When a Rogue Meets His Match
When a Rogue Meets His Match by Elizabeth Hoyt is $2.99! I believe this is also a Kindle Daily Deal. This is book two in the Greycourt series. Ellen reviewed the first one to meh reviews and this one earned an F. Apparently the hero never sufficiently apologizes for his treatment of the heroine. However, I know Hoyt is an autobuy author for some if you’ve been waiting for this one to go on sale.
The second novel in New York Times and USA Today bestselling author Elizabeth Hoyt’s Greycourt Series features an enemies-to-lovers romance with her signature blend of captivating characters and sensual romance.
Ambitious, sly, and lethally intelligent, Gideon Hawthorne has spent his life clawing his way up from the gutter. For the last ten years, he’s acted as the Duke of Windemere’s fixer, performing the most dangerous tasks without question. Now Gideon’s ready to quit the duke’s service and work solely for himself. But Windermere wants Gideon to complete one last task, and his reward is impossible to resist: Messalina Greycourt’s hand in marriage.
Witty, vivacious Messalina Greycourt has her pick of suitors. When Windermere summons Messalina to inform his niece that she must marry Mr. Hawthorne, she is appalled. But she’s surprised when Gideon offers her a compromise: as long as she plays the complacent wife, he promises to leave her alone until she asks for his touch. Since Messalina is confident that she’ll never ask Gideon for anything, she readily agrees. However, the more time she spends with Gideon, the harder it is to stay away.
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RECOMMENDED: Slouch Witch by Helen Harper is FREE! I bought this urban fantasy when we featured it on sale last year, and even convinced Sarah to buy it. We squeed over it in a previous podcast, but are really eh on the next book. The first has a non-cliffhanger ending, but it wasn’t satisfying in terms of the romance.
Hard Work Will Pay Off Later. Laziness Pays Off Now.
Let’s get one thing straight – Ivy Wilde is not a heroine. In fact, she’s probably the last witch in the world who you’d call if you needed a magical helping hand. If it were down to Ivy, she’d spend all day every day on her sofa where she could watch TV, munch junk food and talk to her feline familiar to her heart’s content.
However, when a bureaucratic disaster ends up with Ivy as the victim of a case of mistaken identity, she’s yanked very unwillingly into Arcane Branch, the investigative department of the Hallowed Order of Magical Enlightenment. Her problems are quadrupled when a valuable object is stolen right from under the Order’s noses.
It doesn’t exactly help that she’s been magically bound to Adeptus Exemptus Raphael Winter. He might have piercing sapphire eyes and a body which a cover model would be proud of but, as far as Ivy’s concerned, he’s a walking advertisement for the joyless perils of too much witch-work.
And if he makes her go to the gym again, she’s definitely going to turn him into a frog.
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A Duke, a Lady, and a Baby by Vanessa Riley is $1.99! Like with most illustrated covers, readers say there’s a disconnect between the cover and the content, and that this one is a real emotional, tearjerker of a romance. Have you read it?
When headstrong West Indian heiress Patience Jordan questioned her English husband’s mysterious suicide, she lost everything: her newborn son, Lionel, her fortune—and her freedom. Falsely imprisoned, she risks her life to be near her child—until The Widow’s Grace gets her hired as her own son’s nanny. But working for his unsuspecting new guardian, Busick Strathmore, Duke of Repington, has perils of its own. Especially when Patience discovers his military strictness belies an ex-rake of unswerving honor—and unexpected passion…
A wounded military hero, Busick is determined to resolve his dead cousin’s dangerous financial dealings for Lionel’s sake. But his investigation is a minor skirmish compared to dealing with the forthright, courageous, and alluring Patience. Somehow, she’s breaking his rules, and sweeping past his defenses. Soon, between formidable enemies and obstacles, they form a fragile trust—but will it be enough to save the future they long to dare together?
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Duchess If You Dare by Anabelle Bryant is $1.99! This is one of Bryant’s more recent historical romances and starts the Maidens of Mayhem series. Catherine reviewed this one in April and certainly wanted more for the heroine in terms of a happy ending.
Fans of Sarah MacLean, Vanessa Riley, and Julia London will adore this modern take on the Regency, filled with tough, empowered women meeting their matches in a sexy story from rising star Anabelle Bryant.
From the glittering ballrooms of the ton to the city’s grittiest corners, London has no shortage of wrongs in need of righting—and the Maidens of Mayhem are prepared for the challenge. United by secrecy and sisterhood, these daring women from all walks of life aim to fight injustice wherever it takes them—even into the arms of unexpected love… These Regency Robin Hoods from USA Today bestselling author Anabelle Bryant are destined to storm into readers’ hearts!
Scarlett Wynn’s tragic childhood taught her that life can be cruel to women with little power. So when a local seamstress disappears, Scarlett vows to find out why. Armed with a weapon and her courage, Scarlett scours London for clues—and crosses the unlikely path of Ambrose Cross, the Duke of Aylesford, at an unlikely place: an upscale brothel. The Duke is trying to solve a mystery of his own, and Scarlett is sure they can help each other—if she can resist the attraction that draws them together…
As Duke, Ambrose is duty-bound to protect his family name from scandal, no matter the cost. But Scarlett’s fearless spirit forces him to look beyond his world of privilege. Scarlett is as intoxicating as she is dangerous, igniting a fire in him like no other. But when the pair learn both mysteries they’re trying to solve are tied to a string of missing women, the tangled scheme they uncover may put their lives, and their growing love, in mortal danger—and lead them to search their hearts like never before…
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I noped out of Hoyt’s books a while back—waaaay too much abuse and totally implausible “HEAs.”
