Cloudy with a Chance of Marriage

Cloudy with a Chance of Marriage by Kieran Kramer 616

Jilly Jones is the proprietess of Hodgepodge, a quaint little bookshop on London's most cursed street, Dreare Street in Mayfair. Her neighbor, Captain Stephen Archer, is home from sailing the high seas and capturing pirates and is making the most of the house on Dreare Street that he inherited. He and his fellow shipmates have been engaged in a raucaus party for the past week and Jilly has finally had enough and decides to confront Stephen. Before she knows it she is joining in the fun and both she and Stephen are thinking that there might be something more between them. But Jilly has a secret; she is a runaway wife from an abusive husband she married in order not to be thrown out on the street. Stephen only knows that he likes making his oh-so-proper neighbor loosen up and plans to dedicate himself to doing so. But then some distant relatives show up to use his new house for the season and to stave off their matchmaking efforts with their daughter he informs them that he and Jilly have an understanding.

Jilly agrees to go along with Stephen's ridiculous idea only if he agrees to help her with her newest idea to help bring cheer to Dreare street and raise funds for everyone to pay off their lease. Pretty soon Jilly and Stephen, and the rest of Dreare Street, is completely caught up in the momentum and determined to make this the best fair ever, including getting the Prince Regent to attend. Throughout it all Stephen and Jilly grow closer, talk about themselves, and while Stephen wonders if Jilly could be someone special and she wishes she could go back and change things. But bringing herself to the attention of the Prince Regent means it is easy for her husband to find her and when he shows up on Dreare Street he throws everything into disarray. Stephen is heartbroken and feels betrayed and the street fair is doomed and Jilly worries that she will have to spend the rest of her life with her abusive husband. But both of them realize that what they have is worth fighting for and together they can save Dreare Street and find a way for the two of them to wind up happily ever after.

Kramer continues with her Impossible Bachelors, this time with Stephen Archer, the ship captain whom I admittedly don't really remember much about from the other books. I was incredibly surprised to find so many negative reviews for this book on amazon and there were a lot of complaints about the writing, the characters, and the romance itself. I found this book to be incredibly light and very fast to read and felt from the reviews that people were expecting quite a lot from this book. I really liked both of the characters and did not mind that they did fall into a couple of romance novel cliches, such as when Jilly insisted she would not succumb to Stephen and yet she did so quickly. Jilly was a little too passionate to seem completely realistic, but I felt like it fit well with a woman who had escaped a bad marriage in order to start a new life. She was full of life, she was smart, and she was dedicated to a cause which she became invested in. Her decision to open up a bookstore on a cursed street was rather unintelligent, but that was my biggest problem with her, really.

Stephen was also interesting enough in his own right, but I felt like he was a little too carefree and I am getting tired of heroes who spend the first half just kind of breezing through everything and not really seeming to care how there actions are be interpreted by the heroine. But by throwing himself in with Jilly to plan the street fair, he proved that he was willing to be something more for the love of a good woman and I liked that about him. Their relationship was well developed and they spent a lot of time together and I really enjoyed reading about them falling in love. There was almost no sex between them, or steamy scenes either, and it was all at the end, but I had been expecting this after her last books. The street fair was rather ridiculous I'll admit, but I felt like it was a fair way to get Stephen and Jilly on the same page and working together so while I didn't really like it, I went along with it. Jilly's marriage was a nice little addition to add some emotional turmoil to the book and it was handled fairly and as realistically as possible.

Rating: A good book with some fun characters, but it really didn't have any spice or anything super exceptional- just a fast read.

Dukes to the Left of Me, Princes to the Right

Dukes to the Left of Me, Princes to the Right by Kieran Kramer 327

Lady Poppy Smith- Barnes has been deflected suitors for years by claiming to be in love with the Duke of Drummond, a character made up by her chef. She is a member of the Spinsters Club and all the members have taken an oath only to marry for love and Poppy is in love with Sergei, a Russian Prince, and she has been using Drummond as an excuse. Nicholas Staunton is the newly appointed Duke of Drummond since his uncle disappeared years ago and left him the title no one has heard of. He is also a member of The Service, a government organization dedicated to seeking out spies and protecting classified information. His commanding officer, Group, has deemed that it is time for Nicholas to give up his debauched ways and succumb to his Inevitable Fate by marrying and no one is more perfect than Poppy- the woman who everyone already believes is in love with him. When Sergei and his twin sister, Natasha, comes to town, Poppy sees it as the perfect opportunity to rekindle their romance and she is horrified when Drummond appears at a party.

Nicholas is very pleased to find that his future wife-to-be is so pretty, spirited, and intelligent, and believes they will suit very well if he can make Poppy agree to the match. The two are just pretending to be in love, but she does intend to call it off even while he has no plans to agree to this arrangement. The more time Poppy spends with Sergei, the more she is beginning to realize that he is spoiled, selfish, and completely inappropriate. Surprisingly it is Nicholas she is intrigued by; she wants to spend more time with him, wants to find out what he is so secretive about, and she definitely wants more of his kisses. Meanwhile Nicholas and Poppy join forces to try to steal back the "Pink Lady" painting, which is in Sergei's possession, because it is supposed to reveal the identity of a British spy. But unfortunately Sergei's twin sister wants Nicholas, and the painting for herself, and she has trick or two up her sleeve. Poppy and Nicholas' happy ending is not a sure thing and will take a lot of trust, a lot of love, and a lot of intrigue before the two of them get their happily ever after.

