Category Archives: Books

I have recently read the wonderful The Lady Who Broke the Rules by Marguerite Kaye, Condensed Histories Volume One: Histories From England by Greg Chapman and Christmas Is Cancelled by Aurelia B. Rowl.  Reviews for these will be posted very soon.

Next I will be reading and reviewing The Hammock: A novel based on the true story of French painter James Tissot by Lucy Paquette, so do stay tuned for all of these.

Once again, if you want me to review something, check out my ‘Book Reviews’ tab at the top of the page and contact me via email for more information.

I was given a copy of this book on condition that I write an honest review.

This is obviously – given its title – a collection of Christmas novellas set in the Regency period. There are a total of five stories contained in this book. I should also point out that all of the stories have previously been available as Historical Undone! ebooks. *Spoilers ahead*

Story 1: One Wicked Christmas by Amanda McCabe
I really enjoyed this story, as it was a well written, sexy tale and suited the novella format. I also warmed to the hero and heroine and their story was also rather sweet, but not saccharine.
It has as its heroine Lady Cassandra Osborne, a widow who is secretly in love with the hero, Sir Ian Chandler a friend of her late husband. Daringly attending the wicked Christmas house party of one of her friends Cassie finally has the chance to act upon those feelings and seduce Ian.

Story 2: Virgin Unwrapped by Christine Merrill
I normally really enjoy Christine’s stories, but I’m afraid I found this story very disjointed and didn’t like either the hero or heroine and wasn’t bothered if they ended up together. It didn’t really have a Christmas feel, or a Regency one for that matter for me.

The heroine is the rather oddly puritanical figure of Anne Clairemont and the hero Robert Breton, a figure I felt we didn’t really get to know. Anne is engaged to be married to save her family fortunes, and Robert is a temptation who finds it incredibly easy to seduce her out of it.

Story 3: An Illicit Indiscretion by Bronwyn Scott
Another rather sweet story that I enjoyed, featuring the heir to an Earldom and a young lady who both feel that they will need to marry for duty, but have rather a surprising meeting when the young lady escapes from a window from the house he is visiting and they go on an adventure together.

The heroine is Elisabeth Becket and the hero Dashiell Steen. I particularly loved the fact that the heroine had such unusual interests, and the hero helped her pursue them.

Story 4: A Rake for Christmas by Ann Lethbridge
This is a very sensual story, but amusing and poignant too, which is a great mix.

The slighty scandalous Lady Eugenie Hardwick’s neighbour, a rake, Lord Richard Townsend is driving her crazy with the sounds of passion she can hear through the wall of their rented accommodation!

Story 5: Spellbound and Seduced by Marguerite Kaye
I really enjoyed this tale, as it was particularly intimate and magical as the hero and heroine are isolated throughout most of the story in a very snowy Scotland in a cottage in the middle of nowhere. It is quite different from the others also, as the heroine is a witch, and believes that she is cursed for her husband to die, and is scared to love anyone. The hero knows nothing of this, but has come to claim the castle that is connected to the terrible curse on the heroine’s family from centuries ago.

Jura Mcnair is also a rather different heroine as she is not a titled lady, but a healer of sorts. The hero, Lawrence Connaught is looking to make a change in his life after growing tired of the life he has been leading in London.

I really enjoyed this collection and felt that even though there were five stories contained in the book, they were still long enough to be satisfying. Please note that all the stories have a high level of sensuality/sensual scenes.

At the time that I read this I also read Gift-Wrapped Governesses, and if I had to chose only one from the two, I would definitely chose this book.

This review is also available on my Goodreads page.

I was given a copy of this book on condition that I write an honest review.

This book is a set of three Christmas novellas, themed to the heroines being Governesses in each story.
Story 1: Christmas at Blackhaven Castle by Sophia James
The first story was a bit hit and miss for me, I found a lot of the detail didn’t feel correct, and this made the characters also jar for me.

I probably liked the pasts of the hero and heroine and the fact that they healed them together more than anything else. Lady Seraphina Moreton is trying to escape her past as much as the Duke of Blackhaven in which it is his house that she finds solace as a governess to his children.

Story 2: Governess to Christmas Bride by Annie Burrows
This was a slight improvement for me in terms of writing, but I didn’t feel that the love story was believable between the hero and heroine. I also didn’t like the hero – he seemed to me to be particularly uncaring of the consequences of what his actions brought about, especially as the person he supposedly loved could easily lose her job because of it.

Heroine Honeysuckle Miller has known the hero Lord Chepstow since childhood and she is the friend of his sister. He also seems to fall in love with her infeasibly quickly, even for a novella!

Story 3: Duchess by Christmas by Marguerite Kaye
This is the best of the three stories I think, and they increase in quality as you read them. Although there are lots of things I questioned in this story, it does reach a satisfying and sweet conclusion.

The heroine is Regan Stuart, who returns to her childhood home posing as a governess to help the hero, another Duke, Gabriel to choose a bride in order to have somewhere for her and her brothers and sisters to stay.

I did enjoy the rags to riches experience of Regan, and Gabriel was a fine tortured hero, but I did not enjoy the secondary characters so much and the story was wrapped up (if you pardon the pun) rather too easily for me.

A mostly enjoyable anthology, especially useful if you are busy over the Christmas period and can only read in small chunks as it is a light read.

I also read A Sinful Regency Christmas at the same time as this one, and if I had to choose only one of them, I would recommend reading A Sinful Regency Christmas as the stories are better in that book.

The review is also available on my Goodreads page.

I was given a copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.

A really enjoyable Regency set story the heroine/hero being the widowed Deborah, Lady Kinsail and Elliot Marchmont an embittered former soldier.

Both have big secrets that they must keep safe as if found out their lives would be changed forever. *Spoilers ahead* Deborah, widowed after a disastrous marriage secretly writes racy novels in an act almost of revenge (or somehow self validation), while Elliot is a thief – a slightly Robin Hood type figure who sells his ill gotten gains to aid others. Their worlds literally collide when Elliot manages to fall onto Deborah while escaping her house after stealing from her brother in law. After another chance meeting, Elliot agrees to take Deborah out as his accomplice.

While the idea of the secrets between the two may be far-fetched for some, I really liked the two characters and the story rollicked along in a fun way. At the same time it also gave the reader an insight into the characters’ painful pasts, and managed at least in part to put some of Deborah’s to rest. I wasn’t so sure about Elliot’s, as it didn’t appear to be resolved to the same scale as Deborah, but this is only a minor quibble. There are sparks between the H/H from the beginning and some sensual scenes.

I also enjoyed the art reference to Velazquez as I recognised the painting referred to! I often enjoy secondary characters and also grew very fond of Elliot’s sister Lizzie and would love to see more of her.

All in all, I recommend this as a great, fun read – nicely detailed and the characters are satisfyingly ‘grown up’ which was a refreshing change from rakes and débutantes (not that I dislike these!). It was good to see two adults tackling real emotional problems.

This review also appears on my Goodreads page.

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!