Falling for the Highlander by Lynsay Sands (Highlanders #4)

Summary from Goodreads:
Lady Murine Carmichael has known her share of bad luck. But when her debt-ridden half-brother tries to sell her off in exchange for a few Scottish horses, it’s the final straw. If keeping her freedom means escaping through harsh countryside alone, so be it. She has barely begun her journey when she lands an unlikely escort—the brawny Highlander who just refused to buy her virtue.

Dougall Buchanan was disgusted by Lord Danvries’ shameful offer, but Murine herself tempts him beyond measure. Even bedraggled and dusty, the lass glows with beauty and bravery. Dougall wants to do more than just help her flee. He wants to protect her—with his life and his heart—if she’ll only let him. For Murine may be pursued by a powerful foe, but nothing compares to the fiery courage of a Highlander in love.

Lynsay Sands, good lord woman, what are you doing with this series?  It started out really fun, and it seemed like branching out into the different women who appeared as potential/thwarted brides in To Marry a Scottish Laird (book 2) would be an excellent plan but what even is this book?

Falling for the Highlander is completely phoned in. Lazy writing, silly plot choices (Really? All these brothers are so smitten that they bring EVERY dress for Murine to choose from so they are conveniently destroyed by a fire forcing her to wear braies so Dougall can ogle her butt?), and strange word choices (butt cheek? In medieval Scotland, really?).  The Buchanan brothers - introduced in Saidh's book - are kind of a riot but they don't help a recycled plot.  And then it just sort of ends. Do better (next time, because I can't quit Sands's Highlanders for some reason).

I'd like a book about Aulay, please.  Given that he's got some hang-ups I think he'd be far more interesting to write about. (Next one's about Niels, though, oh well)

Dear FTC: I had a digital galley, but it expired so when the library's Overdrive system got a copy I borrowed it.  Glad I didn't buy it.

From Duke Till Dawn by Eva Leigh (The London Underground #1)

Summary from Goodreads:
Eva Leigh launches a seductive new series that sizzles with the dark secrets of London’s underworld...

Years ago, the Duke of Greyland gave his heart—and a princely sum of money—to a charming, destitute widow with unparalleled beauty. After one passionate night, she slipped from his bed and vanished without a trace. And just when he’s given up hope of ever seeing her again, Greyland finds her managing a gaming hell. He’s desperate to have her… until he discovers everything about his long-lost lover was a lie.

In truth, Cassandra Blake grew up on the streets, picking pockets to survive. Greyland was a mark—to be fleeced and forgotten—but her feelings for the duke became all too real. Once he learns of her deception, however, the heat in his eyes turns to ice. When her business partner absconds with the gaming hell proceeds—leaving unsavory investors out for blood—Cassandra must beg the man she betrayed for help.

Greyland wants compensation, too, and he’ll assist her under one condition: she doesn’t leave his sight until her debts are paid. But it’s not long before the real Cassandra—the smart, streetwise criminal—is stealing his heart all over again. 

Eva Leigh is kicking off a new series!  More cross-class romance, yes! (I still need to catch up with the last book from her Wicked Quills of London series, Temptations of a Wallflower - I have it, but haven't read it, yet, story of my life.)

From Duke Till Dawn is a wild ride!  We have a Duke in love with a pretty widow who captured his attention then disappeared but turns up months later as the manager of a pop-up gaming hell...who spins a few more glib stories but her house of cards soon collapses.  The pretty widow is really a con-artist, skilled at getting rich men to "help out" a destitute young widow desperate for a few hundred pounds to get her out of a jam, more familiar with the gutter than the ballroom.  The Duke, Greyland, is understandably pissed off at her, not so much for cheating him out of money but for abusing his trust (and maybe breaking his heart).  Cassie was hoping this gaming hell gig would be her last job, a way to get out of the grind and lead a life free of lies. But when her business partner - her supposed friend and mentor for many years - disappears with the takings from the gaming hell, leaving Cassie in mortal danger, she's forced to throw herself on Greyland's mercy.

This is a cross-class romance that gets rather adventurous (in more ways than one) and has some real stakes. I really liked the problem presented by making the heroine a grifter who had made the hero a previous mark - it turns the meet-cute on its head and presents a real problem of social, moral, and personal tangles to the resolution of a Happy Ending rather than just those pesky "three little words." Ellingsworth and Langdon were a hoot as the comic relief - I can't wait to see what Leigh has in store for them.

Dear FTC: I received a digital galley from the publisher via Edelweiss.

Blame It on the Duke by Leonora Bell (The Disgraceful Dukes #3)

Summary from Goodreads:
Have you heard?
The future Duke of Barrington has just been gambled away by his father. To an heiress!
The delicious details thus far...

Nicolas, Lord Hatherly, never intended to marry—nor add to the “mad” Hatherly line—but now he must honor his father’s debt to a social-climbing merchant or lose the family estate.

A notoriously wild marquess, won by her father at a game of cards, is the very last thing Miss Alice Tombs wants. She’s spent the last three seasons repelling suitors in spectacular fashion so she’d be at liberty to explore the world. She’ll just have to drive this one away as well.

Until Nick proposes an utterly tempting arrangement: one summer together to prove the legitimacy of their union, then Alice is free to travel while Nick revels in the time he has left before the Hatherly Madness takes hold.

It will be easy to walk away after a few months of make-believe wedded bliss—won’t it? Alice and Nick are about to find out...one sultry night at a time.

This ought to be fun . . .

I've been enjoying Leonora Bell's romances and Blame It On the Duke is a very nice third entry in the Disgraceful Dukes series. This installment has a delicious twist on the old "gambled the wife/mistress/sister/daughter away" trope: Hatherly's mad father (the titular Duke) gambles him away to a flush-in-the-pockets baronet with a daughter he wants to marry off in the most social-climbing matter possible. The daughter, Alice, is actually an accomplished translator (of Sanksrit) and while a Society husband would be a hindrance, the rakish Hatherly - who doesn't want a wife or children hanging around to watch him go mad - is perfect for her plans (escape England and her mother). Of course, those pesky things like hearts and feelings get in the way.

Bell does a much better job with this book in balancing her light elements (translation, bedroom scenes, one sweet house cat named Kali) with the dark (there's quite a bit about the inhuman conditions of insane asylums of the period). And Bell now has three side characters she could choose from for the next book....

ALSO! Princess Bride jokes!

Dear FTC: I received a digital galley from the publisher via Edelweiss.

When the Marquess Falls by Lorraine Heath (The Hellions of Havisham #3.5)

Summary from Goodreads:
The long-anticipated and utterly extraordinary tale of the Mad Marquess that proves love truly does last forever

The Marquess of Marsden always follows the rules. Expected from birth to adhere to decades of tradition, he plans to marry a proper young woman from a good family. But when a beautiful, and completely unsuitable, woman snags his heart, he begins to realize that to get what you want, sometimes you have to break the rules.

Linnie Connor dreams of the independence of running her very own bakery. And while she may be allowed to be a marquess’ childhood companion, the baker's daughter never ends up with the handsome nobleman. Determined to achieve at least one of her dreams, Linnie makes plans to leave her sleepy village for London, intent on purging him from her heart. And yet, when an invitation to the Marsden annual ball arrives, she can't refuse her one chance to waltz in his arms.

It will be a night that stirs the flames of forbidden desires and changes their lives forever.

When the Marquess Falls is a very bittersweet and heartbreaking prequel, even if it's listed out as #3.5. I've only read Falling Into Bed With a Duke (the first in the "Hellions of Havisham" series) but its opening chapter/prologue is enough to tell you what has to happen in this book.  The relationship between Linnie and Marsden seems natural, with just the right amount of plot for a novella without all the tiresome will-we-won't-we that occasionally infests the romance genre (a little is fine for the tension, but some over do it to the extreme). You'll need the Kleenex.

(Edited to add: And while this ending is appropriate for this novella, because Marsden's problems had to start somewhere, I am not generally in favor of this No Happy Ever After trend that seems to be appearing.  Not in my genre romance, go put that stuff in general fiction or something.)

Dear FTC: I received a digital galley of this novella from the publisher via Edelweiss.

