HER LADYSHIP'S COMPANION by Evangeline Collins

PUBLISHER: Berkley Sensation, 5/2009
GENRE: Fiction/Historical Romance
SETTING: England and Scotland, 1816
AUTHOR SITE: link
PURCHASE: link
MY GRADE: B

FROM PUBLISHER: In the Scottish countryside of Selkirk, Lady Isabella Stirling resides at Bowhill Park, serving penance for a sin that nearly ruined her family. For five years she has been condemned to a loveless marriage and confined to the estate where she does little more than tend her rose garden. With her husband absent for months at a time and few visitors, Bella lives a lonely existence, denying the passions that burn within her very soul.

Then her cousin comes for a visit and makes an outrageous suggestion: what Bella needs is a lover. A hired lover. Despite her need, Bella says no. But soon Mr. Gideon Rosedale arrives-and he is at her service for two weeks. Indulging in what she intends to be a harmless flirtation, Bella is overcome by Gideon’s intoxicating presence. And when she at last permits him to satisfy her desires, she discovers she’s done the unthinkable-she’s fallen in love.

MY THOUGHTS: The story takes place in England and Scotland in 1816 and spans about ten months. The heroine is Isabella ‘Bella’ Stirling. She’s 24 and has been married to Lord Stirling, 34, for almost five years. He’s impotent and they have no relationship of any kind with each other and he’s rarely at home. He’s both physically and verbally abusive toward her. Bella is 5’8″ and has pale blond and violet eyes. She’s terribly unhappy. Her parents are dead and she’s got two brothers and two sisters who have never come to visit her.

The hero is Gideon Rosedale. He’s twenty-seven, 6’1″ and has dark brown hair and brown eyes. He’s a prostitute and has been for ten years. His mother was one and he doesn’t know who his father is. He was raised up in a brothel. Bella’s cousin, Esmé, hires him to ‘service’ Bella for two weeks. That’s how the hero and heroine meet.

Bella is so lonely and isolated. I think she became a bit obsessed with Gideon, especially after their original two week stay was over. She was so starved or affection that once she warmed up to him, she was not emotionally prepared to let him go. To me, she showed signs of being mentally unbalanced and seemed a bit immature. She also seems hypersexual. That combined with her overall emotional state made me wonder if she was mentally ill. I feel she was a bit of a weak character, pretty passive with things that had nothing to do with Gideon.

Gideon seemed a little bland to me. I’d have liked to have known a bit more about his upbringing. I don’t think his character was developed quite enough. Bella’s surely wasn’t. We weren’t told a thing about her past; childhood, upbringing, nothing. I want to know why her siblings never came to visit her.

The sex scenes were very explicit but ordinary and there were plenty of them. I was a bit surprised by one scene near the end involving something the hero did to the heroine.

Overall, there wasn’t much going on in this story but sex. No real plot at all except toward the end when Bella’s husband pays her a visit. Though the heroine is married to another, she and Gideon have their happily-ever-after.

I received this from the publisher in exchange for an honest review.

PATIENCE by Lisa Valdez

PUBLISHER: Berkley, April 2010
SETTING: England, June 1851
HEROINE: Passion Dare, 22
HERO: Matthew Hawkemore, 26
VIRGIN HEROINE? Yes
PART OF SERIES? Yes, book 2 of 3
GRADE: A for sex, C for plot

SYNOPSIS: A woman called Patience.
A desire that would put her name -- and love -- to the test...

Known for her exceptional beauty, Patience Emmalina Dare has been pursued by admirers ever since coming of age. But as suitor after suitor fails to inspire her love, or her desire, she is certain she will never find a man who touches her deeply. Until a passionate kiss with an enigmatic man awakens a powerful need in her. But can she reconcile her desire for him with her desire for a life that's her own? And what will she do when he shows her a part of herself she never knew existed?

When the secret of his illegitimate birth pushes Matthew Morgan Hawkmore from his place in society, the darkly handsome half brother of the Earl of Langley plots his resurrection and his revenge. Betrayed and abandoned by the women he believed loved him, he swears never again to be controlled by love. But despite his vow, he is unable to resist Patience, whose strength and self-reliance mask a need that he is perfectly suited to fulfill...

The heroine is red haired, green eyed Patience Dare. She's 22 years old.
The hero is 26 year old Matthew Hawkemore.

The story begins in England on the same day as Patience's older sister, Passion, June 30, 1851. Patience and Matt were already aquainted with each other, having met because their siblings were engaged to each other. The story spans about six months.

Like the authors previous novel, this one too is centered around much sex. Hardcore sex, to be exact. They begin a dominant/submissive sexual relationship from the start of the story. Sex dominates the story and there isn't a whole lot going on plotwise.

