First – today only (23 December 2015), 50% all ebooks at CarinaPress.com with code DAY23CP!
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Someone to Watch Over Me by Lisa Kleypas is $1.99 right now. This is book 1 in the Bow Street Runners series, and features a courtesan, amnesia, mistaken identity, and a hero who is rather grumpy. Some readers loved him, others found it difficult to forgive him his assumptions about the heroine.
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The Sum of All Kisses
RECOMMENDED: The Sum of All Kisses by Julia Quinn is $3.99 right now. This is the third book in the Smith-Smythe Quartet, which is related to the Bridgerton series. In fact, The Sum of All Kisses takes place almost immediately after Just Like Heaven and A Night Like This. Carrie reviewed this book as did I, and we had rather different reactions:
Carrie gave it an A- and wrote:
At one point in The Sum of All Kisses, our characters eat wedding cake that is frosted with beautiful lavender flowers. This book is like really, really good cake, the kind that is beautiful to look at and delicious to taste and not too sweet and wonderfully filling. I loved every tiny crumb.
I gave this book a C+ in my review because the beginning and middle didn’t match the end:
The not so good part: the ending. There’s this incredible slow development of enemies to not enemies to maybe friends to gee I wish I didn’t notice your physical person at all can we go back to being enemies…. and then BAM IT IS MADCAP ZOOMING THRILLER TIME. There was a moment about 3/4ths through the book, when all seemed well between the hero and heroine, and I wrote in the comments, “Ok, what’s the next conflict?”
AND BAM THERE IT WAS. The external conflict that didn’t nearly measure up to the power and emotional complexity of the internal conflict between Hugh and Sarah deflated this book for me. I would have been hollering to everyone on the plane to read it right now if it hadn’t been for the ending. Let me see if I can explain without giving away the setup of the story and the twist at the end.
From Julia Quinn, the New York Times bestselling author of steamy historical romances, comes the third seductive installment of the Smythe-Smith Quartet, The Sum of All Kisses.
Sarah Pleinsworth can’t forgive Hugh Prentice for the duel he fought three years ago that nearly destroyed her family, sent her cousin fleeing, and left Hugh himself with a badly injured leg. That’s fine with Hugh, who can’t tolerate Sarah’s dramatic ways. But when the two are forced to spend a week together, they find that unexpected kisses, and mutual passion, may have the power to change both of their minds.
Written with Julia Quinn’s trademark style, The Sum of All Kisses is a witty and lighthearted Regency romance.
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Borrowed Dreams
Borrowed Dreams by May McGoldrick is .99 right now. This is a Signet Regency originally published in 2003 by a husband-and-wife team, and it has a 3.9-star average on GoodReads, as well as a slew of 4-star reviews elsewhere. This book appears to be a reader favorite, though some complained of anachronisms and inaccuracies. Others adored the Beauty and the Beast/marriage of convenience storyline. Have you read this book?
Winner of the Holt Medallion for Best Historical Romance
Driven to undo the evil wrought by her dead husband, Millicent Wentworth must find a way to save her estate and free the innocent people her husband enslaved. Her only hope is a marriage of convenience with the notorious widower, Lyon Pennington, fourth Earl of Aytoun, who just may be the most handsome-and caring-man she’s ever encountered.
Millicent Wentworth may have been unshackled from a miserable life when her cruel husband dies, but his legacy has left her impoverished and desperately needing to get help so she can continue to help those he enslaved. Her one hope comes with the offer of a marriage of convenience to a dowager’s son. Lyon Pennington was emotionally and physically crippled in a horrific accident that left him a widower tormented by accusations of causing his wife’s death. As the end of her life approaches, his loving mother is concerned about his care, and sees Millicent as someone who could assume the role of caregiver. Reluctantly, both parties agree. Neither wants another spouse, yet the marriage brings them both healing, desire, and eventually love.
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A Christmas Gone Perfectly Wrong
A Christmas Gone Perfectly Wrong by Cecilia Grant is .99 at Amazon. This is a prequel novella to her Blackshear series, and it has a 3.8-star average on GoodReads. This is the story of the taciturn older brother of the family and how he falls uncontrollably in love. Readers say this is typical of Grant’s writing: thoughtful, elegant, and clever with unexpected depth to each character.
IT SHOULD HAVE BEEN SIMPLE…
With one more errand to go—the purchase of a hunting falcon—Andrew Blackshear has Christmas completely under control. As his sister’s impending marriage signals the inevitable drifting-apart of the Blackshear family, it’s his last chance to give his siblings the sort of memorable, well-planned holiday their parents could never seem to provide.
He has no time to dawdle, no time for nonsense, and certainly no time to drive the falconer’s vexing, impulsive, lush-lipped, midnight-haired daughter to a house party before heading home. So why the devil did he agree to do just that?
IT COULDN’T BE MORE DELICIOUSLY MIXED-UP…
Lucy Sharp has been waiting all her too-quiet life for an adventure, and she means to make the most of this one. She’s going to enjoy the house party as no one has ever enjoyed a house party before, and in the meanwhile she’s going to enjoy every minute in the company of amusingly stern, formidably proper, outrageously handsome Mr. Blackshear. Let him disapprove of her all he likes—it’s not as though they’ll see each other again after today.
…or will they? When a carriage mishap and a snowstorm strand the pair miles short of their destination, threatening them with scandal and jeopardizing all their Christmas plans, they’ll have to work together to save the holiday from disaster. And along the way they just might learn that the best adventures are the ones you never would have thought to plan.
A Christmas Gone Perfectly Wrong is a long novella/short novel of about 62,000 words. It’s a prequel to the already-available Blackshear Family series. The e-book includes an excerpt of about 5600 words from A Lady Awakened; the novella itself ends at about the 90% mark on your e-reader.
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I downloaded A Christmas Gone Perfectly Wrong last time, and did not finish it. IIRC, my main issue was the hero, who desperately needs assistance pulling the stick out of his ass, paired with a solid dose of logical reasoning. Because much of the conflict is derived from his reactions to situations, and I couldn’t help thinking him an idiot, it seemed very contrived.
I, on the other hand, thoroughly enjoyed A Christmas Gone Thoroughly Wrong. I loved that the hero had a strong moral code but was still willing to negotiate, learn, and grow, adjusting that code as necessary without compromising his sense of self. I loved the philosophical discussions between Lucy and Andrew. I went into the book a little apprehensive because of Grant’s disclaimer about the borderline-consent issue, but I felt like it was handled deftly and not offensively. I liked how level-headed they both were, how they communicated instead of expecting each other to be telepathic, and especially how they worked together instead of undermining each other or grappling for control when things went against them.
Minor SPOILER, I guess: I liked that the hero was a virgin. The only other romance I’ve read with a virgin hero was Courtney Milan’s Unclaimed, where his virginity was a major plot element. I liked that Andrew was a virgin but it wasn’t a big deal or something that he angsted about. I liked that Lucy and Andrew were kind of awkward and unsure, and that they figured out how to make it work together.
Perfectly. Perfectly wrong, not thoroughly wrong. Some day I will learn to read my comment before clicking submit.
Unfortunately the Lisa Kleypas is not at $1.99 but $9.99 on Kobo :(.