Scandal in the Spring

Wallflowers Series - Book 4

Author: Lisa Kleypas


Daisy Bowman is a dreamer. She knows she's the odd one in the family, everyone else is so practical and driven while she's content to watch clouds and pick out the shapes she sees in them. She loves whimsical things and and fantastical novels. When her father brought her and her sister, Lillian, to England to find aristocratic husbands, Daisy wasn't overly concerned. So long as she wasn't separated from her sister, she didn't much mind it. Though she did wish she might find a gentleman who was a bit of a dreamer too, someone who would understand her a little, but as the season draws to a close with no real prospective husband on the horizon, her father begins to become impatient to return to his business in America and begins to chafe at all the money wasted on an investment that doesn't look to make a return. He gives Daisy an ultimatum. Find a husband by the end of the month or marry his protege, Mr. Matthew Swift. There is no one Daisy would rather marry less than a cold-blooded business man who is an exact replica of her father. Much less one that will see her back in America, an entire ocean away from her sister. With the help of her sister, the rest of the Wallflowers and their husbands, she hopes they can save her from Mr. Swift. Even if he is looking a great deal more attractive than she remembers.

Matthew Swift isn't the man everyone thinks he is. He is a man with secrets. One of those secrets is the fact that he has been in love with Daisy Bowman from the moment he first set eyes on her, but his other secrets make any life with Daisy impossible. From the time he was an adolescent, and Mr. Bowman all but adopted him, he's looked up to the man and striven to be a successful business man like him. He knows that none of the Bowman's children like him, Daisy maybe least of all. She thinks him a carbon copy of her father, who disapproves of her fanciful nature, but the truth is that Matthew loves every quirky thing about her. When Mr. Bowman summons him to England for business he knows it will be hard for him seeing Daisy after all this time and doubtless surrounded by suitors, but she'll marry some aristocrat and he'll go back to America where he won't have to see her with another man. All he has to do is keep his feelings in check and hidden from everyone, shouldn't be too hard, he's been doing it for years. He just didn't bargain on how hard it would be watch another man court her or that Daisy might begin seeing him in a different light altogether. How can he resist the girl of his dreams? And resist he must because the secrets of his past are finally catching up to him.



Matthew's secret was pretty darn major. I thought that the untangling of it was kind of brief. I was kind of surprised that Mr. Bowman and his wife reacted the way they did to learning about his secret. Much cooler than I thought them capable of being. I could understand why Matthew thought that there was no future for him with Daisy, but I think that he just wasn't thinking it through enough. If he hadn't slipped up with his dad then he would have been perfectly safe to start a life in England, farther from the man who was looking for him and, since he did not know that his father had told where to find him, it would have been perfectly understandable for him to seriously consider it. I wish he would have told Daisy himself instead of having her find out the way she did. I found it annoying that Daisy never thought to give Matthew the time of day until he showed up in England looking all fit and attractive. By her own admission, she was never nice to him and yet when she sees him again, she is instantly attracted to him and agitated at the thought that he isn't interested in her. To me it makes her seem a bit petty and shallow. She never tried to get to know him when he was a bit gawky, but she disliked him anyway.

The Devil in Winter

Wallflowers Series - Book 3

Author: Lisa Kleypas


Evangeline Jenner is the daughter of Ivo Jenner, former boxer and proprietor of a gaming hell called Jenner's. Her mother was from an upper class family, but met Jenner after a near miss accident involving her family's coach. She ran away with him and eloped. She went to her family before her daughter was born and dies during childbirth. Thought Evie was allowed to visit her father, she was raised by her mother's family. They treated her terribly and were not above beating or starving her to bend her to their will. She's always believed that marriage was her only way out of her terrible situation, but she's got so much working against her, chiefly the fact that her shyness causes her to stammer when speaking. Usually the more attractive the gentleman trying to talk to he is, the worse she stutters. She knows her odds are slim at best, but maybe with the help of her fellow Wallflowers, she might find a kind gentleman to marry. Then she finds out that her father, whom she hasn't been allowed to see in months, is at death's door and that her relatives plan to marry her off to a cousin so that they can keep her father's money. She also suspects they may kill her shortly after getting the money. She desperately needs a husband and there is only on man whom she knows who needs a rich wife just as desperately.


