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This is 3 for 1 book!

Pub Date: September 24, 2019

***ARC  was provided to me by Net Galley and the Publisher for a fair and honest review***

Story 1: A Christmas Abduction

Author: Madeline Hunter

Overall rating: 4/5 

Heroine (Caroline Dunham): 3/5 Her family was slighted in more ways than one and she has a propensity for revenge. She has been managing her father’s horse farm for the past two years and is rather good at it. 

Hero (Baron Adam Thornhill): 4/5 He has a reputation in London for being an inebriated rake but he is trying to be a better man. 

Plot: 3.5/5 Caroline kidnaps Adam Thornhilll, a baron who she believes has slighted her family. He takes to being held hostage for the holidays very well and even starts falling for his pretty guard. They both realize that they have been wrong about the other and want to make amends. 

Personal Review: A story of loss and revenge that has a cute ending. Good, quick holiday themed read. I would read more from this author in the future. 

Story 2: A Perfect Match

Author: Sabrina Jefferies

Overall rating: 4/5 

Heroine (Cassandra Isles): 4/5 She wants her wealthy but dim witted cousin settled in a good marriage before she reveals that she is also an heiress. To society she is the poor relation so she can be sure that she won’t be troubled with fortune hunters again.

Hero (Lord Heywood): 4/5 Heywood is a soldier and would like to leave that life behind and settle his inherited estate. But he needs a wealthy wife so that he can tend to the property because he hasn’t been able to earn enough in the army. 

Plot: 4/5 Heywood and his friend Douglas and had gotten through the war because of Douglas’ sister’s regular letters. Before returning to England, Heywood is so charmed by them that he clears it with Douglas to marry Kitty if she’ll have him. The pair learn that an old enemy of theirs, Mr. Malet was seeking revenge in the form of Kitty’s hand. Heywood picks up both Kitty and her cousin Cass from a ball in the nick of time and whisks the girls to his family estate. They are snowed in and secrets are revealed. Heywood finds he wants Cass but can’t have her if he also wants to do right by his estate since she isn’t an heiress. Will love matter more than his dream?

Personal Review: I loved this little story. I had read some of Jefferies’ work before and love this overall series. Cass and Heywood are well written characters and have very defined motivations for their actions.

Story 3: One Wicked Winter’s Night

Author: Mary Jo Putney

Overall rating: 3/5 

Heroine (Diana Lawrence): 3/5 She has traveled the world over and has finally come back to England to settle. She’s almost thirty and believes herself to be very firmly on the shelf

Hero (Anthony Raines, Duke of Castleton): 3/5 He lived under the thumb of his father for so long and believed love to be lost to him. 

Plot: 3/5 Diana and Anthony had shared a love long ago and have now surprisingly found each other in a ballroom. When she refuses to acknowledge their attraction, Anothony steals away with her beloved cat. Will she meet his terms to get Panda back?

Personal Review: Putney really loves explanation points. It was almost distracting. But the story was short and sweet.

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Book Title: London’s Late Night Scandal (Midnight’s Secrets #3)

Author: Anabelle Bryant

Pub Date: September 24, 2019

***ARC  was provided to me by Net Galley and the Publisher for a fair and honest review***

Overall rating: 3/5 Snowy journeys, scientific intrigue, stolen kisses.  

Heroine (Theodosia): 3/5 She is the granddaughter of Lord Talbot an aging scientific figurehead. Isolated in the countryside she has had time to develop scientific interests of her own. 

Hero (Lord Matthew Strathmore, Earl of Whittingham): 3/5 He injured his leg and now walks with a limp. He is self conscious about the injury but tries to never allow it to hold him back. 

Plot: 3/5 Matthew is sent to find out from the source whether certain points in a scientific journal can be proven. He visits the country home of Lord Talbot late one snowy evening to find he cannot return to London for a few days. During that time he learns secrets of the family such as it was Theodosia who wrote the article in the first place. Will Matthew even want to leave this interesting girl when the roads clear?

Personal Review: The first third of the story has a lot of scientific jargon and leaves the conversations and inner monologues a bit stilted. But as the story goes on it becomes much better. 

