ONLY A PROMISE by Mary Balogh

PUBLISHER: Signet, 6/2015

GENRE: Fiction/Historical Romance

SETTING: England, Regency Period

MY GRADE: D

SYNOPSIS: Ralph Stockwood prides himself on being a leader, but when he convinced his friends to fight in the Napoleonic Wars, he never envisioned being the sole survivor. Racked with guilt over their deaths, Ralph must move on . . . and find a wife to secure an heir to his family's title and fortune. Since her Seasons in London ended in disaster, Chloe Muirhead is resigned to spinsterhood. Driven by the need to escape her family, she takes refuge at the home of her mother's godmother, where she meets Ralph. He needs a wife. She wants a husband. So Chloe makes the outrageous suggestion to strike a bargain and get married. One condition: Ralph has to promise that he will never take her back to London. But circumstances change. And to Ralph, it was only a promise.

MY THOUGHTS: This was an absolute bore and a real struggle to get through. Where was the plot? The conflict? Timeline is maybe a month or two and year isn't given. Chloe proposed marriage to Ralph, a stranger, less than fifty pages in because she's twenty-seven and scared of being single the rest of her life. Ralph married her so he could beget heirs. It's to be a marriage without love and affection and that's pretty much how it ends up.

Chloe has a married brother and sister and she lives with her father. Her mother died years before. She still has a broken heart from six years previous. She, and everyone else, suspects that a certain red-haired man is really her biological father so that plays out. I didn't care about it at all.

Twenty-six year old Ralph is dealing with depression which stems from being in the war years before and seeing three of his friends die right in front of him. He's got a long scar across one side of his face and some on his body from the war. He's had past suicidal thoughts and an attempt and was in a facility for it for three years, which ended four years before the story starts. He feels a lot of guilt for being the lone survivor from their group of friends. He's worried the parents of his dead friends hold him responsible for the deaths since he talked them into joining in the first place. He even cries once while thinking about their deaths. He's a bit cold toward Chloe, scared he'll develop feelings for her, which he doesn't want to happen, for some reason. His mother and two of his three sisters are rude to Chloe at first but they come around. 

Knowing of his past suicide attempt is the reason I wanted to read this since things like that, deep stuff, aren't common in historical romances. So I bought this even though the synopsis wasn't appealing. I wish I had left it alone. Ralph's past is the only interesting thing in this entire story. Chloe and Ralph are basically surface level friends after they marry yet they end up falling in love with each other, Ralph, right at the very end of the story, but each keeps it to themselves until the final pages. We're told they're in love but it wasn't felt by me. I like Ralph's character but Chloe was bland as could be.

MIDSUMMER MAGIC by Catherine Coulter

PUBLISHER: Onyx, 12/1987
GENRE: Historical Romance
SETTING: Scotland & England, 1810

SERIES: Magic trilogy, #1
MY GRADE: D

SYNOPSIS: Clever, beautiful Frances Kilbracken disguised herself as a mousy Scottish lass to keep Hawk, the notoriously rakish and dashing Earl of Rothermere, from being forced to marry her. But she was chosen as his bride for that very reason. Wedded, bedded, and finally deserted, Frances quickly shed her dowdy facade to become glittering London's most ravishing and fashionable leading lady...only to find she had roused the ire--and ignited the passions--of her faithless husband. But even as Hawk claimed rights to her body, Frances swore never to allow him to enter her heart. How could she trust this man who made women his playthings? yet how could she resist the burning kisses and soft caresses that plundered her yielding flesh...until they reached the deep core of her love...

    

MY THOUGHTS: This was beyond boring and it was a long 412 pages. There really wasn't much of a plotline. Frances, nineteen, didn't want to marry anyone, let alone move to England to marry Hawk, who's twenty-six. She's incredibly immature and not enjoyable to read about. I really came to dislike her. Some reviewers see her first time with Hawk (p 138) as rape but I don't. She made it clear that she didn't want to have sex but gave in when he told her to "just lie there." The third time Hawk wanted to have sex with her she hid in another room. Give me a break. She's always throwing fits, telling Hawk she "hates" him and I got tired of it. She even punched him in the stomach once, told him she wished his "toe would rot off" and wanted him to suffer a head injury. Hawk's not likable either. He's a pretty calm person, doesn't yell but he's always threatening violence towards her and that behavior doesn't really fit with what we see of him. They get along great one minute, start bickering the next for absolutely no reason. They're just really poorly written characters written into a poorly thought-out book.

There's a subplot involving horses and racing that nearly overtook the story. Something criminal is going on with the horses and that I did find interesting but you kind of know who's involved long before it's revealed at the very end but I didn't mind that. And I liked the revelation involving his deceased brother.

There was too much sex in here and the word "cream" (as lube) was mentioned 13 TIMES, three of which were on the same page. But I couldn't have cared less about it because the story was so boring and I didn't care about any of the characters.

THE DEVIL'S WEB by Mary Balogh

PUBLISHER: Signet, 8/1990
REISSUED: 2008
GENRE: Fiction/Historical Romance
SETTING: England, early 1800s
SERIES: Web, #3
AUTHOR SITE: link
MY GRADE: D

SYNOPSIS: The last time Madeline Raine had seen James Purnell, she had been but a chit of a girl, and at his mercy. Purnell had held her helpless in his arms, but protectively, above the abyss of her own dangerous hunger for him. He had left her then, not taking her innocence but taking her heart, as he vanished from England. Since then Madeline had reigned as society's most dazzling and heartless beauty, making all men pay for one man's rebuff of her.

