It's a "fraudulent medium and the aristocrat who wants to unmask her" story but the medium actually does have paranormal capabilities (animals can feeIt's a "fraudulent medium and the aristocrat who wants to unmask her" story but the medium actually does have paranormal capabilities (animals can feel her emotions) so it gets complicated. Proof by Seduction meets Uncertain Magic. The main couple is extremely charming, just bickering themselves into a constantly aroused state.
Would be an unequivocal recommendation but there's some colonialist nonsense that sours it. ...more
I'm about 75% of the way through but I think I'm going to call it quits.
This reads a lot more like her medieval series than the Prizefighters and it I'm about 75% of the way through but I think I'm going to call it quits.
This reads a lot more like her medieval series than the Prizefighters and it has the same pitfalls: slice of life is very fun when you're meeting an unusual cast of characters at fairs and theaters. When it's pages upon pages about a new aristocrat redecorating her home it gets... tedious.
Jeremy Vance, the viscount, is a memorable side character in A Bride for the Prizefighter, a thoughtless cad who is also somehow a doting father. He gets divorced from his cruel wife in that book, and in A Foolish Flirtation he rekindles a romance with a penniless former heiress. The conflict of the book is supposed to be that ten years ago Jeremy cruelly flirted and flaunted poor Emmeline, only to turn around and marry someone else.
But Coldbreath, for some reason, is not really comfortable with the idea of Jeremy actually being cruel, and she consistently frames him as sympathetic and removes any possible tension. Emmeline is hurt by the memory of Jeremy toying with her but she also says she always knew it wasn't serious and didn't have any real expectations of him ten years ago. In Jeremy's point of view, he was in love with Emmeline and just wanted to be around her, even knowing they weren't going to marry. Coldbreath alludes to smirks and casually cutting behavior on Jeremy's part, but since this is not a dual timeline novel (bizarre choice for a second chance romance, by the way!), we never actually see any of that. There's no anguish, no drama, no reason to care.
I also didn't understand why Jeremy ever loved Emmeline, aside from the many asides that she has his ideal body type. Okay, that's wonderful! But maybe we could get a flashback scene or something of them falling in love?
Not my favorite Duran but ugh -- she's such a rare talent and I would give anything to get another book from her.
Gwen is the "nicest woman in London,Not my favorite Duran but ugh -- she's such a rare talent and I would give anything to get another book from her.
Gwen is the "nicest woman in London," a sheltered, perennial people-pleaser that has just been dumped by her second finacé, this time at the altar. Her family friend, Alex, arrives just in time to watch Gwen unravel, and his solution is a tidy marriage to someone new, but Gwen is done being nice and she's done being good. The problem is, she doesn't exactly know how to be wicked.
I laughed out loud a few times at Gwen's attempts at worldliness, she's the sort of bright-eyed sweetheart that thinks in exclamation marks. Alex's sophistication makes him an unlikely match for her, but somehow it works.
Some elements of this book I can't/won't defend but it's absolutely bananas that this is Kinsale's first book. What a talent.Some elements of this book I can't/won't defend but it's absolutely bananas that this is Kinsale's first book. What a talent....more
I have very thorny feelings about this book, and this review is my preliminary attempt at working through them.
In the prologue, Lord Arden Winter is I have very thorny feelings about this book, and this review is my preliminary attempt at working through them.
In the prologue, Lord Arden Winter is confronted by his father at his club. His father berates him for avoiding his mother and "his duty" to have an heir, and tells Arden that he has purposely killed his plans to visit Antarctica. Arden spitefully signs up for an alternate risky task: retrieving a horse named The String of Pearls from what is present-day Lebanon.
Once there, he attends the funeral of Lady Hester Stanhope, a real historical adventuress who created, then died in, a fortress in Joun. When conflict arises there, he rescues Lady Hester's servant, a small boy named Salim, and hires him to help him make his way across the desert.
Salim is actually Zenia, Hester Stanhope's twenty-five year-old malnourished daughter. Stanhope was a rather eccentric and abusive woman and refused to recognize Zenia as a daughter. Zenia keeps up the ruse because she remembers Lord Winter from visits prior -- like her mother, he was an avowed misogynist. She's safer as a boy.