Matt, in the previous novel, found out he was a 'bastard' and that his real father was a gardener and his brother Mark is really his half brother. Because of that, his fiancee Rosalind Benchley calls off their marriage right at the beginning of the novel. Her father is now out to ruin Matt financially. Matt was told by a teenage boy he knows that there is some sort of secret about Rosalind being a 'bastard' too. So Matt has the boy snoop around the Benchley household to try and find evidence of it. So, honestly, that's all that really goes on here, that and sex. Passion, Mark and Patience's aunt Matty make quite a few appearances throughout.

Near the end of the story, Rosalind's father is responsible for causing an explosion at the coal mine that Matt owns. Matt sells it to someone else and discovers that Rosalind is not the one who is the bastard...it's her father that is. Matt plans to make that knowledge public in an attempt to ruin Benchley in all ways but Patience talks him out of it. Patience accepts Matt's proposal and Matt really wants a Christmas time wedding.

We find out through a letter some lady writes to her friend that Matt and Patience did get married.

I give the sex scenes in this book an A+ because they're so graphic. I couldn't have been more. I give the plot line, with Matt trying to find out if Benchley really is a 'bastard' and the coal mine explosion a C. That whole plot seems to have fallen by the wayside. The author has a problem writing anything that isn't sexual, in my opinion. She should have and could have done so much more with the Matt-trying-to-ruin-Benchley thing but she just didn't know how or just didn't want to. Regardless, the graphic sex more than made up for the rest. Not every book needs to be a great masterpiece. Some are really nothing more than one sex scene after another and I see nothing wrong with that.

I'm assuming the next book will feature Patience's younger sister Primrose as the heroine. If the sex in this one, book 2, was much more graphic than the previous one, Passion, I can't imagine how she'll top it with book 3. Overall, I have to say that yes, I did enjoy this novel.

PLEASURE ME by Monica Burns

This Monica Burns novel is published by Berkley and is due to be released on March 1, 2011.

FROM PUBLISHER: Youth and beauty are a courtesan’s greatest assets. At forty-one, Lady Ruth Attwood appears to have lost both, as her latest lover just abandoned her for a younger mistress. Struggling with the knowledge that she’s no longer considered desirable, she’s uncertain whether to be offended or flattered when a younger man makes her an unusual offer. In need of funds, she agrees. But then she does the unthinkable. She falls in love.

Despite his reputation as a man’s man, Baron Garrick Stratfield has never been with a woman. His physical impairment is such that he knows not even a whore will touch him, and he needs a mistress who’s willing to be kept without sharing his bed. But passion is just a delicious kiss away because his new mistress is wreaking havoc with his senses. Worse yet, someone is not only out to ruin his reputation, but frame him for murder.

MY THOUGHTS: The hero is twenty-nine years old. He’s hiding, what he believes, is a terrible personal defect. Only a couple of people know about it and he’s determined to not let any woman find out what it is. Garrick is a bit emotionally crippled by it. His uncle is partly to blame for Garrick’s insecurities. They have a terrible relationship with each other, always have.

Ruth, the heroine, is really hung up on the fact that she’s forty-one and is about to ‘retire’ from being a courtesan when she meets Garrick. They become friends before they’re lovers. They have running an orphanage in common and the orphanage plays a big roll in the story.

I was very disappointed in this novel. It wasn’t really about anything except Ruth thinking she’s too old for Garrick, who is twelve years younger than her. She made such a big deal about it, as did others. Garrick’s secret is a bit unique for a romance book but took over the whole storyline, along with Ruth’s age.

There are a couple spicy sex scenes that don’t disappoint but it wasn’t enough to make up for the lack of a plotline. I rate this novel 3 stars/C.

I received this from the publisher in exchange for an honest review.

KISMET by Monica Burns

These are my thoughts on the Monica Burns historical romance novel Kismet. It was published by Berkley in January 2010. Synopsis can be found here. I didn't enjoy this story at all and rate it 2 stars out of 5, or a D.

The story takes place in Morocco and England in 1893 and spans three months. The heroine is Allegra, 30ish with dark red hair and green eyes. She ends up getting abducted. The hero, Shaheen, aka Robert Camden, Viscount of Newcastle, who's got dark hair and brown eyes, goes to find her and buys her from her kidnapper. The rest of the entire novel, to me, is just very boring. There's some serious drama involving Allegra and a whipping. I didn't paticularly like either one of them. After they're back in England towards the end, Shaheen goes to Allegra's home and confesses his love to her. She tells him she feels the same way but it just doesn't seem believeable to me. Then he asks her to marry him and she tells him she's pregnant. That's how the story ends.