I liked the sleigh ride scene and the library scene is very cute.

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Book Title: Scandalous

Author: Minerva Spencer

Publishing Date: September 25, 2019

***ARC provided to me by the publisher for a fair and honest review***

Overview: 5/5 an ex slave turned boat Captain finds himself transporting a very particular lady.

Heroine (Sarah Fisher): 3.5/5 she is the only daughter of a pair of missionaries that were based in Africa. She loves doing things for the good of others and has a very big heart.

Hero (Martín Bouchard): 3/5 He was born a slave in New Orleans but escaped to a new life of owning a boat that rescued from that fate. He is very reserved and skeptical of people treating him kindly.

Plot: 3/5 Sarah is taken by slavers and forced onto a boat and it is some weeks before the Golden Scythe shows up to rescue them. By chance the captain and Sarah engage in parlay with the fierce Captain Bouchard. He takes them captive and Sarah offers herself to him in a bargain to save some of the crew. Will either of them be content with only one night?

Personal Review: I liked Sarah but I think she has rather poor taste in men. If half the story wasn’t from Martín’s POV then there is nothing that he does that should encourage her feelings for him. He’s rather rude to her for almost the whole story. I get that the vibe was to present him as dangerous but redeemable but really he’s just dangerous and not very nice. His background does not excuse his behavior toward his friends or Sarah.

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Book Title: Met her Match

Author: Jude Deveraux

Publishing Date:

***ARC provided to me by the publisher for a fair and honest review***

Overview: 3/5 What is a woman to do when a very attractive yet unavailable male is living in your house?

Heroine (Terri Rayburn): 4/5 She is a very athletic young woman who essentially runs the lakeside properties with the help of her dad. Her mother’s misdeeds hang over her head so she has trouble finding a man will be her match.

Hero (Nate Taggert): 3/5 Nate is a military aid to a high ranking official. He thought he wanted wine and fancy dinners, but he’s finding he’s more of a beer and pizza kind of guy.

Plot: 3/5 Nate who is engaged to the mayors daughter finds himself accidentally staying in the very available Terri’s house while waiting for his fiancé to get to town. He helps Terri run the lake side properties and rescue people out of the water. When his fancy, prim and proper fiancé does show up does he still want the life that she represents?

Personal Review: if you like Hallmark channel movies then you’ll like this book. But just like with those movies I can’t get past the cheating aspect of them. Nothing happens between Terri and Nate while he’s still with his fiancé but it still feels wrong.

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Book Title: The Marquis She’s Been Waiting For

Author: Ella Quinn

Pub Date: September 3, 2019

***ARC  was provided to me by Net Galley and the Publisher for a fair and honest review***

Overall rating: 3/5 

Heroine (Lady Dorie Calthrop): 4/5 She is the daughter of politically involved parents and is politically involved herself. She hopes to have a large house to run and sponsor charities, but most of all she hopes for a love match

Hero (Alex, Marquis of Exeter): 3/5 He is a newly inherited lord who has no idea how to run his household or his land holdings. He hopes to find a wife who can do both in addition to helping him raise his two little sisters. A love match is the last thing on his mind

Plot: 3/5 Dorie has been effectively running the Exeter household since the girls' mother had abandoned them by running off with a new husband shortly after their father’s death. Once the Alex comes to claim his seat and his sisters it is clear he has no idea what he is doing. Dorie wants to help and becomes his tutor in all things regarding his title. But can Dorie help him find the perfect wife? 

Personal Review: Usually I really enjoy stories by Ella Quinn, but I found this one to just drag a little bit. In short, I didn’t have as much fun reading it as I did her other books. Once Dorie and Alex were forced together through her giving him lessons on how to do everything required of a title the story picked up a bit for me but that isn’t even until the 50% mark. That said I would still read another book by Ella Quinn.

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Book Title: A Lady and Her Magic (Faerie #1)

Author: Tammy Falkner

Pub Date: June 28, 2019

***ARC  was provided to me by Net Galley and the Publisher for a fair and honest review***

Overall rating: 2/5 I wish more time was spent on world building with the Fae.

Heroine (Sophia Thorne): 2/5 Naive 26 year old mission fairy who wants to follow the rules. 

