Someone to Wed
RECOMMENDED: Someone to Wed by Mary Balogh is $1.99! To say Elyse loved this book is an understatement. She gave it an A:
It was emotionally rich, with a deeply engaging, slow-building romance centered around a conflict that didn’t ruin me. There’s sadness there, but not darkness.
If you love slow-burn romance or just a really beautifully written Regency, pick up Someone to Wed. You won’t be disappointed.
A very practical marriage makes Alexander Westcott question his heart in the latest Regency romance from the New York Timesbestselling author of Someone to Hold.
When Alexander Westcott becomes the new Earl of Riverdale, he inherits a title he never wanted and a failing country estate he can’t afford. But he fully intends to do everything in his power to undo years of neglect and give the people who depend on him a better life. . . .
A recluse for more than twenty years, Wren Heyden wants one thing out of life: marriage. With her vast fortune, she sets her sights on buying a husband. But when she makes the desperate—and oh-so-dashing—earl a startlingly unexpected proposal, Alex will only agree to a proper courtship, hoping for at least friendship and respect to develop between them. He is totally unprepared for the desire that overwhelms him when Wren finally lifts the veils that hide the secrets of her past. . . .
Add to Goodreads To-Read List →
This book is on sale at:
As an Amazon Associate we earn from qualifying purchases.
We also may use affiliate links in our posts, as well. Thanks!The Emperor’s New Clothes
The Emperor’s New Clothes by Victoria Alexander is $1.99! This is a standalone American historical romance. I was looking through the reviews on Goodreads and several readers mentioned not liking the heroine because of her amoral attitude. She’s a thief and a con artist. However, that’s kind of my catnip, so your mileage may vary.
Ophelia Kendrake had barely finished conning the coat off a cardsharp’s back before she and her adopted sister stumbled into Dead End, Wyoming, and received a welcome fit for a queen. Mistaken for the Countess of Bridgewater, Ophelia saw no reason to reveal herself until she had stripped the hamlet of its fortunes and escaped into the sunset. Raised from grifter to gentlewoman, the fiery-haired actress couldn’t help but chuckle at teaching a lesson to a town so sold on appearances. But the free-spirited beauty almost swallowed her script when she met Tyler, the town’s virile mayor.
When Tyler Matthews returned from an Ivy League college and his year abroad, he simply wanted to settle down and enjoy the simplicity of ranching. But his aunt and uncle were set on making a silk purse out of Dead End, and Tyler was going to be the new mayor. It was a job he took with little relish—until he caught a glimpse of the village’s newest visitor. And as Tye got to know the “Countess” Ophelia, he grew to love her. But trusting her was a different story, and Tye swore that before he was through, he’d uncover her deepest secrets—and teach her that it’s what’s underneath that counts in matters of the heart.
Add to Goodreads To-Read List →
This book is on sale at:
As an Amazon Associate we earn from qualifying purchases.
We also may use affiliate links in our posts, as well. Thanks!Disappearance at Devil’s Rock
RECOMMENDED: Disappearance at Devil’s Rock by Paul Tremblay is $1.99 at Amazon! Because the price is only at Amazon, I’m worried this sale might expire soon, FYI. Elyse pulled a Bad Decisions Book Club for this one:
Disappearance at Devil’s Rockis one of my favorite books of the summer. It’s smart, and frightening, and wonderfully written. It’s also keeping me from getting a good night’s sleep and probably putting my barista at Starbucks through college.
A family is shaken to its core after the mysterious disappearance of a teenage boy in this eerie tale, a blend of literary fiction, psychological suspense, and supernatural horror from the author of A Head Full of Ghosts.
Late one summer night, Elizabeth Sanderson receives the devastating news that every mother fears: her thirteen-year-old son, Tommy, has vanished without a trace in the woods of a local park.
The search isn’t yielding any answers, and Elizabeth and her young daughter, Kate, struggle to comprehend Tommy’s disappearance. Feeling helpless and alone, their sorrow is compounded by anger and frustration: the local and state police have uncovered no leads. Josh and Luis, the friends who were the last to see Tommy before he vanished, may not be telling the whole truth about that night in Borderland State Park, when they were supposedly hanging out a landmark the local teens have renamed Devil’s Rock.