The Lawrence Browne Affair by Cat Sebastian

Summary from Goodreads:
An earl hiding from his future . . .

Lawrence Browne, the Earl of Radnor, is mad. At least, that’s what he and most of the village believes. A brilliant scientist, he hides himself away in his family’s crumbling estate, unwilling to venture into the outside world. When an annoyingly handsome man arrives at Penkellis, claiming to be Lawrence’s new secretary, his carefully planned world is turned upside down.

A swindler haunted by his past . . .

Georgie Turner has made his life pretending to be anyone but himself. A swindler and con man, he can slip into an identity faster than he can change clothes. But when his long-dead conscience resurrects and a dangerous associate is out for blood, Georgie escapes to the wilds of Cornwall. Pretending to be a secretary should be easy, but he doesn’t expect that the only madness he finds is the one he has for the gorgeous earl.

Can they find forever in the wreckage of their lives?

Challenging each other at every turn, the two men soon give into the desire that threatens to overwhelm them. But with one man convinced he is at the very brink of madness and the other hiding his real identity, only true love can make this an affair to remember.

We first met Georgie in his brother Jack's book, The Soldier's Scoundrel.  Georgie's line of business is particularly shady, given that he's a confidence trickster.  It can also be deadly when you get cold feet during a deal and back out.  Sympathy for a mark is never tolerated.  Conveniently, Jack's partner Oliver has a way to get Georgie out of London while the criminal gang cools off: there's a "mad" Earl out in Cornwall who needs a secretary (and the local vicar a spy to determine whether the Earl is truly mad).

Lawrence Browne, the Earl of Radnor, doesn't particularly dispute the "mad" appellation.  He might well be.  He hates to be disturbed by anyone, develops anxiety out in public, and prefers to hole up in his study inventing a method of long-distance communication.  Besides which, both his father and his brother were definitely not sane, so it's only a matter of time before he also loses his grip.  He doesn't need a secretary hanging around, getting into his business, and looking so sinfully handsome.  Georgie is quick, efficient, fastidious (the result of a squalid childhood in the slums), and proves himself to be a help to Lawrence in his inventing.  He's also stubborn and reciprocates Lawrence's desire for pleasure and companionship.  But Georgie is living a lie and it's only a matter of time before his past catches up with him.

The Lawrence Browne Affair is a sweet romance, but I didn't love it quite as much as The Soldier's Scoundrel. Georgie is a very aloof character, even in his own book, so he still feels an enigma to some extent. Because of that, at times the story felt less like a romance and more like "Lawrence found a handler he couldn't frighten away." It's a minor quibble.  I did appreciate that Lawrence's "madness" was not perfectly defined; it comes across as either extreme social anxiety or somewhere on the spectrum but since things like the DSM-V didn't exist Sebastian tried to stay within contemporary descriptions. There were several interesting turns to the plot I liked.  There are some interesting incidents with superstitious Cornish villagers and a surprise character pops up. Plus, we get to see Oliver and Jack in their home, which was so lovely. This is a good second novel and I am intrigued by the character Sebastian has decided to follow in the next book (spoiler: it won't be Jack and Georgie's sister, Sarah, nuts).

The Lawrence Browne Affair is out now in e-book and will be available in mass market paperback on March 21.

Dear FTC: I got a digital galley from the publisher via Edelweiss.  And then I bought a copy.

Seven Minutes in Heaven by Eloisa James (Desperate Duchesses #9, Desperate Duchesses by the Numbers #3)

Summary from Goodreads:
All of Eugenia Snowe’s problems start when Edward Reeve, an arrogant bastard son of an earl, bursts into her registry office. He wants a governess and he wants her. She gives him the governess he demands, but she refuses to give herself.

No question that Eugenia enjoys crossing wits with the brilliant inventor, but she will never tarnish her reputation with an affaire, particularly with a man who doesn’t realize she’s a lady!

She holds her ground…until he kidnaps her.

Ward will stop at nothing to convince Eugenia that they’re meant to be together. He promises her heaven.

She gives him seven minutes.

In the course of Eloisa James's Desperate Duchesses series, she introduced several children who have popped up as protagonists in later books.  Thorn (Villiers's son Tobias) found his match with Lady Xenobia in Three Weeks with Lady X.  Now Ward (the scamp Teddy from Desperate Duchesses) has met the one woman who can match wits with both himself and his new-found half-siblings:  Lady Eugenia Strange, now the widowed Mrs. Eugenia Snowe (last seen as the brilliant Shakespeare-quoting moppet in Duchess by Night).

Ward's had a very trying year.  First, he was falsely arrested and imprisoned by his fiancee's nefarious uncle to prevent their marriage (don't worry, Mia found her happily ever after in Four Nights with the Duke).  Then, he was presented with his unknown half-siblings Otis and Lizzie when his deceased mother's theatrical troupe dropped by Oxford.  He had to give up his professorship at Oxford due to said false jailing plus half-siblings.  And now his harpy of a maternal grandmother, the Duchess of Gilner, is suing for custody of Otis and Lizzie on the basis that Ward is not a suitable guardian because his parents were never married (which is rich, considering that it is her daughter, Lady Lisette, who is the connecting parent and Ward's father is an earl).  Ward is desperate for a Snowe's governess, those stoic, no-nonsense nannies that are guaranteed to bring hellions in line.  Otis and Lizzie are sweet children, but dramatic recitations, Catholic-looking mourning veils, and a velvet-cloak-wearing rat named Jarvis test the nerves of the average governess.  Unfortunately, their first Snowe's governess had an attack of nerves and quit.  And their second Snowe's governess isn't working out....

Eugenia is a workaholic with a waiting list miles long for her trained governesses.  She has no time for a rugged, brilliant, devious male (who for all that he is brilliant and rich he thinks she's a governess, more fool him) who makes her think of pleasure.  He plies her with flattery.  He plies her with pastries at Gunther's because he has deduced she has a sweet tooth that she keeps ruthlessly restrained.  He kidnaps her (it's not bad, don't worry) with the help of Eugenia's assistant who has been pushing Eugenia to both take a vacation and have an affair.  So Eugenia agrees to allow herself to be kidnapped, spend a fortnight in Oxford, help Otis and Lizzie become "Society" ready, and be passionately seduced by Ward before moving on with her life.

Things don't turn out as planned... (it's a romance novel, that always happens).

Seven Minutes in Heaven is a novel that brings together all the best of Eloisa James's writing talents: snappy, rapier-sharp dialogue, smart women, family dynamics, creative love scenes, grand gestures, and a healthy sprinkling of English playwriting. And cute animals.  Ward and Eugenia toss lines and innuendo back and forth like Bogey and Bacall. I thought the pages would catch fire during one scene (that one in the dining room, yowza).  Almost all of my favorite scenes involved Eugenia and Ward's little sister Lizzie quoting bits of Restoration drama and Shakespeare at one another (like I said, smart ladies). Eloisa's day job (awesome Shakespeare professor) has always slipped into her books in various ways and it makes them so very fun to read. [Go read The Taming of the Duke and then Etherege's play The Man of Mode because the intertextual mixing with Etherege and Shakespeare in the plot is awesome.  And then go read some John Wilmot, while I'm recommending Restoration literature, because everyone needs some dirty poetry and puns.]

I think, although I might be wrong because I can't test the opposite idea, that this is a novel that works best if you have read Duchess by Night, Desperate Duchesses, and A Duke of Her Own. Because even though certain things are explained through out the course of Seven Minutes, there's a resonant effect that's missing if you haven't those three prior books. Eugenia is too rigidly proper in public and Ward too aggressively you-can't-hurt-me-if-I-don't-let-you as over-reactions to their childhoods. You don't get the full spectrum of Lady Lisette unless you read her on the page (and Seven Minutes gives some rather frightening dimensions to Lisette's behavior in A Duke of Her Own, holy cow).

Eugenia's side of the story was a perhaps a shade too Insta-Lusty for my usual taste, but in this instance it did work for a woman who keeps her sensual side tightly controlled. I loved the appearance of the Duke of Villiers, one of the best heroes (anti-hero? Cupid at times?) ever created; he gives the best advice and gets the best quips. Every one of Eloisa's Desperate Duchesses couples appears or is mentioned at some point.  I loved it.

