Review - - When the Marquess Was Mine

WHEN THE MARQUESS WAS MINE

by Caroline Linden

Publisher: Avon

Release Date: September 24, 2019

Reviewed by Hellie

 

In the game of love…

Georgiana Lucas despises the arrogant and cruel Marquess of Westmorland even before learning that he’s won the deed to her friend Kitty’s home in a card game. Still, Georgiana assures Kitty the marquess wouldn’t possibly come all the way to Derbyshire to throw them out—until he shows up, bloody and unconscious. Fearing that Kitty would rather see him die, Georgiana blurts out that he’s her fiancé. She’ll nurse the hateful man back to health and make him vow to leave and never return. The man who wakes up, though, is nothing like the heartless rogue Georgiana thought she knew…

You have to risk it all

He wakes up with no memory of being assaulted—or of who he is. The bewitching beauty tending him so devotedly calls him Rob and claims she’s his fiancée even as she avoids his touch. Though he can’t remember how he won her hand, he’s now determined to win her heart. But as his memory returns and the truth is revealed, Rob must decide if the game is up—or if he’ll take a chance on a love that defies all odds.

Hellie’s Heeds

The wonderful romantic tropes of Reformed Rake and Florence Nightingale collide for a delicious mashup that also uses some classic plot devices like: Pride & Prejudice, amnesia, and a bit of a spy thriller to make for a cozy, delightful, Regency set romance. 

Our weary rake, Rob, doesn’t know where he is or how he got there, but the beautiful young woman who is calling him her fiance and who has stayed by his side as he’s recovered from the beating he doesn’t remember makes him wish he did remember her. Except Georgiana isn’t actually engaged to Rob--she only said he was her fiance because if the hostess she is staying with realizes who Rob really is, she would leave him on the front steps to die. 

Rob’s reputation as a rake and hell-raiser precedes him as he comes to the countryside to return a property deed to the lady of the house, a property deed her husband lost in a hand of poker and has immediately written to the family he was cheated out of. No good deed goes unpunished. Georgiana interrupts a criminal thrashing during a morning ride and insists on the groom taking back the fallen traveler, but she is immediately aghast that the victim is none other than the man coming to throw everyone out of the house! She can’t explain even to herself why she lied, but even more concerning, when Rob awakes, it seems he is not Evil personified after all. Can she trust a man who doesn’t even know who he is?

Hoping Rob doesn’t suddenly recover his memory and either a) kick everyone out of the home like she fears or b) suddenly go, “Wait, I’m the Marquess--we’re not engaged” and ruin her reputation, Georgiana does a very merry dance during Rob’s recovery. 

Come to find out, there is more to Rob than his title--and he’s a bit of a spy himself, doing his bit for king and country--yet it’s Georgiana who more than holds up her end of the show, making me wish there were more stories with her in which they work together to right wrongs and battle for justice, because Georgiana can certainly think on her feet...and even win the day when needed. 

Caroline Linden is frequently a very solid read for me in the Regency set romances--and this one is no exception. Happy reading!

Review - - Dressed to Kiss

Dressed to Kiss

By Madeline Hunter, Caroline Linden,

Megan Frampton, Myretta Robens

Self-published

Release Date: September 12, 2016

  

Madame Follette’s is a dressmaking shop located on Vine Street in London. The shop has seen better days, but the current manager, Felicity Dawkins, daughter of the shop’s founder, is determined to see that status change. All of London’s elite are preparing for the coronation of King George IV, an occasion that offers an opportunity to prove that Madame Follette’s dresses are superior to those produced by the city’s best dressmakers. Felicity is ably assisted in her efforts by two designers/dressmakers, Selina Fontaine and Delyth Owen. Felicity’s brother, Henry, serves as bookkeeper for the shop. Each of the novellas in this anthology centers around one of these four characters.

