Beloved Eleanor

It occurred to me the other day that I’ve really neglected the authors Mary Stewart and Madeleine Brent on this blog.  I won’t bore you with a biography of them, but I will tell you why I like their stories.

I discovered Mary Stewart’s books by accident, which is probably how I find most authors I love.  I’ve loved the legends of King Arthur and Merlin for years, and came across her novel The Crystal Cave.  I discovered this was part of a series which I devoured over the coming months when I could find them.  Many Mary Stewart books were out of print at this time, but fortunately you could then and can now find them fairly easily second hand.

Of course, once I had completed this series, I had to try her other novels.  I’ve read a handful of these, but my favourite of these and my most favourite of all these books is Touch Not the Cat.

Old country houses, spooky Gothic romance, genealogy and psychic links – not to mention the romance – what’s not to love?!

Just recently I’ve managed to get my hands on a copy of Nine Coaches Waiting, which I’ve had on my list to read for many years.  This is a fairly hokey 1970s edition and is a bit tattered, but for 20p you can hardly complain…if I love it as much as I think I’m going to, I’ll treat myself to a copy in one of the new editions that have come out recently with snazzy new covers.

Perhaps I should get a new Touch Not the Cat one too, eh?  You can read more about Mary’s novels here.

I’ve mentioned Madeleine Brent at least once before here, about my favourite (at least so far) of ‘her’ novels Tregaron’s Daughter.  It’s set in Venice!  It’s romantic and Gothic!  Needless to say I first read that one in my late teens, but it is so rare to find these novels even second hand (perhaps not quite so difficult on the internet) that I am still trying to track down all of the novels and enjoy them.  As I’m sure I will as they have all been most excellent so far…

As there isn’t a website as snazzy as the Mary Stewart one for Madeleine Brent, here are the known novels:

• Tregaron’s Daughter
• Moonraker’s Bride
• Stranger at Wildings
• Merlin’s Keep
• The Capricorn Stone
• The Long Masquerade
• A Heritage of Shadows
• Stormswift
• Golden Urchin

I’ve only got Tregaron’s Daughter, Merlin’s Keep and The Long Masquerade – so if you’re getting rid of yours, you know where I am…

I was given an advance copy of this book to review.

The Regency is my favourite period to read in historical romance, so I was excited to try Rake With a Frozen Heart.

First of all, I loved this book. You might wonder why I only gave it 4 out of 5 stars – well I shall explain as I review, though there may be some spoilers while I do this…

Rafe is the rake in question. Since a bad marriage he has tried to care for no-one (even himself I think), but the heroine – Henrietta a governess (my favourite of the two) unexpectedly needs his help after being attacked. Unfortunately, Henrietta is then blamed for a theft in the household of the unscrupulous lady she works for as a governess, and her flight from the house causes her to be rescued by Rafe yet again.

I’m normally a total sucker for a rake, but Henrietta I found particularly loveable and I was rooting for her the whole way through. She, like Rafe has not had the most easy of lives emotionally, but her warmth defrosts Rafe’s heart well and truly! It is also good that he made me very cross at times – it means that I cared about the characters. I also loved Sgt Benjamin Forbes of the Mouse and Vole – I think he deserves his own book!

The reason why I only gave the book 4 stars is that I thought the accusation of theft towards Henrietta was resolved too early on in the story, and perhaps a little too easily. This meant the last few chapters felt a bit flat for me. However, the very last chapter and epilogue ended the story on a high note and I still enjoyed it very much.

There is chemistry between the Hero/Heroine throughout and some very sensual scenes.

The book is also beautifully produced with a lovely cover! Loving the new look M&B

I look forward to reading more of Marguerite’s books in the future, and would actually love to revisit Rafe and Henrietta sometime. Well, a girl can dream…

This review also appears on my Goodreads page.  Click to join me!

I have also recently read Marguerite’s Titanic: A Date With Destiny ebook novella, which I gave 5 stars!  I won’t review it here yet to give readers a bit more a chance to read over the 100th anniversary of the sinking.  I will say that I thought it was very good indeed.

This is a fuller version of my Goodreads review of an advance copy of the book I received.  You’re welcome to join me over there if you use it…

I haven’t read that many Medical Romance books, nor any of this author’s other work, so I had no preconceptions really before reading it.  Also, I didn’t find that I needed to read the other books in the series to understand what was going on, even though some of the previous characters were mentioned.

First of all I enjoyed it. Both the Hero/Heroine were characters I felt I could root for, especially as they both had VERY troubled backgrounds, and at first I really thought I might dislike Roxie – but the more I read about her the more she grew on me. Fig too – he actually hid the majority of his troubles so well we only got to find out the full extent of them towards the end of the story.

I don’t think that anyone would find their backgrounds too troubled to read it however, as they had both obviously got on with their lives to a certain extent and did not need to be pitied for what had happened before.

It is fast paced, the beginning is hospital based, and from then on the medical issues are tackled from the experiences of the characters and their families.  I understand that this is somewhat unusual for a Medical Romance.

The attraction and sex scenes between the H/H are very sensual.

The cover is also very attractively done I should add too.

All in all, I would say it is a good, interestingly modern medical read and would recommend it. They are characters you will certainly remember!