The Duke's Sweet Revenge

The Duke's Sweet Revenge by Jamie Salisbury

George Stoddard, future Duke of Sussex, refuses to believe his father when he claims that Lady Jane Campbell is bad news, but is confronted painfully with his father's truth when he discovers that Jane and his brother Jonathan, conspired to kill the Duke and frame George for the murder. Years later George returns to England, determined to stop Jonathan's marriage to Lady Sarah Davies, whose supposed fortune will prop up the Sussex coffers, as George holds the loans on the Sussex estate. Sarah is in her own financial straights after her father's bad investments and her brother's memory problems, and she is marrying Jonathan so that her vast dowry can pay off the Davies' debt. George kidnaps Sarah on the way to the wedding, planning to hold her only until after the wedding. For the week she is his captive, Sarah falls for the handsome highwayman who goes by "my lord." Her attempts to escape him, including drugging him, bashing him over the head, and escaping out the window in the rain, ignite his temper, but he never loses it with her and he refuses to allow his desire for her get in the way of his mission, even while unable to resist a passionate kiss.

When the date of the wedding passes, George lets Jane go, but not before warning her about Jonathan's true intentions. Jane calls of the wedding with Jonathan, but agrees to pretend things are still find to placate society. Meanwhile Jane discovers who George really is and George continues trying to gather evidence against his brother. He finds that he cannot stay away from Jane, even though he knows she deserves so much better than him and feels massive amounts of guilt over everything. Jane knows that she could make George back into the man he used to be and is determined to help him clear his name, even if it means making dangerous decisions. George is furious at himself, and at Jane for putting herself at risk and for continuing to go out into society even while he remains convinced that he will never marry her. Jonathan is becoming suspicious of Sarah asking questions and enlists the help of his henchmen to put a stop to it, by any means necessary. It will take the love of a good woman to help George work his way out of his conundrum and to feel like he belongs in real society and deserves a happy life.

Sarah is a likable heroine because of her dedication to her family, her love for her mentally disturbed brother, and for her common sense approach to most of her life. Unfortunately the one area of her life she doesn't approach with common sense is her relationship with George, because she falls, and succumbs to a man who treats her abysmally for much of the book. George's demons certainly excuse a fair amount of awful behavior, but his treatment of Sarah is reprehensible. He uses her like a whore at times, and then hugs her loves her which is something someone very manipulative would do. He accuses her of sleeping around and froths at the mouth at the thought of her marrying someone else even while insisting he will never marry her. What brought this book down an entire heart for me though was Sarah's completely stupid behavior with regards to her own safety. She knows that Jonathan is dangerous and possibly deadly and that someone is after her, and yet show ventures out on her own. I couldn't even excuse her because she was just trying to help George.

Their relationship was toxic for much of the book with George pushing him away because of his dangerous tendencies and past, punctuated with brief moments of passion that ended with him treating her poorly again. I just did not see how they would function normally as George spent the entire book worried about hurting her to the point that he hurt her even more. His obsession with how dangerous he was got old very quickly and ended up being next to nothing. Some of the more interesting parts of this book were told from Jonathan's, and other villains, point of view, but the ending to that subplot was abrupt and confusing. Supposedly Jonathan was caught red-handed, but I couldn't figure out how. There was a secondary romance involving a woman who eventually married Jonathan and another man, and she acted just as stupidly and naively as Sarah and I ended up disliking her quite a bit and wondering how pathetic a man would have to be to fall in love with someone that ridiculous.

Rating: Despite it's problems, I was prepared to give it 3 hearts, but the stupid decisions made by the heroine and other woman (repeatedly) dragged this book down to a VERY low 2 hearts.

An English Bride in Scotland

An English Bride in Scotland by Lynsay Sands

As the second daughter Annabel was hidden away in a nunnery while her sister, Kate, was destined to make a fine marriage. When Kate runs off with the stable master's son Annabel is suddenly the only daughter they have to fulfill their marriage obligations and she is rushed home from the nunnery just in time for a marriage to Ross MacKay. Ross has finally settled the dispute to his title that arose after his father's death and now it is time for him to fulfill his father's marriage contract with his old friend. He immediately knows something is wrong when he arrives for his bride and sure enough rumors abound about Kate and her lover but he is very pleasantly surprised to see Annabel. Annabel remembers how she had always been overshadowed by her beautiful and slender sister, while she had been "Belly." She cannot imagine that someone would genuinely prefer her to her sister and feels bad that Ross is forced to take her as his wife. However, Ross is quite happy with his beautiful new bride, and after seeing how her family treats her he wastes no time in whisking her off to his estate in Scotland.

Ross wants his new wife to be happy with her life and he certainly wastes no time in ensuring that she is happy in the marriage bed and in her public life she begins to take over running of the keep as best as she is able since she was not trained for this task. Even while she knows that Ross is happy with her in the bedchamber, she wants to be the best wife she can be and make him not regret not marrying Kate. The people in the keep quickly grow to love Annabel because she is kind and generous and shows herself willing to learn and Ross is happy to finally have peace within his lands. Unfortunately someone is not as happy with their marriage as they are and has been trying to kidnap and/ or kill both Ross and Annabel. When Kate shows up Annabel tries to rekindle familial feelings and Ross is very happy to have ended up with Annabel. To make their marriage successful Ross and Annabel must discover who is trying to kill them and gain confidence in their own ability to make the other happy.

