Too Sinful to Deny

Too Sinful to Deny by Erica Ridley 1211

Susan Stanton was exiled from her very wealthy family's London home after she escaped her imprisonment for eavesdropping and nearly got herself killed. She is sent to live her with her distant cousin, Lady Beaune, in the very quiet seaside town of Bournewell and shortly after her arrival she knows that there is something eerily wrong with the town. For starters, Lady Beaune is nowhere to be found and her husband, the giant Oliver and his manservant/ scarecrow valet do not seem to mind her disappearance. The dress shop is owned by a beautiful porcilen doll and her witch-like friend who take an immediate dislike to Susan and do all they can to alienate from the very few other townspeople. The only place to meet people is at the local tavern and there she meets Evan Bothwick, whom she is desperately attracted to but whose residence in Bournewell and lack of a title make him completely ineligible. Unknown to Susan Evan is a smuggler whose brother, Timothy, has just been murdered but his body disappeared before help could be summoned and now Evan is determined to find the killer.

Ever since her brush with death Susan can see ghosts and one of the first ghosts she sees is Timothy Bothwick who forcibly enlists her help to find a jewlery box that Oliver and his manservant are also desperate to find. But Susan wants out of the town and believes the only person who can help her is the local magistrate, Mr. Forrester, since there are no horses in town and her parents are not eager to rescue her. Evan knows Susan is up to something and while he has his own investigation to launch, he cannot help but want her near him at all times even while refusing to admit that he could ever have feelings for a woman. Danger lurks around every corner as more bodies turn up and Oliver and all the townspeople become even more hostile and Evan is the only person that she can trust, especially when Lady Beaune shows up chained in the dungeon. Now Susan needs to save her cousin and get out of this town, but she does not know if that will mean having to leave Evan behind or turning him into the authorities. Evan does not want to risk his own neck but to gain Susan's love he is willing to do and risk anything.

I felt like for both Susan and Evan I learned a lot about them and what they did and liked doing, but I still felt like they weren't completely developed and I didn't get a sense for who they were. Susan was outgoing but rather selfish and spoiled at times and yet she did things that were completely out of character and she was deeply caring about the situation Lady Beaune was didn't seem to care about the feelings of the ghosts. Evan was a smuggler who seemed to just do it because he was bored and he seemed only to think about his brother after he was killed and seemed to just halfheartedly go after his killer. I just did not get into the characters really. They did not spend all that much time together, they had a lot of business to take care of on their own about their own mystery and I felt like their relationship was crammed into kind of a short amount of space even though the book was long. There was some pretty hot sex, but not that much and I felt it would have been better if there had been more of a connection that I could really feel between them.

This book was mystery upon mystery all building on each other and causing my quite a bit of confusion from the giant and his scarecrow henchman to the pirates to the missing dead bodies to the lady chained up in the basement to the women who work in the dress shop to literally everyone in the entire town and it was quite engrossing. I admit I am not the biggest fan of novels where the mystery is the main focus, but even though the romance really did take the back seat here I was so caught up in what was going on and wondering what was going to happen next and it was really so well written that I did not mind. However, I definitely did get the feeling like the romance was not as well developed as it would have been otherwise and I would have enjoyed seeing Susan and Evan spend time together that wasn't being shadowed with murder and craziness. I think it takes a lot to pull off a mystery that I can enjoy and the writing style was fun and engrossing while still being informative and sexy while keeping a genuine mystery that left me guessing until the end.

Rating: A really great and intriguing mystery but the relationship was lacking and I would have preferred some more development on that end.

One Night Scandal

One Night Scandal by Christie Kelley 1117

Sophie Reynard is one of the ton's most sought after matchmakers because of her skills as a medium that allow her to read into other's futures and see their perfect match. Despite her friendship with some of the most powerful men and women of society she is not completely accepted because she is a bastard who was never claimed by her father, even though the rumor is that he is a powerful Earl. Sophie's mother has taken care of her as best she knows how but that does not stop her from running off every time a new man catches her fancy. Sophie is in Venice visiting her mother, who has run off with an Italian count, when an accident lands her in one of the canals. A handsome stranger rescues her and takes her back to his house to care for her and Sophie is shocked when she sees her rescuer in her future and believes that he is the one. Nicholas Tenbury, the Marquess of Ancroft, finds himself falling for the beautiful woman he has rescued and believes her to be Italian so he has no qualms about making her believe the same about him.

