Tag Archives: regency

The Care and Feeding of Your Captive Earl (by Kate McKinley)

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Historical Romance

Miss Gwendolyn Wilbraham is far more skilled at needlework than she is at kidnapping. But when her best friend begs her to distract the new Earl of Hastings, she reluctantly agrees. Regrettably, the earl is just as clever as he is handsome and before long, he is free of his restraints and not at all pleased…

As one of London’s most notorious rogues, Matthias Hart often finds himself in curious situations. Though he has never woken up drugged, bound, and hidden away in a remote Scottish cottage. Normally, he would welcome such a diversion, but his beautiful captor is young, witty and all-too-innocent. When he finally frees himself, all he wants is revenge and her complete surrender…

The Care and Feeding of Your Captive Earl is Book Three in the series. There is a back story and I don’t know it. But it’s not a problem, the book is in many ways stronger because you’re just thrown straight into the story without too much explanation. It’s a regency romp and fans of the romping will be happy. There is quite a lot of it (maybe not the best choice for the Christian Women’s Association Book of the Month).

So, The Care and Feeding of Your Captive Earl doesn’t have all that much in common with a BBC production of Pride & Prejudice, it’s a lot more fun than that.

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Position in Series: Book 3

1 –– How to Lose a Duke in Ten Days
2 –– So I Married a Highlander
3 –– The Care and Feeding of Your Captive Earl

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Many thanks to Kate McKinley for providing me with a review copy of this book. 

Orange, Red, Yellow. What it means: YOR-Guide

The Duke’s Holiday (by Maggie Fenton)

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Regency Romance

The Duke of Montford likes everything to be neatly lined up. A place for everything and everything in it’s place. The one blemish on his ordered ledger is a small unprofitable estate in Yorkshire. An estate which was swindled out of the family 100s of years earlier and will only return to him after the last male descendent of the Honeywell’s, the cads who swindled his family, shuffles off his mortal coil.

When Montford discovers that the aforementioned Honeywell did in fact pass on many years earlier he immediately smells a rat. Someone has been sending him reports from the estate and it’s lack of funds and signing them “A. Honeywell”.

Astrid Honeywell has been managing the estate and the family brewery since she was a child. Unfortunately as a woman she isn’t a legitimate heir and by rights the estate should be returned to the Duke of Montford. After Montford sends his right hand man to investigate she realises her number is up, but she won’t go down without a fight.

Astrid is completely wrong for Montford. Everything about her is wrong. Her hair is an unruly mess or red tangles. Her eyes are different colours, and not only does she wear a man’s clothing she insists on riding her horse astride. She definitely won’t fit into his ordered life.

But despite driving him crazy at every turn, she is also the first person who has been able to make him come alive –– to enjoy life, to get drunk and to make a fool of himself.

 

The Dukes Holiday is a complete romp. It’s great fun form beginning to end, one of those rare perfect books that I can’t fault in any way.

Screen Shot 2014-03-19 at 7.25.29 pmYellow / Orange / Red –– What it means. http://wp.me/P2B7b5-9l

A Lady Risks All (by Bronwyn Scott)

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Historical Romance

Mercedes is a highly skilled billiards player. But as a woman she is denied entry into the halls where men play billiards and gamble. When her father takes on a new protégé he convinces her to train him in the hope he can become a champion.

As the second son of a nobleman little is expected of Greer and he spends his time playing billiards. He is a talented player but he lacks the subtlety and finesse to ever be a great player. He joins Mercedes and her father on a tour of billiards halls around the country. Though increasingly uncomfortable with the hustlers lifestyle, if he leaves he will lose Mercedes who he has grown to love.

I honestly don’t know all that much about historical romance. Google tells me this book is Regency, though only just. In some ways it doesn’t feel like an historical romance but that could just be my lack of experience with the genre showing. What it does, it does well. It’s likeable characters and a simple story well told. You don’t really need anything else.

Many thanks to Harlequin and Netgalley for providing me with this ARC.  

The Dukes Tattoo (by Miranda Davis)

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Disgraced many years earlier by the Duke of Ainsworth, Prudence Haversham has resigned herself to living as a spinster, but she’s not averse to exacting her revenge on the man who sullied her reputation. Her co-conspirotors drug and kidnap him and put a ribald tattoo on his private parts.

The Duke of Ainsworth is determined to track down the culprits and exact his own revenge, but the only clues he has are Prudence’s startling blue / green eyes which he caught a glimpse of through his opium haze, and a jar of medicinal cream.

When he finally tracks her down he sets his plans into motion, but she isn’t at all what he expected and as they clash wits he comes to value her and then love her.

I don’t really read historical romance. I’ve tried a few times but my over-active imagination gives all the characters bad teeth and the smell you would expect when you consider toilet paper wasn’t invented for another 100 years. But this book is great fun…it works on nearly every level. I even started to enjoy the language which admittedly took a little getting used to. It’s a game changer, one of those rare books that can introduce people to a new genre of fiction.

If I have one criticism, it’s the cover. Great book, but the cover is a disaster.