After the horrible news from Boston yesterday, I needed comfort reading like whoa. Historicals for me are often top at my list of fuzzy comfort reads, and I was happy to find a few of Carla Kelly's traditional Regencies at $2.99. I hope you have all the comforts today.
Summer Campaign is $2.99 digitally, and has some stellar reviews behind it, including this one from Joyce Yee:
“Jack Beresford and Onyx Hamilton are both people who are survivors on many levels – Jack is a war veteran, and Onyx is an orphan who is overshadowed by the family who adopts her and her brother. They also are, like so many other characters in Carla's books, innately good people who strive to do the very best for others around them, despite their own personal fears and feelings of inadequacy.”
Miss Onyx Hamilton knew the risk of going to Major Jack Beresford's isolated country estate. Surely her husband-to-be, the right Reverend Andrew Littletree, would not condone her leaving the safety of home for the perils that this place posed for so lovely and desirable a young lady. Surely tongues would wag about what she was doing with so eminently attractive and intriguingly unattached a gentleman as the major. But Onyx's worry was not what her fiancé would think or what the world would say. Rather it was what she would do if Jack Beresford took her in his arms…
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Libby's London Merchant is $2.99. From the reviews, I have surmised that it's a surprising love triangle story, with hidden identity, misunderstandings, and very complex characters. I have also bought the hell out of it.
Beautiful Miss Libby Ames knew little about the man who landed unexpectedly at her country manor. Only that he called himself Mr. Nesbitt Duke, a London merchant. And after one look at Libby, he claimed he’d fallen in love. But it was soon clear that this handsome stranger was not being entirely truthful.
Arriving at Libby’s doorstep was not fate, but rather an encounter of Nesbitt’s own design. Furthermore, his position in life was far from that of a merchant. His name too was a lie. But his true identity was still not the greatest mystery. For Libby had no idea of the secret longings of her own heart—or what to do next about the mystery man, and the passionate love that has taken her by shocking surprise.
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One Good Turn is the follow up to Libby's London Merchant. One Good Turn won the AAR Annual Reader Poll for Favorite Regency in 2001. It's on sale digitally for $2.99.
Benedict Nesbitt, the Seventh Duke of Knaresborough, has resigned himself to a life of solitude. The woman he'd loved for years just married one of his best friends. And so, in the noble tradition of resignation, he is heading back home to look after his niece and work on his stiff upper lip…
But on the way he agrees to give a ride to a poor Spanish woman and her child. And though they appear to have nothing, Liria Valencia's self assurance is stronger and more genuine than any he's known in his whole upper crust life. There's certainly more to this single mother than meets the eye. But could she be Benedict's second chance at love? Only if they can see past their differences. And that will require delving into a complicated and painful past…
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RECOMMENDED: The Wedding Journey is $2.99. I bought this one, too. I give easily to the temptation of hidden identities in romances, especially a supremely shy and quietly honorable hero. I started reading this last night and was up past midnight. Review of squeeage coming soon (I hope – haven't finished it yet). ETA: I finished it. It was lovely!
Set against the vivid historical background of the Napoleonic Wars, The Wedding Journey is the unforgettable story of Captain Jesse Randall, assistant surgeon of Marching Hospital Number Eight, and his undying love for beautiful, young Nell Mason.
A battlefield is no place to wage a campaign of love, and even if it was, Jesse is far too shy to ever confess his love to Nell, who helps the surgeons in the field hospital. Her father, Captain Bertie Mason, is a compulsive gambler, and when Nell’s mother dies, he desperately agrees to marry her to the despicable Major William Bones to relieve his crushing gambling debts.
To prevent such a fate, Jesse hastily weds Nell. He doesn’t dare hope she’ll ever return his devotion. A marriage on the front lines of the Napoleonic Wars would be difficult enough, but now Major Bones is out for vengeance. As the British army retreats from Burgos for Portugal, Jesse, Nell, and a handful of the sick and stragglers are left behind to fend for themselves.
The newly married couple must now draw on all their strength to survive and save their small band, and somehow nurture a love that can endure the most trying of journeys…
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If you're an Amazon.co.uk customer, today's Kindle Daily Deal is Shannon Hale's Austenland, available for .99.
Jane Hayes is a seemingly normal young New Yorker, but she has a secret. Her obsession with Mr. Darcy, as played by Colin Firth in the BBC adaptation of Pride and Prejudice, is ruining her love life: no real man can compare. But when a wealthy relative bequeaths her a trip to an English resort catering to Austen-crazed women, Jane's fantasies of meeting the perfect Regency-era gentleman suddenly become realer than she ever could have imagined.
Decked out in empire-waist gowns, Jane struggles to master Regency etiquette and flirts with gardeners and gentlemen;or maybe even, she suspects, with the actors who are playing them. It's all a game, Jane knows.
And yet the longer she stays, the more her insecurities seem to fall away, and the more she wonders: Is she about to kick the Austen obsession for good, or could all her dreams actually culminate in a Mr. Darcy of her own?
I loved Austenland, although Midnight in austenland was even better, especially since it caused me to read Northanger Abbey.
Sarah, you are so right—Carla Kelly is exactly what is needed. It’s more than comfort, though, I think. Her novels are filled with people trying to overcome awful life experiences with real courage, heart, humility, and spirit—and often they surprise themselves by rising to the occasions they are faced with. They aren’t cotton candy stories, either—the situations the characters find themselves in, and must cope with and rise above, are often completely harrowing. I just read The Wedding Journey again (HOW many times have I read it?) and it made me CRY. Again. And although Libby’s London Merchant is really good (and features a virgin hero, btw), its sequel, One Good Turn, has a hero (a redeemed cad) and a heroine (survivor of war atrocities) that are unforgettable. I’m so glad these are being made widely available again as e-books!
I love Carla Kelly with all my heart. When I lived in Seattle the library branches had a mmpb section that was built by donations and not listed in the catalog. I found some amazing books there and my first CK was Mrs Drew/Ms Grimsby Regency Christmas Double that I found in that section one summer. What a great read! I have a ton of those early Signets that I kept, cuz man it was Carla Kelly and I do love the early covers. My Kindle is now loaded with CK, she’s one of my comfort/calming reads for when I have a long night ahead at work or when life gets too stressful.
So many book sales! So much want!
All of Carla Kelly’s books are on my keeper shelves— and out of all of them my favorites are The Wedding Journey, With this Ring and Beau Crusoe.
I’ve commented here before that Carla Kelly is one of my favorite authors. I’m so glad her books are being reissued: I own almost all of them in paper copies, and I’ve been buying the ebooks as well. In fact, I think “Summer Campaign” is the only one I don’t already own in ebook form. That will soon be remedied.
I agree with the above comments that Carla Kelly’s books are perfect right now. I live just outside Boston, and while I am fine and no one I know has been hurt, it’s a sad, scary time. The courage, heart, humility, and spirit that RevMelinda mentions are just what I need.
I was pleasantly surprised when I checked Amazon UK to find the prices in line with US prices. At today’s rates $2.99 is £1.96. 3 of Carla Kelly’s books £2.01 with the fourth (Summer Campaign) at £2.56). I’ve loaded up my Kindle.
@Joanna: Oh, that’s so wonderful. Bravo, InterMix for consistent pricing!!
And I finished The Wedding Journey and was so, so comforted and thankful to have read it. It was exactly what I needed.
These are all great books, but I loved “The Wedding Journey” the best. If only they would put “Mrs. Drew Plays Her Hand” on sale!
For a slightly unusual Kelly, with a rakish hero(most of her heroes are just good guys, sometimes shy introverts), try “Reforming Lord Ragsdale”.