Knowing he is meant for her Sophie gives herself to him for a night and is horrified to read a letter he keeps that reveals his identity and that he is in love with one of her friends. She runs away and hopes never to see him even though she knows it is inevitable since he is related to many and is friends with all of her friends in London. Nic cannot forget the woman he spent the night with in Venice and it is not long before he discovers her identity and wants to find a way to ensure that she never abandons him again. Sophie decides she must help Nicholas find his own match because she no longer sees him, or sees anyone at all, in her future. Thus ensures several attempts by Sophie to throw women at Nicholas despite it breaking her heart every time she contemplates him being with someone else. The two have difficult keeping their hands off each other but Sophie knows that she will never be accepted by the ton and would not make a proper wife for Nicholas. Nicholas has to show Sophie that their pasts do not matter but it is their future together that is what they need to focus on.

I am not into paranormal romances and while this wasn't precisely other-worldly I do not get into, or really believe in, people who can "read" other's futures. That made it really difficult to appreciate Sophie because her entire self was built around her unique gift and she placed such immense importance on what she saw. There were many obstacles she threw up between her and Nick and her inability to see him in her future was particularly ridiculous to me and I just found myself rolling my eyes every time this  particular reason came up. I could not get a read on Sophie's character at all because of the obstacles she kept throwing up and at the end it seemed like the only time I got into Sophie's head she was bemoaning her belief that she could never be with Nick. There was always one reason or another why she felt she was not qualified to be a marchioness and I wondered if it was the only thing she was capable of thinking about. While her background and experiences made her actions understandable, it got to be incredibly annoying and it just came across as an excuse to prolong the novel.

Nick had father issues that left him feeling undeserving of love so Sophie's attempts to distance him played right into his feelings of inadequacy. Rather than explore this aspect of the story, it was brushed over and Nick played right along with Sophie in the attempts to find him a wife. I could not figure out precisely why he was so desperate to have Sophie and no other or even why she was in love with him. I got so little from either of these characters and could not figure out what their interests were or what they had going for them. The sex was pretty hot and there was a decent amount of it but it didn't make up for the overall lackluster, and slow, quality of the romance. They both had a lot of friends, friends who were all main characters in Kelley's other books and I quickly became bored of having it shoved down my throat how happy they all were with each other. It quickly went from showing us how happy they were to having them become just as important in this story as the main characters. I also felt like it would have been really difficult to understand this story without having read her previous works.

Rating: A boring book with far too many made up obstacles thrown in their path and far too many appearances by previous characters.

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.

Marrying the Marquis

Marrying the Marquis by Patricia Grasso 906

Blaze Flambeau is one of seven illegitimate daughters of the Duke of Inverary and his longtime mistress and her step-mother, the new duchess, is determined to see her and all of her sister's married off. However, Blaze is different than most of the young women of the ton because she has a connection with animals and can communicate with them. Not only is she a vegetarian (who eats eggs and butter and drinks milk) but she holds funerals for her step-mother's furs. The duchess invites 3 young men to a dinner/ party to meet Blaze; Ross, the Marquis of Awe, Ross's older half-brother, Dirk Stanley, an Earl in his own right, and Prince Lykos Kazanov and the Duke holds no doubt that Ross is the one who is meant for his daughter. Ross discovers that Blaze is just as into horse racing as he is and decides that the best way to win her heart is to help her prepare her filly, Pegasus, for upcoming races in order for her to win a Crown. Pegasus' problem is that she doesn't like to ride between two horses but because the horse race is so soon they agree that Blaze will ride her because of the telepathy.

Throughout all of this the Duke is trying to discover who murdered his horse jockey and he enlists the help of Blaze to spy on Ross, who is a possible suspect, and another daughter, Raven, who has the ability to "sense" things when she touches objects. Luckily Blaze is doing splendidly as a horse jockey, even though she has to pretend to be a man, but in an attempt to get closer to Blaze, Ross blackmails her into being intimate with him, even while ensuring that she was willing, about her participation in the race. During a second race someone attempts to poison her and suddenly everyone recognizes that there is a mad man out there trying to do away with people working with the jockey club. People also discover that Blaze is pregnant and suddenly both Blaze and Ross have a way to get what they want, marriage to each other, even while neither will admit it to the other and Ross' mother makes it clear that she does not want Blaze in her family. The race is on to discover who wants to hurt Blaze and the other people and horses in the jockey club and only then can Blaze and Ross settle in to a life of happiness and love.

