to find her brother, her destination is England, the time is the reign of Queen Victoria, and something terrifying is waiting for her in London's Downworld, where vampires, warlocks, and other supernatural folk stalk the gaslit streets. Only the Shadowhunters, warriors dedicated to ridding the world of demons, keep order amidst the chaos.

Kidnapped by the mysterious Dark Sisters, who are members of a secret organization called the Pandemonium Club, Tessa soon learns that she herself is a Downworlder with a rare ability: the power to transform, at will, into another person. What's more, the Magister, the shadowy figure who runs the club, will stop at nothing to claim Tessa's power for his own.

Friendless and hunted, Tessa takes refuge with the Shadowhunters of the London Institute, who swear to find her brother if she will use her power to help them. She soon finds herself fascinated by - and torn between - two best friends: James, whose fragile beauty hides a deadly secret, and blue-eyed Will, whose caustic wit and volatile moods keep everyone in his life at arm's length...everyone, that is, but Tessa. As their search draws them deep into the heart of an arcane plot that threatens to destroy the Shadowhunters, Tessa realizes that she may need to choose between saving her brother and helping her new friends save the world...and that love may be the most dangerous magic of all.

As a big fan of Cassandra Clare's Mortal Instruments series, I was delighted to find out that not only is she continuing that series past the original trilogy but she's also writing a prequel trilogy too. Whoo-hoo! I loved Clary and Jace and Simon and Izzy; I gushed about them at the circulation desk at my library when I would check them out and I was always be the first on the request list, just as I was for Clockwork Angel. It was almost painful for me to leave it at home when we went to New York for the comic-con. (I was already toting enough books to give me flashbacks to college.) I was somehow able to make myself be patient and wait but have I ever mentioned here how much I hate to wait? We have been home for a week now and things were still be crazy enough to keep me away from Clockwork Angel a while longer but...it was worth the wait. Oh yes it was.

I think I liked Clockwork Angel more than City of Bones and I think it was because of the setting. City of Bones is set in the present in New York and Clary seems like a fairly normal contemporary teenage girl but Tessa's story takes place during that Victorian time period that I love reading about; the car-wreck fascination of that unfamiliar lifestyle of living before electricity, the internet, and tampons that makes it so absorbing to me but I am completely sure that I would never want to live then. Clockwork Angel also has an steampunk element in the presence of the actual clockworks, used to create zombie-like automatons to be used as minions. They were actually a bit scary, these automatons, and seeing them be so relentless in their pursuit of Tessa that they would be injured and unconcerned was unnerving.

The parts that most caught my attention were, of course, the boys. Will and Jem, two young Shadowhunters who are as tight as brothers and are about to fight over a girl. Jem has a serious secret but Will is so much the jackass that no one tries to get close enough to find out what makes him...tick. Will's the one who rescues Tessa from the Dark Sisters and he's the one who she starts to fall for but will he let her? Predictably, it won't be easy for them. I don't think Clare will be attempting anything like the brush of incest that tortured Clary and Jace in TMI but Will's definitely got something standing in his way to Tessa and he's not about to share it with anyone anytime soon.

Cassandra Clare's pretty open about her publication schedule - which I love - but unfortunately the second Infernal Devices book, Clockwork Prince, won't be out until September 2011. Nooooo! However, we do get a taste of Clary and Jace again in April 2011 in City of Fallen Angels, book four in the Mortal Instruments series. I shall endeavor to distract myself so the hand wringing and garment rending symptoms of book withdrawal don't begin too soon.

Review: Dark Road to Darjeeling by Deanna Raybourn

For Lady Julia Grey and Nicholas Brisbane, the honeymoon has ended…but the adventure is just beginning.

After eight idyllic months in the Mediterranean, Lady Julia Grey and her detective husband are ready to put their investigative talents to work once more. At the urging of Julia’s eccentric family, they hurry to India to aid an old friend, the newly widowed Jane Cavendish. Living on the Cavendish tea plantation with the remnants of her husband’s family, Jane is consumed with the impending birth of her child—and with discovering the truth about her husband’s death. Was he murdered for his estate? And if he was, could Jane and her unborn child be next?