Hero (Ashley, Duke of Robinsworth): 2/5 The current gossip is that his late wife died by his hand. He is the loving father of a wayward daughter and not exactly looking for anyone to fill the spot his wife left. 

Plot: 2/5 Sophia is a mission fairy who helps young humans. She  steals her sister’s mission to fix the Dangerous Duke of Robinsworth’s daughter Anne. Sophia spends a lot of time with the duke himself and both catch feelings pretty quickly. Sophia also has an interesting habit of following music back to the source and tells the duke this which makes him play the piano every night so Sophia will show up. But relationships between humans and fairies are forbidden, will they defy the odds?

Personal Review: I accepted this book in preparation for the new show Carnival Row which also features a Fairy/human relationship. This is decidedly not what I was really looking for. Nothing is ever really explained about Sophia’s world so the reader has no idea about the stakes of any of what they’re doing. Even when rules are explained like changing wing colors, they just make up a new rule later. It was poor world building and that saddens me because I love the concept of injecting magic into historical romance. 

Sophia’s mission is to basically fix the duke’s daughter Anne, but she only meets the girl a handful of times and it’s mostly an excuse to throw Ashley and Sophia together. I’m rather unsure if her mission was completed by her or plot convenience. 

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Book Title: This Earl of Mine (Bow Street Bachelors #1)

Author: Kate Bateman

Pub Date: October 29, 2019

***ARC  was provided to me by Net Galley and the Publisher for a fair and honest review***

Overall rating: 5/5 Accidental newlyweds turned lovers

Heroine (Georgiana Caversteed): 5/5 Georgie is the daughter of a wealthy shipping merchant and now runs the company herself. She fears she will never find someone that can look past her bank account from friends to lovers. 

Hero (Benedict Wylde): 5/5 Ben is lucky if he has a shilling to his name at any given moment. He was in the army as a sharpshooter and now works cases involving the ton for Bow Street. His father squandered all of their money and Ben ships anything he has to his brother John to pay off debt and keep the estate running.

Plot: 5/5 Ben was not expecting to get married ever, but least of all while undercover working a case for Bow Street. 

In an attempt to keep her cousin’s hands off her fortune, Georgie decides she will marry a convict that is to be hanged. The man she was intended to was hanged and so she is left with a man to be sent to Australia the following day. 

Once they both become aware of who the other is and what skills they possess they decide they might just be useful in other areas of life. But can these two newly weds keep their hands (and hearts) to themselves as intended?

Personal Review: I really like this book and plan to read more from this author. Both Georgie and Ben were well written and the story kept me turning each page. 

I really enjoyed the banter that the two leads share and the trust in the other’s abilities to get the job done. 

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Book Title: Fire on the Moon (Decorah Security #19)

Author: Rebecca York

Pub Date: August 15, 2019

***ARC  was provided to me by Net Galley and the Publisher for a fair and honest review***

Overall rating: 3/5 Werewolf bodyguard turned love interest story. 

Heroine (Francesca Turner): 3/5 Francesca is a human girl who tries not to be overly trusting of those she meets due to her family’s history. However she trusts pretty easily. She is a freelance editor.

Hero (Zane Marshall): 3/5 Zane is a restless werewolf who tries his best to protect those he cares about. He is a security agent for Decorah Security.

Plot: 3/5 Francesca travels from Mass to Naples Florida to reconnect with her uncle so that he can see his dying brother one more time. Things go wrong and Zane ends up having to rescue Francesca from thugs who set her uncle’s house ablaze. Can he keep things professional and find her uncle’s killers or will he find his life’s mate in a very unexpected place?

Personal Review: Francesca asks so few questions when the guy she sleeps with once tells her that by genetic default they were destined to be together. And then asks minimal, surface level questions about her boyfriend being a werewolf. I know this is another installment to a long running series and so the audience shouldn’t have too many questions, but Francesca didn’t read the other stories. And she takes it much better than I think a normal person would. 