I am not, nor have I ever been, a fan of paranormal romances or where there are completely unrealistic/ ridiculous little bits thrown in and her ability to commune with animals was just something that I do not want to read in my romances. Perhaps because there's always a certain amount of belief that needs to be suspended to enjoy a historical romance and ghosts and animal talking just means I need to suspend all belief and just give up and think of it all as just made up fluff. What irritates me the most about this though is that the book gives away none of this on the back blurb and was just left as an unpleasant surprise for me. Even aside from her unbelievable abilities, Blaze continued to push the boundaries of realism because of her complete lack of any of the sensibilities a woman, or even a person, in the 19th century would possess. She got away with ruining costly possessions, riding a horse in a horse race, interrupting her father's business meetings, and interfering in jockey club business. While I found her love of animals a fun character quirk, it was just done too oddly, unlike Kleypas' Love in the Afternoon.

Ross was another unexciting romance novel hero, with a take charge personality, a wealth of information on a very manly topic and a desire to protect the heroine. His desire to marry Blaze surfaced very abruptly when all he seemed to know about her was her ability to communicate with animals, which doesn't seem like the basis for a strong relationship. And his ploy to get her into bed was not only ridiculous, but also made me feel a little icky even while he "made sure" that she was willing. Sadly enough, the most interesting part of this book was the horse racing that occurred in the first half, which is not a good sign since I don't even like horse racing. The mystery over what was happening to the jockeys and the horses was interesting enough because it contained quite a lot of clues and twist and turns and, while not a complete surprise, was enough of a shock to be satisfying. I just wish it had not been so overwhelming and taken over for the romance, even if that was lackluster. I also did not like how the book so obviously sets up the next book in the series, especially since I'm not interested in them.

Rating: Two characters who were mediocre at best and ridiculous at worst with bizarre fantasy thrown in and a good mystery where the best going for it was horse racing- my least favorite "sport."

To Desire a Wicked Duke

To Desire a Wicked Duke by Nicole Jordan 317

Two years after her fiance, Richard, is killed in battle Tess Blanchard feels well enough to emerge back into society. She has dedicated her life to various charitable causes and one of those involves a theatre master with a penchant for ghosts who also happens to be quite the ladies man. Tess takes a chance on a kiss with him but she is discovered by her nemesis, Ian Sutherland, Duke of Rotham. Ian had fancied Tess at her come-out ball, but had gracefully stepped aside when Richard, his cousin, had staked his claim. Upon Richard's death he felt responsible for Tess and has quietly looked after her from afar for all these years, but witnessing her kiss changes everything and awakens the feelings he had suppressed long ago. Richard and Tess are passionately attracted to each other and are very quickly discovered in their own scandalous position and her godmother insists that they marry. Ian agrees to let things move at Tess's pace, but she is still not happy about having to marry a well known rake and scoundrel as she had always hoped to marry for love. This is made worse when she goes to his estate to discover a young child who bears a striking resemblance to Ian which sends Tess fleeing to his estate in Cornwall with her courtesan friend Fanny.

The estate is supposed to be haunted and it is not long before she is hearing stories about rattling chains and moans coming from within the walls. Meanwhile Ian has followed Tess and Fanny up to Cornwall, accompanied by his newest secretary, Fanny's beau, whom he hired at Tess's behest in the hopes that Basel will finally propose to Fanny. One night Tess senses a presence in her room and goes to Ian for comfort and that marks a turning point in their relationship as they come to rely on each other and help each other try to solve the ghost mystery. Tess has always maintained their distance by constantly needling each other and she continues to believe that the only way to keep herself from becoming to emotionally involved and falling in love. An ex-soldier proves to be their mystery ghost and tells them about a vast conspiracy of thieves and smugglers and it is up to Ian and Tess to stop them. But even when that is solved, it does not mean that everything between Ian and Tess are cleared up and she goes searching for the truth about Ian's character and about his young ward. Ian knows that he loves Tess, but wants her to discover on her own that he is worthy and that he is someone she could love and live happily ever after with.

Tess was a slight deviation from a typical romance novel character because I really got the sense that her charitable works are genuine and not merely an attempt to feel better about her own immense wealth. She really was a giver and a caring person, which made her blind spot and loathing of Ian all the more confusing and frustrating. I like the idea that Ian has secretly wanted Tess for so long but did the noble thing by stepping aside for his cousin. Despite his reputation as a rake, Ian has actually been quite noble throughout his acquaintance with Tess, with various donations to her causes and by keeping an eye on her, and generally not really living up to his rogue-ish reputation. I could not figure out why all of his good deeds had to be kept a secret from Tess and served as a really unnecessary block in their relationship that I didn't like.  I did like the angst that arose for Ian when he feared that Tess was still in love with his cousin because it seemed like something reasonable for a man in his position to fear and because it showed some vulnerability in this otherwise strong man. There was some decent sex here, pretty hot, but I know that Jordan has done better, and after the strong sexy start I was really expecting more from this book.