I, of course, love a heroine who is self conscience about her body and a hero who appreciates a woman with lots of curves. Annabel is kindhearted and quickly ingratiates herself with the members of Clan MacKay but Sands always manages to make sweet heroines who manage to be real and not to good to be true. I love how determined she is to prove herself and to make Ross proud of her despite her misgivings about her attractiveness and her abilities. I also liked how she wanted to be close to her family even though they were cold and unfeeling towards her, but she was able to admit when her relationships with her family had become irrepairable. There were times though when Annabel behaved in a manner that could easily be termed too stupid to live as she ventured out of the keep several times even though there was obviously someone out to get her. This is a common trait in romance novel heroines and one I absolutely detest.

Ross was a great hero; tall and manly and wearing a kilt and obviously a great warrior and a great leader to his clan. He was very protective of his wife which I appreciated and tried to treat her like an adult and equal partner in their relationship even when she did stupid things. I really felt their relationship progressing in this book as the two spent a lot of time together, both as a couple and interacting in a larger environment. They were very physically attracted to each other and there was quite a lot of pretty hot sex in this book, but nothing too scandalous or scorching. Sands is usually a very funny writer and this book is no exception as the characters are often in humorous situations and there are funny little mix ups. Her books always have a little mystery as someone is trying to harm the protagonists and the person is always someone who is there, but not necessarily the prime suspect. This book follows suit as we are lead down a bunch of wrong paths until finally the culprit is found. As usual the writing is fast and fun and the book is a very quick read (I read it in one day).

Rating: A very enjoyable and funny book, but it stuck a little too closely to the typical Sands format and the heroine did frustrate me at times.

The Substitute Wife

The Subtitute Wife by Dallas Schulze 101 R

Cat Lang is not happy to be the bearer of bad news and she does not want to have to tell Luke Quintain that his fiance, her spoiled and beautiful semi-step-sister, Devon, has left him to go marry her high school sweetheart on a diary farm in Minnesota. Devon and Luke had had an agreement to marry because his very wealthy grandfather, Nick, had threatened to sell off the family winery if Luke did not marry by his 36th birthday so even though it wasn't just going to be a marriage in name only, he had no deeper feelings for her. Knowing the circumstances of the marriage, Cat offers herself up in Devon's stead and does not mention that she has actually been in love with Luke since Devon first brought him home. Luke is skeptical, especially because of the 15 year age difference between them, but he admits he is attracted to her and since he needs a wife and she presents it so rationally, he agrees. The two enter into a legal agreement, with the help of his best friend Keith, and he is stunned when she thinks the amount of money promised to her is too much and he wonders why she is agreeing to the marriage.

Cat has trouble fitting into Luke's high-class life and does not want to become one of "those women" who mooch off their husband so she continues to garden and drive her old car around, making Luke even more confused. The two have no trouble getting along in the bedroom and find that they even mesh well in other aspects of their lives and get along, have the same interests, and Cat hopes that Luke's feelings for her will grow and that their marriage will become real and he will forget that he plans to divorce her after a year. Cat's best friend Jack is a famous chef and with their marriage both Keith and Jack find themselves eager for new friends and Keith finds himself falling in love with Jack. Everything changes when Cat finds out that she is pregnant and Luke is suddenly terrified that his simple marriage contract is not so simple and Cat means so much more to him than he planned for. His newfound feelings scare Luke and he makes a stupid mistake that could cost him Cat and he will do anything to prove that he loves her and is worthy of the love she feels for him.

Cat is young and a little too quirky for my tastes, but a lot of that could admittedly be explained away by her age. In historicals it dos not bother me so much, but a 20 year-old contemporary heroine is a little too much for me to really get into, especially a 20 year old who has so much growing up to do. It really made me feel like she and Luke were in completely different places in their lives and that made it difficult for me to really understand how they could fall in love with each other and I did not see them as equals. While it is understandable for a 20 year old to not have her life figured out, I guess I'm judgmental and just don't think that someone who doesn't really even know what they want out of life can fall in love and make such life altering decisions. Cat's upbringing was unconventional and I felt like it might have made her more susceptible to falling for a father figure like Luke, which struck me as weird. Luke was a wealthy, rather spoiled, man and my opinion of him did not really change as the book went on.

Their relationship is very physical and that is pretty much the only area of their life together that doesn't have any hiccups. There is quite a bit of sex and it is pretty hot but nothing outrageous and it could definitely have been better, especially since they were so attracted to each other. Luke is so determined to keep distance between them that all of their happy moments are clouded with his fear that they are becoming to close. I imagine we're supposed to see how while he is the more mature age-wise, she is more mature overall because she accepts their relationship, and that this is what makes them more equal than their ages would suggest, but I do not get it. The end is amazingly awful with Luke doing something so stupid for such a stupid reason and I really wanted him to grovel and was disappointed at how easy Cat let him off. My favorite part of the book was the unexpected and romantic and just absolutely amazing romance between Keith, who has always thought he was straight, and Jack and while I understand why it was so short, I kind of wanted a little bit more from it.

Rating: A fun little book with two characters who I just did not think were compatible and a hero who was just too stupid in his refusal to admit he loved her.