Now James was back, more handsome and arrogant than ever. And Madeline steeled herself not to fall under his spell again. But she soon discovered that the melting power of passion ignited by love would not easily die...

MY THOUGHTS: After owning this book for twelve years I finally got around to reading it. The first half of this book was extremely boring. It involved so many characters, mostly relatives, parties, and conversations that had nothing to do with anything. That carried on throughout the book. It's truly at least 100 pages longer than it should have been and it was a real struggle to get though the first half. All the interesting things involving Madeline and James took place in the second half, so that made the story so much more tolerable.

James is thirty. He left England for Canada (where the author lives) four years previous. He works with fur traders. He sales home to England and brings along the daughter, Jean Cameron, of the man he works with. She ends up getting married to someone she meets there then disappears from the story. He's reacquainted with our heroine, twenty-five-year-old Madeline, which he met, to my understanding, in both previous book in this series. They have history together but we don't know about any of it.

James and his younger sister Alex grew up with very religious parents and weren't allowed to socialize much with other children. Alex is married to Madeline's twin brother, Dominic. Both of his parents are horrible and look down at James both for his career choice and for his past, which involved a girl they didn't approve of, Dora. That relationship has haunted him for ten years but he gets resolution after meeting up with her. Her brother, Carl Beasley, was a bad character who would have made one helluva villain.

He and Madeline are in love with each other but they don't know it. In love but can't stand one another. We aren't told why that is so it's very confusing. He's possessive and jealous because he knows how flirtatious she is. She's got a very smart mouth and is very immature and slightly antagonistic, even when he's being nice and trying hard to get along. Her attitude is common for heroines written at that time (1990) and before. We didn't get any background information on her at all or any about their history with each other from four years before.

Now about the "rape." There's a sex scene that happens after she tells him that if they have sex it will be rape, since she can't stand him. I've read that scene five times and don't see rape in it even though the hero admits to himself that it was rape. The heroine even thinks it was rape. Here are the pages for you to read that scene for yourself. In the last chapter, James realizes it wasn't rape and later in said chapter asks Madeline about it and she agrees that it wasn't. So why did they both say it was rape if an actual rape didn't happen? How could they have seen it that way? More importantly, why did the author write it that way?

This could have been a really good story if not for most of the first half and the excessive amount of characters in here, and the two weddings of secondary characters. No story needs three weddings in it. I love reading about tragic couples, which this one was, and I did enjoy most the second half. I probably only liked a total of 1/3 of the story. It's a shame it was bogged down with so much unnecessary dialogue.

The heroine's name, Madeline Raine, sounds like the 1986 Bruce Hornsby single Mandoline Rain. I wonder if that's a coincidence.

LORD OF SCOUNDRELS by Loretta Chase

PUBLISHER: Avon, 1/1995
GENRE: Historical Romance
MY GRADE: D

SYNOPSIS: Tough-minded Jessica Trent's sole intention is to free her nitwit brother from the destructive influence of Sebastian Ballister, the notorious Marquess of Dain. She never expects to desire the arrogant, amoral cad. And when Dain's reciprocal passion places them in a scandalously compromising, and public, position, Jessica is left with no choice but to seek satisfaction...

 Damn the minx for tempting him, kissing him... and then forcing him to salvage her reputation! Lord Dain can't wait to put the infuriating bluestocking in her place—and in some amorous position. And if that means marriage, so be it!—though Sebastian is less than certain he can continue to remain aloof... and steel his heart to the sensuous, headstrong lady's considerable charms.

MY THOUGHTS (from 2010): I didn’t care for this one bit and couldn’t stand the heroine. The hero was ordinary and didn't stand out in any way. I found it unbelievable that she openly discussed sex with her grandmother like she did and told Dain she was a virgin out-of-the-blue. They weren’t even having an intimate discussion at all or anything. Also, she’s too mouthy and aggressive. The more I read, the less I like her. About the part where she got angry when Dain called his mother a ‘whore’, that she would defend a woman who ran off and left her very young son says something about her. I’m not even sure Jessica knew about that at the time she defended her though. She’s supposedly so intelligent yet we haven’t seen any evidence of it.

The book was alright up until Jessica shot Dain for really no reason. And it got more absurd when Dain married her. He didn’t seem to give a crap that she shot him. Totally unbelievable to me. Makes absolutely no sense at all why the author put that in the book in the first place. Jessica isn’t even that likable. I like Dain but he seems like all the other heroes we read about.

If I'm remembering right, in anticipation of liking this I sent my copy to the author to autograph sometime between May 2008 when I got it, used, and before reading it in early 2010. Since I really disliked the book, I got rid of it. If I'm remembering right, the author kept mentioning Dain's 'big' nose.

