For the Earl's Pleasure

For the Earl's Pleasure by Anne Mallory 910 R

Abigail Smart and Valerian Rainwood, heir to the Dukedom of Pemburry, were once the closest of childhood friends but when Valerian's older brother, Thornton died, a horrible secret was revealed and the two of them became the strongest of enemies. Now Abigail' social climbing mother has hired Mrs. Browning to bring Abigail out into the ton, even though Abigail has never had a standout beau. Valerian knows he should stay away Abigail, that the two of them move in very different circles, but he cannot get her out of his mind. One night at a gaming hell he and his friend are attacked and suddenly he is a spirit and the only person who can see or hear him is Abigail- the girl who had revealed her ability to see spirit's when his brother died and whom he refused to believe. He knows that he is still alive somewhere and since Abigail is the only one he can ask for help, he refuses to leave her alone until she agrees. Abigail does not want to help the man who has made her life miserable for years, but when he continues to haunt her she is worried that he strange actions will make it clear to her mother that she is still seeing spirits.

Long ago her mother had enlisted the help of a doctor to cure Abigail of her affliction and the memories have haunted her nightmare's and she will do anything to avoid that happening again. But Valerian is not like the other spirits that Abigail has met before because he can touch her and if there is one thing that she has been missing in her life it is the touch of a human being- even her mother has stopped touching her. Valerian is trying to figure out who is behind what happened to him and occasional flashes to his body tied down give him clues as to what is going on, but he still needs a physical human to aid him. Abigail leads Valerian and her med, Telly, around the seedy parts of London and it becomes clear that not only is someone using Valerian's body for some unsavory deeds, but this person knows about Abigail's secret and is determined to do her harm as well. Together the spirit and the human will put their lives at risk to find out what is going on, but neither knows if their newfound friendship and love will be enough to put aside years of estrangement and their pasts and truly fall in love.

This book started off incredibly confusing and the character's were so mean together for a chapter with vague hints about a secret and I was very close to just putting it down. Surprisingly the story didn't start getting interesting until Valerian's spirit entered the spirit because the characters finally started acting friendly toward each other. As previously stated I am not a fan of paranormal romances and I would not have normally picked this up except the back made absolutely no mention of ghosts or spirits which drives me insane and I think is just false advertising. One of my biggest problems with the ghost plot was that it forced Valerian to spend all of his time with Abigail, and while these two had a lot to work out and talk about, I thought that making him completely dependent on her made the development of their relationship rather suspect. It did not seem like they would have gotten together if he had continued to be "alive" and they would have continued as enemies. However, many romances don't have characters spending enough time together so this one method of "solving" this problem.

Abigail's ability to see spirits aside, I really like that the pain and loneliness she suffered from because of her unusual ability, was made clear and was interwoven into Valerian's strange ability to touch and feel her as a spirit. It really made the moments when he was touching her so poignant and moving because it was two people who needed each other and it was just beautiful. Valerian came across as a bit of an ass because even with the explanation of what went wrong in their relationship (which occurred far too late) I wanted to slap him because he didn't want her and was really mean to her, but didn't want anyone else to have her either. He did undergo a change throughout the course of the novel as he came to understand what was going on with Abigail, and I did begin to like and respect him because of his love for Abigail. The sex between them was hot if nowhere near frequent enough, but maybe that's just as well because ghost sex is a little icky to me. The side plot involving what happened to Valerian was overwhelming and did take over the book, but at least it had a lot of twists and did come as a shocker.

Rating: A good book with some problems such as a ghost and an overwhelming mystery plot, but the romance and relationship were fairly well done and the book was readable.

What Isabella Desires

What Isabella Desires by Anne Mallory 722

The widowed Lady Isabella Willouhby has harbored a secret love for Lord Marcus Stewart, Baron of Roth, for years, but she married sensibly instead. Her husband was ill for years before dying and she has spent the intervening years being prim and proper and she has just decided that it is time for hr to take some risks. She enlists the help of some friends, who shockingly happen to be married to Marcus's foreign office pals, to get her in to some very risque parties where other men flirt with her. It is there that Marcus's friends begin to confront him with the fact that he is insanely jealous of any men who happens to glance her way, despite his protestations to the contrary. Marcus knows he cannot marry because the men in his family have died young and some headaches have led him to believe he will eventually be going blind.

There are also bad men, who appear out of nowhere and with no explanation, are following Marcus and kidnapping and killing off the men who work for him. When these men who are after Marcus turns their eyes to Isabella he decides that the best solution would be to whisk her off the seaside where she can indulge in her feelings for him and he can keep her safe. But Isabella is disappointed when Marcus holds back from her in the bedroom and even more so when she discovers that he has been keeping secret from her. He does not want to get involved with her and he does not want to risk her life, but he is also unwilling to admit his feelings for her. In a fit of pique she runs back ton London and they both attempt to move on with their lives, but those men are still out there and Marcus needs to keep her safe. But in the end it is his fear of death that Marcus will have to overcome before he can end up with Isabella.