Sebastian, Viscount St. Vincent, has made women and the pursuit of pleasure his life's work, unfortunately for him, it isn't the sort of work that pays well. His father has squandered away the family fortune and St. Vincent needs to marry an heiress before his creditors come calling. A task he's made harder on himself by attempting to kidnap and force a marriage on Lillian Bowman, an heiress, a Wallflower, and the Duke of Westcliff's fiance. All he managed to get out of the deal was a severe beating and the loss of his best friend, the a fore mentioned Duke of Westcliff. When the stuttering, red-headed Wallfloer, Evie Jenner, showed up on his doorstep, all he felt was annoyance. When she proposed that they elope immediately, he was definitely suspicious, but a man in his position could hardly afford to pass up such an opportunity. They agree that Evie shall have a portion of the money for herself and they'll live separate lives, but once St. Vincent gets a look at Jenner's club, he starts to see an entirely new future opening before him ... a future that just might include such foreign concepts as fidelity and love.


Some of you may recognize Ivo Jenner as Derek Craven's nemesis in Dreaming of You. I always love it when author's do things like this, bring secondary characters from other books/series in to newer. It makes you feel more realistic. I mean, you've got all these character's living in certain areas, it's likely they're crossed paths, especially when you're talking about the aristocracy and upper classes. They tended to travel in the same circles. I'm not sure how I felt about St. Vincent, especially after the doings in the previous book, It Happened One Autumn. I was glad to know that he never would have made good his threat to rape Lillian, but he still shackled her to a bed and threatened to rape her. Yes, Westcliff's mother probably would have had Lillian killed if St. Vincent hadn't agreed to take her, but he could have easily taken her to a safe place and let Westcliff know what was going on. If he'd thought it through, even for a moment, he would have seen how impossible the whole scheme was. He started out being rather prick-ish to Evie, which was at times incongruous with the kindnesses he showed her, but for someone who is supposed to be a hardened libertine, he changes course rather suddenly. With most characters like St. Vincent when we see a change it's because they've become weary of their life style or something drastic has happened o cause them to rethink they're whole way of life. These things happen with St. Vincent, but neither of them seems big enough to cause such a change, and certainly not as suddenly as it did. I think I needed more of a redemption for him than I got. Eve was great. I like how she didn't do what most heroines do an give in to lust and sleep with St. Vincent regardless of her concerns. Sometimes I get so tired of the heroine who knows the guy is bad news and has decided that sleeping with him is a bad thing, yet the moment the hero comes within arms reach her clothes fall off and her legs flop open like she's some mindless blow-up doll. Evie wanted him and loved him, but she stuck to her guns until she felt it was right to sleep with him.

It Happened One Autumn

Wallflowers Series - Book 2

Author: Lisa Kleypas


Lillian Bowman is the daughter of a rich American industrialist who's trying to buy his way in to the upper class by offering a sizable dowry to any man of suitable pedigree who's willing to marry his daughters. A fact so well known that in New York, where the girls are from, that they've coined the phrase "Marry Lillian and get a million". Now the girls are in England and they've got a season to find aristocratic husbands. Their father is doing business with the Earl of Westcliff and they're spending a month at his country estate. Lillian would be perfectly happy to enjoy the beautiful estate if it weren't for the arrogant, uptight earl who disapproves of just about everything she does. When he isn't mauling her, that is.


Lord Marcus Westcliff, Earl of Westcliff, is very interested in machinery and believes that industry is the future. Unlike his peers, who are desperately trying to hold on to their "superiority", Westcliff embraces industry and fosters it whenever possible. It is this that brings him in contact with Mr. Thomas Bowman, a soap magnate, father to Lillian and Daisy Bowman. He wishes to talk Mr. Bowman in to opening a branch of his business in England. Marcus could only wish that dealing with Mr. Bowman did not entail having to deal with Lillian Bowman. He finds Lillian to be arrogant, domineering, manipulative, and prone to inappropriate behavior. In other words, a complete hellion! There is nothing at all to recommend her. Why then has he suddenly been struck by this inability to keep his hands off of her?