THE ELUSIVE FLAME by Kathleen E. Woodiwiss

PUBLISHER: Avon, 10/1998
GENRE: Historical Romance
SETTING: England & USA, 1825
PURCHASE: link
MY GRADE: D

SYNOPSIS: Cerynise Kendall has been left destitute and in dire need following the death of her doting patron and protectress. A brilliant young artist tossed from her home with only the clothes on her back, Cerynise must now turn to a childhood companion for assistance - the dashing sea captain Beauregard Birmingham and beg him to provide her with passage to the Carolinas. She seeks a new home and a new life across the waters, but all depends upon the kindness of a charming adventurer who was once the object of her youthful infatuation. Beneath Birmingham′s rugged exterior beats a heart as large and wild as the Atlantic, and Beau readily agrees to aid Cerynise - even offering her his name in marriage, albeit temporarily, to protect his long time friend from scandal. But perilous secrets, determined enemies and tempests of the sea and soul threaten their future and safe passage even as bonds of camaraderie are miraculously reforged as bonds of desire ... and affection becomes passion and love.

MY THOUGHTS: Most of this was just awful. I liked the beginning and the last 50 pages or so. And it was 100 pages too long. This takes place in 1825 and spans about fourteen months. Cerynise is almost eighteen years old. She's American but has been living in England since both parents died five years earlier. Her guardian, Lydia, died and her nephew, Alistair, kicked Cerynise out of the house. He's a terrible person who's out to get money that doesn't belong to him and will travel to the ends of the earth to get it. He's a true villain and I like him.

Cerynise finds her way to where ships are docked and Beau takes her in. He's twenty-six and has known her all her life. This is where the story gets extremely boring. They travel back to South Carolina on his ship, 'Audacious.' They marry to keep Alistair from being her guardian, since she's underage, and for no reason really they don't get along during most of the three month voyage home. Nothing at all goes on except her sketching the crew members since she's a great artist. There's a bit of chemistry between Beau and Cerynise at this point and it does intensify as the story progresses. 

Once they're home, they go their separate ways for a short time then come together when Beau learns about something important involving Cerynise that happened on the ship while he was delirious from a fever. There's a section of about thirty-one pages where she meets Beau's entire family- mom, dad, brother, sisters, ect. and it just dragged on and on. The author clearly wanted to include characters from the two previous books in this series and I didn't appreciate it. It was pure filler material. During this time and toward the end of the story, bad things start happening to Cerynise and they have to find who's doing it. That part was very interesting but got to be too much at the very end, with too much happening all at once. There's a character named Germaine Hollingsworth, a woman who went to school with Cerynise who wants to marry Beau, and she's not happy to learn he married while in England. I like her character.

One thing that bothered me is that this book is too similar to the first in its series, The Flame and the Flower. Both heroines are the same age, down on their luck, end up at a dock, travel to America via ship, and once they're in America, someone's out to get the heroine, but this story was much more boring that the previous one.

BOUND BY THE HEART by Marsha Canham

PUBLISHER: Avon, 10/1984
GENRE: Fiction/Historical Romance
SETTING: Caribbean & Barbados, 1811/12
BODICE RIPPER? Yes, very mild
RAPE? Yes
PURCHASE: link
AUTHOR SITE: link
MY GRADE: D

SYNOPSIS: Rescued from the stormy waters of the Caribbean, Summer Cambridge, daughter of the British governor of Barbados faced a new threat aboard the American ship Chimera. Captain Morgan Wade, the notorious buccaneer, brazenly ordered the young beauty to his cabin to be held for his own pleasure! Summer fought him with the ferocity of a wildcat, but held by his insistent passion, she was swept by waves of desire she had never known, and was powerless to resist him. Even as she returned to Barbados and the marriage that had been arranged for her, she still trembled with memories of those days and nights of forbidden passions, and of the man whose love would forever hold her heart captive.

 I'm reviewing the out of print paperback from 1984, not the rewritten e-book, which has the rape scene removed. 

MY THOUGHTS: Summer is blond with gray-green eyes. Her age was never given so I'll assume she's in her early twenties. She's a typical, slightly boring heroine. Not very feisty like I prefer, especially in these older books.

The American hero, Morgan, is thirty-four years old and has long black hair and blue eyes. He buys cargo and guns legally then sells them to the French, then transports them to America. In typical bodice ripper fashion, he rapes Summer aboard his ship once or twice (page 35 of print book) and makes no apologies for it. That's pretty much where his abuse of her ends.

I liked her terrible husband Bennett Winfield. He lost interest in her right after they married. He suspected her of harboring feelings for Morgan and a secret, and forbade her ever seeing him again and threatened to ruin her and her family if she did. He's shown violence towards her too. I like him much more than I do Morgan.

The story spans about a little over a year, beginning in June 1811. This just wasn't a good story at all. It fits my criteria of a mild bodice ripper; it had the typical arrogant hero, rape, a decent amount of time apart from each other (over a year), and evil secondary characters and lots of action involving ships.

Morgan's slightly younger half brother, Stuart Roarke was just pointless in this story.

I liked the first 119 pages when Summer and her ten year old brother Michael were on Morgan's ship then island, Bounty Key, but once she returned home about a third of the way into the story, boring throughout the rest of the novel. The last fifty pages or so was nothing but one ship fighting against another and I truly forced myself to finish the book. It majority was so uninteresting to me. I really feel like this historical romance turned into purely historical fiction. The only good thing I can say about this is that I love the cover.

