Valentine

Valentine by Jane Feather 1227

Sylvester Gilbraith is heir to the Earl of Stonebridge but generations ago the Stonebridge family suffered a schism and since then the Gilbraith's had not been accepted, acknowledged, or even tolerated by the Earls. Sylvester had served in the army and during a battle he surrendered to the French and spent time in a French prison, but because he was hit with a bayonet he cannot remember the circumstances of his surrender. People in England believed he had surrendered unnecessarily because his friend was right behind him with reinforcements and he was prosecuted for cowardly behavior and even though he was acquitted most of London society has turned their back on him. His grandfather had no choice but to leave Stonebridge estate to Sylvester but a codicile in the will places a restriction on him; he must marry one of the old earl's beloved granddaughter's if he wants any of the Stonebridge fortune, otherwise it will be divided among the women of the family. Upon arrival at Stonebridge estates he quickly realizes that the only one of the young women who suits him is the spirited, and young, Theodora, Theo.

Theo has no intention of marrying a hated Gilbraith, but she cannot deny her attraction to Sylvester and she desperately wants to continue as master of the Stonebridge estate. Sylvester uses her attraction and her love for the land and its' people to convince her to marry him and promises that he will not continue to be a manipulative husband. Unfortunately for him Theo is incredibly headstrong and incapable of reigning in her controlling nature and wants to be involved in everything, including Sylvester's problems. She is hurt when she discovers that Sylvester kept the circumstances surrounding their marriage a secret but she still wants to make the marriage work, something she is finding more and more difficult as Sylvester continues to hide his life from her. When they go to London his past is right there confronting them and it becomes obvious that someone is trying to keep the truth about the battle hidden and Sylvester is determined to clear his name. Theo wants to help but doing so puts her in danger and Sylvester will put his own good name second after saving the life of the woman he loves.

Theo was great at running the estate and cared about her tenants and their well being but she was incredibly young, incredibly naive, and just a little too much for me. She threw little hissy fits about things that seemed inconsequential and then forgave him for his "betrayal" of not telling her about their marriage so easily. But the worst was when she was trying to figure out who wanted to harm him and did some amazingly dangerous things. Things that definitely crossed in to too stupid to live territory and made me lose whatever respect I had for her estate running abilities. Sylvester was manipulative and did lie to Theo and I felt like his attitude toward her were very paternalistic like he did not believe she could make decisions for herself. He was withdrawn but I admired his recognition that Theo's help would be really welcome on the estate. There relationship was heavily influenced by the age difference between them, she was 20 and he was 35 and it made for a rather awkward romance in my opinion. I wanted some times between them where they were working on the same level; working together.

There was some sex between them but it was annoying because all of the "affectionate" love making where they did it for mutual pleasure were just flowered over and the times when he was using it to manipulate her went into more detail. I found myself wondering several times throughout the book how much a character's realization that they are doing something wrong make up for them actually doing something wrong. Sylvester used sex several times throughout the book to end an argument or distract Theo and he knew he was doing it and promised not to do it again so I found his self-reflection nice, but it was not an admirable trait. Theo knew she was meddling and that it wasn't always the right thing to do but she continued to do it and for both characters I could not figure out why they continued to do things like this. The plot about Sylvester's cowardice charges was really interesting and I was really drawn into it and really wanted to discover what was going on. It wasn't a mystery because we were given insights into the villain's mind and I enjoyed that and felt like this aspect of the book was well done.

Rating: A not quite romantic relationship between them and I wish they'd worked better together with an interesting mystery/ side-plot.

A Wedding Wager

A Wedding Wager by Jane Feather 710

The Honorable Sebastian Sullivan falls in love with Lady Serena Grantley, but because of her dependence on her step-father she is forced to break his heart so that she and her step-father can run away to Brussels. General Hayword, her step-father, has always stayed one step ahead of the law, opening up gambling houses, and Serena knows to do what he tells her. Three years later they are back in London and though she hopes to avoid Sebastian, London is not that big of a town. Sebastian needs to marry a woman of questionable morals in order to fulfill the terms of his uncle's will so that he and his brother's can inherit quite a large amount of money. He wants to forget about Serena, and has been semi successful over the last 3 years, but he cannot keep his mind off of her. Serena knows that Hayword intends to marry the young Abigail Sutton, an heiress from a trade family whose mother wants her to marry well, and Serena is determined to thwart his plans.

