How to Capture a Countess

How to Capture a Countess by Karen Hawkins R

At 17, Rose Balfour, falls madly in love with Lord Alton Sinclair, known as Sin, across a ballroom floor and manages to snag his attention during a private moonlit dance. But her innocence is no match the practiced rake and when she panics and pushes him into a fountain he is humiliated and promises he will get revenge on the little tease who earned him the nickname "Lord Fin." Rose's family decides to hide her away in the countryside but it just so happens that Sin's grandmother is Rose's godmother. The Duchess of Roxburgh has decided that she needs to get her grandson married but since the incident with Rose he has been more debauched then ever so to rid him of this obsession with her she invites both Sin and Rose to a country house party where they are the only two under fifty. Rose is horrified to find that Lord Sin is at the party but believes this will finally be a way to earn her sister's a place in London society. Sin is just as attracted to Rose as he remembers and she is now even more alluringly womanly so he decides that he will seduce her, believing she is no longer an innocent.

It quickly becomes obvious to everyone that there is something between Rose and Sin and the Duchess wastes no time using all her skills to throw them together. Rose and Sin find that neither can resist a challenge and quickly make everything at the house party into an opportunity for the two of them to engage in their own secret activities. Sin challenges Rose to a series of competitions, behind the scenes, and it provides them with plenty of opportunities for some inappropriate behavior and for them to get to know each other. Sin realizes that the hatred he's been harboring is unwarranted and that both he and Rose were hurt. Sin knows he wants Rose but marriage is not something he sees in his future until he discovers, too late, that Rose is a virgin and he knows that he has a duty as a gentleman to marry her. But she has come to realize that she wants more from Sin than a marriage based on mere duty and it is up to him to prove that they can have a life full of love and laughter.

Rose was fun but she had obviously been beaten down by the circumstances of her life and the tremendous scandal she was engaged in. I enjoyed reading about her coming out of her shell and learning to enjoy being in others' company and have confidence in herself. Sin was a typical romance hero with lots of responsibilities that have apparently created a man who eschews marriage and enjoys carousing about town. I really liked how his ideas about Rose were so flexible and how he quickly realized, through time spent with her, that Rose was a wonderful person and that what had happened was not a true reflection of her character. That showed tremendous strength of character on his part and really set him apart from other romance heroes who can be far too stubborn. Their relationship moved fast, although it was hard to get a true sense of time in the novel, and while they did spend a lot of time together and did seem to have a lot in common to base a relationship on, I felt like there was too much competition between them and they didn't have enough "calm" time together.

Rose and Sin were apparently very attracted to each other but I don't think that really came across in the book very well, especially after reading When the Duchess Said Yes. There was very little sex between them and the one scene was almost at the very end of the book and was really not that excited. I think that a couple with that much of a competitive nature to their relationship should have had more excitement in the bedroom. I found parts of this book incredibly funny because the other members of the house party were just so hilarious; between the half blind woman and the other octogenarians there were just so many opportunities for mayhem and the results were quite funny. It was enough for me to overlook the controlling grandma with her own little ruminations on what was happening. I am not a fan of the older lady trying to get her male relative married off; it comes across as weird and manipulative while not providing much to the actual story and this case was no different.

Rating: A fun read with two great characters and no distracting side plot that was quite humorous but it could be rather slow at times.

When the Duchess Said Yes

When the Duchess Said Yes by Isabella Bradford 1021

Elizabeth Wylder and the Duke of Hawkesworth were engaged in a very complicated and very binding contract between their fathers but while Lizzie is amenable to the marriage Hawke delays their meeting, and marriage, by running off to Italy for ten years. The former Duke had been a paragon, admired by everyone, and a model of British peerage while being active in the house of Lords, and Hawke has no intention of ever following in his father's footsteps. He amuses himself in Naples buying paintings and dallying with beautiful women and his distant marriage is just a cloud upon the horizon until the time constraints set upon their union rush up. He decides that he will go to England, marry this English rose and after promptly impregnating her he will head back to Naples and live his own life just like his parents had done. But once in England he is finds himself intrigued by a mystery woman he spots and ends up kissing in a garden and neglects his fiance. He is shocked to discover that his beautiful mystery woman is his fiance but realizes this will make their marriage all the more enjoyable.