Also, is that the regular price for A DUKE, A LADY, AND A BABY? I feel like this is at least the fourth time it’s been featured in Books on Sale.
Hoyt may have at one point been an autobuy author for me, but I graded book one of this new series a C- (I think? It’s been a while) and I haven’t even read book two even though I did buy it. Just sitting there in my kindle library.
Kate Clayborn’s LOVE AT FIRST is $1.99 at Amazon and $4.99 at Barnes & Noble.
@FashionablyEvil it’s very much not the regular price for the Riley. It’s a bargain at that price.
I really loved SLOUCH WITCH, but I agree that the next book was a dud. The final book in the trio was better, but the series definitely started strong and struggled to maintain its momentum.
Hey, the review link for Duchess if You Dare is broken. That said, I am really glad that I found it before I one-clicked.
@LJO: Should be fixed now! Cut off a letter in the URL!
I don’t know if this is regular price or not, but I just noticed that the first Murderbot book, All Systems Red, is $3.99–the rest of the novellas are so expensive that this feels like a sale? They get recommended so often here that I thought I’d give a heads-up. (Also, the whole series is amazing and exactly what I didn’t know I needed in the pandemic).
This is a tangent, but Ellen’s review of the Hoyt book made me think about why I can enjoy dark romance but a book like that would end up DNFed and/or launched across the room, and I think it’s all about framing–does the book actually realize how bad this behavior is? Does it present it as such? Whenever I read a book that passes off super-abusive stuff as normal and/or romantic and/or excusable, it feels invalidating, which annoys the crap out of me.
@Annie Kate: “I think it’s all about framing–does the book actually realize how bad this behavior is? Does it present it as such?” Exactly! I read a lot of dark romance—and one of its features is that for the most part awful behavior isn’t normalized. It might be accepted as part of the world the MCs inhabit (forced/arranged-mafia-marriage is a favorite sub-genre of mine), but rarely do I feel the authorial voice is giving the bad behavior a pass. It’s like, yeah—we all know kidnapping the daughter of a rival crime family and keeping her captive in my isolated mansion is wrong—go away, I’ve got a wedding to arrange!
I wish they would stop with the illustrated covers. I feel like it is sanitizing the whole genre. Romance covers are one of the best parts of the genre.
Jess – I’m okay with the illustrated covers for lighter-hearted fare, but Vanessa Riley’s work is being doubly disserved by them, both because they mislead the reader as to the tone *AND* obscure that her work features black people, which is just depressing. In the year of Oprah 2021, can we stop making editorial and marketing choices centering the oblivious white reader?
I have been waiting for the Hoyt to go on sale. I hated the first book in this series but have enjoyed every other Hoyt til that point. I also find the my mileage strongly varies when it comes to reviews of books so three dollars is a fairly low risk investment for me.
@Jess: I hate illustrated covers! Not only are they misleading in many cases (I’ve linked so often to the illustrated cover of Lexi Blake’s TAGGART FAMILY VALUES, I won’t do it here, but it’s the cutest little illustrated family cover—in a collection of bdsm-heavy short stories! Wtf, indeed), but I believe illustrated covers function, at some level, as a sort of “managed cultural consent” of what is acceptable for women to look at. I know we’re not all down with the shirtless cover models rocking the eight-pack abs and insane biceps, but I feel that illustrated covers are telling women that such visuals are not for any of us to enjoy!
/Dismounting soapbox now.
I loved the last book in the Slouch Witch series. I guess I’m an outlier in thinking each book was better than the other.
I listened to “Slouch Witch” and the two sequels (“Star Witch” and “Spirit Witch”) on audiobook and the second book was actually my favourite – except for the ending/solving of the mystery which I found weak in all three books. They’re great if you want cosy urban fantasy but as murder mysteries I found them quite unsatisfying.
I have genuinely LOVED many of Hoyt’s older books but I’ve felt like she’s kind of phoning things in lately, the latter part of the Maiden Lane serious was less emotionally intense than the the beginning plus some of her heroes have been horrifically toxic. Duke of Sin’s Val was a violent sociopath and absolutely nothing about his tragic childhood excused his violence and manipulation. The idea of him being a father is frankly revolting, which is not the feeling a romance should end on. I don’t know, I still think she’s a talented writer but I’m more cautious that autobuy these days.
@Lizzy—yes, DUKE OF SIN is where I quit reading Hoyt. This was my list of content warnings for the book (and I don’t normally go for CWs): child abuse, sexual assault, murder of animals (yes, animals plural; part of the child abuse), jokes about pedophilia (which is actually happening off page), violent kidnapping x2, racism/Islamophobia, failure to take any of the sexual assault seriously—apparently you just get over it.
@DiscoDollyDeb: I couldn’t agree more! The illustrated covers are used to make romance novels palatable to those who have contempt for the genre.