Seven Minutes in Heaven is out now from your favorite bookseller!

Dear FTC: I read an advance galley that I won in a giveaway and I also had a copy pre-ordered on my nook.

No Groom at the Inn by Megan Frampton (Dukes Behaving Badly #2.5)

Summary from Goodreads:
In this Dukes Behaving Badly holiday novella, a young lady entertains a sudden proposal of marriage—to a man she’s only just met...

What does a lady do when a man she’s never seen before offers his hand in marriage? Lady Sophronia Bettesford doesn’t scream and run away. Instead, she accepts the shocking proposition. After all, what’s her other choice? To live with her cousin, caring for six children and a barnyard full of chickens?

James Archer has roamed the world, determined never to settle down. He’s faced danger and disaster…he fears nothing and no one—except his mother and her matchmaking ways. So when ordered to attend a Christmastime house party filled with holiday cheer and simpering young misses, he produces—a fiancée!

Sophronia and James vow to pretend to be in love for one month. But when they promise to give each other a Christmas kiss, it becomes clear that this pact made out of necessity might just be turning into love.

Well, this was sweet and quiet. Being a novella, I feel No Groom at the Inn was too short to do the actual story of Jamie and Sophronia and their faux betrothal-of-convenience-turned-HEA justice. However, Frampton made the game of Dictionary a major plot point and part of a very swoony resolution.

A nice read for a cold evening (although I'm antsy as heck and was wishing it had a bit more action).

Dear FTC: I bought my copy of this novella.

Duke of Pleasure by Elizabeth Hoyt (Maiden Lane #11)

Summary from Goodreads:
IN THE ARMS OF DANGER

Bold. Brave. Brutally handsome. Hugh Fitzroy, the Duke of Kyle, is the king's secret weapon. Sent to defeat the notorious Lords of Chaos, he is ambushed in a London alley—and rescued by an unlikely ally: a masked stranger with the unmistakable curves of a woman.

IN THE HEAT OF DESIRE

Cocky. Clever. Courageously independent. Alf has survived on the perilous streets of St. Giles by disguising her sex. By day she is a boy, dealing in information and secrets. By night she's the notorious Ghost of St. Giles, a masked vigilante. But as she saves Hugh from assassins, she finds herself succumbing to temptation.

ONE KISS WILL CHANGE THEIR LIVES FOREVER

When Hugh hires Alf to investigate the Lords of Chaos, her worlds collide. Once Hugh realizes that the boy and the Ghost are the same, will Alf find the courage to become the woman she needs to be—before the Lords of Chaos destroy them both?

At the conclusion of Duke of Sin, the Duke of Montgomery leaves Hugh Fitzroy, the Duke of Kyle, a shortlist of names.  All men who are purported to be members of the Lords of Chaos, all probably likely to be the four men who kidnapped Bridget, Montgomery's wife.  As Duke of Pleasure opens, Hugh has been hunting these men - with little success - only to find himself the prey.  Trapped in an alley in London, he attempts to fight his way out.  He has two little boys at home, two little boys still traumatized by the death of their mother, and he doesn't want to leave them.  Hugh is saved by the intervention of the Ghost of St. Giles, who at the conclusion of the fight kisses him and then dashes off over the London rooftops.

This Ghost is a woman.

Alf, the streetwise waif introduced in Lord of Darkness, is now the Ghost of St. Giles.  Trained by Godric St. John (squee), she has taken over from the previous three Ghosts while also maintaining the fiction that she's a teenage boy.  Ghost by night, boy by day, and no time to be a woman of any kind in between.  The bits of backstory Alf allows us to see are heartbreaking.  She is the most at-risk character thus far introduced in her Maiden Lane series.  Life on the streets of St. Giles is deadly for girls and women who have no one to protect them. Alf has neither money, nor rank, nor family to protect her.  So she protects herself and those even less fortunate than she by disguising her true self.  Hugh presents a bit of a problem.  Being attracted to a duke who thinks he's employing a crafty male street urchin to help dig up dirt on the Lords of Chaos unearths a lot of confusing feelings Alf would prefer not to have.

Hugh, on the other hand, is a very odd duke.  Compared to Montgomery and Wakefield (from Duke of Midnight), who are so full of their own consequence and rank as to be impossible, Kyle is an egalitarian.  His father is the King (yep, the actual King of England) but his mother an actress and was created a duke when his father acknowledged him.  He's been emotionally shredded in his previous marriage, spent years as a soldier on the Continent, and doesn't know how to comfort his own children.  His quick mind is puzzled by the Ghost of St. Giles and his reaction.  He's been slowly planning to remarry - to Lady Jordan, an old friend of his wife's - and the introduction of a savvy women who can match swords and wits with him was definitely not in his plans.

Oh hai. This is excellent, which is all my soppy heart can put together right now. I CRIED over my lunch during one scene (not that one, the one where Kyle talks to his older son, the scene toward the end).  Alf is a fantastic character, and even if you think it's a stretch that a Duke, even a by-blow Duke, and a destitute commoner with no surname will have a Happily Ever After, you won't really care about that by the end. Although there might be a bit of reinforcement of gender norms (Alf ends up in a dress), it doesn't sound like she will be mewed up in the house serving tea or sewing or anything.  Given that all the previous Ghosts have retired on marriage - and all of those very big males - it doesn't seem out of line that Alf would retire as well (and I'm curious to see if Winter or Wakefield have been training anyone).  I also liked that the potential rival, Lady Jordan, was given the opportunity to stick up for what she wanted in a marriage, which also removed the risk of too much love triangle (dislike those intensely). In addition, we get a substantial Godric and Megs sighting (they're my favorite pair, still).

And now I really, REALLY need Duke of Desire since the teaser chapter is even more perplexing than any of Montgomery's sociopathic schemes in Duke of Sin.


Dear FTC: Of course I bought this on my nook. (Besides, no one would give me a DRC ahead of time.)

Do You Want to Start a Scandal by Tessa Dare (Spindle Cove #5)

Summary from Goodreads:
On the night of the Parkhurst ball, someone had a scandalous tryst in the library. Was it Lord Canby, with the maid, on the divan? Or Miss Fairchild, with a rake, against the wall? Perhaps the butler did it.

All Charlotte Highwood knows is this: it wasn’t her. But rumors to the contrary are buzzing. Unless she can discover the lovers’ true identity, she’ll be forced to marry Piers Brandon, Lord Granville—the coldest, most arrogantly handsome gentleman she’s ever had the misfortune to embrace. When it comes to emotion, the man hasn’t got a clue.

But as they set about finding the mystery lovers, Piers reveals a few secrets of his own. The oh-so-proper marquess can pick locks, land punches, tease with sly wit . . . and melt a woman’s knees with a single kiss. The only thing he guards more fiercely than Charlotte’s safety is the truth about his dark past.

Their passion is intense. The danger is real. Soon Charlotte’s feeling torn. Will she risk all to prove her innocence? Or surrender it to a man who’s sworn to never love?

Thus far, Tessa Dare has given us a series about a Channel-side village dedicated to letting eccentric ladies be eccentric ladies (Spindle Cove) and a series about young women inheriting castles from an eccentric godparent (Castles Ever After).

Now she crosses the streams in Do You Want to Start a Scandal.  Although formally listed as Spindle Cove #5, the book brings together Charlotte Highwood (the little sister of Diana and Minerva in Spindle Cove) and Piers Brandon, Marquess of Granville (the long-absent fiance from Say Yes to the Marquess).  Charlotte's mother, having two happily married elder daughters, is now on the husband hunt for her funny, loyal, and sweet youngest daughter.  Charlotte has agreed to the Parkhurst house party so she can attempt to persuade her best friend's parents to let the two girls go to Italy.  Piers has dutifully arrived at the house party to investigate Lord Parkhurst's background for a diplomatic assignment (and determine what the large monetary sums are funding).