MY THOUGHTS: This is another newer romance book where I've found myself not really caring about either the heroine or hero. Both are wounded; the heroine was sold into prostitution by her own mother, the hero witnessed the suicide of his brother James years before. The suicide was the only interesting part of the story and I wish it hadn't taken place in the past. I found this story completely uninteresting and unromantic. I never warmed up to it or the setting. I feel as though both the hero and heroine's characters were underdeveloped, especially Allegra's. We know next to nothing about her. 

I've wanted to read this since I'd heard about it earlier this year when there were a few blogs that were having contests for it. I feel the overly-bright, old school book cover doesn't fit the story one bit. I was totally unsatisfied with this story.


I received this from the publisher in exchange for an honest review.

TASTE OF TEMPTATION by Cheryl Holt

PUBLISHER: Berkley, 6/2010
GENRE: Historical romance
MY GRADE: D

SYNOPSIS: Helen Hamilton is a twenty-five-year-old spinster with no income and no prospects who struggles to care for her two orphaned sisters. Destitute and only a heartbeat away from the streets, Helen applies for a position as a governess to the younger siblings of Captain Tristan Odell, the oldest and illegitimate son of notorious philanderer the Earl of Hastings. But when Tristan turns Helen away, her future seems as desperate as her options.

Determined to do whatever it takes to support her sisters, Helen ends up at a brothel, where she agrees to sell herself as a mistress to a client of wealth and prestige. She even drinks a potion to make men desire her -- and is shocked when the man who buys her is none other than Tristan. He too is shocked -- and aroused by the possibilities. He hires Helen, but offers her more than a position as governess. Enmeshed in an affair of unrestrained desire, their passion quickly grows, as does an unexpected danger that could soon destroy them both...

SPOILER SUMMARY: The story takes place in London, England in 1814. The hero is 30 year old Captain Tristan Odell, Earl of Hastings, who has dark hair. The heroine is 24 year old Helen Hamilton, who has auburn hair and green eyes. She supports her two younger sisters, 12 year old Ameila and 18 year old Jane. Tristan lives with his younger, legitimate 18 year old brother, Michael, who is heir to the estate. Michael is tall, blond and blue-eyed. He, Tristan and younger sister Rose have the same father.

Helen applies for a job as governess to Tristan's 12 year old sister, Rose. She's not given the job at first but later is hired. Helen's two sisters move in Tristan's home. Jane begins a sexual relationship with Michael and Helen and Tristan begin one. Not much goes on in this book. Lydia is a house maid who likes Michael. She discovers he's got a relationship going on with Jane and becomes very jealous. She tells on them and Jane, Helen and Amelia get thrown out of the house. They're to live somewhere else until they know if Jane is pregnant by Michael. The book was so uninteresting to me that I won't go into details. It's stated many times throughout the story that Helen is 24 years old yet the synopsis says she's 25.

MY THOUGHTS: What ties each book in this series together is the man who sells the love potions and his sister. They're in this book much more than in the previous one. This book is too similar to the previous one and just as terrible. Both feature a poor hero or heroine who goes to live with a wealthier person and brings others with them. Both books are two 'love' stories in one. Both books have a jealous female who's out to get revenge on the heroine simply because they're jealous of the heroes affection for them. Both sets of hero and heroine get their unbelievable happily-ever-after at the end. I've decided that I won't be reading any future books by this author. I do have most of her other ones and it'll be interesting to see how her first two historicals, which were published ten years ago, compare to this series. Something tells me they'll be better.

I received this from the publisher in exchange for an honest review.

LADY ISABELLA'S SCANDALOUS MARRIAGE by Jennifer Ashley

This book was published by Berkley in July 2010. It's the second in a planned set of four in the Highland Pleasure series. You can read the synopsis here. 

My thoughts: The story takes place in England in September 1881. The hero is 30 year old Mac Mackenzie. He has auburn hair and copper colored eyes. His estranged wife is Isabella. She's 24 and has red hair and green eyes. They've been married for 6 1/2 years and estranged/legally seperated for 3 1/2. The story spans about a little over a year, including the epilogue. 

I liked this book more than I thought I would. I was not a fan of the previous one in this series, The Madness of Lord Ian Mackenzie, which came out last year. This was a pretty basic story of an estranged couple who ended up working out everything and getting back together after admitting they still loved each other. Despite Isabella declaring her love for Mac several times, I never believed it. She seemed a bit cold to me and too young. What I did like most is the bit of mystery and suspense that the author threw in right from the get-go with Mac's imposter. I thought this book would be more like romantic suspense but there wasn't quite enough suspense in it for me. 