SIMPLY VORACIOUS by Kate Pearce

PUBLISHER: Aphrodisia
SERIES: House of Pleasure, #8
GENRE: Historical Erotic Romance
SETTING: England, 1826
MY GRADE: D

SYNOPSIS: Lucinda Haymore is still reeling from the cruel betrayal of a vile seducer. Softly, irresistibly, his profession of love disguised his truer, baser intentions. With the knowledge that her reputation is at stake, she is happy to accept a proposal of marriage in name only from her best friend since childhood... While Paul St. Clare has no interest in consummating his marriage with Lucinda, he has every intention of allowing her to enjoy true physical ecstasy in the hands of another. It's no surprise that he finds an agent more than willing to accommodate his needs in the House of Pleasure. What he doesn't expect is how perfectly the arrangement satisfies everyone's desires...

MY THOUGHTS: Another bad novel with little to no background information on lead characters. I don't know anything at all about Lucinda's (aka Lucky) background/childhood, or how long she's been good friends with Paul. I don't even know how old Paul is. I was assuming he was around her age but since he fought in a 'long, bloody war', I'm guessing he's a bit older than her twenty-one. 

Something bad happened to Lucky so she was eager to marry Paul. She claimed she's always loved him but I never felt any love between those two or for the love she and Con claim to feel for each other. I did feel love between Paul and ex-lover Constantine (aka Con) Delinsky and was sad that they couldn't be together in the traditional sense. They say they're still in love with each other.

Con is from Russia, and is thirty-four, tall, and has white hair and silver eyes. I wanted to know how long Con and Paul have known each other but never got any information on it.

Paul, well, all I know about him is that he's blond and brown-eyed, has a slight frame, and was in the army. That's it.

Lucky puzzles me. She knows Paul loves Con so she wants them to continue to see each other. She thinks Paul 'gave up everything' to be with her but what, exactly, has he given up besides lovers? If anything he's gaining her fortune. She also wants to make Paul jealous so she flirts with Con. She thinks that Paul's jealousy will make him want to take Con back as a lover. What?! That makes no sense at all. I don't find her encouragement of Paul and Con's relationship to be the slightest bit believable. Not at the beginning of their marriage, anyway. I can see her, at a much later date, wanting them to resume their sexual relationship and include her in it, but not at the beginning. I don't even know if she knew Paul was bisexual and leaned more towards men.

Toward the end of the story there was a whole lot of uninteresting drama involving Con and whether or not his wife was still alive. I really didn't care a thing about it.

There are ten sex scenes in the book. Four are just between Con and Paul, five are between Lucky and Paul, and one is a threesome between Paul, Lucky, and Con. All are very graphic so two thumbs up to them. Two thumbs down to the storyline.

I received this from the publisher in 2015 in exchange for an honest review.

SIMPLY SHAMELESS by Kate Pearce

PUBLISHER: Aphrodisia, 2009
GENRE: Historical Erotic Romance
SETTING: England, 1819
SERIES: House of Pleasure, #3
AUTHOR SITE: link
MY GRADE: D

SYNOPSIS: One forbidden weekend years ago, Helene Delornay found herself stranded with a total stranger. Bold, virile, and well-schooled in the erotic arts, Philip Ross opened Helene's eyes to a world of sexual delight she never knew existed. Now proprietress of London's most exclusive house of pleasure, Helene never forgot the carnal bliss she shared with Philip—and she never found another man who could satisfy the insatiable cravings he awakened within her... When Philip suddenly returns to Helene's life, the physical attraction they share is far too strong for either to deny. Now as they explore their fantasies and take them beyond the limit, Helene discovers that her feelings for Philip run far deeper than that of just a lover...

MY THOUGHTS: This was awful. Nothing at all made sense to me. Helene is French and blonde with blue eyes. When she was a teen her family was captured during the French Revolution. In order for her life to be spared, she had to become a prostitute and service the soldiers. She was not quite fourteen and had a daughter, Marguerite, the following year.

Eighteen years after the prologue she's thirty-six and co-owns a 'pleasure house' with two male ex-prisoners of war that she helped escape when she was a teen. Members pay a yearly fee to have sex there with other members.

She's the mother of a twenty-one year old daughter and mother of eighteen-year old twins, Lisette and Christian. She's a terrible mother. When the twins were one, all the children were sent away to school in Normandy. She lied to them about her occupation and never even gave them her address! I don't think they ever visited her. She seems uncaring and doesn't understand why the twins don't seem to like her, especially Christian.

Philip is someone she'd met eighteen years before, right before she became involved with the pleasure house. They'd only known each other for one sex-filled weekend. He's around forty now, has blond hair and brown-hazel eyes. He's got a nasty attitude and is uptight. Coincidentally he came back into her life. They both said, at different times, that she 'left him' eighteen years before, as if they'd been in a relationship with each other. That comment is so puzzling to me.

There was an unbelievably outrageous sexual incident that happened between Philip, his wife, and her lover years before that had me rolling my eyes, is was that ridiculous. She died after years of declining health but we were never told what was ailing her. Their marriage was a sham and the story behind it was ridiculous and not at all believable.

One thing I didn't understand and found annoying was when her oldest daughter got married without telling her, Helene hired people to track her down. I don't know why the daughter was even brought into the story or why what went down with her husband happened at all. Both were useless characters that didn't do anything for the story.