“The Duke’s Dressmaker” by Madeline Hunter opens the collection. Selina Fontaine found a sanctuary as well as employment in the dressmakers owned by Sophie-Louise Follette Dawkins. Selina arrived in London, a gently bred girl who fled her village when a young aristocrat whose charm disguised his lack of integrity left her with broken promises and a stained reputation. Selina is wiser that she was when she left her village four years ago, and her instinct tells her to avoid her newest client, the young bride of Lord Giles Woodville, the man Selina had expected to marry. But loyalty persuades her that designing a wardrobe, including a coronation gown, for the lady is an opportunity for Madame Follette’s cannot afford to miss. However, Selina fears for the shop and for her livelihood when Randall, the Duke of Barrowmore, accompanies his sister-in-law to a fitting and recognizes Selina. The mistrust is mutual, but the attraction between Selina and the duke proves more powerful. As closer acquaintance corrects their false impressions of one another, their hearts rule their heads. The road to an HEA is a proverbially rough one, but the conclusion to the tale is satisfyingly romantic. The novella may suffer in comparison to Hunter’s more complex novels, but her deft hand with characterization remains sure.

Myretta Robens’s “The Colors of Love” focuses on the second dressmaker, Delyth Owen, who ran away from home to join the theater as a costume designer. Her shift to Madame Follette’s and a clientele different from a company of actors has not lessened Delyth’s love of color in unusual combinations. One of her creations draws the attention of Simon Merrithew, the pseudonymous author of a popular fashion column who thinks Delyth is maliciously making a mockery of her client. But Delyth’s joy in her work and her zest for life soon have Simon bewitched, bothered, and bewildered. The pairing of a rational, controlled hero and an unconventional, joyous heroine is an established convention in historical romance, one I particularly enjoy. Robens handles it with a skill that will delight readers who will find themselves rooting wholeheartedly for these appealing characters.  Extra kudos to the author for making the reader see the colors Delyth uses with such boldness. She has Simon capture the spectacular quality of Delyth’s prize creation, a four-color display: “Attention must be given to Lady M, whom one might be forgiven for supposing had somehow missed the entrance to Astley’s and ended up at Almack’s. Lady M not only glittered, she shone, she flashed, she radiated.”

“No Accounting for Love” by Megan Frampton features Henry Dawkins, a large, socially awkward young man, more at ease with the figures in his account books than with the figures of a dance. Henry is pursued by Lady Euphemia, a spoiled young beauty who is accustomed to getting what she wants. It seems that she wants Henry who has already rejected her once, but Henry, who is unmoved by the charms of the debutante, finds Miss Katherine Grant, the young lady’s companion, irresistible. Circumstances have forced Katherine to be practical. She may be the daughter of a viscount, but she is poor. She counts herself fortunate to have secured an acceptable position for a lady of her class that also provides for her needs and, given Lady Euphemia’s younger sisters, offers the promise of long employment. The same rules that limit her means of supporting herself also dictate that Henry is an unacceptable match for her, but the rules and Henry’s responsibilities which make marriage impractical prove inadequate barriers as these two unlikely people tumble into love. This was my favorite of the quartet. Frampton’s humor, sometimes sharp and sometimes subtle, kept me smiling throughout the reading, and I adored Katherine and Henry, separately and together. The fact that Lady Euphemia is more than an overindulged chit is a wonderful touch. My only complaint—and it is actually a testament to my engagement with the characters--is that I wanted a more detailed development of how these characters reached their HEA.

The anthology concludes with “A Fashionable Affair” by Caroline Linden. As if Felicity Dawkins didn’t have enough trouble trying to restore Madame Follette’s to the glory it once knew, she must also contend with the Earl of Carmarthen who has already purchased all the other shops on Vine Street with plans to tear down all the worn buildings and build new, modernized shops in their stead. Felicity’s mother has steadfastly refused to sell, and at first Felicity refuses as well. However, once she realizes the inevitability of Carmarthen’s revitalization project, she agrees—but only if her conditions are met. Her primary concern is relocating the shop at a site that will ensure Madame Follette’s attracts the prestigious clients Felicity has been courting, and she and Carmarthen are in each other’s company frequently as they check out locations. The attraction that has simmered since their first meeting intensifies, but is an HEA possible for a woman in trade and an earl? Linden gives readers not a fairy tale in which lovers from different worlds ignore their differences but a satisfying romance in which the lovers recognize their different experience and perspectives and willingly take the risks. But, as with Frampton’s story, the ending came too soon. I wanted more of Felicity and Carmarthen’s story.