I don't know how I felt about this perfume thing and how Westcliff disliked her intensely one moment and then was all over her the next. Only to retreat then maul her again. I understand that Westcliff's dad was an abusive jerk who tried to beat any sign of weakness or emotion out of him as a boy, but he seemed to be pretty self-aware, except apparently when it came to Lillian and what he wanted from her. That seen where he comments that a man who has sex more than once a week has too much time on his hands in a room with two recently married men and a complete libertine is just so funny to me. I liked that Lillian was of stronger character even though she did occasionally fall in to the trap of making stupid choices just to prove she was capable. Only one of those moments, the one with the horse riding, made me think she was pulling a TSTL. I'll admit that the whole thing with St. Vincent was a shocker. Did not see it coming! I know it was mentioned repeatedly that he was completely lacking in morals and untrustworthy, often by St. Vincent himself, but I still did not expect it to go the way it did. They mentioned the time he stole a woman from Westcliff, but I saw it as a favor to him. I figured that St. Vincent knew what that woman was about and that she was wrong for Westcliff so when she tried to use him to make Westcliff jealous, he seduced her so that there would be no chance of her snaring Westcliff. I still see it that way, even after the boneheaded thing he did with Lillian.

Evie's story is next and St. Vincent is slated to be the hero in that one. I'm reserving judgment on just how he's going to be redeemed after this. Here's hoping.

Secrets of a Summer Night

Wallflower Series - Book 1

Author: Lisa Kleypas


Annabelle Peyton getting desperate. Her father's death has left her family in dire straits. What little money they have goes mainly toward putting her younger brother to school and keeping her looking as fashionable as possible on their meager budget in hopes that she will catch a wealthy husband. Even though she is beautiful and gently bred, she has reached the age of 25 and this will be her last season, her last chance to save her family before she's forced to do something ruinnous, like accepting the protection of one of the many "gentlemen" who have begun to circle like vultures. She knows there is no coming back from that and so she'll do whatever she has to do to catch a husband, even if it means going along with two outrageous Americans and a mousy red-head who stutters in a scheme crazy enough to work. They're tired of being wallflowers and all in need of husbands for various reasons, so why not pool their resources and join forces to get them each a husband one at a time. After all, what man could stand against the combined cunning and determination of four marriage minded women? If only that dreadful cit, Simon Hunt would stop asking her to dance and making inappropriate propositions that remind her all too well of that one time, years ago, when he kissed her in a darkened amphitheater. Yes, he's got obscene amounts of money, but he's not of her class and she knows he's not the marrying kind. The Wallflowers have set their sights on a rich viscount who seems very sweet and kind. They've got their strategy all mapped out and they'll have that gentleman caught in a compromising position before before he knows what hit him.

Simon Hunt was born the son of a butcher, but you couldn't tell it by his fine clothes, bulging bank account and thriving businesses. He's got more money and connections than some aristocrats can boast and he's gotten there through ambition, hard work, and determination. What Simon Hunt wants, he gets. He's been fascinated with Annabelle Peyton from the first moment he saw her. He's never been able to forget the time he went to an amphitheater with Annabelle and her brother. The lights went down for a few minutes and there, in the dark, he gave in to the urge to kiss her. He expected to be pushed away and slapped, but instead she gave in and kissed him back. He's spent the last two years since that kiss trying to get her alone. He knows her family's financial situation and when she finally gives up on marriage she'll need a protector. Simon plans to be that man, no matter how many other gentlemen he's got to take down to do it. When rumors first surface that she's already taken a protector, an unsavory man who apparently gives her just enough to get by on, Simon is sure it's all a lie, but during a house party in the country, there seems to be an odd sort of tension between Annabelle and the man purported to be her protector. Could it be true? When Annabelle is poisoned by an adder bite, Simon diagnoses and treats her before the doctor even gets there. He realizes after the ordeal that he might just love her and that he wants her to be his in every way, but can he convince her to marry a man who's not of her class? Especially when a rich viscount seems ready to offer for her at any moment?


I really like Simon, though in the beginning it irked me that he used not being a gentleman as a rationalization for taking advantage of her bad situation to make a mistress out of her, but looking down on the aristocrats for doing the same thing. He has been fantasizing about this girl for 2 years and he never thought to offer her marriage? Really? Annabelle wasn't much better in her resistance to Simon. She let her prejudice of the lower classes color her judgment when it came to Simon. If she'd have accepted his offers to dance she might have gotten to know him. I mean, the guy is mega rich, and interested in her. If she'd gotten over herself she could have eventually talked him around to thinking marriage. She never even thought to give it a chance. The whole attitude the guys in this book had with regards to Annabelle's situation was disgusting. They're all like "Why marry the poor girl when I can wait until she's desperate enough to become my whore? " I know, different times and all that, but it's still sick as far as I'm concerned. I really liked the rest of the Wallflowers and am looking forward to their books.