The banter between the two was mostly good. The ending is a tad predictable and a little cliche but I don’t think anyone reading these stories expect anything different. I wish there was more of a purpose for Zane being a werewolf, he only uses the ability three times in the story and one is for the sole purpose of Francesca seeing him, the other two could have had other human solutions. He didn’t have to track anything, or use other heightened wolf senses, or use anything other than wolf brute force. 

Overall I would read another book from the author and I had a decent read with one.

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Book Title: Discretion (The Dumonts #1)

Author: Katrina Halle

Pub Date: August 6th, 2019

***ARC  was provided to me by Net Galley and the Publisher for a fair and honest review***

Overall rating: 3.5/5 I really enjoyed everything before they get to Paris.

Heroine (Sadie Reynolds): 4/5 Sadie is a twenty three year old communications major from Seattle. At home she took care of her mentally ill mother and grew up mostly without a father. 

Hero (Oliver Dumont): 4/5 Oliver was born into wealth but still broke away from the family to start his own business of high end hotels. His father still hopes that he will one day run the Dumont business. 

Plot: 3/5 Sadie is on a tour of Europe and finds herself in France. She is mugged but saved by a handsome stranger who turns out to be the very wealthy son of a high end designer. Sadie and Oliver find they don’t want to part and she becomes his secret lover. Oliver doesn’t want his uncle finding out about Sadie, he likes to take the things that make Oliver happy away from him. Can their love survive Oliver’s family feuds?

Personal Review: Oliver and Sadie have great chemistry and if you’re into a sugar daddy relationship then this is a great read. But if that’s not your thing then get ready for a girl in a foriegn country, who doesn’t speak more than a handful of phrases in the language, who has no money to her name who is completely dependent on her new rich boyfriend. I get it, it’s hot to be taken care of, but at the same time this girl could be in a very bad spot if Oliver’s kindness suddenly ran out. 

*Spoilers* For a story that puts Oliver in the plot of the Lion King, he never really takes back the throne. It would be like Nala showing up to pick up Simba and then instead of overthrowing Scar, they just moved to a new kingdom to start their own pride. I don’t know, this story which I know is only part one, really just felt like we let the bad guys win despite the happy ending for the couple.

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Book Title: How to Cross a Marquess (The Way to a Lord’s Heart #3)

Author: Jane Ashford

Pub Date: August 27, 2019

***ARC  was provided to me by Net Galley and the Publisher for a fair and honest review***

Overall rating: 3/5 Old friends find that while they wouldn’t have made a good pair in the past, they think they will be a love match now. 

Heroine (Fenella Fairclough): 3/5 She was a timid girl that went away to become a fierce and opinionated young woman. She runs her father’s household with a kind yet efficient hand. 

Hero (Roger Berwick, Marquess of Chatton): 3/5 Roger has a habit of getting tongue tied and often followed by word vomit. While most find it endearing, he finds it extremely embarrassing and often chooses silence over trying to talk. 

Plot: 3/5 Roger and Fenella were childhood friends, but when their parents try to force them into marriage, both retreat and rebel against their parents wishes. In the next five years Roger marries another young woman but loses her to a tragic accident four years into their marriage. Fenella had grown into herself while visiting her grandmother in Scotland. 

Now forced to spend time with each other during a neighborhood pageant, they find that they share a spark of attraction and want to see where it will lead.

Personal Review: Roger and Fenella do share a spark of attraction but for me it gets doused each and every time the past is brought up, which is seemingly every other page. 

I almost wish we got to spend more time with Arabella, Roger’s first wife. The reader is told about her but is shown how she was by doing a flashback that would show off her unhappy, impulsive nature after marrying Roger. While dead, she is integral to the plot and should have been a bit of room to be an actual character. 

I loved Tom, the lad who follows around Macklin. He is a strange kid who is weirdly empathetic and wise beyond his years. It’s almost like he has a sixth sense about certain things. Maybe he will get his own story as an adult one day. But likely his story will be concluded in the next and final installment of the series.

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Book Title: One Night of Temptation (Wicked Dukes Club #6)

Author: Darcy Burke

Pub Date: June 25, 2019

***ARC  was provided to me by Net Galley and the Publisher for a fair and honest review***

Overall rating: 3.5/5 All they have is just one night of temptation.