I didn't like that the hero and heroine from the previous book in the series was throughout the whole story. I think a cameo appearance would have been plenty. Mac's other two brothers, Hart and Cameron, were throughout the book too and in fact Cameron is to have his own book, The Many Sins of Lord Cameron, next year. I do want to read about his single brothers. 

* This book was sent to me by the publisher in exchange for an honest review.

BROKEN WING by Judith James

PUBLISHER: Medallion, 1/2008
GENRE: Fiction/Historical Romance
SETTING: France, 1798-1802
PURCHASE: link
MY GRADE: D

FROM PUBLISHER: Set during the chaotic beginnings of Napoleon's rule, this saga tells the story of Gabriel St. Croix, a street survivor searching for a place to belong. Abandoned as a child and raised in a brothel, he has never known friendship or affection. Hiding physical and emotional scars behind an icy facade, his only relationship is with a young boy he has spent the last five years protecting from the brutal reality of their environment. But all that is about to change. The boy's family has found him, and they are coming to take him home.

Sarah Munroe blames herself for her brother's disappearance. When he's located, safe and unharmed despite where he has been living, Sarah vows to help the man who rescued and protected him in any way she can. With loving patience she helps Gabriel face his demons and teaches him to trust in friendship and love. But when the past catches up with him, Gabriel must face it on his own. Becoming a mercenary, pirate, and professional gambler, he travels to London, France, and the Barbary Coast in a desperate attempt to find Sarah again. On the way, however, he will discover the most dangerous journey and the greatest gamble of all is within the darkest reaches of his own heart.

MY THOUGHTS: The hero is the very wounded Gabriel St.Croix and the heroine is widowed Sarah Munroe. The story spans about four years, beginning around 1798 and begins in Paris, France.

I had high hopes for this one but was let down by it.  The hero was abandoned as a child and raised in a brothel as a prostitute. He has nothing and no one. He doesn't even know his last name so he chose to use the name of the street that he was abandoned on, St. Croix. Knowing he was all alone and forced to prostitute himself called out to me immediately and made me want to read his story. It didn't live up to my expectations at all. After about a year of him living with Sarah's family he goes off with a family friend and gets knocked into the ocean by a runaway cannon on the ship. From then, he's taken prisoner and sold. There's a lot of war and violence for a good part of the story. Once he escapes his captors he lives as a free man. I just found all of that to be very boring and hard to get through.

The synopsis from the back cover is very misleading. It says that Gabriel travels, after he's free, in a 'desperate attempt to find Sarah' and that simply is not true. He never once tried to find her or contact her via letter. He allowed her to believe he was dead for three years for no apparent reason. They find each other and he's very cold and rude toward her. They secretly married right before he left three years before yet now that he's face to face with his wife, his behavior towards her makes no sense at all and I don't understand it. Needless to say, they have their happily ever after.

One thing that really bugged me is that their ages were never given. It was said many times that he was 'young' so I'm assuming he's in his early 20s, and the same for Sarah. I feel as though I never got to know Sarah at all. We got absolutely no backstory on her. I don't like or dislike her because I simply feel as if I don't know her.

I received this from the publisher in exchange for an honest review.

THE ROAD THROUGH WONDERLAND: Surviving John Holmes by Dawn Schiller

PUBLISHING INFO: Medallion Press, 2010
GENRE: Nonfiction/Memoir
AUTHOR SITE: link
PURCHASE: link
MY GRADE: A

SYNOPSIS: Painstakingly honest, this chilling memoir reveals how a teenager became immersed in the bizarre life of legendary porn star John Holmes. Starting with a childhood that molded her perfectly to fall for the seduction of “the king of porn,” this autobiography recounts the perilous road that Dawn Schiller traveled—from drugs and addiction to beatings, arrests, forced prostitution, and being sold to the drug underworld. After living through the horrific Wonderland murders of 1981, she entered protective custody, ran from the FBI, and turned in John Holmes to the police. This is the true story of a young girl’s harrowing escape from one of the most infamous public figures, her struggle to survive, and her recovery from unthinkable abuse.

MY THOUGHTS: Dawn was just 15 1/2 years old when she met 32 year old John Holmes in 1976. She'd moved to California with her father and younger sister after her parents recent divorce. John and his wife Sharon managed the apartments Dawn and her family were living in. Though John was married, and Dawn knew it, they began 'dating' each other and later began using drugs together.

The book tells of all the drugs Dawn used with John and physical abuse she took from him and John's decent into heavy drug use, from 1976-1981. I feel the book was very well written and detailed. Dawn definitely has a knack/talent for writing. I really enjoyed the book and rate it 4 stars.