Lizzie is upset that her fiance has supposedly abandoned her and even more so when she discovers that he had been kissing strange ladies while he was supposed to be meeting her, even if the strange lady is her. However, she cannot deny her immense attraction to her fiance and that is the major impetuous for the speediness with which they plan their marriage. While Lizzie and Hawke begin their wedded life with plenty of time in the bedroom while staying in near seclusion at his estate, friends and family begin to wonder if they can have ever have a true marriage. Lizzie is blinded by her newfound love for her husband and by thoughts of the life they can have together so she does not recognize that Hawke has been neglecting his duties as an English lord until she is forced to. When she discovers that Hawke has every intention of returning to Naples without her once she is pregnant she realizes that the life she had imagined for them is but a myth and only when he is confronted with the possible loss of his wife does Hawke understand that home is wherever Lizzie is, weather in Naples or England.

Lizzie was very open and fun and trusting, and while this could be attributed to her young age, I felt like Bradford did an excellent job making it clear that that was just the type of person Lizzie was. She was caring and anxious and a very real person and I felt like her emotions surrounding her arranged marriage created a very real character. Hawke was very stubborn and I quickly became frustrated with his inability to move beyond his long held beliefs about marriage and see how much Lizzie was falling in love with him and vice versa. I am tired of the heroes who are scared of marriage; every possible reason for their fear has been so overdone and annoys me now. I enjoyed reading about their relationship because they were obviously falling in love with each other and they enjoyed being together and doing little things to make the other happy. They had a lot of common interests and really meshed well as a couple which made his hard headedness even more frustrating.

Lizzie and Hawke certainly enjoyed each other's company in the bedroom and the sparks flew between from the very first kiss to the very last page. The sex was hot and frequent and while it didn't stray from the usual romance novel fare I enjoyed really being able to sense how much these two wanted to jump each other constantly. My favorite part of the novel was watching her grow as she moved beyond the carefree single gal to a bona fide duchess who wanted to take on her responsibilities and expected her husband to be by her side. It was a really well done bit of character development that made it easy to forget how young she truly was. The issue of his returning to Italy was a big problem for me because so much was made of it but then it was glossed over so quickly as the ending kind of came rushing up. However, I did like how they compromised together at the end to make a life that was perfect for both of them and it really made it clear how great they were for each other. The book was very well written and I was super surprised to learn that the author is also an author of great historical fiction that I have also enjoyed.

Rating: A super fast, fun read with a wonderful heroine and a well written relationship with some sizzling attraction but a hero I could not entirely fall for.

Not Proper Enough

Not Proper Enough by Carolyn Jewel 1017

When Lady Eugenia made her debut in London society after her brother had become the Earl of Mountjoy, she charmed everyone with her country ways and joyful spirit. But the one who caught her fancy was the brilliant and eccentric Lord Robert, even if he was physically handicapped and they fell madly in love with each other. Lord Robert's friend, Lord Fenris, was also charmed by Lady Eugenia and upset both that she had chosen Robert over him and believing her not good enough for his friend, he was cruel and unkind to her. His friendship with Robert ended and Lady Eugenia vowed nothing more to do with the spoiled and selfish aristocrat. Years later, when Robert has left her a widow after a very brief but very happy and fulfilling marriage, she returns to society to introduce Lady Hester into society and comes face to face with Lord Fenris and his cronies. Fenris is determined to make up for the pain and suffering he caused Lady Eugenia and to show respect to his friend by ensuring his widow is happy. But spending time with Lady Eugenia brings back all the feelings he had hidden for so long and suddenly the idea of making her happy means marrying her himself.

He throws himself in her path, not so hard as he is a wealthy and very eligible bachelor and she is trying to find a husband for her young charge. While Hester shows more interest in discussing botany with Fenris's father, the Duke, the two amuse each other on non plant discussions. Eugenia is confused by the feelings she is having for Fenris and even while she enjoys joking and laughing with him, she cannot forget the pain he caused her and Robert and has no plans for anything more. But she cannot hide her loneliness and she misses having a man share her bed and with the gorgeous Lord Fenris doing his utmost to seduce her she decides to take something for herself. Their affair is passionate but Fenris does not know how he can convince Eugenia that what they have is more than physical or how to convince her that their relationship is not a betrayal of her late husband. Eugenia is fighting her own growing feelings and she will need Fenris to help her over her fears and worries and show her that they can have a real marriage based on trust and lots of love.