George, one of Helene's business partners, is obsessed with marrying her, even though he's already married. It was discovered by Philip, who now co-owns the place too, that George has been stealing money from the business. When Helene finds out about it she's not mad and offers to help him out financially!

I really don't have anything positive to say about this book other than the sex scenes were explicit, just how I like them, and there were at least six of them, two of which involved Philip and a man named Adam, which I liked best. The characters were emotionless, except for Christian, and the whole novel just didn't make sense.

I received this from the publisher in 2015 in exchange for an honest review.

ABDUCTED BY A PRINCE by Olivia Drake (Barbara Dawson Smith)

PUBLISHER: St. Martin's, 4/29/2014
GENRE: Historical Romance
SETTING: England & Scotland, 1800's (I guess)
SERIES: Cinderella Sisterhood, #3
AUTHOR SITE: link
PURCHASE: link
MY GRADE: D

SYNOPSIS: Ellie Stratham gave up her childhood dreams of a fairy tale romance long ago. To repay her late father’s debts, she’s forced to serve her spoiled cousin, Lady Beatrice. But Ellie has devised a secret plan to escape her life as a drudge. A plan that is thrown into jeopardy when she’s abducted by a mysterious stranger. A notorious seducer of women—and a scoundrel to boot—Damien Burke has earned his nickname as the Demon Prince. But his plot to kidnap Lady Beatrice to make her brother return a priceless heirloom backfires—and he ends up with their penniless cousin, Ellie, as his hostage. By the time Damien realizes his mistake, he and his fiery-willed captive are trapped in a remote castle during a wild winter storm. And he soon finds that the true hostage may be his own heart.

MY THOUGHTS: Oh, dear. Another terrible one and another one where the year isn't given. The heroine, twenty-six year old auburn-haired Ellie lives with her awful aunt, uncle, two cousin, and Lady Anne, a nonrelative who's very nice to her and is the only nonservant in the house who cares about her. Ellie's parents died separately when she was six and fourteen and she had no choice but to live with them. She's secretly writing a 'storybook'.

Twenty-eight year old black-haired, green-eyed Damien has been given the ridiculous nickname of The Demon Prince when there's nothing demon-like about him and he's not a 'notorious seducer of women' either. He's your regular, run of the mill self-made hero who grew up poor and has become wealthy. He's widowed with a young daughter, Lily. He never knew who his biological parents were but that changes for him near the end of the story.

My favorite theme of all is abduction of the heroine by hero, or someone sent in his place to do it. That's why I was excited to read this. Aside from the abduction itself this was pretty uneventful until the laughable bit of stuff near the end regarding his paternity. I liked the story until her abduction and my opinion of the book went downhill fast after that. She was obviously angry with him at first for abducting her but soon became resigned to her fate. He treated her well and they became friendly with each other, then turned into lovers. And that's about it. I understand why they married but damn, why'd they have to get married just a few weeks in? I think the story only spans 2-4 weeks. Both characters were likeable but my mind tuned out when they became friends and the storyline disappeared. It became endless pages of her working on her storybook.

I received this from the publisher in 2014 in exchange for an honest review. 

AFTER THE SCANDAL by Elizabeth Essex

PUBLISHER: St. Martin's, 3/25/2014
GENRE: Historical Romance
SETTING: England, 1800's (?)
SERIES: The Reckless Brides, #4
AUTHOR SITE: link
PURCHASE: link
MY GRADE: D

SYNOPSIS: When Lady Claire Jellicoe agreed to a walk in the moonlight, she never imagined her titled companion might have brutal motives. Nor could she have dreamed up such a brave rescue by the most unexpected savior of all: an inscrutable nobleman with a daring plan of escape—and a deliciously tempting embrace… Timothy 'Tanner' Evans, the Duke of Fenmore, has palmed more treasures than he can count. Even for a man who grew up thieving in London’s stews, a stolen bride should be beyond the pale. But Fenmore won’t let scandal ruin the spirited beauty’s reputation. And now that she’s stolen his heart, how can he ever let her go…?

MY THOUGHTS/SPOILERS: Not good, folks. The beautiful cover is the only good part. This story is a murder mystery with an unbelievable romance complete with the proverbial happily-ever-after thrown in because this is, after all, a romance. The entire story spans one day and they were 'in love' about 17 hours after meeting outside of a ball that was held at Tanner's grandmother's house.

Twenty-eight year old Tanner has 'loved' nineteen-year old Claire for several years, since she was seventeen. He's a bit of a stalker and was stalking Claire as she left the ball with known serial rapist, Lord Peter Rosing. They went outside and Rosing attempted to rape her from behind up against the boat house. Tanner foiled his attempt, beat him up, and the two of them made off in a boat to escape. Tanner lied about hearing people coming so that she'd go away with him. He purposely lied so he could take her out on the boat, unchaperoned, so that she'd be compromised and there'd be a scandal and he'd get to marry her. Well, he got his wish. That alone tells you he's no good. Not to mention that he once saw Rosing raping someone and didn't do anything about it. What a man, right? That was told near the end of the story and I honestly almost stopped reading.

The rest of the story is ridiculous. While in the boat they find a dead body in the river and the hunt is on to find her killer. The entire story is about that. They chit-chat as if there isn't a dead body in the boat with them and it's pure nonsense! Claire goes off with him, alone, for almost a full day to help him search. Respectable ladies do not go off with men, period, so it makes no sense for her to have done so.