They track through the desert and are almost killed multiple times, and after Winter (belatedly) realizes Zenia's gender, they make love. Soon after, Zenia is able to escape to England, but after a dicey encounter, Arden is presumed dead.
This is about the first third of the book -- the rest is in England, where Zenia, after some coaxing from her own father and Winter's, pretends to be Arden's widow because she's pregnant. Almost two years after the birth of her daughter, Arden returns to England alive. Zenia -- traumatized by her childhood and struggling to appear properly English, is struggling to fit in and shield her daughter from the outside world. Arden, who has never truly had someone he loved before Zenia and his daughter Elizabeth -- finds that he needs to communicate, to say what he means, for the first time in his life if he wants his hearts desire. It's near insurmountable for them both, and harrowing to watch.
I think Kinsale has successes and failures with her depictions of Victorians in the Middle East - Lady Hester Stanhope is a real person who would be easy to girlboss, but by making her Zenia's abuser (and by highlighting the abuse of her servants) she's rendered much more complex (derogatory). But the emphasis on the violence and lawlessness of the Middle East is racist and misplaced -- Arden is there to steal a horse, a crime that he could easily get sent to Newgate for (which would carry a death sentence!) in London if he wasn't a peer. This is something I know Kinsale has to be aware of -- in Arden's big grand gesture at the end, he kidnaps Zenia from a train, something he acknowledges he will see no consequences for, because he's an investor.
This is a story about failing your family -- about good intentions gone awry. Arden balks at the way Zenia coddles their daughter because it echoes his own upbringing -- one that had him resisting and pulling away and feeling so out of place that he would rather seek thrills than learn the complicated art of learning to cope. He doesn't know how to talk to coddled aristocratic ladies, let alone a woman who has lived her whole live wanting to feel safe and loved and desired -- and he messes it up over and over and over again. Wanting to say the right thing doesn't make you say the right thing, and reviewers who are taking potshots at Zenia should acknowledge that he only wins her over when he makes her feel safe and loved. That's all she wanted....more
This was a reread for me. I previously thought A Lady's Lesson in Scandal was a lesser Duran but I was wrong and I should feel bad about it.
Nell WhitThis was a reread for me. I previously thought A Lady's Lesson in Scandal was a lesser Duran but I was wrong and I should feel bad about it.
Nell Whitby grew up in Bethnal Green (not a nice place, according to this book!) and works in a tobacco factory. When her mother gets sick and directs her to seek help from an aristocrat, Nell realizes that she's closer to the world of the ton than she could possibly fathom. She's not a bastard, as she originally assumes, but one of the former Earl of Rushden's missing twin daughters. The former earl was unhappy with his heir, so through some intricate legal work was able to leave the entirety of his money to his two daughters. Simon, his heir, is left with a worthless estate.
Simon, who is now the Earl of Nothing, decides to teach Nell how to be a proper lady, marry her, and then reinstate her to her wealth (that he will naturally partake in). What Nell doesn't realize is that they aren't in this scheme together: if she fails, Simon will drop her like a hot potato.
I wrote this in my update, but one of the things I absolutely adore about Duran is how she imbibes her characters with an interesting meanness. Simon and Nell don't just fight-- they go for blood. It's tense and fraught and everything that I want in a high-angst historical romance....more
Ever since I read Seize the Fire, which is a book with characters I adore but would never recommend, I have had this gaping hole in my heart for a sweEver since I read Seize the Fire, which is a book with characters I adore but would never recommend, I have had this gaping hole in my heart for a sweet, naive heroine. Seize the Fire's Olympia borders on absurdity while Amanda from Your Wicked Heart has a sunny optimism that is nothing short of courageous, given her recent exposure to cruelty.
This is also an interesting contrast to Untie My Heart, which is the only other romance novel where I can recall the heroine being compared to Bo Peep. But Emma in Untie My Heart is actually the fraud that Amanda's love interest takes her for!