Mr. Cavendish, I Presume

Author: Julia Quinn

Amelia Willoughby is being embarrassed by her fiance and he doesn't even seem to know it. Normally being engaged to someone as lofty as Thomas Cavendish, Duke of Wyndham, would be considered enviable by any young lady and her marriage minded mama, but when you've been engaged to said duke practically from birth and have reached the age of one and twenty without being married people begin to feel sorry for you. Amelia doesn't know much about her fiance, they're practically strangers even after all these years, and has been never bothered by her fiance's lack of attention until she begins receiving pitying glances from the very ladies who should be envying her. She begins to wonder if her fiance even knows she's alive. When he begins acting strangely, not his usually stiff and upright self, and lets his guard down a bit, she begins to realize that she might just like him ... maybe even love him. Just as she's coming to the realization that she might be very happy married to Thomas, things begin to unravel and she finds that marrying the Duke of Wyndham might just mean losing the man she loves.

Thomas Cavendish, Duke of Wyndham, knows he will have to marry his long-time fiance soon, but surely it couldn't hurt anything to put it off just a little longer? When she behaves unexpectedly at a party, he gets a chance to speak with her alone, and finds that she's a bit more interesting than he ever thought possible. If an unknown cousin hadn't shown up all of a sudden to turn his world upside down, things might be going quite well. Finding out that a long dead uncle, older brother to the previous duke, married shortly before he died, leaving behind a pregnant wife who later died giving birth to Jack Audley-Cavendish and that he, not Thomas, might be the real Duke of Wyndham would be enough to send any man in to a tail spin. Thomas has an identity crisis of major proportions. All his life he's been taught and trained to be the Duke of Wyndham and if he isn't that, then who is he? What will his life become? He finds that Amelia is a good companion to him during this turmoil, but what good does falling in love with her do when she's contracted to marry the Duke of Wyndham regardless of what man bears that title?

This book is a sequel to The Lost Duke of Wyndham and, while the book can stand alone, I strongly suggest reading the first book before you read this one. I found it odd to read a sequel that basically relives the events of the first book, only through the eyes of what was originally a secondary couple. It's happened a time or two where I'm reading a book and this secondary pairing catches my attention and I wonder what's going on with them. Usually this happens when the pairing is slated for a book of their own, but I've never seen it done this way. At times I've wondered what was going on in the heads of other characters during a story and this kind of gave me that. In the first book, I though that Thomas was a real uptight tool and in the second you find out that he is, in fact, kind of an uptight tool, but there is more to him than that. I liked him a lot better once I got a look at things from his perspective. I remember that, in the first book, Amelia really annoyed me with how docile she seemed through the whole thing. Here are her father and her fiance telling her she has to marry a total stranger if he does turn out to be the legitimate Duke of Wyndham and she doesn't really say anything about it. She looks like a weak, hand-wringing ninny. You get to see her in a better light here, though I still think she could have spoken up for herself sooner. She picks up a real backbone by the end of it, though and I like that.

Some Like It Wild

Author: Teresa Medeiros

Pamela Darby and her half-sister, Sophie, are in dire straits. Their mother was a beautiful actress and they've grown up in the theatre, but now it's burned down, killing their mother in the process and leaving the girls alone without a home. When their mother's solicitors delivers to them an old letter that their mother had from the Duchess of Warrick explaining to their mother, an old friend of the duchess, that she was leaving her husband and taking their baby with her in to Scotland, Pamela begins to believe that the fire was no accident and that someone set out to murder their mother for that letter. After all, with the duke offering a reward for the finding of his son and someone who stands to inherit a lot of money if the duke's heir is never found, there are plenty of suspects. With a noble set on making Sophie his mistress, the possibility of reward money and finding clues as to who may have murdered their mother, Pamela and Sophie take to the Highlands in search of the duchess and her son. When they come across news that the duchess died before reaching her family in the highlands Pamela decides that any man of appropriate age and coloring will do, but where to find such a man?