Eugenia was a very well developed character and I really felt like she was very realistically portrayed for a woman in her circumstances and I could understand her motives and what she was going through. She had loved her husband dearly and now was struggling to come to grips with her new relationship with the man she had always loathed. It was a slow going, as it should have been, but I really came to see how she could be falling for Fenris and the guilt and excitement she was feeling over this. Fenris was also very well done and I liked reading about him doing his utmost to convince Eugenia that they were meant for each other. He was certainly flawed but he owned up to his problems and he learned from his mistakes and genuinely tried to make up for the damage he had caused. The two spent a lot of time together certainly and that provided the means by which they were able to move beyond their past and I could truly feel like a real romantic relationship was growing between them. There was plenty of sex and it was pretty steamy and I enjoyed that it featured two very sexually confident characters who had no moral qualms about seeing to their own sexual pleasure and that of their partners.

I am a fan of romances where one character has carried a a hidden tendre for the other for years and have really come to appreciate one of the characters having to make up for being cruel to the other years ago. This romance has all of those things but also skirts over them rather haphazardly as their past together is really almost glossed over and though I was able to understand the gist of what had happened I really felt like they could have used a big conversation about it and a flashback to some of the pertinent issues. Their past played a big part in their current relationship and was a huge obstacle that they had to surmount and it would have been nice to understand why a little more. I especially would have been interested in learning more about Robert because while I liked that he was not demonized as the deceased spouse I would have liked to know more about what made him such a paragon. I very much enjoyed the little side romance between Hester and the Duke and how subtly it came about but I think I would have preferred more from it. While I liked that it did not take away from the main romance, since it was part of the book they should have made it more fleshed out.

Rating: A very well written book featuring two well developed characters who clearly had a strong relationship with each other, but it lacked some back story that would have fleshed it out more.

Seven Nights in a Rogue's Bed

Seven Night's in a Rogue Bed by Anna Campbell 1014

Jonas Merrick was born to the wealthy Viscount Redville and his beautiful foreign wife, but after her death the marriage certificate was lost and the Viscount's younger brother wasted no time in declaring Jonas a bastard. Depressed and lonely Redville retreated into himself and abandoned his son to the mercies of the very cruel world and Jonas grew up bitter and jealous that his cousin Williama would inherit all that should be his. As an adult he inherits his father's fortune, if not the title and estates, and wastes no time in shoving his cousin's nose in his wealth and William's own poor luck at investments. When the opportunity arises William tempts William's wife Roberta to the tables and she ends up losing badly; she promises him a week in his bed. Sidonie Forsythe has seen what marriage to the abusive William has done to her beautiful and vivacious older sister and has no intention of marrying anyone ever. She knows what will happen if William finds out what she has done so she agrees to take Roberta's place in Jonas's bed. She expects a monster, and though Jonas's face is scared, he is far more than she was expecting.

Jonas is not happy at this turn of events as he had hoped to get revenge on his cousin but he does begin to warm toward the idea of having the beautiful and kind Sidonie in his bed. But she is a challenge he was not expecting and warmed his heart in a way he had thought previously impossible. He agrees that he will not force her but will wait until she comes to his bed, however, he soon realizes that he does not want her under duress but of her own volition. With this he has proved to Sidonie that he is a worthy and caring gentleman with a soft spot no one else can see and the two tumble head first into a passionate affair. The term of their relationship was set for 7 days and all too soon their time comes to an end and Jonas knows that Sidonie is too good for him and believes himself unworthy, while Sidonie still believes she will never marry anyone and she knows that Jonas will not love her when she finally reveals the secret she has been keeping from him. The two have their pasts to muddle through before they can finally contemplate a happy future with each other.

Sidonie was, I suppose, noble for sacrificing herself to save herself, and while I recognized that her waffling was a part of her innocent allure, it was frustrating to read about her and Jonas circling each other so long and avoiding the whole reason they were there. I honestly felt like neither of them were very well developed with her being entirely concerned with her sister and finding out how good Jonas truly was behind his mask and him being obsessed with his being a bastard and not good enough for Sidonie. What did they enjoy doing? What made them real people? I just feel like I don't know. They spent a lot of time together obviously but it seemed like purposeless time with not much getting accomplished and there were only so many times I could be interested in her revelations that he was wounded and had been hiding his good self from everyone. The sex, when it finally came surprisingly late in the book considering that was what brought them together, was lukewarm and incredibly dragged out and just too much for me to find exciting. I believe the story of his scars was supposed to be an interesting little side mystery and while Sidonie apparently found it fascinating I found it to be much ado about very little.