The greatest strength of this anthology is that each of the stories succeeds on its own but the four work even better together. They are connected not only by setting, characters, and the plot line concerning Madame Follette’s but also thematically. Each of the stories is a cross-class romance on some level. Each romance also considers in some way the difference between appearance and reality and the need to move beyond the surface that serves as the base for society’s judgments. The words of Henry Dawkins in Frampton’s “No Accounting for Love” would be apt had they been spoken by any of the major characters: “But with her, he felt as though he were truly and entirely valued, for his outside, yes, but also for his inside.” If you think you don’t like anthologies, you may be surprised by how much you like this one. I highly recommend it.

~Janga

Review - - It Takes a Scandal

It Takes a Scandal
By Caroline Linden
Publisher: Avon
Release Date: April 29, 2014

Short review: This is a must-read, do not pass go, do not collect $200 (unless you’re taking it to buy books at Amazon. In which case, this is one of the ones you need to buy).

Long review: For those of you who need a longer persuasion, let me start with the first reason I loved Caroline Linden’s IT TAKES A SCANDAL. Sebastian Vane is a nobody. Boy ain’t got a title; he’s a minute away from the poor house because he’s under his dead father’s crippling debt; and he’s got a bum leg from going off to war. I love these kinds of men. Now grant you, I understand why heroes should have the title, the wealth, the prestige, the reputation—it’s power. Women love powerful men. But Sebastian doesn’t really meet these “requirements”, so right off the bat, I like this fellow. He has to show his power in other ways.

As if the lack of title and monetary funds aren’t enough, he also gets to carry around the reputation of coming from a mad family (father was mad as a hatter) and violence because his father disappeared several years ago and no one has seen him since; therefore, Sebastian must have killed him. The cherry on the sundae is that he’s also a thief because he’s the suspect in stealing 4000 guineas from his arch-enemy across the river, the asshat who bought the family’s land from Sebastian’s mad father for a mere 50 pounds and wouldn’t sell it back. The boy has problems, most of them made up by other people and propagated until he has taken to hiding in his house just to avoid interactions with these jerks. He is not anyone’s idea of a good match for any woman of marriageable means. He is a bit grumpy—which is possibly the most alpha thing about him.

Our intrepid heroine is Abigail Weston. She comes from mushrooms. Well, you know how it is back then—all your money had to be 8 generations old and you never talked about the trade you used to be in, that sort of thing. Nope, Mr. Weston is filthy stinking rich and he will go to any lengths to give his daughter the best chance of finding suitable (read: titled) husbands by buying a house 10 miles out of London. Country houses bring suitors swarming, you know. Mr. Weston is amiable and fun-loving and wants his daughters to be happy; Mrs. Weston very much would prefer their happiness come with titles. Abigail, upon meeting Sebastian, prefers shabby chic gentlemen with no titles whatsoever.

As you might expect, there’s some conflict.

Meanwhile Sebastian’s land and Abby’s share a forest, a lovely place to amble around in. They end up meeting each other frequently in the woods to walk, talk, and become good friends. Sebastian entertains the thought of more than friends, but what could he offer? Nothing. Then as you do with friends you walk in the woods with, he kisses her and things become even more complicated and murky. But Abby stands up for herself, what she does and does not deserve, and proceeds to tell him and everyone else just what that is.

