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To Beguile A Beast –

May 15th, 2009

 

To Beguile A Beast by – Elizabeth Hoyt 

First line:  ”It was as the carriage bumped around a bend and the decrepit castle loomed into view in the dusk that Helen Fitzwilliam finally, – and rather belatedly, – realized that the whole trip may’’ve been a horrible mistake.”

Beast:  Man, disfigured in a terrible war he shouldn’’t have been a part of in the first place.

Beguiled:  A beauty whose need to hide is greater than her fear of the monster who opened the door to her and her two very tired children. 

Hiding from the powerful duke who fathered her two children,  Abigail, nine, and Jamie, five, the duke’s tentacles stretch as far and wide, as his money.

Abigail is a serious child with dark moods and deep introspection.

Jamie, however, is ruled by his stomach and stray animals.

I love how Ms. Hoyt’’s characters had to reach past a man’’s terrifying appearance to see his beauty.  How both children are still children, fearing the future, yet living in the moment.

Interesting twist for the heroine, as former lover of the duke.  How could you not be drawn in?

For:  Readers who want charm and emotion.  You will be swayed. -   Kathy Wheeler

 

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Between the Devil and Desire

May 11th, 2009

 

Between the Devil and Desire by Lorraine Heath

First line:  When I was five years old, my mum sold me.

This is a tough story, full of emotional highs and lows, including the disturbing subject of child abuse, overcome.

The heroine’’s husband, the Duke of Lovingdon, died unexpectedly.  The death appears suspicious, and she is a suspect.  But the reading of the will in the opening of the story shows a hero who is not a smooth talker.  A hero who lives his life for money.  So when the duke bequeaths his entire unentailed fortune to this man who grew up in the stews of London as a pickpocket – a good one, no less  - no one is more surprised than he.  Or happier.  He’s richer than he’d ever thought possible.

The heroine is devastated, furious, blindsided.  Who wouldn’’t be when a stranger has invaded her life?  Follow a man who goes through her home evaluating the value of each and every object?  Her five-year-old son is now the ward of a man who abhors society and authority and good manners.  As London’’s most virtuous duchess, she may find she is all too human.

 

 

For:  Readers who want the satisfaction of circle completion.  A good read. -   Kathy Wheeler

Get it at Amazon. 

 

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Highland Scandal

May 7th, 2009

Highland Scandal by Julia London

First line:  ”From his vantage point in the middle of a brambly thicket –- which Jack noted gloomily, had torn his best buckskins –- he could see the road through the branches.”

Jack Haines is running from the Prince of Wales.  Accused of adultery with the Princess, worthy of high treason.  The Prince’’s men are hot on his trail – in Scotland.  Suddenly, he is confronted by four men and taken prisoner.

Only it’’s not the Prince’’s men.  Lucky.  It’s Carson Beal, Laird Lachlan.  His choices?  Handed over to the Prince’’s men, or handfasted (literally bound by wrist, at least through the ceremony) to Lizzie Beal, the Laird’’s niece.  For one year and one day. 

Lizzie, of course, is furious.  Her first act of rebellion is slipping through a window, somewhat high, and dropping to the ground, almost giving Jack a heart attack.  Of course, she is caught and brought back.

While Lizzie is a very beautiful woman, her older sister even more so.  Only, she is crippled and cannot walk. 

Highland Scandal is a most entertaining story.  Definitely worth your time.  Suspense, trickery and humor guide your adventure along.

For:  Readers who want to see how a man and a woman might get a handfasting annulled.  Or not. -   Kathy Wheeler

Get it at Amazon.

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Memoirs of a Scandalous Red Dress

April 26th, 2009

Memoirs of a Scandalous Red Dress by Elizabeth Boyle

First line:  ”Philippa, Viscountess Gossett, followed her escort through the crowded docks of London toward the HMS Regina, where the most recently christened ship in the fleet was about to gain a new captain.”

Elizabeth Boyle is one of the most fun historical reads on the market today. “Memoirs” is the next in her series of two sisters and a cousin. This is the cousin from the previous two…twenty years forward.  She’s already been married, widowed, raised her children.  In most Historicals you will find the heroine in her late teens or early twenty’s and, in most cases, a virgin.

The interesting thing in this story, if you’ve followed her previous works, is that you know most of the characters from the stories before.  We’ve seen the hero and the heroine meet, felt many of their trial and tribulations thus far. 

In the previous book, Confessions of a Little Black Gown (see prior reviews on this website), our heroine does, indeed, marry someone other than the hero.  That love appeared to be lost.  But, Ms. Boyle, thank goodness, gives us a good heart wrenching story, with humor to boost.