Living in an all-too-real nightmare, riddled with worry, pain, and guilt, Elizabeth is wholly unprepared for the strange series of events that follow. She believes a ghostly shadow of Tommy materializes in her bedroom, while Kate and other local residents claim to see a shadow peering through their windows in the dead of night. Then, random pages torn from Tommy’s journal begin to mysteriously appear—entries that reveal an introverted teenager obsessed with the phantasmagoric; the loss of his father, killed in a drunk-driving accident a decade earlier; a folktale involving the devil and the woods of Borderland; and a horrific incident that Tommy believed connects them.
As the search grows more desperate, and the implications of what happened become more haunting and sinister, no one is prepared for the shocking truth about that night and Tommy’s disappearance at Devil’s Rock.
Add to Goodreads To-Read List →
This book is on sale at:
As an Amazon Associate we earn from qualifying purchases.
We also may use affiliate links in our posts, as well. Thanks!The Brothers Sinister: Complete Boxed Set
The Brothers Sinister: Complete Boxed Set by Courtney Milan is $2.99! The set includes four full-length novels and three novellas, and I believe we’ve reviewed them all here!
The Governess Affair: B-
The Duchess War: A+
A Kiss for Midwinter: A-
The Heiress Effect: A+
The Countess Conspiracy: B-
The Suffragette Scandal: A
Talk Sweetly to Me: BThis is the complete boxed set of Courtney Milan’s acclaimed Brothers Sinister Series – four full length books, three novellas – together, almost half a million words.
The Governess Affair
Miss Serena Barton intends to hold the petty, selfish duke who had her sacked responsible for his crimes. But the man who handles all the duke’s dirty business has been ordered to get rid of her by fair means or foul. She’ll have to prove more than his match…
The Duchess War
The last time Minerva Lane she was the center of attention, it ended badly—so badly that she changed her name to escape her scandalous past. So when a handsome duke comes to town, the last thing she wants is his attention.
But that is precisely what she gets…
A Kiss for Midwinter
Miss Lydia Charingford does her best to forget the dark secret that nearly ruined her life, hiding it beneath her smiles. But someone else knows the truth of those dark days: the sarcastic Doctor Jonas Grantham. She wants nothing to do with him…or the butterflies that take flight in her stomach every time he looks her way…
The Heiress Effect
Miss Jane Fairfield does everything wrong in society–intentionally.
Mr. Oliver Marshall does everything right. So why is it, then, that the one woman he can’t forget is the exact opposite of what he needs?
The Countess Conspiracy
Sebastian Malheur is the most dangerous sort of rake. Violet Waterfield, the widowed Countess of Cambury, on the other hand, is entirely respectable–and she’d like to stay that way. Their association would be scandalous even if someone suspected lies. But the truth about the secrets they share will bring England to its knees…
The Suffragette Scandal
A suffragette meets a scoundrel, and as scoundrels do, he lies to her, attempts to blackmail her…and falls in love with her against his better judgment. By the time he realizes that his cynical heart is hers, it’s too late. Once the woman he loves realizes how much he’s lied to her, he’ll lose her forever.
Talk Sweetly to Me
Miss Rose Sweetly is a shy, mathematically-minded shopkeeper’s daughter who dreams of the stars. When Stephen Shaughnessy, infamous advice columnist and known rake, moves next door, she knows she should avoid him. But you know what they say about the best-laid plans of mice and astronomers…
Add to Goodreads To-Read List →
This book is on sale at:
As an Amazon Associate we earn from qualifying purchases.
We also may use affiliate links in our posts, as well. Thanks!
Don't want to miss an ebook sale? Sign up for our newsletter, and you'll get the week's available deals each Friday.