What keeps me from giving it five stars is the story basically ends in 1981 with the Wonderland Murders then briefly jumps ahead to 1988 with John's death from an AIDS related illness. There is no mention of Dawn's life between 1988-2010. For some odd reason, she doesn't want us to know about her life after John died. I'm assuming her life from 1981-1998 was consumed with drugs and bad relationships with men but I'm just guessing.

Also, there are no updates about the people we've read about like her younger sister Terry, John's ex-wife Sharon, or John's brother and sister in law, Karen. I'd really like to know what ever became of them and was really let down by Dawn leaving all that out of the story. I'm really disappointed. I'd really like to know why in the world she'd put into writing that Sharon murdered a man, in self defense, when the law knows absolutely nothing about it...until now. Dawn is the one and only person Sharon has ever told that to, when they met in 1988 after John died, and now it's in writing. What's going to happen to Sharon now? Why would Dawn tell on her? I'm really confused by that. Puzzled, actually.

Dawn mentions her daughter and has a photo of her in the book but never mentions how the daugher came to be. We are told nothing about the girls father, when the met, nothing. Dawn is a bit of a mystery. Did Dawn ever ask her horrible father why he did drugs with his underage children and was just an overall horrible father? I guess she didn't. I've read elsewhere that Dawn didn't mention another of John's girlfriends, one he dated while married to Sharon and dating Dawn. Why/how could Dawn not mention that at all? Why did she (intentionally) leave all that out? I do have a problem with Dawn saying John forced her to prositute herself. I saw no signs of force. I'm sure she felt like she had no choice but to do it but still, the choice was her's. She never said how she felt about John getting AIDS or how she even found out about it. Did she ever want to visit him? We'll never know. I want to know why John and Sharon had such an odd relationship and why they stayed married. Did Dawn ever ask him about it? Did she not care that he had sex with other women (and men) for money? We don't learn her thoughts about any of that.

Overall, I was pleased with the book despite the lack of updates on some of the people. If you like biographies, you should really enjoy this one. It's a hefty, trade paperback. I found an online interview with Dawn that you might enjoy.

I received this from the publisher in exchange for an honest review.

PASSION by Lisa Valdez

PUBLISHER: Berkley, July 2005
SETTING: England, 1851
HEROINE: Passion Dare
HERO: Mark Hawkemore
PART OF SERIES? Yes, book one of three
GRADE: A

SYNOPSIS: A woman called Passion. A man who would make her true to her name. In her second year of mourning, lovely young widow Passion Elizabeth Dare never dreamed she would be with a man again–and certainly not a complete stranger. But amidst the crowds of London’s Crystal Palace, Passion finds herself discreetly, yet insistently, pursued by a sensual gentleman who awakens her long-supressed desires. After a loveless marriage of restrained propriety, Passion abandons herself to true bliss for the first time.

Intoxicated by his encounter with the beautiful stranger, Mark Randolph Hawkmore, Earl of Langley, cannot wait to see her again. As a series of rapturous rendezvous follows, he and his mystery lover find something rare and wonderful blossoming between them. But a blackmail scheme against the Earl threatens to destroy everything. As a scandal brews, each will have to choose between duty and desire…their love for their families–and their love for each other.

MY THOUGHTS: Based on the extremely graphic sex, I'd give this book five stars. I liked the blackmail plot too so for that, I'd give it four stars. I liked all the main characters, including Mark's cold mother and Charlotte's scheming mother Abigail.

Passion was supposed to be so in love with Mark but I never once felt it. Even when she was crying her eyes out to him, I never once felt it was believable. An example of why I don't think she was that into him is when she'd told him that after her two months of visiting her aunt were up and she had to go back home, their affair had to end. He was upset at hearing that and like me, didn't understand why it had to end. They could have continued to see each other discreetly. That right there told me she wasn't too into him. Matt was clearly obsessed with Passion, right from the start. I really liked his intensity when it came to Passion. She didn't seem to feel the same way about him to me. But they had their happily-ever-after, so I guess she did love him.

Though this wasn't the greatest book ever written, it held my interest and had likeable characters. I never once got bored with it.

MY RECKLESS SURRENDER by Anna Campbell

PUBLISHER: Avon, 5/2010
GENRE: Historical Romance
MY GRADE: B-

SYNOPSIS: A well-practiced rake, weary of easy conquests and empty pleasures, Tarquin Vale, Earl of Ashcroft, knows women—and his every instinct warns him to beware of this one. Diana Carrick's brazen overtures have thrown the haunted, sinfully handsome lord completely off his guard. Why, the exquisite temptress stated outright that she wishes to be his lover. But it is neither Diana's boldness nor her beauty that intrigues him so—it is the innocence he senses behind her worldly mask.