Charlotte and Piers end up trapped in the library alcove while a very enthusiastic couple (not them) has a love-making session on the library desk.  When the young son of the house, alerted by the noise, discovers Charlotte and Piers the two seem like they will be forced to marry.  Charlotte's mother is over the moon but Charlotte has her doubts.  Lord Granville is a rather forbidding, stern ex-diplomat, albeit one who seems to have strange skills in his repertoire including lock-picking and landing excellent punches.  Besides, what about her plan to go to Italy?  Piers is intrigued by Charlotte's quick wit and cheerful demeanor.  But she is quite young, compared to him, and he's already had one long-term broken engagement (which he helped break).  Despite their nagging objections to the match, Charlotte and Piers discover they work very well together as they try to discover who exactly was tupping in the library.

Do You Want to Start a Scandal is an adorable and fun Regency romance.  Charlotte and Piers are well-matched characters and the B-plot - the Parkhurst investigation - has a freshness to its reveal.  Even though the story brings two of Tessa's series together you can read it without needing to have read the previous 7 books (plus two novellas).  But...you'll get a bit more out of it if you have read A Week to Be Wicked, Beauty and the Blacksmith, and Say Yes to the Marquess because Minerva, Colin, Diana, Aaron, and Rafe (Clio is in "an interesting way" to use Regency parlance) all make appearances in this book.  Speaking of Colin, he appears twice and tells NO dirty math jokes (humph).  Tessa does make up for this by giving us a priceless scene with Charlotte, her mother, a basket of produce, and "the talk" (I have one word for you - aubergines).

I was wrong about the villain.
Dear FTC: I received an ARC of this book from the publisher.

The Soldier's Scoundrel by Cat Sebastian

Summary from Goodreads:
A scoundrel who lives in the shadows

Jack Turner grew up in the darkness of London's slums, born into a life of crime and willing to do anything to keep his belly full and his siblings safe. Now he uses the tricks and schemes of the underworld to help those who need the kind of assistance only a scoundrel can provide. His distrust of the nobility runs deep and his services do not extend to the gorgeous high-born soldier who personifies everything Jack will never be.

A soldier untarnished by vice

After the chaos of war, Oliver Rivington craves the safe predictability of a gentleman's life-one that doesn't include sparring with a ne'er-do-well who flouts the law at every turn. But Jack tempts Oliver like no other man has before. Soon his yearning for the unapologetic criminal is only matched by Jack's pleasure in watching his genteel polish crumble every time they're together.

Two men only meant for each other

A few months ago I saw a random tweet that Avon Romance had signed a new author of m/m (male/male) historical romance.  I was immediately interested.  LGBTQ+ romance is a big blind spot for me.  I'm not exactly sure why (aside from me not deliberately seeking out non-hetero pairings in my romance) but I need to remedy that.  The Soldier's Scoundrel got to be the first true m/m romance in my reading life (i.e. the first full-length novel where the HEA between the men was the plot focus, as opposed to erotica short stories or the non-hetero pairing between side characters or something).

Cat Sebastian has given us Jack Turner (an ex-thief/servant turned sort-of-private-eye/fixer) and Oliver Rivington (wounded, earnest, aristocratic ex-military man). Recently sold-out of the army, Rivington turns up at Turner's place of business demanding to know why his sister paid Jack for his services (Jack generally doesn't advertise his...specialty).  Jack, for his part, doesn't feel the need to justify himself, or betray a client, to a privileged, far too-handsome for his own good toff.

Of course, they are instantly attracted to each other.  Oliver, like a puppy with a bone, keeps after Jack until he learns the nature of Jack's business and then he offers to help.  But Jack doesn't need Oliver's help (or distraction).  Or does he?

Jack and Oliver are pretty adorable together, particularly Oliver.  As described, I kept thinking of them as Aidan Turner from Poldark as Jack (dark-haired, sardonic) and Tom Hiddleston back when he was still blonde and appearing as a very young cop in Wallander (earnest, cheerful) - actually, I quite like this casting choice, this pleases me. There's a little hint of a "Sherlock and Watson" relationship during the investigation of the Wrexhall matter which sends them off on a trip into the countryside. The male-male relationship presents an interesting shift in the power dynamic of a historical.  Without the historical gender differences, Sebastian used class differences as a way to build tension (there is a little bit of worry about homophobia in society, but this appears much less of an issue than the son of an earl having a close companion from the servant class).

This isn't a perfect 5-star book.  There are some leaps in the plot that feel a little rough.  I had hoped that Sebastian would push the examination of class a little more, particularly since the only real objection to Oliver's acquaintance with Jack comes from Oliver's father and the tone of his one scene is very hard to tease out - class-based objection vs. objection to homosexuality. But on the whole this is a delightful romance to read and I'm very glad to see that Jack's brother Georgie (who is a very interesting character) is up next in the series.

Dear FTC: I received a digital galley from the publisher via Edelweiss and then I purchased a copy for my Nook.

A Scot in the Dark by Sarah MacLean (Scandal & Scoundrel #2)

Summary from Goodreads:
Lonesome Lily Turned Scandalous Siren

Miss Lillian Hargrove has lived much of her life alone in a gilded cage, longing for love and companionship. When an artist offers her pretty promises and begs her to pose for a scandalous portrait, Lily doesn't hesitate...until the lying libertine leaves her in disgrace. With the painting now public, Lily has no choice but to turn to the one man who might save her from ruin.

Highland Devil turned Halfhearted Duke

The Duke of Warnick loathes all things English, none more so than the aristocracy. It does not matter that the imposing Scotsman has inherited one of the most venerable dukedoms in Britain—he wants nothing to do with it, especially when he discovers that the unwanted title comes with a troublesome ward, one who is far too old and far too beautiful to be his problem.

Tartan Comes to Town

Warnick arrives in London with a single goal: get the chit married and see her become someone else's problem, then return to a normal, quiet life in Scotland. It's the perfect plan, until Lily declares she'll only marry for love...and the Scot finds that there is one thing in England he likes far too much...

The recent Dukes of Warnick are a particularly unlucky lot.  The title (and rapidly enlarging ducal fortune) passed through fourteen heirs in the space of two weeks before landing on the recalcitrant Scottish Brute, Alec Stuart.  When the solicitor turns up to inform Alec of his miraculous fortune, Alec shrugs him off.  So the efficient London man leaves Alec in peace for five years...until Alec's dazzlingly beautiful ward Miss Lillian Hargrove lands herself in the scandal of all scandals.

A nude painting.  Painted by a man who is not her husband.  Who is an actor.  Quell horror.

Lily has been betrayed.  Derek Hawkins (sound familiar? You'll figure out where he's appeared before.) swept her off her feet and begged her to pose nude for him.  A painting just for him.  No one would see it.  He promised and she loved him....  Lily now has ten days before the painting is exhibited on the final day of the Royal Academy Exhibition and ruins her forever.  The last thing she needs is a very surly, six-and-a-half-foot tall, riveting Scotsman in an ill-fitting suit breaking down her front door.  And then he has the effrontery to tell her what to do.

Alec, for all that he means well, goes about doing everything wrong.  He has no interest in Society, while Society regards him as something akin to a sideshow attraction.  And he hasn't the faintest idea what to do with a ward who is in her mid-twenties.  He decides that the best course of action is to get Lily married before the painting is unveiled.  When he commands Lily to attend a ball hosted by his best friend King (and King's wife Sophie, the hero and heroine of the marvelously excellent previous book in the series, The Rogue Not Taken) Lily counters him.  Not by refusing to attend, mind, but by deliberately trying to scuttle his attempt to find her a husband (no spoilers).  So begins the tug-of-war between a man and a woman who are absolutely perfect for each other but whose sizable baggage keeps getting in the way (and Alec's baggage is unique, let me tell you).

This a swoony, swoony romance with a feisty, feminist heroine at its center.  Lily claims the male gaze for her own, obsessing over Alec's kneecaps when he appears in a kilt.  She's clever and fiercely independent.  Lily's nude painting scandal is directly influenced by the contemporary problem of revenge porn and leaked sex tapes or nude photographs.  All those ton gossips pointing their fingers?  We've seen them Twitter-shaming the poor woman for having trusted her partner and posed for the pictures.  Lily takes control of her scandal in a strong, fist-raised conclusion to the book.  But for all the kick-assed-ness Lily exudes, there's a palpable sweetness in the progression of her happily-ever-after.  I cried so many happy tears.