Then a lot of things happen at once. Sebastian is called to town because his uncle dies, but he’ll be back in 8 days; and of course the first day he’s gone, the eligible titled earl next door, handsome and charming, comes over and falls head over heels for Abby who keeps trying to keep him at bay long enough for Sebastian to return. Though Sebastian doesn’t write. And they didn’t (and by they, I mean he) promise anything. So she’s torn. She loves Sebastian, but if he doesn’t love her or want her, she can’t toss an earl aside either. Delicate business, juggling suitors.

Did I mention the handsome, eligible, charming earl is the son of the guy who basically stole Sebastian’s ancestral land for 50 pounds? Oh, and that the son and Sebastian used to be best friends until they had a falling out? Yes. Good times.

So Sebastian returns—and you’re thinking, hey, it’s going to turn out, right? No. There’s more “You can’t marry my daughter, you’re completely unworthy!” and on and on. But it all turns out in the end. How? It’s a mystery. That’s why you should read it.

The dialogue sizzles; the tension is sparkling between them (you believe these characters are well suited for each other); and the mystery, well, I was very pleasantly surprised and happy how all that turned out. I think you will be too.

~Hellie

Hellie Sinclair (a.k.a. Fran) was one of the founding members of the Romance Writer's Revenge, where she frequently got to satisfy her love of good books and her need to expound by writing reviews. Hellie loves to craft on projects she rarely finishes, watch British dramas as a sort of Olympic marathon event, and do most anything that fits the description "indolent and pleasurable." Fortunately reading falls into that category.  Connect with Hellie on Facebook.  

Today's Special -- At the Duke's Wedding

June is considered the month for weddings, so what better way to celebrate that than to have four ladies who write historical romance and are experts at love tell their own wedding stories! Maya Rodale penned the popular Writing Girl Series and makes her home in New York City. Miranda Neville is in the midst of a new series, the Wild Quartet, and lives in beautiful rural Vermont. Caroline Linden's upcoming book, Love and Other Scandals (August), is already garnering rave reviews! Caroline lives with her family near Boston. Katharine Ashe starts a new series in September with the upcoming, I Married the Duke. Katharine resides in the wonderfully warm Southeast. Please welcome Maya, Miranda, Caroline, and Katharine!

Last year the four of us wrote short stories for a free promotion piece (Once Upon a Ballroom) and had a wonderful time. So wonderful that we had to do it again, this time on a larger scale. Brainstorming for a June release, naturally we thought of weddings. One wedding, at an English ducal estate 1813. But with four different heroes and heroines meeting, quarreling and reaching Happy Ever After during a two-week-long house party, ending up with four weddings, none of them expected. 

Each of us plotted her own novella, but we came up with a number of common threads and characters that appear in all our stories, notably the White Muslin Crew of Regency girls running wild, the wisecracking Lady Sophronia, and Hippolyta, the world’s greatest high perch phaeton. 

And then there was the timeline. Emails flew through cyberspace: “Can we have a cricket match on Day 7?” “Is it OK if your guy and mine meet in the stables on the morning of Day 10?” And gales of virtual laughter as we wrote little scenes for each other’s characters. We hope AT THE DUKE’S WEDDING will bring readers as much pleasure. Descriptions of the four novellas may be found at http://www.atthedukeswedding.com. 

We’d like to share some of our own wedding stories and pictures.

 

 

 

 

Maya: The bride and groom wore cowboy boots--even though he's a Brit! My sister the bridesmaid, who may or may not be taller than me, was forced to wear flats. But hey, it was my day! My perfect, lovely, totally romantic day.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Miranda: I was married in June in the English countryside but not at a ducal mansion. The reception was in the garden of my parents’ house. I wish I could tell you about the food and decorations but the details vanished into a blissful haze. I was attended by my five-year-old niece. As you can see by the “before and after” picture, her toilette deteriorated in the course of the day. The yellow satin sash was one I’d worn as a flower girl at the same age (my mother never threw anything away) and the elderly male cat was named Cleopatra.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Caroline: Here's a candid photo of me, getting photobombed by an irate junior usher! He was about 6 and wildly annoyed by all the photos being taken, when we could have been doing something much more important like getting to the food. My favorite comment on the ceremony was from my younger sister, who was a flower girl: "It was like going to church, but short and not boring."