Intent upon the seduction that will finally free her, Diana has set her sights on the notorious Ashcroft—never dreaming that there is much more to the enigmatic rogue than sin and deviltry. His kiss is bewitching, his caress intoxicating—and even the dangerous secret Diana must protect cannot shield her from Ashcroft's dark allure.

SPOILER SUMMARY: There isn't a whole lot going on in this novel. The heroine is 28 year old Diana Carrick, blond hair, blue eyes. She's widowed and childless. The hero is Tarquin Vale, 32 years old, dark hair, green eyes. The story begins in England in 1827. The heroine schemes with her father's boss, Edgar Fanshawe, the Marquess of Burnley, to get pregnant by Tarquin, his son. Tarquin doesn't know that Edgar is his father until the end of the story. The plan is for her to get pregnant by Tarquin, NOT tell him, marry the dying, elderly Edgar, and become heir to his fortune and estates. Edgar had lost his two sons and their families in a fire awhile back. Diana agrees to his plan so that her child, when it's old enough, will inherit everything. Right at the beginning, Diana goes to see Tarquin and flat out tells him she wants to be his lover. He tells her no but then changes his mind.

From here on out, the story is mostly just sex and then a little more sex thrown in. Toward the end of the novel, Diana is ending the affair and Tarquin has her followed so he can know where she lives. He goes in to see her and the deception is revealed and he find out Edgar is his real father. They go their seperate ways when Diana won't agree to marry Tarquin. Diana is pregnant so she and Edgar get married. Diana and Edgar are at the altar, literally, and Tarquin shows up and she decides to not marry Edgar. She and Tarquin get married and raise their daughter. In the epilogue, the child is eighteen months old.

MY THOUGHTS: I'd read on a few romance forums when this book came out that more than a few people didn't like this at all. They didn't like how greedy Diana was. She was willing to have sex with someone she didn't know at all just to gain a fortune. I didn't have a problem with that. What did bother me is that despite the fact that what Diana did was terrible, with her using Tarquin to get pregnant, she didn't come across as greedy or nasty in any way. She did seem a bit cold and unemotional to me.

This is certainly no great love story but I did like it for the 'adult' content. The 'c' word that rhymes with rock was used a lot but that's the only sexual slang that was used, much to my suprise. I did/do like the plotline with her trying to get pregnant without the heroes knowledge and marry someone else while pregnant but I feel as though more could have happened during the whole middle of the book. It really was just them having sex all the time from very early on. I didn't think she'd not marry Edgar. I thought she'd marry him as planned, he'd die soon afterward and she'd then contact Tarquin and they'd get married and he'd inherit what should have been his in the first place but that didn't happen.

DARK FIRES by Brenda Joyce

PUBLISHER: Dell, 6/1991
GENRE: Fiction/Historical Romance
SETTING: England/New York, USA
SERIES: Bragg Saga, #4
PURCHASE: link
MY GRADE: C

DATES READ: 2003, 2010

SYNOPSIS: "He murdered his wife," they whispered. Nicholas Bragg, Earl of Dragmore, was notorious--even after a British court found him innocent. Now they called him Lord of Darkness, as much for his rakish good looks as for his black reputation.

She was an innocent at passion's gate. Arriving uninvited at the massive stone manor, she shivered with terror--and excitement. Jane Barclay was his ward. Her sunny, innocent nature was in violent contrast to his hot temper. He was wild, explosive, an uncouth Texas rakehell--exactly the wrong kind of man for an English beauty to tame.

Together they would be swept into the dark storm of their passionate destiny...and wild, all-consuming love.

SPOILER SUMMARY: The hero is Nicholas Bragg, 33, from Texas but living in England for 10 years. He has silver eyes, black hair and a dark complexion. His wife died in a house fire and Nick was accused of setting the fire but was later aquited. Everyone still thinks he did it and therefore has no friends but one. He has a five year old son.

His ward is seventeen year old Jane Barclay, platinum blonde hair, blue eyes. Nick is widowed and Jane, his dead wife's cousin, comes to live with him when her guardian can't afford her anymore. Jane's parents both died years before. Her mother was a famous actress and Jane has done some acting too.

Nick doesn't want her to stay there so he's pretty rude to her. He's also very attracted to her but doesn't act on it because Jane is so young, just seventeen. Nick is also very jealous of her and his best friend Jon Lindley. They get along great and flirt with each other.