To go with the swooniness, there are two lovable canines and guest appearances from at least one Rogue and the aforementioned King and Sophie and...the Dangerous Daughters!  That's right, Sophie's Scandalous Sisters Seleste, Seline, and Sesily (no Sera, sadly) make a significant appearance and befriend Lily.  We get to see far more of the women than we did in Sophie's book, particularly Sesily who is amazing.  We also, drum-roll, get a brief visit to the Fallen Angel!!

My wish-list for Sarah now includes:
1) a novella for Lord Stanhope, bc you KNOW that man has a history
2) a novel for Sera, because her husband needs to either die or get punched in the dick and then start appreciating her (mostly sentiment held over from the last book, but still)
3) a novel for Sesily, because that girl is amazing and she needs an amazing dude to appreciate her

A Scot in the Dark is available TODAY!!  Run out and buy it or download it from your retailer of choice!  And if you are new to Sarah, never fear, you can read this without having read any of her previous books but you'll want to hide your credit card....you might need to go on a binge. *grin*

Dear FTC: I received an ARC of this book from the publisher and OF COURSE I had this pre-ordered for my Nook.

If I Only Had a Duke by Leonora Bell (The Disgraceful Dukes #2)

Summary from Goodreads:
After four failed seasons and a disastrous jilting, Lady Dorothea Beaumont has had more than enough of her family’s scheming. She won’t domesticate a duke, entangle an earl, or vie for a viscount. She will quietly exit to her aunt’s Irish estate for a life of blissful freedom. Until an arrogant, sinfully handsome duke singles her out for a waltz, making Thea the most popular belle of the season.

The duke ruined her plans and he’ll just have to fix them.

Dalton, Duke of Osborne, is far too heartless for debutantes or marriage—he uses dalliances and public spectacle to distract from his real purpose: finding the man who destroyed his family. When his search leads to Ireland, the last thing he needs is the determined, achingly innocent Thea, who arrives in the dead of night demanding he escort her to her aunt. His foolish agreement may prove his undoing. The road to the Emerald Isle is fraught with unforeseen dangers, but the greatest peril of all might just be discovering that he has a heart...and he’s losing it to Thea.

At the end of the previous book in Leonora Bell's The Disgraceful Dukes series (which I have not read although it is on my Nook), Lady Dorothea Beaumont releases the hero (to whom she is affianced) so he can marry the woman he loves (Thea is literally at the altar when she finally works up the courage to defy her mother and do this).  Thus, Thea was exiled to her aunt's cottage in Ireland where she is quite happy to spend her time helping keep bees, make marmalade, and explore the Duke of Osborn's nearby property which contains a surprising and important hidden art collection.  As If I Only Had a Duke opens as Thea returns to London determined to convince Osborn to allow her to study the collection.

Dalton, as he prefers, has no intention of doing anything with his father's ill-gotten gains.  Least of all with Lady Dorothea Beaumont whose mother is on such-a-quest-from-hell-to-snare-a-duke-for-her-daughter that she [see previous book] to snare Dalton's best friend.  Which didn't work out, thankfully for both the friend and Dalton.  Besides, even if he were attracted to the girl (and he isn't, he really, really isn't) his nighttime exploits as the vigilante the Hellhound would put her in danger.  So Dalton takes his revenge - he makes Thea popular despite her pleas that she just wants to exit Society and study his art collection (not a euphemism, get your mind out of the gutter).

Thea is, understandably, pissed that Dalton has made her the center of attention.  Worse, her mother and grandmother are determined to marry her off to a horrible, lecherous man simply for the sake of a four-letter aristocratic title.  So Thea outwits Dalton and convinces him to take her to Ireland in secret.  And as with any good road-trip historical romance, things go deliciously side-ways.

Thea and Dalton have excellent chemistry together as characters.  Thea is finding her own way as a woman after years of being under constant scrutiny and criticism from her mother.  Dalton learns to trust that Thea won't condemn him for his actions.  The secondary characters of Con (Dalton's Irish manservant-cum-comrade) and Molly (an Irish teenager Thea befriended) provide a bit of comic relief.  The madcap roadtrip from London to Bristol is a delight.

However, what didn't really work for me was the Hellhound B-plot and how it worked into Dalton's past.  It did provide the impetus to get Dalton to go to Ireland, and take Thea with him, but it didn't do much for me.  In fact, the plot just rolled over with a whimper and a conclusion off the page.  For something that provided so much conflict early in the book I would have liked a bit more out of the resolution of that plot point.  But it wasn't off-putting, so I'll definitely back up to read Book 1 and look for the next book in the series.

If I Only Had a Duke is out on Tuesday, August 30!

Dear FTC: I received a DRC of this book via Edelweiss.

Once Upon a Moonlit Night by Elizabeth Hoyt (Maiden Lane #10.5)

Summary from Goodreads:
From New York Times bestselling author Elizabeth Hoyt comes a delightful Maiden Lane novella that begins once upon a moonlit night—and ends wickedly, wonderfully ever after...

Hippolyta Royle is running for her life. Pursued by hounds on a cold rainy night, the heiress flags down a passing carriage and throws herself at the mercy of the coach's occupant. Whoever this handsome traveler may be, he is her only hope to escape a terrible fate. But should he agree to escort her to safety, he's in for much more than he bargained for.

At first Matthew Mortimer doesn't believe Hippolyta's story, that she's a fabulously wealthy heiress who's been kidnapped. He assumes she's a beggar, an actress, or worse. But once his new travel companion washes the mud from her surprisingly lovely face, and they share a breathtaking kiss, there is no turning back.

Once Upon a Moonlit Night picks up immediately after Hippolyta Royce leaves the narrative of Duke of Sin on horseback, in the dark, barefoot, and in her shift.

(Let me explain...no there is too much, let me sum up:  in Duke of Sin, the sociopathic Duke of Montgomery, his plan to blackmail Hippolyta into marriage having been foiled by his housekeeper Bridget, has kidnapped Hippolyta to "ruin" her in Society's eyes (and to annoy Bridget, who he wants to shag senseless) so Bridget craftily, but hastily, set Hippolyta free in the middle of the Yorkshire countryside before laying a false trail and continuing the narrative of that book.  It's a good book, go read it.)

Hippolyta intends to catch the post back to London from the local village but is instead picked up by a passing carriage containing one Matthew Mortimer, a world traveler who has recently inherited an earldom, and an animal (no spoilers).  After much bickering, some humor, and travelling the two of them make it back to London.

This isn't a perfect novella - Matthew is kind of a jackass when he appears and there's a secondary mystery that isn't necessary.  But this is a sweet story. If you'd thought there was a bit of wrap-up missing from Duke of Sin (as I did) this will take care of it. I do wish this was a full novel since I think there's more to flesh out in Hippolyta's story.  She's a biracial heroine in a historical romance (her mother is Indian) and I feel like she got short-changed.

Also, petition to have D'Arque's granny in more books.

Dear FTC: I bought my copy of this novella.

How Not to Fall by Emily Foster

Summary from Goodreads:

In her witty and breathtakingly sexy novel, Emily Foster introduces a story of lust, friendship, and other unpredictable experiments. . .

Data, research, scientific formulae--Annabelle Coffey is completely at ease with all of them. Men, not so much. But that's all going to change after she asks Dr. Charles Douglas, the postdoctoral fellow in her lab, to have sex with her. Charles is not only beautiful, he is also adorably awkward, British, brilliant, and nice. What are the odds he'd turn her down?

Very high, as it happens. Something to do with that whole student/teacher/ethics thing. But in a few weeks, Annie will graduate. As soon as she does, the unlikely friendship that's developing between them can turn physical--just until Annie leaves for graduate school. Yet nothing could have prepared either Annie or Charles for chemistry like this, or for what happens when a simple exercise in mutual pleasure turns into something as exhilarating and infernally complicated as love.

I don't read very many contemporary romances and even fewer New Adult romances (historicals are my jam).  However.  A few weeks ago, I was listening to a Smart Bitches podcast where the sex educator and researcher Emily Nagoski was talking about her book Come as You Are (which is EXCELLENT, of course, go read it) and women's sexual health, and oh yes, by the way her New Adult contemporary coming out in June, How Not to Fall, under the pseudonym Emily Foster.