Anna Campbell's novels are always very emotionally draining and very exhuastively detailed about the characters often angsty and mournful feelings despite the happier cover this book was no different. Both of them had so much to worry about and while I found some of it legitimate obstacles to their happiness together, such as her keeping a certain secret from him, others I found just too drawn out, such as his fear that he is too ugly and her fear of marriage. Both were understandable but if they were so all-encompassing as to stand in the way for so long it did not make sense that they would just crumble so quickly. That type of emotion also makes me question how the relationship can survive with so much... darkness (for lack of a better word) behind them. They have no experience being happy and loving with each other without all the other stuff hanging over their heads. I did find Campbell's portrayal of Roberta as the abused wife very well written as she fully developed her as a complex character with her own faults and strengths and not just a victim and I was truly impressed with her.

Rating: Far too emotional with two undeveloped characters who couldn't possibly end up having a happy relationship together.

The Duke is Mine

The Duke is Mine by Eloisa James

Lady Olivia Lytton has been engaged to Rupert, heir to the Duke of Carleton, since she was born and the fact that Rupert is mentally challenged will not stand in the way of her parents social climbing or his father's desire for an intelligent heir. She has spent her childhood being "duch-ified" and while her sister, Georgette, has learned every lesson, Olivia does not really fit the idea of what a Duchess is supposed to be. She is curvy, she is loud, she is atonal, she enjoys racy limmericks, and she absolutely loathes reading etiquette books, especially the one written by the Dowager Duchess of Sconce. Tarquin, Duke of Sconce, is better with numbers than people and has decided to allow his mother to find his next wife. His first marriage ended disastrously when he allowed his heart to lead him and his wife ended up cheating on him numerous times before she ran away with her lover and ended up drowning, with their son, in the Thames. Olivia has her own duke so when Georgette is invited to a house party with the opportunity to impress the dowager, Olivia agrees to accompany her while Rupert goes off to fight Napoleon and seek glory.

It is quickly obvious that Georgette is the frontrunner to become the new Duchess of Sconce as she has taken to the Duchification process that eluded Olivia. But even as he tells himself that Georgette is better for him, and the two can certainly talk about the mathematical processes that interest him, it is Olivia he is drawn to. Olivia with her dirty limmericks and her very curvy body that he cannot keep from thinking of and whom he enjoys cornering in ballrooms and kissing. Olivia too feels the connection to Quin and she certainly enjoys the kissing aspect just as much as him, but she feels guilty for betraying her sister and her fiance. Nonetheless Olivia and Quin find themselves taking every opportunity to be alone together, sneaking off during balls and climbing trees together and otherwise engaging in activities that they should not be given that her sister could become his wife. Both must realize that, though their relationship will hurt many around them, sacrifices will need to be made for the sake of their love.

When Eloisa James is at her best she writes humorous novels with lovable characters that are immensely enjoyable and this book certainly falls into this character. I did love Olivia because she was loud and "fat" (romance speak for big breasted) and outgoing and enjoyed life while still maintaining her commitment to her duty and her family and was a good enough person not to want to hurt a mentally challenged young man. She loved her sister and her fiance and while she suffered guilt over this she still realized that she had found her chance at love and reached out to grab it with both hands. It is apparently harder for authors to write heroes because they have such a narrow confine to work within and with the success of Jennifer Ashley's The Madness of Ian MacKenzie, asperger's has suddenly become the extra oomph they can add to make their heroes different and unique. Unfortunately I don't believe James does quite a good job here as Ashley and Quin's disability with people seems like just that; a way to make him different without being too off putting for readers and shies away from some of the harsh realities of the disability.

I also felt that Quin and Olivia did not spend as much time together as I would have liked in my protagonists and what time they did spend was hindered by their guilty feelings and the knowledge that their time was very limited because of their circumstances. As with most James' books there was some sex and it was romantic but it was far from being hot and felt like it was just there because it had to be there. I did like that the periphery characters were well developed and that her fiance and sister were never demonized; they were real characters with real stories and didn't just get shoved aside to make way for the happy ending. I did feel like the matter of Rupert was resolved a little too quickly and a little too neatly and apparently was rather historically inaccurate within the history of the Napoleonic Wars. However, I do like to suspend disbelief when reading romance novels and I do like fairly nice little bows made out of big problems so it didn't bother me.

It was fun and fast and I liked reading it but I admit that James has never really been a go to author for me because she's never crossed into that excellent category.