Am typing this on reserve laptop with the keyboard I am not used to any more. Ugh.
So, even more time to read as my usual laptop needs to be fixed and until that happens, my dramas are unavailable...
Suzanne Enoch, Angel's Devil - a pleasant novella about a headstrong young lady and a former rake but nothing to write home about. The more Enoch I read, the more I realize how uneven she is, and how lucky I was that the first 5-6 books of hers that I read were in the 'good' pile, by sheer chance.
Suzanne Enoch, Sins of a Duke - hero a politician, heroine supposedly princess of some obscure made-up Central American country. LOATHING!!!! I hated the heroine which is pretty extraordinary for an Enoch book - whatever I think of her plots, I always, always like her heroes and heroines. But in this book, Enoch commits the mistake of believing that violent shrew and charmingly feisty are the same thing. They are not. I ended up the book feeling pity for the hero, who was a hard-working, scrupulous man who ended up saddled with a selfish, immature, violent woman (who he trusted to bring up his daughter who is supposedly the light of his life but who barely met her new Mama). Oh, and I am convinced he was still in love with his dead wife and was only moved to his insane actions by pure lust. No other interpretation is possible as they barely have any conversations, nothing in common, and she behaves like a lunatic - if a woman publicly slaps a man she has not said a word to for an utterly made-up reason and he courts her, I am left with the conclusion that the man is either a closet masochist or so stupid as to let his little head rule his big one. Basically, this is thoroughly awful.
Lisa Kleypas, A Scandal in the Spring - the fourth in the Wallflower series. So good! Daisy Bowman has two months to find an aristocratic suitor or else her father wants to marry her off to his protege Matthew Swift. Except dreamy, poetic Daisy finds herself falling for pragmatic, workaholic Matthew...This is wonderful, and the whole 'he has hopelessly loved her for years' thing is a trope I never tire of. Plus, seeing the glimpses of other Wallflowers is fun.
Lisa Kleypas, Wallflower Christmas this novella about Lillian and Daisy's brother Rafe's coming for a suitable arranged match with a noblewoman but falling for her companion instead has a lovely central romance, but I confess I read for the other Wallflowers. Kleypas seems unaccountably fond of Lillian, by far my least favorite of the Wallflowers, seeing the prominent role she had in Spring and now here, but we also get to see Annabelle and Evie. I spent pretty much the whole book being a pathetic and satisfied Evie/St Vincent shipper - the scene where he finds her after he had to be away for a few days and he covers her with ropes of pearls and they pretty much lock themselves in the bedroom for days and and and...Yup, still ship them like mad.
Elizabeth Hoyt, Notorious Pleasures - the more I read of Hoyt's stuff, the more I love her. She has the audacity to set her novels in the 1730s and have heroes who wear bag wigs, stories set in the slums, gin distilleries, etc. After the never-ending cookie-cutter Regency world, this is wonderful. This novel's heroine, Lady Hero, is a Duke's daughter, a Duke sister and a very properly-behaved young lady who has just entered into a very proper and arranged engagement. Only the sparks fly not with her dull betrothed but with said betrothed younger brother - who manages the family finances, quotes Greek, sleeps around, and runs an illicit gin distillery. I loved it to bits! Lady Hero is a great heroine - not the seemingly unconventional (only, of course, very conventional in the 21st century way, to confirm to our ideals) and anachronistic heroine too many books are fond of, but a well-behaved woman with understanding of her status and duties. I love the hero, who actually is hard-working and dangerous and a bit fucked up but in a realistic way. The sex scenes are universally hot, the setting is great, and supporting characters colorful.
Now back to The Serpent Prince...
So, even more time to read as my usual laptop needs to be fixed and until that happens, my dramas are unavailable...
Suzanne Enoch, Angel's Devil - a pleasant novella about a headstrong young lady and a former rake but nothing to write home about. The more Enoch I read, the more I realize how uneven she is, and how lucky I was that the first 5-6 books of hers that I read were in the 'good' pile, by sheer chance.
Suzanne Enoch, Sins of a Duke - hero a politician, heroine supposedly princess of some obscure made-up Central American country. LOATHING!!!! I hated the heroine which is pretty extraordinary for an Enoch book - whatever I think of her plots, I always, always like her heroes and heroines. But in this book, Enoch commits the mistake of believing that violent shrew and charmingly feisty are the same thing. They are not. I ended up the book feeling pity for the hero, who was a hard-working, scrupulous man who ended up saddled with a selfish, immature, violent woman (who he trusted to bring up his daughter who is supposedly the light of his life but who barely met her new Mama). Oh, and I am convinced he was still in love with his dead wife and was only moved to his insane actions by pure lust. No other interpretation is possible as they barely have any conversations, nothing in common, and she behaves like a lunatic - if a woman publicly slaps a man she has not said a word to for an utterly made-up reason and he courts her, I am left with the conclusion that the man is either a closet masochist or so stupid as to let his little head rule his big one. Basically, this is thoroughly awful.
Lisa Kleypas, A Scandal in the Spring - the fourth in the Wallflower series. So good! Daisy Bowman has two months to find an aristocratic suitor or else her father wants to marry her off to his protege Matthew Swift. Except dreamy, poetic Daisy finds herself falling for pragmatic, workaholic Matthew...This is wonderful, and the whole 'he has hopelessly loved her for years' thing is a trope I never tire of. Plus, seeing the glimpses of other Wallflowers is fun.
Lisa Kleypas, Wallflower Christmas this novella about Lillian and Daisy's brother Rafe's coming for a suitable arranged match with a noblewoman but falling for her companion instead has a lovely central romance, but I confess I read for the other Wallflowers. Kleypas seems unaccountably fond of Lillian, by far my least favorite of the Wallflowers, seeing the prominent role she had in Spring and now here, but we also get to see Annabelle and Evie. I spent pretty much the whole book being a pathetic and satisfied Evie/St Vincent shipper - the scene where he finds her after he had to be away for a few days and he covers her with ropes of pearls and they pretty much lock themselves in the bedroom for days and and and...Yup, still ship them like mad.
Elizabeth Hoyt, Notorious Pleasures - the more I read of Hoyt's stuff, the more I love her. She has the audacity to set her novels in the 1730s and have heroes who wear bag wigs, stories set in the slums, gin distilleries, etc. After the never-ending cookie-cutter Regency world, this is wonderful. This novel's heroine, Lady Hero, is a Duke's daughter, a Duke sister and a very properly-behaved young lady who has just entered into a very proper and arranged engagement. Only the sparks fly not with her dull betrothed but with said betrothed younger brother - who manages the family finances, quotes Greek, sleeps around, and runs an illicit gin distillery. I loved it to bits! Lady Hero is a great heroine - not the seemingly unconventional (only, of course, very conventional in the 21st century way, to confirm to our ideals) and anachronistic heroine too many books are fond of, but a well-behaved woman with understanding of her status and duties. I love the hero, who actually is hard-working and dangerous and a bit fucked up but in a realistic way. The sex scenes are universally hot, the setting is great, and supporting characters colorful.
Now back to The Serpent Prince...