A trick of fate throws Sebastian into the Sutton's orbit as well so it becomes even more difficult for the two of them to avoid each other. The passion they had felt for each other years ago is far from gone and even though the two of them both feel like there can be no future they arrange to sneak off together and indulge themselves. However, Sebastian quickly comes to the realization that he wants, he needs, Serena in his life and it is only a bonus that his uncle regards Serena as a fallen lady so she would fulfill the terms of the will. But Serena has lived all of her adult life under the thumb of a domineering man and is wary of placing herself under Sebastian's power and she refuses to let go of her plan to keep her step-father away from young Abigail. So Sebastian agrees to help her in this endeavor so he can get her to marry him and they find help in Abigail's true love and set out to win over the Mrs. Sutton. But the General has one more trick up his sleeve that threatens Sebastian and Serena's relationship forever, and they must make one final go so that they can have their happily ever after.

The biggest hole in the book permeated everything from the very beginning so I need to address it at the beginning of the review. Serena's refusal to leave her step-father just seems absolutely ridiculous weather at the beginning, when she first falls in love, and then later when she and Sebastian are reunited. During their first fall in love I couldn't figure out what hold her step-father had on her except for money and Sebastian wasn't that broke and they would not have starved so why didn't she just leave him? Then later her excuse that she wanted to save Abigail just came across as ridiculous and caused her so much grief. She didn't want to tell anyone the truth about her evil step-father because they would take Abigail away from London and deprive her of a season but that seemed a small price to pay. Instead she stayed with a man who abused her and really killed her mother even though she should have just left him in the beginning. This was a really big hurdle to get over and even while I liked the rest of the book this really provided a ridiculous background for the rest of the book so I couldn't forget it.

Sebastian and Serena were both typical romance novel characters; he was strong and broody and she was beautiful and able to take care of herself (although we know she would do better with a man cause she made some bad decisions). The only thing that was surprising about him was that he wasn't rolling in the dough and possess great financial acumen. Their relationship was quick to develop because they had already done the whole meet and fall in love thing and I wish I had gotten more of a look into what drew these two together. They both forgave each other very quickly over what happened which surprised me, but there was still a really large amount of angst on both their parts. The sex was more frequent than I was expecting and spread throughout a lot of the book but it was not really that steamy or hot; really kind of bland. My favorite part really was the romance between Abigail and her beau and the relationship between Abigail's parents. I liked getting to read from the POV of many different characters and Feather certainly developed all of them very well. The book was just a little too long though- 450 pages.

Review: I did enjoy this book although I wish it had been shorter and it easily could have been if there hadn't been quite so much of Serena's reluctance to leave her step-father.

Silver Nights

Silver Nights by Jane Feather 511

Count Adam Danievski has been sent by Catherine, Empress of Russia, to fetch Princess Sophia Alexeyevna who the empress plans to wed to a general in the army, General Paul Dmitriev, Sophia has grown up in the wilds of Russia with only her grandfather for company and she has enjoyed her freedom and having her own way often. She is unhappy about her planned marriage, but is eventually talked in to going to St. Petersburg where she will get to meet her husband and have final decision on the marriage. On the way she gets to know her escort very well and can't help but wish that Adam was the one that the Empress had picked out for her husband. Paul had originally planned to marry Sophia's mother and was furious when she had married another man, and he plans to exact his revenge by marrying Sophia. He puts on a happy and congenial face and Sophia decides that marriage to him is something she will just have to endure and hope for the best. Unfortunately once she marries him she is horrified to discover that it was all an act and that he has every intention of bringing Sophia into submission and engages in psychological torture in order to do so.