Very solid. Sometimes in LaViolette's historicals I'm like "Oh I wish I was reading about that character instead. I will get my wish eventually! Very solid. Sometimes in LaViolette's historicals I'm like "Oh I wish I was reading about that character instead. I will get my wish eventually! ...more
I thought I had read this but I couldn't remember how it ended. When I got it back from the library it started at 43%, so I guess this is actually my I thought I had read this but I couldn't remember how it ended. When I got it back from the library it started at 43%, so I guess this is actually my first time through!
Emma said that The Countess Conspiracy is Courtney Milan's version of Not Quite a Husband and oof! It is, isn't it? I'm rereading Not Quite a Husband right now, and the way that Bryony has walled herself off after years of neglect is echoed in Violet's character in The Countess Conspiracy. Violet seems to have been dealt some harsher set-downs in life than Bryony, but since I'm comparing the two I think that Thomas clues us in on Bryony's disappointment better, to a more emotional effect.
I still really liked this, and Milan really surprised me in a lot of ways! I love how early Sebastian reveals that he has been in love with Violet his whole life. Sebastian's sad acceptance of (what he saw as) the fact of his unrequited love truly moved me. Violet asks Sebastian, the rake, how many more lovers will he need to satisfy him, and he answers with "just one more."...more
Kleypas is super interesting, but I don't really enjoy talking about her newer stuff because of the fandom around it. Kind of contrarian of me, but I Kleypas is super interesting, but I don't really enjoy talking about her newer stuff because of the fandom around it. Kind of contrarian of me, but I think that looking at Kleypas as a whole -- the way she adapted after the 80s and 90s to solidify what I see as her formula with Bow Street Runners and Wallflowers, tells a kind of fraught story about how "progress" is often just CTRL + ALT + DLT certain words or plot points but not necessarily the ideas behind it.
Kleypas is a centrist, and the way that she views foreigners (I used that word deliberately here, because the hero, Nikolas, is Russian), sex work, and oppression are all very clearly from the lens of a white woman who once wrote an open letter to Hillary Clinton calling her a romance novel heroine.
This is Kleypas pre-formula, so you get to see plot points and character types she pulls in to later books to better effect. Nikolas, the hero, is a Russian prince that has escaped to England after pretty traumatic events, and Emma Stokehurst, the eldest daughter of a duke.
Nikolas starts off the courtship with control: he has an interest in Emma that he doesn’t quite put to words, but he threatens her love interest and essentially forces him to abandon courtship, which is something similar to what Harry Rutledge does in Kleypas’s Tempt Me at Twilight. Then Nikolas swoops in and proposes a marriage of convenience: she’ll get out of her father’s thumb and have control over her life and her menagerie (she has a menagerie of exotic animals, but they’re rescues so it’s fine!), and he will get to be married to her, a woman that excites him because she is a hoyden stereotype.
There's a paranormal plotline in this that is extremely bizarre and doesn't work, but it did save the book from being simply frustrating and boring. Part of me wishes that Kleypas still tried out wild ideas like this, and another part of me thinks that she just doesn't have the range.
I really appreciate that S.M. LaViolette seems to be one of the few (along with Sierra Simone) historical romance authors that understands that kink iI really appreciate that S.M. LaViolette seems to be one of the few (along with Sierra Simone) historical romance authors that understands that kink is kind of inextricable with queerness. I will read this series until it stops, but this one did nothing for me.
Mr. Smith, the main character of this book, had a much more compelling romance with Jo from His Valet, and the fact that he has two love interests in this book and neither of them come close to reaching that level of emotional intimacy made for a pretty blah polyamorous romance. ...more
I want to preface this by saying that Julia Bennet is one of the most interesting historical romance authors working today and I am truly excited for I want to preface this by saying that Julia Bennet is one of the most interesting historical romance authors working today and I am truly excited for anything she puts out. This is a love story between Francesca Thorne, who has recently fallen from grace for daring to initiate a divorce in Victorian England, and James Standish, her husband's close friend.