Connor Kincaid is a Highlands highwayman looking for any way he can avenge himself on the English. After the brutal death of his parents at the hands of the English, Connor was left in charge of the clan. After years of leading his clan in dangerous raids, trying to get enough money to rebuild the clan, Connor decides to leave before he brings destruction down on the clan. Now he robs coaches and lives with a band of criminals. When he's told that a carriage with no out-riders and only one coachman will be coming down the road carrying two young English ladies covered in furs and jewelry and likely fat purses, he figured they were ripe for the picking. What he found were cheap furs, paste jewels, nearly empty purses, a pretty young blond, and a feisty, curvy brunet with a gun and a persuasive plan. If they can pull it off not only would it be the ultimate revenge for a Scotsman to steal an entire dukedom, but he might even escape his fate to meet the hangman's noose. Now he just has to keep whoever killed Pamela's mother from killing him and try his damnedest to keep his hands of Pamela ... or talk her in to putting her hands on him.


I loved both of these characters. Pamela was smart, cunning, daring, and funny. She took big risks, with all their lives really, but it payed off. I liked that she had the guts to do everything she did after her mother's death. Connor was every bit Pamela's equal. He was a hardened criminal, but he wasn't unnecessarily cruel and he treated Pamela and her sister with kindness, even when he didn't have reason to. He protected them from his fellow criminals and, though he didn't think he had much to offer her, he didn't fight his feelings for her. In fact, it was a bit the way around later in the story when certain truths are uncovered. Pamela pushes Connor away for his own good, even though this makes them both utterly miserable. The side story with Sophie and the duke's cousin, Crispin, was cute. I felt so bad for Crispin because of how Sophie was treating him. It was obvious he was besotted with her. It was also pretty obvious who murdered Marianne Darby almost from the second you meet the duke and his family. I really enjoyed this book. Both the hero and the heroine where just such fun to watch together. Teresa Medeiros is one of those authors who I can usually count on for a good read.

Beyond Compare

Author: Candace Camp


Kyria Moreland is an unconventional girl in an unconventional family. The whole Moreland clan is made up of scholars, except for Kyria who designs jewelry and her older brother Reed who's considered normal and runs the family estates. When her sister Olivia's wedding to a silver magnate brings Rafe McIntyre to their home, Kyria finds herself truly fascinated by a man for the first time. She's had many admirers and enjoys flirting, but no one has made her feel the way Mr. McIntyre does just by being in the room. She knows better than to fall in love with him. He's a charming flirt and she can see right off that he isn't the type to marry and settle down. The arrival of a mysterious artifact delivered by a man who is killed at their door step brings about a frightening and dangerous chain of events that draw Kyria and Rafe closer and closer together.

Rafe McIntyre was once a southern gentleman, but gave that all up to fight for the Union during the civil war. He did what he thought was right, but it cost him his family and his fiance. Now he's a partner in a silver mine and something of a charming rogue. He doesn't mind a bit of flirting, but he never intends to let himself love again no matter how temping he finds Lady Kyria. If she wasn't in danger, and if he wasn't feeling so damned protective of her, he'd get away from her before she really got under his skin. Unfortunately fate seems bent on presenting him with situations where only his will to do the honorable thing keeps their passion in check.

I really loved Rafe. He was fun and charming and he put up with an incredible amount of stuff from Kyria. Most men of his time wouldn't have taken Kyria along on the "adventures" they had to undertake while trying to solve the mystery of the artifact. She made these info gathering forays more difficult because, not only did their plans have to be more complicated to keep her undetected, Rafe had to split his focus between finding what he came for and protecting Kyria. Not to mention that he held back during interrogations for her sake. He probably would have had the mystery solved in a quarter of the time if Kyria hadn't been in his way. He was suspicious of the villain earlier on, but because Kyria had him all mixed up, he ignored his instincts. Kyria did that thing I hate where a character thinks that being independent and strong means making dumb decisions and not letting anyone talk you out of them. She kept waiting for Rafe to say she couldn't do something so that she could be disappointed in him for treating her like some weak woman. She was so hell bent on being in the middle of things and proving how smart and independent she was that she never stopped to think that she was making things harder for Rafe or anyone else involved. Pretty self-centered IMHO. The artifact and it's story were interesting. The mystery, well, about the same time Rafe was feeling an inkling of suspicious about the villain I had already decided who the villain was and I was not wrong. I loved Con and Alex.

