Review - Bombshell by Sarah MacLean

Bombshell by Sarah MacLean
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

No one writes a book quite like Sarah MacLean. Bombshell is a heavy hitter of a historical romance, and has all of the best MacLean hallmarks. Deeply broken characters who fit together like puzzle pieces, angst, steam and the best hard-won happily-ever-afters. This new series - Hell's Belles - promises to be such a wild adventure exploring London outside of Mayfair.

Sesily Talbot does what she wants without regard for Society's rules - after all, they've never worked for her. She doesn't care if she's labeled as scandalous, and doesn't let anything bother her - except, that is, Caleb Calhoun, her sister's business partner, who seems to want her, then runs away to America whenever she gets too close. Sesily and her friends, the Hell's Belles, make it a point to help women who have been wronged and serve up their own brand of justice, however their latest target is a little too close to Caleb's own secrets, and he has to try to keep Sesily from getting too close to danger (or so he thinks).

It's hard to understate just how thoroughly MacLean's books are able to grab your attention and keep you hooked. Bombshell is a wonderful novel, and I am so glad to have read it.

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Review - Brazen and the Beast - Sarah MacLean

Ohhhh goodness. This book. Sarah MacLean has done it again in Brazen and the Beast, the second in the Bareknuckle Bastards series. This book focuses on Whit, a.k.a. Beast, the second of the Bareknuckle Bastards, kings of the Covent Garden rookeries, and Lady Henrietta Sedley, a.k.a. Hattie, daughter of a successful shipping merchant.

Hattie sets out to take over the course of her life in the "Year of Hattie", but her plan goes awry the very first night when she discovers a man unconscious and tied up in her carriage. Knowing it must be the work of her ne'er-do-well brother, Hattie unties the man and throws him from her carriage, but not before sharing a passionate kiss.

Beast, having been dumped out of a moving carriage, vows to find the mysterious woman, who must be connected to recent attacks on his smuggling shipments, and find out who is responsible.

The characterization of Hattie and Beast is masterfully done. In the first book in the series, Beast was the strong, silent type. While he still is, in this book we get to see that in fact his thoughts are many and myriad, even if he still doesn't say much.

Hattie is every woman who has ever been told that she's not enough, or too much, or just not. Watching her find her confidence is amazing.

This book is a must-read, mixing high-ton events with low-class Covent Garden. Would definitely recommend!

Review - Wicked and the Wallflower by Sarah MacLean

Do you ever read a book and think, "that was a good book," then later go back and read it again and realize you were wrong, and it's actually amazing? Because that's exactly what I did with Wicked and the Wallflower, by Sarah MacLean.

When the Bareknuckle Bastards were brought up in Day of the Duchess (another amazing read), they seemed like bullies and I distinctly remember not being that excited to read their books, convinced that they couldn't be compassionate protagonists. Boy, am I glad to be wrong!

This book, Wicked and the Wallflower, centers on Devil, one of the kings of Covent Garden. Together with his brother and sister, Devil runs a highly successful smuggling business while at the same time making their corner of Covent Garden a safer, happier place for all.

Through a bit of highly intriguing backstory, Devil lands at the Mayfair mansion of the Duke of Marwick, eager to send him a message. There he meets Lady Felicity Faircloth, once a darling of the ton, now an aging spinster wallflower. When she declares to the ton's biggest gossips that she is affianced to the Duke of Marwick (who she in fact has never met), she's sure that she is ruined. Devil, however, offers to arrange the impossible by making it true.

I truly don't know how MacLean is able to create such vivid, three-dimensional characters as are in this book, and able to weave them together so seamlessly that their not being together seems incomprehensible. This story is full of all the right moments - sweet, playful, steamy, angsty, and everything in between.

Seriously, go read this book.

5 of 5 stars