James has a very interesting journey here, a "How to Be a Person" of sorts when the life of the landed gentry pretty much raised him to be an ineffective confidante. His well-being is so closely tied to his aunt's money, which comes with expectations, and the more he comes to care for Francesca, the less comfortable he is sitting on his laurels and watching her flail from afar. Francesca's been abandoned by her husband, her family, and society at large, and the James we meet at the beginning of the book wants her to just come around and take the easy path and reconcile with her husband. The James we end with sees this expectation for the cruelty it is. James and Francesca are written so even-handedly, faults and all, and I appreciated it for the former while I wondered if Bennet was being maybe... a bit too "both sides" for the latter. Frankly, Francesca needed more people stridently in her corner!
I've spent all night and morning since I finished the book thinking about Edward Thorne, Francesca's husband. He's, frankly, an awful person, but Bennet casts him in the role of secondary romance hero with a young woman who mirrors the Francesca he married ten years earlier. I'm such a sucker for empathetic stories, for a no true villain narrative, but Bennet either needed to spend more time with Edward (The idea of which turns my stomach. A truly loathsome character.), or give him a happy ending that doesn't end up with him paired off to Francesca 2.0. He doesn't need to earn happiness, but if we're going to spend so much time with him I should have a better understanding of why he's such a hypocrite (Francesca is a slut, but the new girl is Good, Actually) that isn't boiled down to "he's a product of Society." Bennet is such a talented writer and I don't want to suggest that characters need to behave morally (lmao. My nightmare!), but I kept thinking of how my favorite authors Judith Ivory and Sherry Thomas would humanize their villains in small moments -- in ways that they'd feel like missed connections. In The Worst Woman in London, Bennet makes it clear that Francesca and Thorne never stood a chance because they went into the marriage without truly seeing their partners as fully realized people. But that's where character growth comes in! They could have made it work, but they didn't, and that's a more interesting way to frame it, in my opinion....more
I'm almost glad that I didn't review this book right after I finished it because I still have the same sensory reaction that I did in the immediate afI'm almost glad that I didn't review this book right after I finished it because I still have the same sensory reaction that I did in the immediate aftermath, even though the plot is a little hazier in my mind. This book is like fruit that has been sitting in the sun, slightly overripe but still incredibly sweet, a bit sticky. There's no refined neatness here: instead it's overindulging in lunch and stolen sculptures and asking your secret son for tailor recommendations.
Marina is a vivacious widow and writer whose success is partially hinged on the ton guessing who exactly she's getting her inspiration from. Her faux muse is a God of a young man named Anthony, but Marina is much more interested in Anthony's uncle Jasper, a scholar and collector. Jasper and Marina only have nothing in common if you aren't paying attention (party girl and recluse!), but they love art, they love literature, they love each other. Their affair seems like the most natural thing in the world, even though there's no forgone conclusion.
Rosenthal has a specific gift for setting that I don't think I've ever encountered in a historical romance before. There's a slight remove from the character's interiority that sets her apart from Judith Ivory or Sherry Thomas, but I felt like I could hear, smell, and taste everything. I can't wait to read the rest of her work.
I think this series would have worked a bit better as a duet for me, because by the time we get to book three all the tension had left my body. I needI think this series would have worked a bit better as a duet for me, because by the time we get to book three all the tension had left my body. I need that tension! This is a gothic, after all.
I haven't given much space to the sex scenes in the Markham Hall series, which is really negligent on my part! These are erotic historical romances, they don't work without the sex. A common theme in gothic romance is: Am I complicit? Am I the true villain? Simone brilliantly expounds upon this in a world of people that don't necessarily have the same sexual vocabulary, that don't know that kink isn't right or wrong, it just is....more
This somehow is everything I want in a gothic: intensely moody, sexual tension that's heightened by the question "Is my love interest a murderer and aThis somehow is everything I want in a gothic: intensely moody, sexual tension that's heightened by the question "Is my love interest a murderer and am I next?", and love scenes that aren't just scorching hot, but character-defining.
Incredible! Ends on a cliffhanger and I'm excited to read the next two....more
I forgot to review this when I read this in July so, no deep thoughts, but it was a good continuation of the series. It's lacking a little bit of the I forgot to review this when I read this in July so, no deep thoughts, but it was a good continuation of the series. It's lacking a little bit of the heat and the taboo aspects of the other books and it felt very long, but honest to God I haven't read anything remotely like this series and I'll keep reading it as long as LaViolette writes them. ...more
Loading...