One With The Night

Companion Series - Book 5

Author: Susan Squires

Jane Blundell was infected with vampirism in her father's laboratory because of a broken vial. Her father nursed her through the turning by infecting blood and feeding it to her. Since then he has dedicated his life to finding a cure. She has dedicated her life to being the son he never had, trying her hardest to make him proud of her. She knows nothing of being a vampire and when her father's life is threatened, she figures it's time to remedy that. When Callan Kilkenny comes looking for the cure, willingly volunteering himself as the dr.'s test subject, Jane begins to feel all manner of things she's never felt before. She's both excited to explore these new sensations and afraid of what they could mean. She finds herself falling for Kilkenny, but afraid to make herself vulnerable and losing control.

Callan Kilkenny was a "Charming Irish Rogue" until he ran afoul of Asharti, a very powerful female vampire with a penchant for compulsion, sexual torture and a fondness for breaking men's spirits. She made him a vampire so that there would be no risk of him dying before she's completely broken him. Set free by her death, he is unsure if he can ever get back to who he used to be. As a vampire he can not commit suicide, his companion won't allow it, and so he wanders around trying to do small good deeds where he can to counteract the terrible things he did under Asharti's command. When he begins to hear rumors about a possible cure, he sees his chance to become human again or die trying, either would be fine by him. He knows he's in trouble the moment he meets Jane. He's been celibate since Asharti, afraid that he's become twisted by his experiences with her, but Jane tempts him to the breaking point. He plans to avoid her as much as possible, but between her father throwing them together on herb gathering outings and Jane's curiosity about vampires, he hasn't got a chance of resisting her.

The stakes become deadlier when a trio of powerful vampires, led by Elyta Zaroff, come from the vampire's ruling council. Elyta says they want to protect the dr and help him find the cure. Although suspicious, they really have no choice but to let Elyta and her crew stay on. It soon becomes clear that Elyta's motives are less than pure, both for the cure and towars Callan. When she reveals to Callan that it was she who taught Asharti everything she knew, he knows that she'll kill them all as soon as she has no further use for them. The only way to save Jane, whom he's fallen in love with, is to make a deal with the devil. One that will ensure Jane will never love him and see him in the same form of slavery that nearly broke him before. He's gladly do it for Jane, but when she finds out what's really going on she puts and end to the deal and Callan is forced to come up with a long shot plan to save them both from their protectors and the vampires who want to destroy the cure and anyone associated with it.


While this book can be read as a stand alone, you'll be much more clear on a few things if you read the other books in the series first. Both the main characters were great. I felt terrible for Callan. In previous books we've been shown the effects of Asharti's twisted games on people's minds, but Callan is the first one who though himself truly evil because of the choices she coerced him in to making. Jane occasionally gave thought to a possible future with Callan, but since he never said anything about having feelings for her she kept thinking herself a fool. Callan wouldn't let himself dream. He didn't believe there was any way that she could love a creature like him. They were both afraid to speak. Jane sometimes frustrated me earlier on with her unwillingness to step outside the role she'd set for herself. Repressing any urges and expressions that didn't fit with what she thought was proper for a scientific minded individual. Callan was more frustrating at times, but I found it hard to really blame him because of what he went through. I mean, it had only been a couple of years since Asharti's death. Anyone who survived something like that would have some major issues to work through. Hell, some they might never be able to work through. Didn't stop me from wanting to pull my hair now and then. I've read the series up to this book and plan to pick up the next two soon. I better move quick because the eighth book, Time For Eternity, is due out at the beginning of September.

My Hero ... A Contest Entry

I'm reading Nalini Singh's Psy-Changeling Series and this was originally written for a contest she was hosting to celebrate the release of Mine to Posses. (I did not win.)

(Re-posted from my old blogger)

The subject of this contest is our favorite romance hero/es and why we love them. I would have to say that of all the heroes out there my absolute favorites are the tortured alphas. They aren’t always the nicest guys around, but they’ve got their reasons for it. Whether it’s a loveless/abusive upbringing, betrayal or the death of a loved one these guys have had their hearts broken and are going to make sure no one does it again. The world sees them as aloof, cold or even down right heartless beasts and they sometimes go out of their was to prove them right. Then the one meant for them comes into their life and they fall in love ... kicking and screaming the whole way down. Some realize the danger right away and do their best to drive their heroine away, some mistake it for something else and don’t see it coming till it wallops them right upside the head, while others want the love, but don’t know how to go about winning it or keeping it. I know I’m not alone in this because there are several series, many supernatural romance, where all the heroes are tortured in one way or another.