This book was so disappointing. The one you'd suspect as being the killer is involved with her murder so there's no mystery, really, since he was the obvious suspect from the get go. So in that regard, I was sorely disappointed. Why make it so damn obvious? The way they went about getting the confession is laughable. That doesn't happen in real life. This novel was a travesty.

I received this from the publisher in 2014 in exchange for an honest review. 

DEVIL'S DESIRE by Laurie McBain

PUBLISHER: Avon, 1975
REISSUED: Sourcebooks, 11/2010
GENRE: Historical Romance
SETTING: England
AUTHOR IMAGE: link
MY GRADE: D

SYNOPSIS: Women mean but one thing to Lord Alex Trevegne, whose jet black hair, golden gypsy eyes, and arrogant ways have earned him the name "Devil," until circumstances -and passion-conspire to bind him to the beautiful Lady Elysia Demarice. Fleeing the brutality of an aging and spiteful aunt, Elysia encounters Alex at an inn. When the two are discovered in a compromising situation by a guest with a grudge against the "Devil," they are forced to marry. Alex is determined to leave his bride and their marriage of "inconvenience" behind at his isolated estate in Cornwall but soon discovers the innocent Elysia awakens emotions he believed himself incapable of feeling. In a rousing, unforgettable saga that sweeps across the valleys and peaks of human destiny, the stormy alliance of beautiful young Elysia and Alex plumbs the depths of raw human emotion -- lust, jealousy and hate -- for though Alex has married Elysia, he cannot possess her in flesh or spirit. Out of the turbulence of their clashing wills comes one of the greatest love stories ever written, as their twin passions mingle at last, in a rippling tide of liquid fire!

SPOILER REVIEW: This was awful. I don't know what year this story took place or how old Alex and Elysia are. I'm going to assume this was the 1800's, possibly 1700's. Elysia's parents and brother died two years before and she's been living with her abusive and mentally ill aunt since. Her aunt is her mother's step-sister and she's extremely jealous of her, has been since they were little. After being locked into her bedroom, Elysia can't take it anymore and runs away by jumping out the window. She ends up at an inn called Wayfare's Rest and that's where she meets Alex. We never hear from Aunt Agatha again.

There's a villain, Jason Bellingham, who's out to get Alex. He hates him for not allowing him to marry his ward, Catherine, but Jason doesn't let his hatred for Alex show. They're at the inn together and Jason comes up with a plan to drug both Alex and Elysia so he can put them in bed together so Alex will have to marry her due to a presumed scandal. His plan worked but also backfired on him, as Alex and Elysia were fine with marrying each other. That part bugged me greatly. Neither of them were angry about what happened. The marriage happened too early on in the story, about a third of the way. They married and got along for awhile then Alex turned into a jealous, abusive ass. He once grabbed her by the arm and later shook her by both arms two different times and told her he'd hit her in the face if he wasn't a 'gentleman'. It was said too many times that he had 'hawk-like features'.

The story got worse. Another crazy nut, Mrs. Blackmore, was out to kill Elysia and tried to twice. She's jealous because her teen daughter, Louisa, can't marry Alex because he's now married to Elysia. While laying there injured in the woods, her 'dead' bother Ian showed up after being presumed dead for two years. Adding him to the story was so unnecessary. All it did was add a bunch of BS to a story that wasn't good anyway. Adding Alex's brother Peter to the story was a waste too. There were too many jealous, mentally unstable people in this book; Abusive aunt Agatha, Jason, Mrs. Blackstone, and Alex's ex-mistress, Mariana Woodley. I was enjoying the story until Alex and Elysia were OK with getting married. The only parts l liked were those involving Jason. I'd hoped he would be out to sabotage their marriage but it wasn't to be. He did his evil deed and was done away with. He could have gotten together with Alex's ex-mistress and done some real damage.

 I absolutely hate the new cover. Elysia's supposed to have red-gold hair, not auburn. On the original cover her hair color is right but it's not curly like stated in the book.

THE SOLDIER by Grace Burrowes

PUBLISHER: Sourcebooks, 6/2011
SETTING: England
HERO: Devlin St. Just
HEROINE: Emmaline Farnum
MY GRADE: D

SYNOPSIS: Devlin St. Just has tried everything to escape his demons. But his responsibilities are multiplying and his despair deepening, until beautiful, enigmatic neighbor Emmaline Farnum steps in...

Devlin's torn spirit calls to Emmaline, but even as she gives in to his irresistible caresses and her own growing desires, she's keeping a devastating secret...

Protecting Emmaline becomes Devlin's urgent mission, if only he can overcome the forces that are driving them irretrievably apart...

MY THOUGHTS: I didn't enjoy this story from the start. Hero and heroine met way too soon and acted too familiar with each other, as if they'd known each other for years. We didn't get to know them at all beforehand. Both were very likeable and there was chemistry between them from the beginning.

What I didn't like most of all was the character, Winnie. She's a small child, cousin to Emmaline, and is related to Devlin by marriage somehow. She's introduced just a few pages in and dominates the entire storyline. There's hardly a page she's not on in some way, either speaking herself or hero and heroine are speaking about her. I feel her dialogue is much more mature than a real five or six year old would ever speak. She sounds just like an adult most of the time. I also had trouble believing that a grown man of thirty-one would allow a child he's just met, who already has a home, move in with him the night they meet.