Heroine (Lady Penelope Wakefeild): 4/5 Pen has always done as her parents have demanded. But beneath the quiet, good girl exterior is a lady who knows what she wants and is willing to risk it all in order to get it. 

Hero (Rector Hugh Tarleton): 4/5 Hugh is the rector for a church in St. Giles. He is the third son of a third son of a viscount and doesn’t think highly of the ton. He helps out his community in any way he can, even finding toys for the poorer children. 

Plot: 3/5 Pen decides that she can’t bear marrying a man that is old enough to be her grandfather, so she takes drastic measures to ensure she won’t be marriageable material. She stages her own kidnapping, with the goal to spend one night not under supervision. She ends up getting actually kidnapped and rescued by the local rector, Hugh. He understands her plight and takes measures to protect her through the night. While he is busy protecting Penelope from the world, who will protect his heart from Pen?

Personal Review: I really liked both Penelope and Hugh as characters. Both just need a little convincing to break free of what society believes to be a good match for either. However, I don’t think Pen really gets to spend enough time in the part of the city she wants to marry into to make a relatively informed decision. Of course she’s been there before, but she’s never really taken in that part of the city. She also doesn’t get the chance to meet some of Hugh’s friends from the Wicked Duke, including the other Lady’s. Due to Pen not being allowed to have friends, it almost feels like she falls for the first person that is nice to her. Yes, there will be time for her to get to know everyone later and there simply wasn’t time or allowance for a betrothal period but when the whole story takes place in under two weeks, it leaves the relationship feeling a bit rushed even for a regency romance.

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Book Title: Accidental Lies (Accidental Love #2)

Author: Dana Mason

Pub Date: August 7, 2019

***ARC  was provided to me by Net Galley and the Publisher for a fair and honest review***

Overall rating: 3.5 Vacation fling that turns into something more. 

Heroine (Emily Tucker): 3.5/5 Emily is a lawyer who lost her husband in an accident 4 years ago. She threw herself into her work and has forgotten how to let go and move on with her life. 

Hero (Drew Whitney): 3.5/5 Drew is a widower and single father to two young children. He owns his own contracting business. 

Plot: 4/5 Emily’s brother forces her on vacation in an attempt to help her move on after losing her husband four years ago. She quickly meets Drew and the pair start a pact not to share details from their real life and have a vacation fling that ends when one leaves. For Emily it means living in the moment, something she rarely does in her life outside of Maui. For Drew it means getting to cut loose and not worry about the constraints that come with being a full time single parent. 

Personal Review: The characters all feel very real and live complex lives. Mason doesn’t shy away from the darker aspects of people’s real lives, and is unafraid to let her characters feel loss and deal with it on each page. 

I loved the whole time the pair were in Maui, but the story lost me a bit when we got back to California. I just couldn’t understand why either would keep up the lies, or half truths with the person they claim to love and want to start a serious relationship with. I think it wasted precious page space that Emily could have been getting to know Drew’s family, something she apparently does off page. I wanted to see her interact with the kids and take on a motherly role with them. 

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Book Title: Highland Jewel (Royal Highlander #2)

Author: May McGoldrick

Pub Date: September 24, 2019

***ARC  was provided to me by Net Galley and the Publisher for a fair and honest review***

Overall rating: 3.5/5 I think it is more of a continuation of Cinaed’s story than the author(s) set out for. 

Heroine (Maise Murray): 4/5 Maisie is a young woman who would like to see change in the world. She wants women to be able to vote, to have a say in how their lives are run.

Hero (Niall Campbell): 4/5 Niall is newly returned from the Crown’s army. He is a good soldier but longs for a simple life for those he cares about. He’s tall, blonde, and Scottish.  

Plot: 3/5 The first part of the story takes place before the events of Highland Crown and chronicles Maisie’s life before having to flee the city. She attends a rally to promote women’s suffrage and gets swept away by the crowd when the police come to break it up. She is saved by her friend’s brother Niall and the two eventually find they have much in common. But when things get serious they are pulled apart when the government takes Niall’s sister hostage, he must go try to save her. Months later the story picks back up after the events of Highland Crown and we see the pair reunited but is Niall now a danger to Cinaed, the Son of Scotland?