Amid the lush foothills of the Himalayas, dark deeds are buried and malicious thoughts flourish. The Brisbanes uncover secrets and scandal, illicit affairs and twisted legacies. In this remote and exotic place, exploration is perilous and discovery, deadly. The danger is palpable and, if they are not careful, Julia and Nicholas will not live to celebrate their first anniversary. (from netgalley.com)

*Spoiler Alert! If you have not read Silent in the Grave, Silent in the Sanctuary, and especially Silent on the Moor then beware! I will be discussing goings on from those books in this review.*

Dark Road to Darjeeling is the fourth book in Deanna Raybourn's fab Lady Julia Grey series. Ever since I read the ending of Silent on the Moor and made that my girly *sigh*, I have been impatiently eagerly awaiting this story. It felt like I would be getting the "what comes next" after a happily ever after ending and I was excited. Julia and Brisbane marry at the end of Moor, but what was going to happen to their relationship? Would it change like a tv show that has given in and lost its sexual tension and sizzle? (I seriously doubted that one.) How would they handle working together if they even continued to do so? Would Brisbane still manage to stay mysterious, even to Julia? Would every aspect that I love about the first three books disappear now that they're married? Yes, I wondered all these things. I'm obsessive like that.

I wrote in the end of July that I bought a nook, my reason being that I had just received this ebook from Netgalley.com and was desperate to read it asap. I  proceeded to burn through the first ninety-four pages that first night and then...nothing. I stalled. I was shocked because I wasn't loving what was happening (I had hit a slow part) and Julia and Brisbane weren't together at the time (not good) and so I got a bit scared. Raybourn wouldn't dare split them up or something equally awful, would she? I left Dark Road to Darjeeling alone for at least three weeks while I stewed about it but today I took a deep breath and dove back in and I am so glad I did. Dark Road to Darjeeling is just as good as the first three and I am relieved.

Julia, Brisbane, Julia's maid Morag (love her), and two of Julia's siblings, Plum and Portia, head to India at the end of the Brisbanes' honeymoon to see Jane, Portia's former lover. Jane's husband has died suddenly and mysteriously, leaving Jane alone and pregnant in a remote part of India and Portia, believing that Jane is in danger, has beseeched her sister and Brisbane to go with her to investigate. Right off the bat we see that married life beyond the honeymoon is not going to be easy for Julia and Brisbane when he refuses to go with them, claiming that Julia just assumes that he will do as she pleases since she didn't consult with him before agreeing to go with Portia. He would rather attend to some business in Calcutta and will catch up later.

Julia and Brisbane both discover that they have quite a bit to learn about marriage. Hiding things from one another is not a good way to stay happily married. For Julia, she's still insecure because of her first marriage and much of her relationship with Brisbane involves his work. She wants to please him and more importantly, to impress him and be worthy and in doing so she loses her perspective on the kind of dangerous work he does. Julia wants to prove her mettle by being the first to solve this mystery so she doesn't tell Brisbane everything she learns. Brisbane has a clear motive for every action he takes but is sometimes careless with Julia's feelings when it comes to his methods. Nicholas Brisbane is not the sort of man to always worry about bruised feelings as long as the ends justify the means; for example if, in his endeavors to keep Julia safe he leads her to believe certain things while not outright lying to her, that would be acceptable even if she is humiliated as long as she's not physically hurt. (Note to Brisbane: women don't like to be managed.) These two obviously love each other and that's what's important. As is forgiveness. What I can't wait to see is the two of them in their natural habitat. That's going to be fun.

Again, Raybourn proves that she is still Clever. With a capital C. While I had problems with a lack of patience on my part, this was a decent mystery in a mysterious place. I was all about everything Brisbane :) I'm still digesting the resolution and guilty parties as well as the familial revelations. Good stuff there. There were several moments in this book where I was completely dumbfounded and I loved that! I was also at times angry or saddened but my favorite part of these Raybourn books is the humor, that intellectual dry humor that is always present in the scenes with the March family, Julia and Portia in particular. Julia's kooky family, in all their splendiferousness, is truly a "sight" to behold. We only get a small measure of it here but it's probably better in small portions anyway. Follow the link below to Angieville for an excerpt from early on in DRtD. I keep returning to it and it still makes me laugh each time.

Dark Road to Darjeeling will be out on October 1, 2010. Look for it a few weeks early. Book five, out next year I hope, should take place in London. I hope we get to see the hermit.

Other reviews:
http://angieville.blogspot.com/2010/08/dark-road-to-darjeeling-by-deanna.html
http://theallureofbooks.blogspot.com/2010/07/review-dark-road-to-darjeeling-by.html

Coming Up for Air

Well, June is definitely shaping up to be a rather lackluster month for me, posting-wise. The truth is that I just haven't had much to say lately and if you've been paying attention to what I've been reading lately you'd understand why: in the past few weeks, I've read ten Susan Wiggs novels. 

WTF!?