We know that she is pregnant in the previous story, but there is another twist that took me by surprise.  Pleasantly, so.  One I will not disclose at this time. 

Our hero, a Pirate (or privateer in this case), has had a difficult time in the twenty years that have “sailed” by.  His black heart almost pulls you under, but somehow manages to come floating back to the top.  You will find that you’ve held your breath during those twenty years.

For:  Readers who want the emotional roller coaster this one seems destined to hand out. -   Kathy Wheeler

Get it at Amazon.

 

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An Indecent Proposition

April 21st, 2009

An Indecent Proposition by Emma Wildes

First line:  ”The horses thundered down the stretch amid the roars of the crowd and moments later Nicholas Manning, the sixth Duke of Rothay, won again with his spectacular black.”

The title should pull you in, but if it does not, do not let that stop you from a very interesting and different storyline. 

A wager between two very good friends since childhood, the Earl of Manderville and his cohort, the Duke of Rothay, were worthy of any good gossips.  In all practicality, they seemed to thrive on it with their outrageous behavior.

The wager?  Who was the better lover?  But what woman is brave or desperate enough to sleep with each to pass judgment?

One icy, cold, young widow Lady Caroline Wynn, known in passing by both heroes.  Yes, I said both!  There are two heroes in this tale.  But since their tastes ran more toward willing, not so innocent women, imagine their surprise when she arranges a clandestine meeting with the two of them to set up particulars.

This story is inventive to say the least.  The characters are engaging and you will find yourself drawn in emotionally, just as I was.  I say this with confidence because I feel Ms.Wildes gave a truly credible reason for the heroine’s reason for stepping into her judging role.

 

For:  Readers who might enjoy being surprised by their reasons to relate. -   Kathy Wheeler

Get it at Amazon. 

 

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Some Like It Wild

April 8th, 2009

Some Like It Wild by Teresa Medeiros

First Line:  “I need a man,” Pamela Darby proclaimed with the same matter-of-fact conviction she would have used to announce “I need a scrap of lace to mend my hem” or “I need a fresh turnip for tonight’s stew.”

Teresa Medeiros is the master of making a movie in your head.  What I mean by this, is there is no one better at having the characters, landscape or situation fly off the page in so colorful a manner.

We have two destitute sisters, in the wilds of Scotland in search of a man to play the part of a Duke’s long lost heir they already know is dead.  The sisters are the bastard children of an actress who died recently in a fire.  The heroine is certain their mother was murdered.

Traveling alone without maids, or other some such chaperones, they are soon held up at gunpoint by, none other than the hero, whose own parents perished at the hands of English Redcoats.  He has ample reason for revenge as the heroine succinctly spells out to him.

Note:  Pay close attention to the weaponry, early in the tale of wits.

The sister, quite a beauty, until she opens her mouth to deliver lines that had her chased off stage and run out of town pelted by rotten vegetables.  The heroine, dowdy sister, of course, is perfectly content to remain behind the scenes happily cheering for the real talent.  Until the Redcoats show up to clamp the hero in chains when her unknown acting skills surface, plunging them all into London Society.

The hero, as a Scot, is a little bit of, uh, hmm, let’s see….a hot head?  Yes, yes, a hot head.  Yes, well, you get the point.

My advice?  Do not let this one get by.

 For: Readers who want to be entertained with outrageous, witty, over-the-top, subtle humor.  Remember, laughter is good for the soul.  –  Kathy L Wheeler

Get it at Amazon.

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Confessions of a Little Black Gown

March 24th, 2009

Confessions of a Little Black Gown by Elizabeth Boyle

 

First line:  “Come to bed, my love,” called a rich, sultry voice from the doorway of the parlor.

 

Another clever twist in the world of Regency, by Elizabeth Boyle, had me laughing out loud.  The heroine and her cousin wrote a play for the stage, which is a pirate story in which the pirate is spirited away from prison the night before he is to be hung for treason.  Uh, then, it just so happens a pirate is sprung the night before his to be hung for treason.

The heroine’s twin sister, who is now the Duchess of Hollindrake, is putting together a large house party trying to situate herself in society and cannot afford any scandals.  Ahem….so where is the pirate, hiding in their suite of rooms?  Let me clear something up:  The pirate is NOT the hero of this story.

The hero is a supposed cousin of the Duke of Hollindrake’s.  Disguised as a vicar who has bland eyes and smells bad.  A man who can change himself into anything, a spy of the crown.

This story is quite adorable because the Duchess is so in everyone’s face. And quite annoying.  Her story was another previous book, Love Letters from a Duke, and her character has stayed true to form.

