In Total Surrender – Anne Mallory

Posted on December 16, 2011 by Kathy Wheeler

I love the title of this book. What I love more is whose surrender it is. The hero is so dark, one has to wonder how he can find the light. But, of course, he does—its romance.

Andreas Merrick is a big time crime lord. If you read Regency, you will understand how unusual a hero this is, at least, in historical. His thought process is fascinating. Ms. Mallory does a fabulous job in convincing the reader how he little he believes in his deserved happiness.

Enter, our heroine, Phoebe Pace. Her father has been showing signs of losing his mental facilities over the course of the past few years. She and her mother have, so far, been able to keep her father’s illness a secret. (In current day, it’s known as Alzheimer’s.) Phoebe has single handedly kept the family business above water, but it’s ripe for takeover. She manages this by posing, somewhat, as a ditz with an over-bright smile and…food—an unorthodox method.

She shows up on Andreas’ doorstep. But he has several dark secrets of his own. That’s all I am willing to say. Suffice to say this book is more unusual than the Historicals I usually read. But I loved it. You will not be disappointed…I promise. —Kathy L Wheeler

Scoundrel In My Dreams – Celeste Bradley

Posted on October 15, 2010 by Kathy Wheeler

This third book in a three book series surrounds the parentage of a precocious four year old child, Melody. A little girl who was lost to her mother at birth. Laurel’s love for Jack knew no bounds even when he’d returned from war, dark and barely a shadow of his former self.

Longing to ease the pain resonating in the deep depths of his eyes, Laurel sneaks into his room and gives her all to him. Through the magic of the night he’s declared his love and heart and they’ll be married the next day. Her seventeen year old life was perfect—until she oversleeps and glances out the window to see him being bodily cast from the house.

Jack confronts his fiancée in the foyer of her parents home the next morning. “Tell them,” he said. They were intimate the night before. But she laughed in his face and denies everything.

Fast forward four years. When Jack returns home and sees the child who is the exact image of her mother he storms his ex-fiancee’s house and will force her to speak the truth of that night all these years later.

But the truth is somewhat more complicated. His fiancée had a younger sister. Now, how does Jack convince Laurel that it was she he’s loved all along? You will not be able to put this book away. Kathy L Wheeler

Stolen Kisses – Suzanne Enoch

Posted on July 16, 2010 by Kathy Wheeler

A scoundrel so dark and a heroine so consumed with propriety is doomed for disaster, but of course, Suzanne Enoch carries it off as no one else can. Lillith’s mother ran away with another man when she was only twelve. Now it is up to her to live down the scandal through an advantageous marriage. Her father’s obsession with her becoming a duchess sets a series of events in motion that have you racing for the end of the story.

Jack, the hero and a Marquis in his own right, has a reputation so black and lurid Lillith cuts him when he steps forward for an introduction. Now he is out for revenge and that revenge is to ruin her, literally.

One really nice twist in this story is Lillith’s brother, William. The typical younger brother who gets away with everything while the older sister has to not only save the family name, but fend off a myriad of suitors, pacify the hateful aunt, and make sure said brother stays out of trouble. The difference in this story is the brother is not an idiot. And I love how this brother comes through for his sister.

Ms. Enoch is truly a master when it comes to telling the story through her characters.

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Confessions of a Little Black Gown

Posted on March 24, 2009 by malenalott

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.

The Runaway McBride

Posted on March 5, 2009 by malenalott

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.