 

 

 

Katharine: Right before we all went off to the church, my parents' house was full of crazily busy people: me and my sisters dressing, the stylist coiffing, the photographer grabbing us all for pictures, caterers running between the kitchen and the tent out back where the reception was to be held, and little nieces and nephews scampering through it all. And it was pouring rain: lovely, wet, steamy June in Pennsylvania.  

That's when our French baker called. In a torrent of irate Gallic syllables he lambasted the florist. She had apparently informed him that she would decorate the cake with fresh flowers (as planned) at our house rather than at the bakery where he could supervise. The florist (a truly amazing artist) thought he was a pipsqueak. Fifteen minutes before the ceremony, the baker refused to deliver the cake.  

Then someone summoned my husband. Fluent not only in the French language but also in the character of certain Frenchmen, he grasped the phone with confidence.  

First he told the baker that his cake was sans doute the most important part of the entire wedding. Then he agreed that the florist's demand was thoroughly outrageous. Finally he promised the baker that should anything happen to the cake other than the greatest artistry, he would hold himself personally accountable and write a condemnation of the florist and a formal apology to the baker. 

By the time my husband hung up, he and the baker were best friends. My hero. 

The cake was delicious–and beautiful, as you can see in the picture.

I used the baker as the model for the French baker in my novella HOW TO MARRY A HIGHLANDER (coming July 30). 

 

 

Please share your favorite wedding story, from your own or any other wedding. We have prizes for three commenters: a complete set of Caroline Linden’s Bow Street Agent trilogy (A View to A Kiss, For Your Arms Only, and You Only Love Twice); Miranda Neville’s The Importance of Being Wicked, plus the prequel novella The Second Seduction of a Lady; a digital download of Maya Rodales’s Seducing Mr. Knightly. (We forgot to ask Katharine about a prize before she left on vacation WITH NO INTERNET.) Sorry, US addresses only.

At The Duke's Wedding

            (A Regency Romance Anthology)            

As society gathers at Kingstag Castle for the wedding of the year, matrimony is in the air. But who will be the bride? With swoonworthy lords, witty ladies, eccentric relatives, a gaggle of free-spirited girls, not to mention the world’s best high perch phaeton, it’s a recipe for mayhem — and romance. Award winning, best-selling authors Katharine Ashe, Caroline Linden, Miranda Neville and Maya Rodale serve up delectable Regency fun and a sexy contemporary twist in this anthology of original novellas.

Four authors, four couples, four deliciously romantic surprises. When it comes to love, anything can happen…

That Rogue Jack  by Maya Rodale

Jack, Lord Willoughby is charming, handsome, and utterly irresponsible. In other words, he’s the worst person to entrust with the ducal wedding ring. Miss Henrietta Black is prim, proper and the ideal person to help find the priceless family heirloom that’s gone missing… as long as she isn’t distracted by Jack’s gorgeous smile and tantalizing attempts at seduction. They MUST find the ring before the wedding… if they aren’t too busy falling in love.  

PS. I Love You  by Miranda Neville

Handsome, inarticulate Frank Newnham asks his cousin Christian's help when he woos Rosanne Lacy by letter. Rosanne falls for Frank's delicious prose, but when they meet in person at the duke's wedding party, Rosanne can't understand why Frank seems so ... dull. And why is she drawn to the dark brooding Earl of Bruton, with his scarred face and air of melancholy?  

When I Met My Duchess  by Caroline Linden

Gareth Cavendish, Duke of Wessex, believes he’s chosen the perfect bride… until he meets her sister and lightning strikes—literally! Now he’s the only member of society dreading the wedding of the season. Or is he? Cleo Barrows can’t fathom why her knees weaken every time the handsome duke approaches, or why her sister isn’t in the clouds at the prospect of marrying him. But the more often wedding plans throw Cleo and Gareth intimately together, the faster time is running out to turn the celebration of the summer into the scandal of the year.