He begins by getting rid of all of her servants and replacing them with spies and keeping her from going out in public or riding her beloved her horse. Adam finds every opportunity to visit Sophia in her new home and he realizes that something is not right, but there is very little that he can do. The little moments they steal together are the happiest in Sophia's life, but her husband keeps such a tight leash on her that they are difficult to find. When Paul discovers that she has asked her grandfather for help he decides it is once and for all time to rid himself of his horrid wife and sends her on a death march that will allow him to play the mourning husband. Adam finds out in time to rescue her and the two begin a season-long honeymoon at her grandfather's palace and try to forget that out in the real world there is very little hope for their relationship. Reality intrudes in the form of a summons from the empress and Paul is furious to learn that his wife has survived his attempt to get rid of her, even more so when he discovers that she is having an affair. He hunts her down with an army, but Adam is there to protect the family that he wants to build with Sophia, and without Paul in the picture there may be hope that the stars will align for these two lovers to be together.

I do not believe I would have picked this book up if I had realized what it was really about because Russia is not really my place of choice and the topic was very heavy. Some of my favorite books are about women who have affairs, but I don't think they are really my choice du jour in romance novels. I read until the wedding in this one and then put it down for a month because I realized it was going to be fairly depressing for awhile and while I am not against heavy topics in a romance novel, her being married to a man who psychologically tortures her was a little too much for me. When I picked it up again I was basically just determined to get through it as soon as possible, which is what I did, even when it really messed with my head. The major focus of this book for me was her getting out of this marriage and it kind of made the romance and relationship a secondary focus. Every time Adam and Sophia were together, or anytime anything was happening, I was worried about Paul and how she was going to escape him or what would happen. This made it very difficult to enjoy the relationship or for me to really be happy for them and really just took over the book for me, which was something I really didn't like.

Both Sophia and Adam were likable characters, strong-willed and independent, but they recognized that they had to play the game that was set before them. Her ability to keep her spirits despite what Paul was putting her through was admirable, and Adam's ability to keep her from losing herself was a really great addition to the book. I was rather surprised when these two admitted to being in love because they really hadn't spent much time together at that point and I didn't really see any love developing. Eventually they do spend more time together and worked well together though, so it did work out. I found the sex rather bland and while they certainly did it a lot, it was really nothing special and got rather flowery and wordy and I skipped over it. I actually really enjoyed the parts of the book that were told from the point of view of Paul because it is nice to get some insight into the mind of the bad guy, and I liked the empress's POV as well because she came across very realistically. I am not really a fan of Feather's writing style as it is very heavy, very wordy, and often branches off into tangents that are important for the novel, but not necessarily for the romance and I want her to get back "on topic" as it were.

Rating: Different than my usual book and while it was intriguing, I could not get into the heaviness, almost depressing nature, of this book.

Rushed to the Altar

Rushed to the Altar by Jane Feather 826

Jasper Sullivan, the Earl of Blackwater, is not at all pleased when his dissolute uncle converts to Catholicism on his deathbed and decrees that his three nephews will have to save a lost soul by marrying a prostitute. Clarissa Astley is in London following her Uncle Luke in order to find her brother, Francis. After their father died he gave Francis into Luke's keeping and Luke took Francis and he has not been seen since. While wandering through the streets she bumps into Jasper who mistakes the woman alone on the street as a prostitute and decides that she will be a perfect soul to save and marry. She is horrified at first at the charade she is forced to engage in to pull this off but figures that hiding as a mistress is the perfect way to hide for her uncle while she works to find her brother at one of the baby farms she believes Francis has been placed in.

To hide her virginity from him she engages that help of some of the ladies of the evening at the establishment where she was able to find lodging. She is almost fully prepared when she moves in with Jasper but for a man with his experience it is obvious that Clarissa is anything but the whore he had been led to believe. Meanwhile Clarissa is scouring the seediest part of London looking for her brother and it isn't long before Luke realizes what has happened and decides that the best way to go about gaining Francis's fortune is to just get rid of Clarissa. Jasper is coming to love Clarissa and wants her to trust him with the secrets she's been keeping, including the sudden appearance of the young chimney-sweep, Frank, in the house. She desperately wants to, but is scared of what will happen to their relationship, but before she has the chance, Luke makes an appearance and Jasper will have to come to the rescue.