A little more than halfway through this book devolved into the romance novel staple of having both protagonists waiting for the other to admit to love first. Saying those three words became a sign of weakness and vulnerability and both feared admitting to the feeling. This is so common that it took  me awhile to realize how obnoxious it is and it comes across as just a way for the author to extend the book when every other problem has been solved. am having difficulty deciding if I liked having the mystery solved about halfway through the book; on the one hand it made the book kind of anti-climatic and did rather drag on, but on the other hand it left a significant portion of the book for Tess and Ian to focus completely on their relationship and on falling in love. The mystery was very fun and was a great opportunity for Jordan to show how well the characters fit together, even if it did lead to some sassy heroics on Tess's part that rather irritated me. It wasn't a big page turner, but it did not blow up into something crazy and involve kidnappings and murder plots, but was a nice addition to a romance novel. For the majority of the novel, Jordan managed to avoid bringing in all the happily ever afters from previous books, but by the end it was a big giant reunion and I was a tad annoyed.

Rating: An enjoyable and fun romance with a nice little mystery to accompany it, but there were some very frustrating aspects of the book and it was really nothing special.

Too Wicked to Kiss

Too Wicked to Kiss by Erica Ridley 1209

Evangeline Pemperton seeks sanctuary with Lady Stanton and her daughter, Susan, to escape from her abusive step-father after her mother's death. Lady Stanton agrees to help and Evangeline accompanies them to Blackberry Manor, home of Gavin Lioncroft. Lioncroft is the brother of a Duke but he has been estranged from his family and the ton after his parents untimely death in a carriage accident was blamed on him. Despite his unsavory reputation Lady Stanton still believes that marriage to him is the best that Susan can do after a public blowout with Francine Rutherford that left Susan an outcast. Lady Stanton enlists Evangeline's help in getting Lioncroft and Susan alone and then raising a hue and cry until Lioncroft has no choice but to marry Susan. But Blackberry Manor is not what anyone was expecting and Lioncroft is certainly different as well.

Evangeline has the ability to see people's past memories and future when she touches them and Lioncroft is the first person she cannot see into. So in addition to the immense attraction she feels for him, there is an added element of mystery and the sense that he is not as guilty as everyone believes. When his brother-in-law is murdered the night after Lioncroft and he have a heated argument everyone assumes that Lioncroft is the killer, except Evangeline. Lioncroft knows what it is like to be alone after being turned away by his entire family and when he finally has Evangeline in his corner, trusting in his innocence, he wants to offer her everything. However, with the threat of an execution hanging over his head he can't ruin her life by tying her to a murderer. When he discovers her secret he enlists her help in rooting out the true killer, but when her stepfather comes looking for her everything threatens to unravel. When the murderer is revealed, Lioncroft knows he must do everything to get justice so that he can finally offer Evangeline everything.

This is Ridley's debut novel, although when I bought it I thought I had already read, and liked, another one of her novels and was just confused. Evangeline's age is never revealed in the story but I have to imagine her as very young, and fairly immature, because she is constantly changing her mind and going back on what she said she would do. She trusts Lioncroft but then when she learns one little thing about him, she no longer does. She likes him, admires him, loves him, and then there's a little tiny needle and her balloon pops and she runs away. Unfortunately I felt like he was no better in this regard as he was taking every little thing she did as a sign that she didn't trust him, she didn't like him, she wasn't worthy of his admiration. None of these things were major or lasted long enough to be an important plot point and really just served as odd little jumps in the story and really did nothing for me. However, I did feel like the spent enough time together talking and getting to know each other and their was certainly a great attraction between the two.

When she was trusting and helping Lioncroft the romance reached really great levels because he was such an outcast and didn't think anyone would ever like him, so I loved that aspect of the story. There was not really much sex going on between the two of them and a few angry kisses that didn't adequately illustrate how great their attraction was throughout the rest of the book. Evangeline's ability to read people was unexpected and troubling for me as I never really go for romances where there's supernatural abilities. And of course they resulted in massive headaches on her part because no one could ever have such great powers and not have to suffer as a result. The murder plot was great because it really was a mystery and lead to some interesting moments where both of them were able to express how much the other meant to each other and how much they were willing to do for each other. It was also a great surprise who really killed the man and it lead to the discovery of some really great and well developed secondary characters who really made this story.

Rating: I think it says a lot that I did enjoy the secondary characters more than Evangeline and Lioncroft and thought both of them should have undergone some maturing, but the book was readable.