 

For:  Readers who like intrigue, witty repartee, and distinctive characters. - Kathy Wheeler

Get it at Amazon.

 

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Never Resist Temptation

March 16th, 2009

Never Resist Temptation by Miranda Neville

First line:  Nothing in Anthony’s upbringing or experience had taught him the proper etiquette for taking delivery of a woman won in a card game.

 

Does the first line intrigue you?  True.  He won the girl in a card game, but she was no fool!  She ran away before her uncle could turn her over.  Her cover?  Running away with her uncle’s favorite French pastry chef, never to be seen again. 

Well, almost.

The pastry chef is gay.  And living in Paris.  She, however, opts to make her own way – as a young man.  And, ha! A pastry chef, as well.

The hero offers her a job to draw her uncle out.  It turns out he has a score to settle, and wants to ruin him.  Socially.  Financially.  Unfortunately, he doesn’t know French a sweet pastry from an English pudding.  When someone tries to poison her uncle at the house party where she is now employed, she decides to take him up on his offer of employment.  For her female cousin.  Her!

Now she has to find out who tried to kill her uncle, because she is the one under suspicion, the one with the primary motive.

The story is cute.  I expect Miranda Neville will have many more stories to tell.

 

For:  Readers who fun mystery intertwined with loads of spun sugar and sweets. by Kathy Wheeler

Buy it at Amazon.

 

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The Runaway McBride

March 5th, 2009

The Runaway McBride by Elizabeth Thornton 

 

First line:  ”It was February, the coldest, most miserable February in Scottish memory.”

 

The hero is a seer!  Do you know what that is? A person who can see parts of the future.  This is an unusual hero of sorts.  He comes across as an older, getting wiser character.  His life has not been easy since the time he found his one-time-fiancée who’d run off with another man years before. 

His grandmother, on her deathbed, brings together the three cousins to tell them she sees one of them as the profit of her gift (the seeing) but she cannot tell them which one is the beneficiary.  The only thing she can say is that “his bride is in danger for her life” and he needs to save her.

The heroine is a teacher at a girls school for modern women who are interested in more than embroidery and domesticity issues.  She is a spunky character not easily swayed from the path she sets forth for herself. 

The mystery is intriguing, involving a mother she never knew much about, who left behind an encoded diary.  Thornton does a nice job of spelling out the heroine’s anger with both the mother who deserted her, and a father, while raising her in a loving home, kept the knowledge of her mother a secret.

I love the fact that this book touches on the early feminism movement where young women were determined to be more than just wives and mothers.  She does a nice job of introducing the soon-to-be-movement of the auto industry, as well.

The hero grows in his efforts of dealing with family members he’d ignored in the past – like a half-brother on the brink of manhood, doing things for attention – all negative, because it works, but dotes on the younger half-sister who, not surprisingly, is hard-headed.

 

For:  Readers who find mystery and intrigue with headstrong female characters exciting and inspiring. -   Kathy Wheeler

Buy it at Amazon.

 

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The Miracles of Prato

March 2nd, 2009

The Miracles of Prato  by Laurie Albanese &  Laura Morowitz 

First line: “There’s always blood: that’s what the midwife is thinking.”

This is what a good book does: sucks you in and doesn’t let go. I read the Miracles of Prato practically uninterrupted (shoo, kids, shoo) and found myself planted in Renaissance Italy in the 15th century smack dab in the middle of the convent. (I’d be the gossiping nun type.) The place is Prato and the time and hero are familiar. We’ve heard a lot about the Italian renaissance relating to da Vinci, but Albanese & Morowitz give us another true-life tale just as intriguing as da Vinci’s. Our hero is a monk-painter with a talent similar to da Vinci’s. Fra Filippo is handsome, a bit wrecked, and gifted (although slow like da Vinci at finishing his projects.) He’s the chaplain, but lives in his own cottage where he paints when he’s not fulfilling his church duties. Enter two sisters to the nunnery – one plain (Spinetta) and the other beautiful (Lucrezia). The latter has the perfect face to pose for his Blessed Virgin Mary. Divine, right?

The authors make the book feel so authentic, I kept marveling that I wasn’t reading a book actually written in that time. The language is pure, the painting and the church so well-researched and so intricately drawn that I fell deep into the trance of the writers’ spell. While the story is based on true events, two of the more interesting characters were completely imagined and add a lot of spark and drama to the novel. There are villians and yet no real saints and lots of juicy scandal which makes the read enjoyable to the end. I look forward to reading much more from these talented authors. 

For:  A richly drawn story of the Renaissance and anyone who has a fascination with Italy, the Church and Renaissance art. A must-read for lovers of historical fiction. – Malena Lott

Buy it at Amazon.

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