Every book that features a heroine who is originally in love with another man has to carefully work around a big issue: the heroine is in love with someone, but we need her to fall out of love with him for some reason, without making her look like an idiot for falling in love with him in the first place. This book skirts that issue almost cleanly by making her very young when she fell in love, but then I found her ridiculous for falling in love so young and nurturing her love for so long even with no encouragement from him. But Poppy was still likable, especially in how eager to jump into the midst of anything without coming across as overeager or risking her life to no purpose. Nicholas was enjoyable in the way every romance novel hero is; he's strong, protective, intelligent, rich, and a member of a secret organization. Poppy and Nicholas worked well together, as evidenced by their partnership in getting back the painting, and I can see them having a happy marriage. Despite the large amounts of steam prevalent throughout the book the eventual sex scene was lackluster and faaaarrrr too late in the book.

I will admit that basically every non-romance aspect of this book was completely ridiculous and so far-fetched that the book was almost camp. The Service was confusing in that I couldn't figure out what it's mission was or why it was founded or how they had gotten all these high ranking Lords involved in it. The painting was also comical because I cannot imagine why a painter would have painted a spy's identity into a painting instead of just sending it in a note. At least in a note one could use code, instead of having an actual person painted in there. I did like that the painting turned out to be a memory of Poppy's mother and that it lead to a really great scene between Poppy and her father. Poppy and her father's relationship in general was a high point in this book because she was like a little girl desperately seeking her father's love and approval, and while he did love her he just didn't know how to show it. The Russian twins were hilarious in a very ha-ha way and nearly every scene where they were featured made me laugh as they were just so over the top.

Rating: Better than her previous effort in my opinion, with some enjoyable elements, but the book has to be read with a sense of humor. Between 3 and 4 hearts.

When Harry Met Molly

When Harry Met Molly by Kieran Kramer 1220

Lady Molly Fiarbanks and Lord Harry Traemore have been enemies since they were young and Molly revealed that Harry had kissed his brother's fiance, Molly's sister Penelope, during a large Christmas party. Molly had been sent to a strict boarding school to rusticate and Harry to the army and while their siblings forgave each other and had a happy marriage, they never got along at any family functions. After years in the country and no real hope of making a good match Molly decides to elope with her father's assistant, Cedric, but while stopped at an inn they run into Harry and his ladylove, Fiona. Harry is competing in The Impossible Bachelor wager proposed by the Prince Regent; whoever of the five bachelors has the most Delectable Companion will win a year free of matchmaking and the four losers will draw straws to decide who will have to marry within two months. When Cedric takes off with Harry's mistress, Molly has no means of transportation and Harry risks forfeiting the wager and being forced to marry quickly

Molly agrees to pretend to be Harry's mistress at the party at his hunting cabin in exchange for Harry helping her find a husband during the season. With a lot of makeup and some new dresses Molly is almost ready, but Harry knows that there is more to being a mistress than looking the part. He starts Molly's tutelage with some kissing lessons that she is more than happy to participate in. Unfortunately the competition doesn't go as well as practice and all the other bachelor's seem to realize that something is not quite right with Harry's new mistress. Nonetheless Harry is an awe of the way that Molly manages to befriend the other mistresses and maintain her upbeat attitude about the competition even while participating in "bouncy" competitions. But Sir Richard Bell, another competitor, has harbored a hatred of Harry for years and he will not leave Molly alone and the two of them worry that he will blow Molly's cover. Neither knows how they will be able to leave the other when their time together is at an end, but Harry believes Molly deserves someone better and she believes that he does not want to marry. Both of their families and an enemy will stir the pot before they can have their happily ever after.

I was really looking forward to reading the book as it seemed like a very fun romp and I always like discovering new authors and luckily I was not disappointed. Molly was incredibly fun and lighthearted and even though it did sometimes come across as immature or a little too romantic, it made sense given her upbringing and it worked so well with her character. She was so upbeat and her befriending the other mistresses was so in character and showed how friendly and really just how great she was. It was made even better because Kramer's writing style showcased perfectly what Molly was thinking and was very in keeping with how she behaved throughout the novel. It was really the perfect style for this novel. Harry was also great because he was noble and cared so much about Molly and yet he did not believe that he was and tried to pretend that he was not head over heels in love. I liked their past as enemies and some of their fights were truly hilarious and yet it did not stop either of them from being able to move on and find themselves happy in the others' company. Every interaction these two had was interesting, fun, well written, and just wonderful to read.

The wager itself was a little ridiculous but one thing I have learned from these romance novels is that the Prince Regent was apparently quite capable of creating such a contest and requiring his poor subjects to subject themselves to it. The contests in the competition were really quite embarrassing and I loved that Molly threw herself into them whole heartedly and made sure the others were doing so as well. I wish there had been more of these competitions in the novel because they showcased how independent Molly was and how much Harry was coming to care for her as he worried about her feelings about losing and if they were embarrassing. There were quite a few sexy scenes that were very well done but no sex until the very very end and while that normally frustrates me it was really in keeping with the book and how their relationship progressed so I didn't quite mind it so much. The ending got a little crazy though as the evil Richard tried to ruin both of their lives and then both Molly and Harry were "forced" into doing things they didn't really want to do and it took of a lot of craziness for everything to work itself out and it was just a little too nuts for me at the end.

Rating: Amazing characters and a really fun read, but there could have been more sex and a less crazy ending and perhaps some more seriousness all around.