I was at first attracted to the idea of a repressed widow going after the bad guy rake that she wanted, but this book severely disappointed. Isabella was great by herself as she had genuine interests, she did go after what she wanted but she was also realistically scared and intimidated. Unfortunately Marcus was much less well done in general. He was a take charge kind of guy who was responsible for running Parliament apparently but we really did not see any examples of anything good he had done, although we did not get some great views of how he ruined guys who disagreed with him. Also I was very disappointed with his demons about dying early and going blind as not enough of the story was told from his point of view. While this could have been done at least fairly well there really was just not enough explanation and backstory to make this plot believable and it came across as just ridiculous and frustrating.

I sometimes complain about the murder/ mystery/ side-plot taking over the romance and the book, but in this case, although I felt the bizarre spy-whatever plot completely dominated the book, I wouldn't say that it overwhelmed as it did not end up taking up enough space in the book to really make any sense. Honestly I could not really figure out what the point of them wanting to hurt Marcus was or what he had really done to make them so mad at them. No one involved spent enough time reflecting on what was happening and to be honest I felt as though this part of the book was a carry over from other books in the series. Throughout the book I felt as though I was missing some very important backstory from these other books and things really seemed to pick up from where they left off in former books. In this same vein there were almost constant scenes where former love-birds showed up in the book and were just so gosh darn happy.

Rating: I really did not like this book at all except for how incredibly fast it went as both the romance and the side plot were underdone and almost everything was unexplained.

The Bride Price

The Bride Price by Anne Mallory

When a contest to earn a viscount-cy is announced all the natural (bastard) and 3 and 4th sons of the aristocracy immediately rush to enter. Sebastian Deville, natural son of the Duke is encouraged to enter when his father makes Sebastian's dead mother's estate part of the prize. Also part of the prize is winning the hand of Lady Sarah whose father, an Earl, is hosting the events. Caroline Martin is determined that her kind, gentle, some would say meek, cousin will not be thrown to the wolves who will misuse her as Sarah's own father misused her mother. She is dependent upon her uncle's generosity so she if forced to help set up the games and ensure things run smoothly, but she is determined to do everything she can to keep Sarah away from the degenerates. And then she meets Sebastian and the two do not hit it off to say the least. He insults her drawing ability and nearly seduces her right there in the bushes. This will be a recurring theme in their relationship.

Deville is determined to win the contest, especially when his half brother, the Duke's legitimate son Benedict enters and is widely regarded as his toughest competition. Events include a game of cards, a horse race, a modified horse race where the opponents try to catch rings, archery, and gun play. Caroline is working behind the scenes to try to sabotage everyone's chance of winning the competition (although her attempts are laughable) and Deville is working hard to win in order to finally prove that he deserves his father's respect (although he'd never admit it). As the book draws closer to the end Caroline becomes more and more worried that Deville will win and choose her cousin while Deville begins to wonder if winning is worth the cost to his pride that dancing at his father's command will entail. To complicate matters further is a potential suitor for Sarah, and both the Duke and Earl trying to warn Caroline off Sebastian for very different reasons. But Caroline is the sort to make up her own mind and one can definitely see the progression Sebastian makes from jaded bastard to the sort of man Caroline can love.

I tried not to let the fact that this competition was utterly unrealistic get in the way of my enjoyment of it, but it was rather difficult even though I am almost never a stickler for historical accuracy and tend to hate those who are. But the whole competition was just a little pathetic- card games and horse racing; it just seemed too simple as if the aristocracy was admitting that they were all stupid and useless at anything worthwhile. My major complaint is with the way the two protagonists behave towards each other- especially the way Sebastian treats Caroline. At first he believes she is a scullery maid so he treats her poorly (not that it's excused even then) but when he discovers her true identity he still spends far too much time insulting her, being jaded around her and rather harshly trying to seduce her. As a reviewer on amazon puts it: he pursues her the same way he pursues the tournament, as if it/ she is something to conquer and own. Literally.

And that feeling spills out into the sex which is super hot and there's certainly plenty of lead up. It was definitely interesting to read about a hero who actively admits to self-pleasuring and engages in it with the heroine. One particularly steamy scene was a little disconcerting; although they were both enjoying it there seemed to be too much "tell me I own you," and basically mental control on his part. I assume we're supposed to see how his barriers are collapsing as well. And there is certainly plenty of angst- although it seems a little too depressed to call angst at times- as she believes she is falling for a man who is just like her former husband and a man who will choose her cousin over her. While he believes he could lose the icy control he has needed to survive his father and half-brother and the lordship he has always wanted.

Rating: It was one of the more interesting novels I've read recently but instead of giving it 4 stars to show that it was better, I just knocked down some 3's to 2's so that one can adequatelky understand that this was better, but not that much better.