Personal Review: I loved Highland Crown, really enjoyed every twist and turn, but Highland Jewel was lackluster for me. The first half was good, with Maisie and Niall falling for each other and Maisie being bold and leading a double life. But the second half felt more like a sequel to Highland Crown in that it is more about Cinaed and Isabella’s adventures than Maisies and Niall’s. Like the main characters take a backseat in their own story. While I recommend it to those who read Highland Crown and what to see where the next step in Cinaed’s chapter, I don’t recommend to those hoping for a Maisie and Niall story.

Though you get chapters from Niall’s POV, they leave a lot out. If Maisie doesn’t need to know it yet, neither does the reader. It was a bit odd.

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Book Title: Brazen and the Beast (The Bareknuckle Bastards #2)

Author: Sarah MacLean

Pub Date: July 30, 2019

Where to buy: Amazon Barnes and Noble

***ARC  was provided to me by Net Galley and the Publisher for a fair and honest review***

Overall rating: 5/5 I loved this story of a lady and her dark king and would definitely read it again.

Heroine (Lady Henrietta “Hattie” Sedley): 5/5 Hattie, the daughter of an earl, is celebrating her 29th birthday making her life entirely her own. She believes herself undesirable to the men of the ton and due to her full figure and so she speaks her mind and is unafraid to show off her head for business. 

Hero (Saviour “Whit” Whittington): 5/5 Whit is the king of working class and they all know him as Beast. He believes the  job of protecting those around him falls squarely on his shoulders and so he could never find an equal. 

Plot: 5/5 Hattie endeavors to have her 29th birthday kick off the ‘the year of Hattie’ and sets off to start her four point plan at a brothel. But before the carriage can begin its journey she finds a man tied up and unconscious inside. Whit wakes to find he’s tied up and at the mercy of a beautiful woman, and finds she’s headed straight into his domain to take her pleasure. He is happy to oblige her but it comes at a price. They find themselves rivals in business yet possible partners in bed. Both want to keep their secrets, but if they do they could lose more than their hearts along the way. 

Personal Review: Sarah MacLean is one of my favorite romance authors and she does not disappoint with Brazen and the Beast. I absolutely love Hattie and her unwillingness to accept less than what she set out for. I love Whit’s story and  his protective nature and how it is used against him. I would love to see how Nik and Nora are faring in the next installment. 

Hattie is a true heroine, she is not simpering, she doesn’t wait for Whit to come to her she’ll march right to his door if need be. I loved the feminine bravery she exhibits and how she rarely minzes words. I will probably read the story again at some point and eagerly await the next installment.

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Book Title: A Duke Deceived (The Deceived Series #1)

Author: Cheryl Bolen

Pub Date: July 1, 2019

Where to buy: Amazon Barnes and Noble

***ARC  was provided to me by Net Galley and the Publisher for a fair and honest review***

Overall rating: 2/5 It was okay, stories where the only internal conflict is based in a lack of basic communication are not for me. 

Heroine (Bonny Barbara Allen): 2/5 Bonny is the daughter of a vicar and has little hope for finding a husband. She knows she’s pretty but hopes to find a husband that will love her for who she is and not just her pretty face. She wants to spend her life with someone to talk to, not someone that will just stare at her while she’s young and grow to resent her when she’s old. But she was also raised with the belief that women are more or less there to please their husbands.

Hero (Richard Moncreif, Duke of Radcliff): 1/5 Richard was raised on the belief that a strong man does not reveal his secrets or his feelings to anyone. Especially not to those he loves. So he comes across as an emotionally stunted, arrogant aristocrat. But is extremely sensitive and worried about how others feel about him. He seems to expect others to wear the emotions he would never display on their sleeves.

Plot: 3/5 Bonny is a beautiful young miss with no dowry and thus does not have high hopes for whom she will marry. But she must marry quickly so her mother can die contently knowing her future is secure. Richard first sees Bonny in a ballroom and decides then and there that she will be his. He escorts her back home in Northumbria to see her mother again and proposes marriage. The newlyweds are happy in the countryside but once back and London a few misunderstandings happen and both believe the other has broken their vows and is sleeping with other people. This breaks each of their hearts but both refuse to confront the other and just stew in their misery. Will they be able to save their marriage before it’s too late?