Which was written partly as a counter to the problematic aspects regarding consent and sexual experiences in the 50 Shades series.
Whose main character is a super-smart neuroscience Indiana University undergrad who is going to the MD/PhD program at MIT.
Who is also a dancer.
Who has decided that before she graduates and leaves Bloomington she is going to proposition the smoking hot, adorkable, English postdoc in her lab.

GIVE IT TO ME NOW

This. Book. Is. SO. GOOD.  Annie is one of the smartest, sweetest, strongest, and most vulnerable heroines I have ever come across.  She's vulnerable precisely because she gives of herself wholeheartedly, whether it is her research or her dancing or her heart.  The book is narrated entirely from Annie's perspective, in the first person, and she's such a fascinating character.  (I identify with Annie so much for various reasons I won't go into here, but if you think she seems a bit much I can attest to the fact that she is basically me and this is the story of my junior/senior year of college with a few alterations.)

The absolute best, best part of this book is the wonderful exploration of the sexual relationship (and the intertwining personal feelings) between Annie and Charles.  Although Charles is the one who clearly has all the sexual experience - that Annie would like to benefit from - he is explicit in demanding that Annie must give him consent for any activity they undertake.  He is firm in abiding by the letter of the University rules about relationships between students and supervisors.  He takes Annie climbing at the gym (I had never thought of that as a sexy activity but whoa).  Everything is extremely sex-positive and consent-positive and Annie trusts him implicitly.  And that is how Charles breaks her heart - he holds himself back from her.

Emily Foster has a gift. I have never ugly-cried over a romance novel and this one made me do just that - this is raw and sweet and honest and too real. And Jesus, did that ending just twist the knife. This is possibly the most-real relationship I have ever read in a romance. And even though the sex is spectacular, even though I'd really like to know if Charles has a real-life counterpart, the nuts and bolts making up this couple are outstanding. And then there's all the science stuff and neurobiology and dancing and Wodehouse and the rest of this book is basically one giant epic nerd purr.

 I tweeted Emily BECAUSE FEELINGS.  And she told me there's a sequel!!!!!  So all is not lost! We'll get more Annie and Charles (and, apparently, Charles's perspective as well for some chapters)!

How Not to Fall is out June 28, next Tuesday - you know you want this!!

Dear FTC: I received a DRC of this book via NetGalley.

Duke of Sin by Elizabeth Hoyt (Maiden Lane #10)

Summary from Goodreads:
A MAN OF SIN

Devastatingly handsome. Vain. Unscrupulous. Valentine Napier, the Duke of Montgomery, is the man London whispers about in boudoirs and back alleys. A notorious rake and blackmailer, Montgomery has returned from exile, intent on seeking revenge on those who have wronged him. But what he finds in his own bedroom may lay waste to all his plans.

A WOMAN OF HONOR

Born a bastard, housekeeper Bridget Crumb is clever, bold, and fiercely loyal. When her aristocratic mother becomes the target of extortion, Bridget joins the Duke of Montgomery's household to search for the incriminating evidence-and uncovers something far more dangerous.

A SECRET THAT THREATENS TO DESTROY THEM BOTH

Astonished by the deceptively prim-and surprisingly witty-domestic spy in his chambers, Montgomery is intrigued. And try as she might, Bridget can't resist the slyly charming duke. Now as the two begin their treacherous game of cat and mouse, they soon realize that they both have secrets-and neither may be as nefarious-or as innocent-as they appear . . .

In previous Maiden Lane installments, the Duke of Montgomery has been largely an enigma.  A brilliant, bloodthirsty, and amoral enigma.  He shot the villain (for fun, more or less) in Darling Beast but then turned around and had the heroine of Dearest Rogue kidnapped to get back at her brother.  In his own book, Val is hiding out in his own house, a wanted man, until he works a rather dishonest scheme - blackmail.  He is a bored cat, playing with his prey before skewering it with his claws.

One of his prey being his new, mysterious - and extremely efficient - housekeeper, Bridget Crumb  (Hands up - who remembers Mrs. Crumb from Lord of Darkness?).  Bridget started working for the duke in the previous book Sweetest Scoundrel .... and also for several aristocratic ladies who are also victims of Val's bored schemes.  When Val catches Bridget snooping through his bedroom, the game of cat and mouse begins.  There are spies, and counterspies, and murder, and another kidnapping, and an actual cult.  This romance is one wild ride from London to York and back again.

I have been looking forward to Duke of Sin because I wanted to see what Hoyt would do with a character who has been a) enigmatic and b) the villainous antagonist in several previous books (redemption arcs are a thing that can work really well cf. The Devil in Winter by Lisa Kleypas). Now, there is no way to make Val "nice" - he can't just fall in love and then decide to have a normal moral/psychological code, that wouldn't work because Val is sociopathic, occasionally murderous, and power-mad (riffing off the old "mad, bad, and dangerous to know" Byron trope). So Hoyt made Val emotionally damaged, really messed up, to the point that Bridget does the only thing that could possibly save him: love him for himself because he has dug himself a really deep trench of "basically, he should be in jail" (in my opinion, some of the previous heroes need to punch him harder and many more times).

There's also really nice textual handoffs for the upcoming novella Once Upon a Moonlit Night and the next full novel Duke of Pleasure (which is the Duke of Kyle's book and I want it now) that don't get in the way of this story.

So go out and get your hands on Duke of Sin and get ready to relish Val's exploits.  (And yes, I realize that certain plot points in this book might be super squicky for some readers. I think they work well in this specific instance.)

Dear FTC: I received a digital advance copy of this book from Netgalley.

Sweetest Scoundrel by Elizabeth Hoyt (Maiden Lane #9)

Summary from Goodreads:
SHE'S TAKING CHARGE

Prim, proper, and thrifty, Eve Dinwoody is all business when it comes to protecting her brother's investment. But when she agrees to control the purse strings of London's premier pleasure garden, Harte's Folly, she finds herself butting heads with an infuriating scoundrel who can't be controlled.

HE'S RUNNING THE SHOW

Bawdy and bold, Asa Makepeace doesn't have time for a penny-pinching prude like Eve. As the garden's larger-than-life owner, he's already dealing with self-centered sopranos and temperamental tenors. He's not about to let an aristocratic woman boss him around . . . no matter how enticing she is.

BUT LOVE CONQUERS ALL

In spite of her lack of theatrical experience—and her fiery clashes with Asa—Eve is determined to turn Harte's Folly into a smashing success. But the harder she tries to manage the stubborn rake, the harder it is to ignore his seductive charm and raw magnetism. There's no denying the smoldering fire between them—and trying to put it out would be the greatest folly of all.

I adore Elizabeth Hoyt's Maiden Lane series.  Each book is distinct, yet they all link together through shared characters and families.  For some reason, I didn't get to Sweetest Scoundrel when it came out last November - I had a DRC from Netgalley but I couldn't get it read before it expired and then I just had other things to read (yes, I know my diamond shoes are too tight).  However, Duke of Sin is due out in just a few days so I knew I had to get this one read - that whole "I must read romance series in order" disease is a real drag sometimes.  (I jest.)

We first met Eve Dinwoody as she was being introduced to the Ladies' Syndicate for the Foundling Home in Maiden Lane in Dearest Rogue.  It turned out that her half-brother, the Duke of Montgomery, had blackmailed another member of the Syndicate to introduce Eve so that he might have access to Lady Penelope Batten for his own reasons (which make sense only to him).  Now that Penelope's brother, the Duke of Wakefield, has forced Montgomery to leave England due to the events in Dearest Rogue, Eve has taken over the management of her brother's investment in Harte's Folly (the pleasure garden that burned to the ground in Duke of Midnight and started rebuilding in Darling Beast - I told you the books link together).  When Eve thinks that the elusive Mr. Harte has overspent his budget, she pays him an eye-opening visit.

Mr. Harte is none-other than Asa Makepeace (as in an elder brother to Temperance, Silence, and Winter who have all appeared in their own books) and Eve has roused him from a very warm bed occupied by the pleasure garden's star soprano.  The meeting does not go well.  Eve thinks he's a dilettante wasting money, Asa thinks she's a stuffy busybody with no appreciation for good theatre.  But a series of incidents - some minor, some life-threatening - cause Eve and Asa to warily join forces.