Muffins & Biscuits: 50 Recipes to Start Your Day by Heidi Gibson is $1.99. It has a GREAT table of contents, which every digital cookbook should aspire to so you can see what’s in it from the sample. Sweet and savory options for both types of baked goods as well as a section for flavored butters and spreads. Not every recipe has a picture, but most of the missing ones can be assumed to look similar to every other muffin/biscuit you’ve ever seen, so.
Tor’s freebie for Pride Month is a 4-novella bundle featuring LGBTQ+ characters by own-voices authors, including:
The Lamb Will Slaughter the Lion by Margaret Killjoy
Passing Strange by Ellen Klages
A Taste of Honey by Kai Ashante Wilson
The Black Tides of Heaven by JY Yang
Available until 11:59 PM eastern US time on June 7 via https://ebookclub.tor.com/
The Lost Girls of Paris by Pam Jenoff is 3.99 )kindle daily deal)
I LOVE the Countess Conspiracy and resent the B- grade.
I’m with EJ! And while we are at it, Talk Sweetly To Me was also a winner. As far as I am concerned the whole series is a strong B+ If not A-. I guess YMMV, but I think Courtney Milan is the bees knees and can write her way around almost everyone out there writing historical fiction.
I envy the person who picks up the Brothers Sinister set for the first time and discovers Courtney Milan.
And while we’re at it, The Governess Affair definitely doesn’t work as a stand alone but the scene with the hairpins made me feel all the feelings. I love Oliver and Free’s parents and the whole family.
This is where self control beats immediate needs gratification. Having spent a caboodle of money on the Brothers Sinister books, my superior, told-you-so side is seriously finger wagging at my now-now-now, Veruca Salt I want it NOW side.
@EmilyC – that was me last year, the last time the box set was on sale! I bought the box set and read the entire thing while on vacation. I’d been so busy with work and school (mid-life career change) that I’d been out of the loop for awhile and had started lurking around SBTB again to find out what was happening in Romancelandia (embarrassingly hadn’t read the blog since the early years).
It was so startlingly good. I bought the rest of her boxed sets on kindle. I save her new releases (when there are new releases) for breaks between quarters, as a sort of post finals reward now…
I’ve found other authors here that I’d seen at the bookstore or on kindle that I had never tried. Love this blog and community!
Chiming in that The Countess Conspiracy was robbed. On the other hand, The Suffragette Scandal is the only Milan I haven’t been able to finish. It’s not bad, it just doesn’t grab me.
This is kind of an odd note, but I wouldn’t recommend the audiobook of DISAPPEARANCE AT DEVIL’S ROCK. I tried listening to it last year on SBTB’s recommendation, and it was a DNF for me. I’m guessing based on my experience that it’s a better on-paper read.
I loved The Brothers Sinister series. I paid full price for the set and feel it was worth it, so $2.99 is an absolute steal. I loved The Countess Conspiracy so much, I bought the paperback as well.
@Kay – Me too, and I never ever buy two copies of the same book. The Countess Conspiracy is everything.
I finished a big work thing last week and unexpectedly had the week off. I’d been reading The Suffragette Scandal whenever I was travelling this spring, and so I went back to the beginning and binged them all in about 5 days. They were exactly the smart, challenging, gentle but not soft books that I needed. (Totally worth full price, so this is a score).
If we’re still going on about The Countess Conspiracy, I loved the back rub scene. It raised my real-life expectations in a way books normally don’t.
My thoughts on The Countess Conspiracy:
-the plot is so unique. Life-long friends turned scientific collaborators. He’s the only way her research can reach the public. I love the scenes between them in her lab.
-again, life-long friends. They know each other better than anyone. He is so loving and patient with her while she grapples with past trauma and her feelings for him. He’s pined after her his whole life but never expects a damn thing she can’t give
-banter! All of the scenes between them in previous books are hilarious.
-the bachelor party!!
-he allows her work to be taken seriously, but at the same time she helps him be taken seriously by his loved ones. She sees that he’s more than the clown he pretends to be.
-*SPOILER* no. magical. baby. So important to this story.
Countess Conspiracy is one of my all-time favorite romances. That B- is ridiculous!
@Ren Benton- thanks for the Tor link!