Yeah, I know. I'm not done yet with her either. I've got two more in the Lakeshore Chronicles to read and the second book in the Calhoun Chronicles ready plus a few more I've got my eye on. Wanna hear the crazy part? I'm not hating them. Susan Wiggs is a gifted writer; her books are touching and evocative even if they tend to turn a family-oriented series into a saga and as a result, make them heavy on the drama and pathos, almost to the point of melodrama but not to the level of a soap opera. For some particular reason, I've felt the need to collect her books as badly as I would Timothy Zahn's and talk about the pinnacle of geekdom - his sci-fi novels are based on the continuation of the Star Wars trilogy beyond Return of the Jedi. (We can definitely blame that one on a high school crush.) I'm not sure what made me start them in the first place.

Anyway...These Susan Wiggs books have been entertaining enough to keep my attention this long and yes, I remember recently writing about how I don't read many chapters in a series like this back-to-back. I can't really explain it. The highest grade I have given one of her books was A-, which is obviously a fantastic grade, and it wasn't a contemporary romance in the Lakeshore series but a historical one, The Charm School. Most of them have been graded B, some B-.

For a change of pace, I tried Kat Martin's Reese's Bride. I had read the first in this trilogy, Royal's Bride, though now I have no idea of the troubles of the lovers in it or how they got together in the end. Reese's Bride and Rule's Bride had both recently fallen into my lap so I figured I'd finish that series off and hand them over to others. Er, not exactly. 

Reese's Bride is about the second brother in the family, the second son of a duke who leaves the woman he loves with a promise to return and marry after he chases down the French on the continent for a while. Well, shortly after he leaves his lady love gets married to another man. Reese is so angry that he calls her a whore and reinlists or whatever, gets injured years later, and returns home to live in the same village as her, now a widow, and her son. Ok. The plot itself wasn't the problem. It's not very original, but not insurmountable. My problem came with Reese not considering that he may not be the only injured party and assuming too much. His former lady love is also guilty of keeping secrets and of being desperate enough to turning to him when she needed help. Again, not original. Before the middle of the book, they had married (his idea) and I knew where it was going and just wasn't interested in seeing what happened. Reese's Bride is far from a wallbanger but I didn't find it worth finishing. Sorry Ms. Martin. I have liked other books you've written but not this one and I doubt I'll be getting into Rule's Bride either.

I know all this makes me sound like a total book snob and okay, I am one, but I think my problem is just that these books should be too old for me, like the ones that my best friend's mom read while we were kids. And yet, I'm loving them. So today I've returned to Susan Wiggs but I hope I'm still holding onto my street cred since I recently read Carolyn Crane's Mind Games (finally). Today I finally got The Girl Who Kicked the Hornet's Nest by Stieg Larsson from the library and that helps too. Pray for me, people, that I can kick this addiction of mine. Well, not totally. Just the Susan Wiggs books. And maybe the Timothy Zahn stuff too.

Review: A Secret Affair by Mary Balogh

THE DEVIL WAS ABOUT TO BE TAMED.
Her name is Hannah Reid. Born a commoner, she has been Duchess of Dunbarton ever since she was nineteen years old, the wife of an elderly duke to whom she has been rumored to be consistently and flagrantly unfaithful. Now the old duke is dead and, more womanly and beautiful than ever at thirty, Hannah has her freedom at last.

And she knows just what she wants to do with it. To the shock of a conventional friend, she announces her intention to take a lover — and not just any lover, but the most dangerous and delicious man in all of upper-class England: Constantine Huxtable. Constantine’s illegitimacy has denied him the title of Earl, so now he denies himself nothing . . . or so the ton would have it. Rumored to be living the free and easy life of a sensualist in his country estate, he always chooses recent widows for his short-lived affairs. Hannah will fit the bill nicely.

But once these two passionate and scandalous figures find each other, they discover that it isn’t so easy to extricate oneself from the fires of desire — without getting singed. For the duchess and the dark lord each have startling secrets to reveal, and when all is said and done, neither will be able to say which one fell in love first, who tamed whom, and who has emerged from this game of hearts with the stronger hand.

I have to say that I am relieved that Balogh has finished this miniseries. I only really liked one out of the five, At Last Comes Love, the third book. I was curious to see what would happen to Constantine not to mention the explanation of the feud between him and Elliott and why they hated each other. Well, it was pretty much what I figured (the explanation). I liked Hannah though. I liked her determination and spunk and she and Con made a good couple. Balogh gave everyone their happily ever after as expected and all that. Her books are so predictable in that fashion that sometimes I wonder why I still read them. Balogh doesn't have any new series listed in the upcoming section of her website, just several reprints of older books.