Asa and Eve are a really good couple.  Eve has to work through some childhood trauma to allow Asa to get close to her (this leads to a really well-written "no touching" scene).  Asa has to rid himself of the sizeable chip on his shoulder as regards his family - we are actually given an extended look at the Makepeace family during a party and I think that's something we've all been looking forward to since Wicked Intentions (PS: for fans of Charming Mickey, he's there!).  There are a lot of small details in this novel that are really sweet.  Her bodyguard Jean-Marie has a good story and I wonder if Hoyt might one day give us a novella about how he wooed Tess, Eve's cook who is now his wife.  Eve has a small side-business painting miniatures.  There's a sweet doggie, too, since Hoyt does pets really well.

However, I don't think this is another slam-dunk entry in the series.  It's really good but there's so much going on in Sweetest Scoundrel that it sometimes overshadows the love story.  There's all the action going on in the pleasure garden with construction, and staff turnover, and personal relationships among the performers, and weird accidents.  And there's a B-plot involving the Duke of Montgomery's blackmailing victims and his housekeeper Mrs. Crumb who is trying to recover the blackmail evidence for said victims and the possibility that the duke really hasn't left England at all.  It's too much extra plot, too much set-up for the next book (possibly the next three books if I read some of it right) so that when the resolution comes it feels rushed so that we can get a preview of the next book.

Now, given what Montgomery did in Dearest Rogue and that he has done jack-smack to make himself sympathetic to the reader, Hoyt has some work to do to rehabilitate Val in the upcoming Duke of Sin and turn him into the hero.  He's dug himself a very, very deep hole.  There are bad-boys and then there's Montgomery and I'm really looking forward to his book.

Dear FTC: I received a DRC of this book from NetGalley, but I wasn't able to get to it so I bought a copy.

Forbidden by Beverly Jenkins

Summary from Goodreads:
USA Today bestselling author Beverly Jenkins returns with the first book in a breathtaking new series set in the Old West

Rhine Fontaine is building the successful life he's always dreamed of—one that depends upon him passing for White. But for the first time in years, he wishes he could step out from behind the façade. The reason: Eddy Carmichael, the young woman he rescued in the desert. Outspoken, defiant, and beautiful, Eddy tempts Rhine in ways that could cost him everything . . . and the price seems worth paying.

Eddy owes her life to Rhine, but she won't risk her heart for him. As soon as she's saved enough money from her cooking, she'll leave this Nevada town and move to California. No matter how handsome he is, no matter how fiery the heat between them, Rhine will never be hers. Giving in for just one night might quench this longing. Or it might ignite an affair as reckless and irresistible as it is forbidden . . .

I am very, very overdue to the Beverly Jenkins party.  I'm not exactly sure why - I have at least one of her Destiny books in mass market and one or two on Nook, so, really, this is due to my laziness in not picking them up. (And I met Beverly at Book Riot Live and she's a sweetheart and really, I needed to read her.)

In Forbidden we are introduced to Eddy ("ee-dy" not "ed-dy", I checked) Carmichael as she is being robbed of her newly-purchased train ticket and her remaining savings.  She has saved and saved that money, working for little pay as first a cook then a chambermaid (because the bigots she works for decided they didn't want a black woman in the kitchen) in 1870 Denver, and now it's gone.  Her sister cannot (or, likely, will not) loan her the money for a new train ticket to San Francisco and so Eddy is forced to trade labor for a ride on a wagon to Fort Collins, then to Reno where she wants to catch a train.  Due to the schedule, she decides to accept another wagon ride from a man who seems quite harmless...but who actually intends Eddy harm - he eventually puts her off the wagon in the middle of a desert.  Eddy is rescued just in time by Rhine, returning home to Virginia City with his business partner Jim, and they start nursing her back to health.

Rhine is a really, really interesting character, and because the blurb spoils it, I'm going to talk about how Jenkins presents him.  We meet Rhine in the Prologue as he returns home (eh, not home, really, since it was the plantation where he was enslaved) looking for his sister and then decides to head West, looking for his sister Sable, half-brother Andrew, and half-sister Maeve.  We are given Rhine's history with the family, his physical description, and the fact that he is the son of the plantation owner and a slave.  We come back to Rhine when he rescues Eddy - he is now rich and the owner of many profitable enterprises in Virginia City.  He has a fiancée, who we meet later.  But what we are not explicitly told until much later, and I only gradually realized this, is that Rhine is passing as White.

Rhine passing presents a massive obstacle in his attraction to Eddy, far more than the problem of his fiancée.  My usual romance genre is Regency, and existing fiancées are a common obstacle there.  No one's life is endangered (usually, there are the occasional whacko villains) by breaking an engagement among members of the ton; Rhine's life and livelihood, and the African-American community as a whole because he uses his privilege to protect their interests, depend upon his privilege as a White man in 1870 Nevada.  In addition, Eddy is not even remotely interested in being a White man's kept woman, no matter how handsome and magnetic a man.  She is going to work - she's a fantastic cook and, Lord Almighty, did this book make me hungry - and earn enough money to follow her dreams to San Francisco. 

How Jenkins resolves such a massive obstacle between Rhine and Eddy to bring about their Happily Ever After makes this an A-plus story and romance.  I adore romance novels in which the author widens the scope of the plot so the tension in the plot is not solely due to "I hate you. I love you. God damn it I can't stop thinking about your hair" (I'm paraphrasing SB Sarah) but heightened due to race or class or marital or financial differences - real-life obstacles - between the couple. I loved the ending. There's also a very sweet B-plot romance (though we don't get to see a lot of it) and this book will make you hungry, particularly for marmalade! (And I have to go back and pick up a previous book because it's the love story for a character who pops up at the end of Forbidden!)

Dear FTC: I received a DRC of this book from the publisher via Edelweiss.

One-Eyed Dukes are Wild by Megan Frampton (Dukes Behaving Badly #3)

Summary from Goodreads:
When does proper behavior deserve a deliciously improper reward?

The scandalously unmarried Lady Margaret Sawford is looking for adventure—and is always up for a challenge. Her curiosity is aroused by a dangerous-looking stranger with an eye patch, an ideal companion for the life she longs for, no matter what Society might say. So when the piratical gentleman turns out to be a duke—and just as boringly proper as any other nobleman—she can't help but incite him to walk on the wild side.

Well-heeled, well-mannered, and well beyond any interest in society's expectations, the Duke of Lasham is tired of being perfect. Margaret's lush beauty and gently laughing eyes are an irresistible temptation to embrace the imperfect—and her. But if a little misbehavior is appealing, unleashing his wild side is completely seductive—as long as the lovely Margaret is the object of his passion.

Megan Frampton is a new-to-me author this year with her series Dukes Behaving Badly.  The Duke's Guide to Correct Behavior was a good start, but maybe needed a bit more work.  Put Up Your Duke was an excellent step up with a good plot but the new entry in the series, One-Eyed Dukes are Wild, really brought everything together with a fantastic plot, great hero and heroine, and good tension.

We met Lady Margaret Sawford in Put Up Your Duke when her sister Isabella made a marriage of convenience with Nicholas, the new Duke of Gage (which turns out well, obviously, since Isabella and Nicholas are the main characters in that book).  Isabella decides that she won't let her parents marry her off to a man she's never met, Lord Collingwood, breaks the engagement and announces that she is the mysterious author of the Gothic serials in the paper leading her parents to pretend she doesn't exist.  (Which in the end is good, because Collingwood is a swine and the less said about Isabella's and Margaret's parents, the better.)  One-Eyed Dukes are Wild starts a few years later.  Margaret has returned to London - still the scandalous author, still unmarried, who lives alone with her maid and wears non-virginal colors.  She keeps herself financially afloat with her writing and her winnings at the gambling table (she's a bit of a whiz with cards) because she's still an aristocrat and she gets invited to parties for her reputation.

