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

Review - Never Kiss a Duke by Megan Frampton

My rating: 4 of 5 stars

The first book in Megan Frampton's Hazards of Dukes series, Never Kiss a Duke, centers on ex-duke Sebastian de Silva and gambling-house owner Miss Ivy.

The first page of the book starts with Sebastian, Duke of Hasford, learning that he is in fact, not the Duke, and is in fact illegitimate. I was hooked from there! His friends take him out to the up-and-coming gambling house, Miss Ivy's to console him. Ivy, the proprietress, was raised among the aristocracy but lost everything, and (literally) gambled everything to ensure the survival of herself and her younger sister. Now she is running a successful gambling club, and hires Sebastian to help implement new ideas to increase the profits of the club.

This was the first book of Frampton's that I've read, so I wasn't sure what to expect, but I was very pleasantly surprised. She does an excellent job navigating Sebastian's journey from Duke to common man; the growth that he goes through feels organic and not without missteps. Ivy didn't feel quite as fleshed out as a character but was relatable and likable nonetheless.

The ending of Never Kiss a Duke felt a bit rushed, and the transition of the main characters from attraction to lust to love felt a little lacking, but otherwise it was a great read. There are so many colorful side characters as well that I can't wait to return to this world.

Would recommend!

Review - An Heiress to Remember by Maya Rodale

An Heiress to Remember by Maya Rodale
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Excellent book! Maya Rodale finishes her Gilded Age Girls Club series wonderfully with An Heiress to Remember. A book about second chances, Rodale succeeds in creating a romance that is everything you'd want to read - passionate, fun, emotionally-charged and satisfying.

Sixteen years ago department store heiress Beatrice Goodwin left behind her youthful love, Wes Dalton, an employee of her father's in order to marry a duke and move to England, breaking both her and Wes's heart in the process. Now, she's back, recently divorced, and determined to save the failing department store that she loved. Dalton, however, had built a rival department store and has been working tirelessly for sixteen years to enact revenge on the woman who broke his heart.

In this series Rodale has done an excellent job of giving human voices to the challenges that women faced at the turn of the century, but also still today. In this book, for instance, the heroine struggles with the desire to succeed in her professional endeavors, but also in her personal ones, and how to balance the two. This is an issue that I think every person faces, and Rodale explores that so well in this book.

I would definitely recommend this book!

View all my reviews

Review - Some Like It Scandalous by Maya Rodale

Some Like It Scandalous by Maya Rodale
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

In Some Like It Scandalous, Maya Rodale impresses again by depicting in detail the challenges that women of the Gilded Age faced. The heroine of this novel, Daisy Swan, has aspirations of launching a line of skin care products for women, a scandalous proposition. Her plans are hampered, however, by her mother's machinations in affiancing her to her childhood bully, Theodore Prescott the Third. Theo, a society darling, is likewise not interested in being married to her, and they agree to pretend to be engaged to appease their parents.

Rodale does a wonderful job at creating engaging, believable characters. Their romance and courtship progresses organically, and the frankness and honesty between Daisy and Theo is a breath of fresh air when compared to so many novels featuring problems that could be solved with a single honest conversation.

Some sentiments felt like they were repeated often, which did grow a bit tiresome (not lines that were repeated purposely, more ideas that the characters would have, revise, then restate again). Other than that it was a very enjoyable read. I can't wait to get my hands on the next book in the series!

View all my reviews

Review - The Laird Takes a Bride by Lisa Berne

The Laird Takes a Bride by Lisa Berne
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

The Laird Takes a Bride, the second Penhallow Dynasty novel by author Lisa Berne, is vastly different than the first novel in the series, You May Kiss the Bride, in the best way. From the beginning, I was hooked on the characters of Fiona Douglass and Alasdair Penhallow, and couldn't wait to see how they got to their happily-ever-after.

It was another long, kind of winding story, similar to the first, however the characters felt much more fleshed out and three-dimensional, which made all the difference. Berne gave the reader perspectives from both protagonists both together and apart, which was great at developing them into real people.

An archaic clan law stipulates that Alasdair Penhallow, the laird, must wed one of the unmarried daughters of the clans. Fiona Douglass is one of those daughters, and has no interest in marrying the laird. A series of events take place (along with some truly well-written banter by Berne) that lead to Fiona being the only choice available, so reluctantly they wed.

What follows is a series of ups and downs in their relationship that will leave your head spinning, culminating in a very satisfying happily-ever-after. Would recommend.

View all my reviews

Review: You May Kiss the Bride - Lisa Berne

You May Kiss the Bride by Lisa Berne
My rating: 2 of 5 stars

You May Kiss the Bride is the first in Lisa Berne's Penhallow Dynasty series. The story focuses on Gabriel Penhallow, a very wealthy and prominent gentleman in search of a bride, and Livia Stuart, the orphaned country girl he accidentally gets engaged to.

The plot of this novel is very long and rambling, and seems to get lost completely at times. Overall summed up: guy reluctantly gets married, girl agrees. Unfortunately I could not bring myself to like either of the main characters. Gabriel seemed for the majority of the book to be nothing more than a puppet of his overbearing grandmother, and it never felt like the reader got a good sense of who he was as a person outside of interactions with Livia. Livia, the heroine, started out plucky and courageous, eager to stand up for herself, but it felt like a quarter of the way into the book she became a whipped puppy who only lashed out occasionally, and blended into the woodwork the rest of the time.

I will be continuing the Penhallow Dynasty series, and am hopeful that the subsequent books are a little better.

View all my reviews

Review - The Lord I Left by Scarlett Peckham

The Lord I Left by Scarlett Peckham
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

In the third book in her Secrets of Charlotte Street series, Scarlett Peckham tells the story of a minister who preaches to prostitutes and a woman who aspires to be a whipping governess - a most unlikely duo, but somehow Peckham weaves a tale that is both believable and full of emotion.

The most striking thing about this novel was how real the characters felt while you were reading. Lord Lieutenant Henry Evesham, a Methodist evangelical, who had appeared as an antagonist in the previous book in the series (The Earl I Ruined), is in this novel humanized as a man who is constantly struggling between faith and earthly desires. Both from his point of view (full of parenthetical asides that add needed levity to an otherwise heavy book) and from snippets of his journal, we see him grappling with himself and his faith in a way that feels fully authentic. The heroine, Alice Hull, who is a housekeeper at the highly secretive Charlotte Street whipping club, also deals with her own issues of lost faith and balancing one’s own desires with doing what one believes to be the right thing.

Overall this is another excellent book by Scarlett Peckham. As in the previous two books in the series, this novel is especially angst-ridden, and it is a hard-won battle for the protagonists to get to their happy-ever-after. In the end, though, the struggle (and the read) is worth it! Can’t wait to see what this author does next!


View all my reviews