My favorite of these fellows is hard to choose. Off the top of my head, I’d have to say Sebastian, Lord Dain, from Loretta Chase’s Lord of Scoundrels. His father was a cold man who cared more for his estate than anything else. After losing his wife and two young children to illness he chose to marry a young Italian lady who’s noble family had money. He found her to passionate for his taste and, after she gave him an heir, he stopped having “relations” with her. This led to a very tense and unhappy home life for our very young hero. It did not help that he took after his mother’s family in both looks and temperament. He was a sensitive young boy who was very aware that he didn’t look like others and that his father was ever disappointed in him. His mother disappears when his is just 8 years old and all his father will tell him is that his mother is Jezebel. He hates his mother for abandoning him and begins to develop his mistrust of the female species. The fact that his mother would abandon him drives it home in his mind that even a mother could feel no love for someone like him. He is promptly hustled off to school where he is picked on and taunted. He fights back and earns the respect of the bullies and is then determined to be the worst of lot. His first experience with a woman , a whore, at the age of 13 teaches him that with enough money people will deny you nothing and sets out to become as rich as humanly possible.

As an adult Dain has achieved everything he's set out to. He's rich, he's feared, and he lives life on his terms. Knowing that his father prizes his family’s title and reputation, Dain has set out to be the biggest blot on the family name that he can be. He spends his time drinking, gambling and whoring, when he’s not collecting antiques and works of art or making loads of money. His one foray into decent society led him into the hands of a gold digger and he then swore off anything to do with women who are not professionals at all cost. He avoids ladies like the plague. He believes himself ugly, evil, and unlovable and has built a shell around himself that is all those things and unapologetic about it.

Through his fall we get to see inside him, which is what draws me most about this type of hero's story line. There is a part of Dain that is still that lonely little boy who's only ever wanted to be loved and shown affection. While he falls in love we get to see him learn to accept that part of himself and learn that he can love and is worthy of being loved. Really, though, my favorite parts are the times where his lady shows him some affection and he is so socked and thrown off balance that he goes into a bit of a tailspin. Those are the moments that touch me most because those are the moments his character seems most realistic to me. Damn, I think I'm going to have to go read it again now!

Others I am partial to off the top of my head are: Zsadist (J.R. Ward’s Lover Awakened), Asterius (P.C. Cast’s Goddess of the Rose), Hades (P.C. Cast’s Goddess of Spring), Connor McCabe (Patti O’Shea’s Through a Crimson Veil), and Zarek (Sherrilyn Kenyon’s Dance with the Devil).

The Bride Finder

Author: Susan Carroll

(Re-posted from my old blogger)

Anatole St. Legere is a clairvoyant and telekinetic, which he sees as a curse. As a child his mother was freaked out by his abilities and wanted nothing to do with him. Then one day he tried to cheer her by picking her a bouquet of flowers. Since she didn't want him near, he floated the flowers to her. She lost it and threw a glass vase at the poor boy and traumatized him for life. Lately he has been seeing visions of a flame haired woman who will bring about his death. So when he sends out the Bride Finder, who is the only one who can choose a bride for a St. Legere man without his being cursed to a life of misery and early death, he asks him for a simple, sturdy, placid woman with anything but red hair. The Bride finder, Reverend Septimus Fitzleger, finds the bride that is fated for Anatole. Unfortunately for Anatole she is a dainty noble woman with flaming red hair.

Madeline Breton arrives at Anatole's castle expecting a warm welcome from the Prince Charming that Reverend Fitzleger led her to believe she was going to marry. When her party shows up at his gloomy castle she finds that, not only is he not at home, but his people won't let her in. She's worn his miniature around her neck, the portrait of a 15 year old Anatole that made him look like some soulful poetic prince, and dreamed of meeting him, but the man she meets large, rugged and rough. He rides in and mistakenly grabs up her maid, whom is everything Anatole asked for, and is then heartily disappointed when he realizes Madeline is his bride. Though she is a bit frightened of him, and feels terribly rejected by him, she chooses to make the best of things and sets herself to be a good wife to him.

Anatole finds himself in a though situation. He marries his wife and pledges himself to her for eternity, a vow that is magically enforced for the men of his family, and while he's feeling the pull that St. Legere men are supposed to feel toward their mates, his new bride seems not to be feeling the great passion that St. Legere brides are supposed to feel. He spends most of the story wooing his bride, or learning to, and trying to keep her in the dark about his "gifts" and the family ghost, Prospero.

There is also some drama in the way of a possibly evil cousin and the family's ancient rivals, the Mortmains, whom everyone thought wiped out.