Personal Review: This is a story being rereleased from the 90’s and it hasn’t aged well in my opinion. Richard “can’t control himself” at one point and boarder line rapes Bonny while he’s very drunk, and it is this session that gets Bonny pregnant after months of happy coupling earlier getting them no where in the baby department. So that’s a little off color to me. I’m not saying these books need to be happy and cheerful all the time, I just don’t prefer them to have the heroine cowed into performing in bed and then getting pregnant from it. 

If Bonny and Richard literally had one conversation about their feelings and their suspicions then there would be no conflict. I am a very blunt person so maybe I just have an inability to understand people like this but if you can’t talk to your spouse about your feelings then who can you talk to. In this story the answer is literally anyone else, even the household staff. 

Would I read something from this author again? Most likely, the writing was good, the characters were distinct, I just didn’t particularly like how this one played out and hope other works are different.

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Book Title: How to Train a Viscount (Wedding Trouble #4)

Author: Bianca Blythe

Pub Date: May 14, 2019

Where to buy: Amazon  

***ARC  was provided to me by Net Galley and the Publisher for a fair and honest review***

Overall rating: 2/5 While a readable story, it was not for me

Heroine (Lady Isla McIntyre): 2/5 Isla is a woman approaching spinsterhood after being jilted by her childhood friend. She understands the edicate of the ton and would like nothing more than to continue attending parties for the rest of her days. During the war she used her ability to mix at parties to be a proficient spy.

Hero (Adam, Lord Tremont): 1/5 Adam is a dreamy idealist who starts with the belief that aristocrats are so far above him. Until he is one of them and needs to start acting like it. He was an aid to a third son of a Lord and never saw himself as being able to meet a Viscount let alone be one.

Plot: 2/5 Adam was an aid to a third son who never dreamed to inherit and was working in the Cape Colony in Africa and when he does but suddenly dies it is Adam that goes to take up the mantel. It is either that or face the murderer. Once on English soil he makes arrangements to take the inheritance but will need lessons on how to act the part. Isla offers to train him in order to take her mind off her ex fiance who is in town with his wife. But Isla falls for Adam quickly and soon they are spending time together outside of their lessons. Will Adam fool everyone and get the girl?

Personal Review: Honestly everything seems to happen off page so I just couldn’t get into the story. The murder of Randall happens before Adam arrives, Adam’s lessons (and thus where chemistry should heat up) are off page, and all of Lady Isla’s career as a spy happens before we meet her.

We know Randall for less than two pages and are beaten over the head into understanding that he is not a good person and basically deserves his fate. This is so Adam is in no way a bad person for taking his identity. Adam can’t possibly be a morally grey character despite his morally grey actions.

Adam is the weakest male lead I’ve read in awhile. Things happen to him under the guise of him making decisions. He is forced to flee the country or die, he is forced to keep up his disguise because he is forced to accompany the ship captain to the Duke’s house, and he is forced to attend a party where he meets Isla. He is also very naive (which is understandable given he is basically culture shocked) and is very simplistic in his thoughts (yes I understand he didn’t attend school like a real heir). In some books of this genre it is the heroine that assumes these traits  

Why didn’t Callum or his brother or Isla’s brother talk to her, like at all since Callum broke the engagement? I’m sure there was a way to end the betrothal without hurting Isla’s prospects. They avoid her like the plague until she’s in a relationship with Adam and suddenly she’s just back in the group. It’s unsettling. That’s not how you treat family and the four of them grew up together.

Why didn’t Isla’s history as a spy be of use in the story? She could have figured out the bad guy was in one scene instead of being directly told he was there. Something like that.

There was a servant at the first party Adam goes to that is later fired for being skeptical of Adam. He meets him again a few scenes later and is again skeptical that Adam is the real Viscount. And then he is never mentioned again and the servant never openly accuses Adam of lying or cast doubt on him in any way. Why have this character at all?

Honestly I wanted to like this book, but it had too many things that pulled me out of the experience to find it enjoyable. I might try this author again later, but this book was not for me.