The rest of the novel is bland and uninteresting to me. If Winnie hadn't dominated the story, I might have liked it, but who can say? I won't be trying this author again.

I received this from the publisher in 2011 in exchange for an honest review.

MIDNIGHT'S WILD PASSION by Anna Campbell

PUBLISHER: Avon, April 2011
SETTING: England, 1827
HEROINE: Antonia Smith, 27
HERO: Nicholas Challoner, 31
TIMESPAN: 8 months
MY GRADE: D

SYNOPSIS: London's most notorious seducer, Nicholas Challoner lives solely for revenge . . .

The dashing, licentious Marquess of Ranelaw can never forgive Godfrey Demarest for ruining his sister—now the time has come to repay the villain in the same coin. But one formidably intriguing impediment stands in the way of Nicholas's vengeance: Miss Antonia Smith, companion to his foe's unsuspecting daughter.

Having herself been deceived and disgraced by a rogue—banished by her privileged family as a result and forced to live a lie—Antonia vows to protect her charge from the same cruel fate. She recognizes Ranelaw for the shameless blackguard he is and will devote every ounce of her intelligence and resolve to thwarting him.

Yet Antonia has always had a fatal weakness for rakes . . .

MY THOUGHTS: I didn't care for this novel at all. I thought it was very silly and pointless. I didn't really care for either the hero or heroine. The hero wanting to 'ruin' someone the heroine was looking after was lame and not much was done with that element. From my point of view, the very thin storyline was really just the hero and heroine having a sexual relationship with each other from very early on. There were a few good sex scenes but I pretty much skimmed them because I couldn't make myself become interested in it. From very early on I could see the story was going nowhere so I had to do a little bit of skimming. Bottom line: skip this one. It was so bad and I'm actually angry that I wasted time on it.

I received this from the publisher in 2011 in exchange for an honest review.

THE VALCOURT HEIRESS by Catherine Coulter

PUBLISHER: G.P. Putnam Sons, 10/2010
GENRE: Fiction/Historical Romance
SETTING: England, 1278
PURCHASE: link
MY GRADE: D

SYNOPSIS: Twenty-four year old Lord Garron of Kersey is on his way home to succeed his late brother, Arthur, as the Earl of Wareham. But on arrival, Garron discovers his home, Wareham Castle, has been nearly destroyed by The Black Demon and his band of bad bad soldiers looking for Arthur's cache of silver coins which remain hidden. The handful of servants who've survived includes a young girl named Merry, supposedly the castle priest's bastard, who is as clever and enterprising as Garron.

Garron is told this Black Demon destroyed Wareham because no one would tell him where Arthur had hidden stolen silver coins. Equally puzzling is the too-smart bastard Merry -- as well bred, literate and brave as any man he's ever known. Indeed, she galvanizes his people to action before he can even ask her assistance. She's a natural leader and a skilled healer, but Merry has secrets of her own...secrets that could endanger Garron and his people. He knows she's hiding something, knows she could bring more bad things down on his head, but he likes her and her fast mind and her ready wit. But can he survive the truth?

MY THOUGHTS: The heroine is blue eyed, red haired, 18 year old Marianna 'Merry' de Lucede Mornay. The hero is Lord Garron of Kersey. He has black hair and blue eyes. The whole plot of this book is Garron trying to get his brothers silver coins back.

This book was terrible. There was some magic running throughout it that I didn't care for, as I'm not a fan of the paranormal. None of the characters were interesting. Merry's mother is a terrible person. Basically, she was trying to sell Merry to someone she didn't want to marry in exchange for the silver coins that were stolen. She needed the money to buy more things to create spells with. Toward the end there was some silly stuff involving a secret sibling thrown in. Pointless. I never saw any love between hero and heroine either.

I received this from someone online in 2011 in exchange for an honest review.

RUTHLESS by Anne Stuart

PUBLISHER: Mira, 2010
GENRE: Historical romance
MY GRADE: D

SYNOPSIS: Few outsiders will ever witness the dark misdeeds of the Heavenly Host. And among this secret society, where exiled Georgian aristocrats gather to indulge their carnal desires, fewer still can match the insatiable appetite of their chief provocateur, the mysterious Viscount Rohan. Pursuit of physical pleasure is both his preferred pastime and his most pressing urge, until he encounters the fascination of a woman who won't be swayed. And while his dark seduction appalls the pure and impoverished Elinor Harriman, she finds herself intrigued...and secretly drawn to the man behind the desire.

MY THOUGHTS: The heroine is Elinor Harriman, 23, English, and has brown hair and brown eyes. The hero is 39 year old Francis Rohan, English, with brown hair and blue eyes. He’s been living in France for 22 years. Elinor lives with her dying mother and younger sister, 17 year old Lydia and their two servants. They’re dirt poor.  This book was so boring and that’s the truth. I was so excited to read it but it didn’t live up to my expectations at all. I liked the hero and heroine OK but I didn’t like Elinor’s sister Lydia at all. We had to hear about how beautiful and pretty she was throughout the entire novel. I didn’t like that she and Charles got married when they didn’t really know each other at all. I don’t know where that relationship came from or why it was even in the book. I didn’t like that Francis was so obsessed with Elinor. It made no sense to me. The one thing that I did like about this was the big 16 year age gap between the hero and heroine. Authors just don’t do that anymore. Usually there’s just a few years difference in age between them.