Jane ends up falling in love with him and climbs into bed with him one night. While he's asleep, they have sex. He wakes up to find her in his bed and he is furious! Later she tells him she loves him. He tells her she doesn't know what love is, they get into an argument and she flees to London, pregnant, to stay with an old male friend of hers. She leaves a letter telling Nick where she's going but he doesn't contact her nor does she tell him she's pregnant. Nick sends her male friend money to help support Jane but the man never tells Jane this.

Nick, somehow, finds out that Jane has a baby, Nicole, and is told that she is his. The rest of the novel is pretty boring. Jane and Nick end up back together and get married. He tells her that he is the product of rape. His French mother was kidnapped and raped by an Indian, resulting in a pregnancy.

Out of nowhere, Nick's dead wife shows up. She tells him she's the one who started the fire. She and her lover fled to America, where she's been living. She's only returned because she's grown bored with the man and has run out of money. So she thinks she can return home, tell everyone she'd forgotten her memory, and continue on as if nothing ever happened.

Jane assumes Nick is going to stay with his wife so she and their friend Jon travel to New York to visit with Nick's younger brother Rathe. Nick doesn't know where she's gone. Rathe's story is in the book 'Violet Fire.' Rathe and his wife Grace think that Jane and Jon are lovers but Jane confides in Grace that she is in love, and has a child and one on the way, with her brother-in-law Nick. Rathe tells Nick that Jane is there so he travels to New York from England. Jane tells Nick that she will be his mistress but he tells her that he's in the process of divorcing his wife. So that's what happens. They then travel to Texas to visit his parents, whom Nick hasn't seen since he moved to England ten years before.

And they live happily ever after!
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MY THOUGHTS: I've read this book twice now and I still don't like it very much. I think Jane is very weak and uninteresting. There's no fire in her. Nick is very, very angry and violent. He cusses all the time and is a big fan of the F-word. He's very jealous. Right before he came to England ten years before, he found out that the man he thought was his father, Derek, wasn't, and that his mom was raped and the rapist is his father. So he's really angry that the truth was kept from him. He was in love with his first wife but she hated him. Then when she found out that he was part American Indian, she really hated him and their son, Chad. Though there is no violence toward the heroine, I consider this book to be a bodice ripper because of the way the hero acts.

This is the order of the Bragg series:

Innocent Fire- This is the story of Nick's parents.

Firestorm- The story of Nick's sister Storm.

Violet Fire- Story of Nick's brother Rathe.

Dark Fires- Nicholas Bragg.

The Darkest Heart- The story of Shoz's (from The Fires of Paradise) parents.

The Fires of Paradise- Nick's brother Rathe's daughter Lucy's story.

Scandalous Love- Nick's oldest daughter Nicole's story.

Secrets- Nick's youngest daugher Regina's story. Her husbands name is Slade Delanza.

After Innocence- The story of Slade's youngest brother Edward and his wife Sophie.

A ROSE AT MIDNIGHT by Anne Stuart

PUBLISHER: Avon, 2/1993
GENRE: Fiction/Historical Romance
SETTING: England/France, 1803
PURCHASE: link
MY GRADE: F

FROM PUBLISHER: Once a daughter of the aristocracy, lovely Ghislaine "Gilly" de Lorgny lives for the destruction of Nicholas Blackthorne—the notorious rake she holds responsible for the cruel loss of her virtue, family and fortune. Now that the rogue has reentered her life, she seizes the opportunity to enact a poisonous revenge—but is abducted by the dashing villain before the deed can be done.

Held prisoner in a secluded hunting lodge, she steels herself to resist the sensuous punishment her captor has promised—only to be betrayed by a heart that aches with desire for the handsome, tormented blackguard. For only in her enemy's arms will Gilly know the exquisite passion that can heal all wounds...and the rapture of a love powerful enough to restore a fallen woman's honor and a scoundrel's nobility.

SPOILER SUMMARY: This is about Ghislaine 'Gilly' de Lorgny, 28-ish, French, brown hair, brown eyes and fair skin. The hero is Nicholas Blackthorne, 35, dark hair, blue eyes, English. Gilly is working as the cook for Nicholas' cousin Ellen, who lives at Nicholas's home. Nicholas discovers Gilly working there. They'd known each other thirteen years before. Ghislaine wants to murder Nicholas because she feels he's responsible for her parents deaths by hanging. So when he arrives, she poisons his food and he becomes violently sick for three days. Nicholas's valet Taverner 'Tavvy' tells him he thinks Ghislaine poisoned him but Nicholas doesn't believe him. So days later when he's well, Ghislaine poisons his rum and his milk. She delivers his food to him and he eats it right in front of him. When he says he's going to give the milk, which he thinks may be poisoned, to her dog, she tells him not to. He then asks her why she's trying to kill him and she tells him it's because he killed her parents.