Seeking quiet at a party, Margaret crosses paths with the Duke of Lasham.  Lash (who has such a great first name, I'm not going to spoil it), despite his pirate-like eye patch, is so concerned with being the correctly-correct Duke Who Always Does the Right Thing Because That's What Dukes Do isn't quite sure what to do with Margaret.  She gives him the deference due his rank but doesn't flatter, simper, cling, or entrap.  Indeed, she tells him at the first meeting that she doesn't wish to marry him if they are found in the same room alone together.  When they later meet by happenstance at the National Gallery, and Margaret rescues Lash from a gaggle of "art appreciating" women, they begin to wonder if there is more beneath the surface of the other (that's a really terrible sentence, I apologize).

I quite like Margaret.  She's independent, feisty, rash but with good intentions, smart at cards, and has an excellent maid (though I am tired of the I-don't-think-I'm-pretty-because-my-sister-is-gorgeous-trope).  I also like the idea that the "scandal" of her writing is that she writes fairy tales for money and they are published in the paper as opposed to writing actual scandalous material circulated under the counter, so to speak.  I loved how her adventures with Lash, when he decided he needed to stop being so "correct," included going ballooning (which he loved) and eating eel pies (which I don't think he did).  Even the scene where they go to the dance hall was an interesting twist - I have usually encountered scenes like this where the heroine is the one looking for adventure, not the hero, so this was a fun change.

What Frampton does in this book is turn the idea of "behaving badly" on its head.  In the previous books, the dukes generally are considered to be "bad" rakes (although, in my opinion, not nearly bad enough to deserve the sobriquet).  In this book, Lash is so proper and always does what is right and that behavior has caused him to be fenced in.  In his experience, behaving badly has consequences.  He doesn't know how to feel or have his own emotions or read intimate situations correctly - this leads him to behave very badly later in the book.  The contrast in personality between Lash and Margaret creates excellent romantic tension.

One-Eyed Dukes are Wild was released today!  Happy reading!

Dear FTC: I received a DRC of this book from the publisher via Edelweiss.

The Rogue Not Taken by Sarah MacLean (Scandal & Scoundrel, #1)

Summary from Goodreads:
LADY SOPHIE'S SOCIETY SPLASH

The youngest of the infamous Talbot sisters scandalized society at the Liverpool Summer Soiree, striking her sister’s notoriously philandering husband and landing him backside-first in a goldfish pond. And we thought Sophie was the quiet one…

When she finds herself the target of very public aristocratic scorn, Sophie Talbot does what she must to escape the city and its judgment—she flees on the back of a carriage, vowing never to return to London…or to society. But the carriage isn’t saving her from ruin. It’s filled with it.


ROYAL ROGUE'S REIGN OF RAVISHMENT!

The Marquess of Eversley was espied descending a rose trellis—escaping an irate Earl and his once-future countess. No lady is safe from Eversley’s Engagement Ending Escapades!

Kingscote, the Marquess of Eversley, has never met a woman he couldn’t charm, a quality that results in a reputation far worse than the truth, a furious summons home, and a long, boring trip to the Scottish border. When King discovers stowaway Sophie, however, the trip becomes anything but boring.

WAR? OR MORE?

He thinks she’s trying to trick him into marriage. She wouldn’t have him if he were the last man on earth. But carriages bring close quarters, dark secrets, and unbearable temptation, and suddenly opposites are altogether too attractive…

There's a new Sarah MacLean novel!!  The Rogue Not Taken is coming out on December 29, 2015!!  (Go, go preorder, then come back.  No, really!)

OK, so, gossip columns, social climbing, secret identities, road trip, parental estrangement, and broken hearts?  Yes, yes, yes, yes.

Lady Sophie Talbot, the plainest, quietest of the scandalous Talbot sisters - scandalous because they are the newest of the new money and new titles and Society eats up gossip columns about them - achieves notoriety when she knocks her sister's philandering duke of a husband on his arse.  In a koi pond.  During a culturally tasteless garden party.  With the entirety of the ton watching.

Exeunt, stage right.  Sophie spies her chance to escape the party when the even more scandalous Marquess of Eversley - because he is infamous for ravishing young ladies, therefore causing their socially advantageous betrothals to be broken - comes climbing down a trellis in front of her.  King isn't an idiot.  He doesn't want to get married, much less be trapped into marriage with a Talbot sister, so he refuses to give Sophie a ride.  Sophie, however, bribes a footman, borrows the boy's livery, and hops on the back of King's carriage.  Only to find that 1) the carriage doesn't turn toward Mayfair, 2) it doesn't stop moving until nightfall when it is at an inn far away from London, and 3) King isn't in the carriage, it's full of wheels.  Nuts.  (King turns up a few minutes later as the winner of a curricle race.

Thus begins a trip to the north of England full of intrigue, tactics, highwaymen (gasp!), and dreams.  It's like a Georgette Heyer novel if Georgette Heyer didn't have to observe propriety in her fiction in the early twentieth-century.  I love Sophie - not quite as much as Pippa from One Good Earl Deserves a Lover because Pippa is my geeky homegirl and I lurve her - because she never stops wanting more for herself.  She doesn't think that pots of money should change a person or require them to live in the social whirl of London.  She doesn't just want to be the sister of women who court scandal simply for the sake of more inches in the gossip column.  She wants a happy marriage - certainly not her sister Sera's, speaking of which, I hope Sera gets her own book - with books and tarts and country air.

Sophie also manages to knock King on his own arse.  Metaphorically, since I don't recall her actually punching him.  And let's face it.  King needed it.  The weight of the chip on his shoulder from his history with his father is SO BIG it would crush him if it actually fell on him.  Sophie chips away at King's problems bit by bit and it's so, so wonderful.  Although I wanted to crawl into the book and punch King at least twice...why are men so pig-headed?  Oy.  Delicious, but oy.

So jump in at the beginning of a new series with Sarah MacLean!  (I want to know, really, really, if we get to see the Fallen Angel and any of the previous rogues in the coming books - we know it's the same world since we met Sophie in a scene during Never Judge a Lady by Her Cover).

Dear FTC: I received a DRC from the publisher via Edelweiss - and I have a copy on pre-order for my Nook because who doesn't love a new Sarah MacLean novel?

Lord Dashwood Missed Out by Tessa Dare (Spindle Cove #4.5)

Summary from Goodreads:
A snowstorm hath no fury like a spinster scorned!

Miss Elinora Browning grew up yearning for the handsome, intelligent lord-next-door…but he left England without a word of farewell. One night, inspired by a bit too much sherry, Nora poured out her heartbreak on paper. Lord Dashwood Missed Out was a love letter to every young lady who’d been overlooked by gentlemen—and an instant bestseller. Now she’s on her way to speak in Spindle Cove when snowy weather delays her coach. She’s forced to wait out the storm with the worst possible companion: Lord Dashwood himself.

And he finally seems to have noticed her.

George Travers, Lord Dashwood, has traveled the globe as a cartographer. He returned to England with the goal of marrying and creating an heir--only to find his reputation shredded by an audacious, vexingly attractive bluestocking and her poison pen. Lord Dashwood Missed Out, his arse. Since Nora Browning seems to believe he overlooked the passion of a lifetime, Dash challenges her to prove it.

She has one night.

The first Tessa Dare book I read was A Week to be Wicked and I fell in love with her banter and silly nerd jokes.  Which means I fell in love with Colin, who tells some naughty math jokes.  So I've been waiting and waiting for Colin to reappear (we got a wee bit of Colin in Any Duchess Will Do).  I got my wish with Lord Dashwood Missed Out, where he, Griff, Rycliff, and Thorne have to go out and find a missing author who is supposed to have arrived for a reading at Pauline's bookshop in Spindle Cove (PS: if you haven't read any Spindle Cove books, you probably won't know who these characters are).  There are jokes and swashbuckling and silliness, which are my favorite parts of Tessa Dare novels and a sweet B-plot for Pauline and Griff involving missing sherry.

The main plot of the novella, that of Nora - the missing author - and her pamphlet about a man who missed what was under his nose and the globe-trotting Lord Dashwood who was her childhood friend and obviously the dude who "missed out" is sweet.  I don't feel like their backstory was quite strong enough to support the relationship outcome in this novella, so perhaps it needed more pages, but it was a fun read.  Clearly, my favorite parts were the ones with Colin.

Dear FTC: I received a DRC of this novella from the publisher via Edelweiss.