I really loved this story, partly, I think, because I could relate so well to Anatole. I really felt for Anatole who felt like he was an unlovable freak thanks to his mother, with some help from his father, and who thought that his new redheaded bride would be the death of him, literally. He felt his gifts were curses and was at odds with Prospero, his ghostly ancestor who really only wanted his descendants to find love and happiness. I love watching him learn how to win over his new wife, which would have cost him less effort had he not been so obviously disappointed at the sight of her upon their first meeting, and come to terms with himself. I liked that Madeline did not give up easily on Anatole and that she helped him accept his gifts and make peace with Prospero. She helped him realize that his mother was messed up and that just because she couldn't deal with him it didn't mean that he was unlovable or wrongly made.

Love is Blind

Author: Lynsay Sands

(Re-posted from my old blogger)

Lady Clarissa Cambray is near sighted and blind as a bat without her glasses. So what does her "helpful" stepmother do? Basically tells her that "Guys don't make passes at girls who wear glasses." and when Clarissa insists on wearing them stepmommy dearest breaks them. She then sets Clarissa loose on the ton where she repeatedly causes disasters, like dropping food on herself, tripping, stomping on toes, mistaking people's laps for tables and burning their "piffles" with hot tea, and then she sets one suitor's wig on fire. This leads to stepmommy making her sit and do absolutely nothing during parties. She's miserable, she's bored and she's very aware that the ton laughs at her and calls her Clumsy Clarissa behind their fans. She doesn't know that they think she won't wear glasses for the sake of vanity.

Enter the Earl of Mowbray. Adrian Montfort, once thought one of the handsomest men of the ton and quite the rakehell, returned from the war a then years ago with a scar down the side of his face that had the young ladies swooning to prove their delicacy. That and a run in with one twisted lady, who pretended to like him when she just wanted to bed a freak, had our hero rusticating for a decade. Now he's back in town and still feeling the freak. His cousin, having been a victim of one of Clarissa's nearsighted accidents, warns him to steer clear, but Adrian is intrigued. The though of spending some time with a woman who might not cringe at the prospect of talking to him, much less dancing, holds a lot of appeal. He soon finds himself laughing and smiling more in a few minutes with Clarissa than he has in the last ten years. They both know right off that they'd like to spend more time together, but, of course, stepmom doesn't want them to get together. Adrian, not being someone to let something he wants slip away, enlists his family to help sneak her out to meet him. They're only too happy to do it since Adrian seems so happy and hopeful.

Some strange "accidents" have been happening to Clarissa and after finding her floating face down in a fountain with a bump on her head, having been lured out to the garden by a false note, Adrian suspects someone is trying to kill her. He waits outside her window so he can sneak in and talk to her about these accidents, but once he's in her bedroom, things take a turn for the naughty. When a fire breaks out right outside Clarissa's bedroom, Adrian gets her out the second story window and down to the ground, where the servants find them in less than perfectly clothed condition. Adrian asks for her hand and wedding plans are under way. There's just a few of things bothering our couple. Adrian is afraid that when she gets her glasses back she'll be disgusted by the sight of him and hate him. He's also worried about who might be trying to kill his wife-to-be. Clarissa is afraid that when he sees her with her glasses he'll think her ugly and she'll lose any chance that he might love her.

I'll come out right up front and state that I have a weakness for Lynsay Sands. It's just something about the way she writes her heroines. They're not what most people would consider perfect, but they end up being just that for our heroes. I know that her historicals have modern language in them and it tends to catch your eye when you're reading, but for some reason, it doesn't really bother me. I know the plot isn't spectacularly original, but I still found it enjoyable. The writing was definitely there and I really wanted Adrian to be happy at the ending of it all. I really liked his character. It was nice to see a hero who wasn't all alpha and swashbucklish. I'm a sucker for a hero who doesn't know what a great catch he is and is a bit insecure in his wooing. I see the alpha type much more often, so this type of her is a bit of a treat for me. I think Clarissa level of insecurity about her glasses was a bit overdone. I mean she was afraid the guy would suddenly think her ugly and not the least bit lovable because of a pair of glasses. If he's so shallow that a removable pair of glasses turns him off you permanently, then he is not a man you want to marry. I mean, if the glasses put him off that badly, what'll happen when she gains ten or fifteen pound? What about her body after she's had a kid or two? Know what I'm saying?