KISMET by Monica Burns

PUBLISHER: Berkley, 2010
GENRE: Historical romance
MY GRADE: D

SYNOPSIS: Raised in a brothel, Allegra Synnford quickly learned that survival meant taking charge of her destiny. Now, as a renowned courtesan skilled in the pleasures of the flesh, she vows she will never be vulnerable to any one man... Sheikh Shaheen of the Amazigh has been hiding from his past for a long time, but not enough to forget how another courtesan made him abandon his life as the Viscount Newcastle. When Allegra ignites his desire, his need threatens to undermine his cover. With old enemies circling, experience tells him he must resist her charms at all costs. But Allegra has her own game to play...with a man who can't afford to lose.

SPOILER SUMMARY: The story takes place in Morocco and England in 1893 and spans three months. The heroine is Allegra, 30ish with dark red hair and green eyes. She ends up getting abducted. The hero, Shaheen, aka Robert Camden, Viscount of Newcastle, who's got dark hair and brown eyes, goes to find her and buys her from her kidnapper. The rest of the entire novel, to me, is just very boring. There's some serious drama involving Allegra and a whipping. I didn't paticularly like either one of them. After they're back in England towards the end, Shaheen goes to Allegra's home and confesses his love to her. She tells him she feels the same way but it just doesn't seem believeable to me. Then he asks her to marry him and she tells him she's pregnant. That's how the story ends.

MY THOUGHTS: This is another newer romance book where I've found myself not really caring about either the heroine or hero. Both are wounded; the heroine was sold into prostitution by her own mother, the hero witnessed the suicide of his brother James years before. The suicide was the only interesting part of the story and I wish it hadn't taken place in the past. I found this story completely uninteresting and unromantic. I never warmed up to it or the setting. I feel as though both the hero and heroine's characters were underdeveloped, especially Allegra's. We know next to nothing about her. I've wanted to read this since I'd heard about it earlier this year when there were a few blogs that were having contests for it. I feel the overly-bright, old school book cover doesn't fit the story one bit. I was totally unsatisfied with this story.

I received this from the publisher in 2010 in exchange for an honest review.

TASTE OF TEMPTATION by Cheryl Holt

PUBLISHER: Berkley, 6/2010
GENRE: Historical romance
MY GRADE: D

SYNOPSIS: Helen Hamilton is a twenty-five-year-old spinster with no income and no prospects who struggles to care for her two orphaned sisters. Destitute and only a heartbeat away from the streets, Helen applies for a position as a governess to the younger siblings of Captain Tristan Odell, the oldest and illegitimate son of notorious philanderer the Earl of Hastings. But when Tristan turns Helen away, her future seems as desperate as her options. Determined to do whatever it takes to support her sisters, Helen ends up at a brothel, where she agrees to sell herself as a mistress to a client of wealth and prestige. She even drinks a potion to make men desire her -- and is shocked when the man who buys her is none other than Tristan. He too is shocked -- and aroused by the possibilities. He hires Helen, but offers her more than a position as governess. Enmeshed in an affair of unrestrained desire, their passion quickly grows, as does an unexpected danger that could soon destroy them both...

SPOILER SUMMARY: The story takes place in London, England in 1814. The hero is 30 year old Captain Tristan Odell, Earl of Hastings, who has dark hair. The heroine is 24 year old Helen Hamilton, who has auburn hair and green eyes. She supports her two younger sisters, 12 year old Ameila and 18 year old Jane. Tristan lives with his younger, legitimate 18 year old brother, Michael, who is heir to the estate. Michael is tall, blond and blue-eyed. He, Tristan and younger sister Rose have the same father. Helen applies for a job as governess to Tristan's 12 year old sister, Rose. She's not given the job at first but later is hired. Helen's two sisters move in Tristan's home. Jane begins a sexual relationship with Michael and Helen and Tristan begin one. Not much goes on in this book. Lydia is a house maid who likes Michael. She discovers he's got a relationship going on with Jane and becomes very jealous. She tells on them and Jane, Helen and Amelia get thrown out of the house. They're to live somewhere else until they know if Jane is pregnant by Michael. The book was so uninteresting to me that I won't go into details. It's stated many times throughout the story that Helen is 24 years old yet the synopsis says she's 25.

MY THOUGHTS: What ties each book in this series together is the man who sells the love potions and his sister. They're in this book much more than in the previous one. This book is too similar to the previous one and just as terrible. Both feature a poor hero or heroine who goes to live with a wealthier person and brings others with them. Both books are two 'love' stories in one. Both books have a jealous female who's out to get revenge on the heroine simply because they're jealous of the heroes affection for them. Both sets of hero and heroine get their unbelievable happily-ever-after at the end. I've decided that I won't be reading any future books by this author. I do have most of her other ones and it'll be interesting to see how her first two historicals, which were published ten years ago, compare to this series. Something tells me they'll be better.

I received this from the publisher in 2010 in exchange for an honest review.