It took me a little while to get into this book and it was slow going for a while but once I got about halfway through the book I just zipped through it. It really took off when the relationship between Jasper and Clarissa became a real thing and not just something that was hinted at and talked about and when stuff finally started to happen with Francis and the evil Uncle Luke. Absolutely loved Charissa and how she went after her brother and pretended to be a prostitute and especially that she was willing to do some pretty wild stuff to pull off the charade. I won't make a spoiler but the way she "hid" her virginity was something I certainly never would have imagined reading. Jasper was almost as exciting but I really wish more of the book had been told from his point of view. I especially liked near the end as he began to get worried that Clarissa did not have the same feelings for him.

The convoluted will that brought the two of them together was quite an original and I really liked it. And I really liked the plot involving Uncle Luke and Francis because it added a real oomph to the story with some mystery and suspense. I was rather expecting that Francis' plight would lead to Clarissa becoming a crusader for children's rights and I admit I was a little disappointed when that did not happen. Francis was a very well written ten year old however I got a little frustrated when Clarissa basically set herself up by going out around town when she knew that there was a crazy man out on the loose looking for them. I also very much liked the parts of the book that were told from the point of view of Luke as it's always so interesting to really hear what the bad guy is thinking.

Rating: I really enjoyed all the interesting plots that combined to make such a great book that could have used some more realism and smarter characters.

Bold Destiny

Bold Destiny by Jane Feather

Bold Destiny is the story of Annabel Spencer, who has spent the last 8 years as the possession of Akbar Khan (in his harem basically), and Christopher "Kit" Ralston, a dissolute and disaffected soldier in British occupied Afghanistan. When Annabel, renamed Ayesha, is given to Kit for a night of passion to humiliate him (Akbar is proving that he has power over one of Kit's Englishwomen) and put her in her place, Kit becomes determined to "rescue" her from a life she insists she does not want to leave. The setting for out story is the contested city of Kabul which is British controlled but surrounded and inhabited by natives who have more sympathy or are outright members of the rebel tribes who have Akbar as their unofficial leader. The British are being governed by the most hardheaded bonehead who refuses to see reason or listen to the advice of those who might know better and chaos breaks out. Kit uses the maelstrom surrounding him to "kidnap" Annabel from Akbar, although she kind of does go willingly as she fears that raising a fuss will cause guards to kill Kit.

The two go to a more fortified area where Annabel has trouble reconciling her two personalities and draws a lot of attention to her and Kit's unorthodox relationship. The more fortified area comes under attack and the inhabitants become virtual prisoners of Akbar's army and Annabel becomes more and more convinced that "destiny will take its' course." Tensions run high and Annabel and Kit ease their tension through a series of arguments and sex and repeat. Eventually the "prisoners" evacuate and the long hard march towards freedom is grueling and deadly until Akbar waylays them and Annabel is forced to confront the issue of where her "essence" truly lies; with Akbar or Kit and the English.

The book certainly drew on a lot of historical details and according to the afterward most of them were pretty accurate so the author obviously did a ton of research. Unfortunately this did kind of make the book heavy on the historical facts and sorting out the incompetent generals from each other become kind of a chore. But it was certainly a nice little history, in an area where too few people know the history despite its' importance, wrapped up in a sweet package. Unfortunately it may have been a little too accurate as place and personal names became confusing and suffice to say that the history tends to be incredibly depressing. The ending was definitely a good part of the book, even if it was a long way in coming, being incredibly realistic for these two people but obviously the requisite "happy" ending.

The sex in the book was certainly plentiful but not of the best quality; too short or to euphamism filled or inuendo filled, but I will admit that I was glad we didn't have a sex scene between Annabel and Akbar. I don't want to sound squeamish but I will admit to being a little squicked by having our heroine be a ... harem slave (if that's accurate cause it certainly seems so). I've had no problem with mistresses or former prostitutes because they seem to at least have had some control over their sex lives, but our heroine was instructed on how to please a man who was basically her lord and master starting at the age 15! I can't resist being a little squeamish. And there definitely should have been more angst on both their parts over it; there was only one real instance where he found himself beginning to question how much a possession of Akbar Khan could ever really belong with someone else and it could have been a great source of angsty goodness. Although truth be told perhaps angst doesn't really have a place as people are dieing all around you.

Rating: Despite my squickishness I really liked the book and it was far from bland even if it didn't really seem like all that much of a traditional romance novel.