How Angela Got Her Rogue Back  by Katharine Ashe

When gorgeous Lord Trenton Ascot beckons to history grad student Angela Cowdrey from the pages of a comic book, she thinks she’s going crazy. When Trent rescues her from a lake and she claims she’s from the future, he knows he is. But a blackmailer is threatening Trent’s family and Angela is determined to help. While unraveling the mystery of her time-travel trip to the duke’s wedding, this modern girl and Regency lord just might discover a passion that defies centuries.

Total anthology length: 129,000 words/516 pages

Guest Review - - Blame It On Bath

Blame It on Bath

By Caroline Linden

Publisher: Avon

February 28, 2012

  

Blame It on Bath is the second book in Linden's The Truth About the Duke series.  The events in the book run mostly parallel to the events in Book One, One Night in London.

Gerard de Lacey is the youngest of the three de Lacey brothers who will lose their position within aristocratic circles if they can’t prove false the claim that their father’s marriage to their mother was a bigamous union. As the third son, Gerard has always expected to make his own way, albeit cushioned by his status as the son of a duke and personal gifts of good looks and charm. With a successful military career behind him, he expects to marry wealth. Since that expectation now has a greater likelihood of being fulfilled if he finds a bride before the scandal concerning his possible illegitimacy spreads beyond London, he is prepared to find a wife soon. But he is not prepared for the mysterious woman who approaches him and proposes he marry her.

Katherine Howe, the plain daughter of an acknowledged beauty, is determined that her second marriage not be as miserable as her first. Her first husband, a profligate who wasted her dowry and borrowed large sums from her father, was neglectful and at times abusive. Her father stipulated as a condition of the loans that they be repaid in the event of Katherine’s widowhood. Her husband’s heir, who knows that repaying the loans will bankrupt his estate, is pressuring Katherine to marry him. Her mother, who doubts her graceless daughter can do better, adds to the pressure. When Katherine hears the rumors of the de Lacey illegitimacy, she remembers a young man who was once kind to her and conceives her outrageous plan, a plan that will free her from another boring, repressive marriage and give Gerard de Lacey the fortune he needs.

Once Gerard accepts Katherine’s proposal, he takes charge. He confronts the heir and Katherine’s mother with a fait accompli. The heir is furious, but Mother is delighted with the connection to the Duke of Durham. Clearly she’s untroubled by the rumors. Gerard has planned to go to Bath in search of the person who blackmailed his father, and the only change his marriage makes is that Katherine, whom he insists on calling Kate, will now accompany him. The mystery thread continues, but the heart of the book is the making of a marriage between charismatic Gerard and contained Kate.

The two discover shared pleasure in bed, but physical intimacy does not translate to emotional intimacy. The test of the marriage is whether Gerard can allow Kate inside his private world before he loses her.

I’m a fan of marriage of convenience stories, and this is a good one. Kate is one of my favorite kinds of heroine, the woman who begins as quiet and unassuming who develops confidence and an awareness of her worth. I loved Katherine become Kate, watching her discover the difference the right clothes made in her looks and in her feelings about herself. The novel is as much about Kate’s self-discovery as it is about her and Gerard falling in love.

But all the growth that takes place is not Kate’s. Gerard transforms from a carelessly kind charmer into a man who can see beyond the surface and recognizes that a “quiet glow” is more valuable that attention-grabbing sparkle. I found the changes in both more credible because they take place gradually, sometimes accompanied by regression into former attitudes. And I cannot say how happy I was that what could have been a Big Misunderstanding instead results in these two people talking to one another. Would that we saw that more frequently in romance!

Fans of the first book who are eager to see the mystery of the blackmailer solved may be disappointed that so little progress is made on that front. But I’m sure all will be revealed in The Way to a Duke’s Heart, scheduled for release on August 28. I am eagerly awaiting the solution to the mystery and even more eagerly anticipating seeing Charlie fall in love.

~Janga