Nicholas comes up with a stupid plan to kidnap her and take her to Scotland. Nicholas recently wounded someone in a duel so he also wants to get away while the scandal dies down, not knowing that the wounded man, Jason, has died. So the two of them and his valet Tavvey travel to Scotland and hid out in his run down hunting lodge.

Ghislaine's employer and Nicholas's cousin Ellen and her brothers friend Antony 'Tony' Wilton-Greening chase after them! Tony wants to marry Ellen but she doesn't know it. So the entire novel is them chasing after Ghislaine and Nicholas. Ellen and Tony finally get to Nicholas's lodge but they've already fled to Holland. While there, Ellen and her kidnapper Nicholas begin to have feelings for each other. She tells him that she became a prostitute at the age of seventeen. Someone named Malviver sold her to a brothel and she'd only had sex with TWO men all those years. That, to me, is totally unbelievable. Years later she saw Malviver and when he asked her for oral sex, she stabbed and killed him... or so she thought. Nicholas LAUGHED when she told him that.

Back to the present, she and Nicholas were at a party and they ran into a man who she'd had sex with years before named Wrexham. When she last saw him, she'd smashed him in the head with a chamber pot. He told Nicholas she was a slut, thinking she was still a prostitute, and later Nicholas ended up killing him in a duel just for that comment. When he tells Ghilslaine that, she tells him that she loves him and they have sex. While all this is going on, Ellen and Tony have decided to get married.

Ellen and Ghislaine go to France and Tony and Nicholas go to England. Out of nowhere, Malviver shows up to kidnap Ghislaine. So they're on their way somewhere and out of the blue, again!, Tony appears and he and Nicholas chase after Ghislaine. Tony ends up stabbing Malviver to death.

The epilogue has Ghislaine and Nicholas rebuilding his lodge in Scotland and she's pregnant.
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MY THOUGHTS: This book was about nothing at all except Ellen and Tony chasing after Ghislaine and Nicholas, then catching up with them at the end. Seriously, that was it. Boring, boring, boring. And one really absurd part was when they were still in Scotland and not getting along, they had a picnic outside! I still don't know why Nicholas kidnapped her in the first place. I didn't like Ellen or Tony and I don't like them being featured throughout the entire book, begining to end. This really was a book about two couples, both of which I cared nothing about. I just thought this was a stupid book and I honestly can't figure out how it got published. I give it two thumbs down.

ONLY IN YOUR ARMS by Lisa Kleypas, original version of ‘When Strangers Marry.’

PUBLISHER: Avon, 4/1992
GENRE: Historical Romance
SERIES: Vallerands, #1
MY GRADE: C

FROM PUBLISHER: Fleeing an impending marriage with a man she loathes, Lysette Kersaint is nevertheless forced to marry someone equally unappealing--notorious master duelist Maximilien Vallerand--who awakens her desires in surprising new ways.

BOOK COMPARISON: In 2002, the Lisa Kleypas novel ‘When Strangers Marry’ came out. It was actually a rewritten version of her 1992 Avon novel ‘Only In Your Arms’. A few changes were made.

One change in the rewrite (When Strangers Marry) is a scene where the heroine Lysette doesn’t want to have sex on her wedding night. That was OK with the hero Max. She asks him if he’s going to visit his quadroon mistress that night and he says ‘yes.’ Then there is a little over two pages of dialog between the hero and his mistress. In the REWRITE, Lysette does not ask Max if he’s going to see his mistress but instead asks him if he’s going out. He tells her yes and the part where he visits his mistress is completely removed from the story.

Another change is during a scene in the original version (Only In Your Arms) when Lysette, Max and his twin sons are eating stolen watermellon. When she and Max are alone, she mentions his dead wife Corinne. That angers Max and he grabs Lysette by the shoulders, lifts her off the ground and tells her to never mention Corinne’s name again. In the rewrite, the part where she mentions Corinne never happens.

The last change that was made was a scene in the original version where Lysette tells Bernard, Max’s brother, who murdered Max’s wife, Corinne, that someone is out to murder him because he murdered Corinne years before. Lysette tells Bernard to hide in their warehouse. Max meets him there and tells him to leave on a ship and to never, ever come back or he’d kill him.

In the rewritten version it was Lysette, NOT Max who goes to the warehouse to see Bernard. She gives him money and tells him she’d just spoken to a captain of a ship that’s about to leave. She wants Bernard to be on that ship.