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 If Charles Wycombe, the Earl of Billington, doesn’t get married in 15 days, he stands to lose his inheritance to an odious cousin. If Miss Eleanor Lyndon doesn’t marry soon, she will be forced to marry one of many country gentlemen who are either too old, too young, or disgusting, and do extra chores besides when her father marries his horrible fiancee. When Billington falls out of a tree nearly into Ellie’s lap, it leads them to arrange their own marriage in order to avoid their horrible fates.
This little book was an interesting twist on the classic arranged marriage turns to love scenario in that Ellie and Charles choose to arrange their own wedding in order to avoid the less-than-ideal fate that stands before each of them. Of course, there are obstacles along their particular path to true love. One such obstacle really moved me in particular, while another had me irritated because it seemed quite contrived. It wasn’t quite a deus ex machina, but it might as well have been. In the end, though, that hardly mattered. It’s a very sweet story of how two people come to know and fall in love with each other from nothing. Not as funny or touching as the Bridgerton books, but I enjoyed it quite a bit and will probably seek out the first in this duology.
Buy Brighter Than the Sun on Amazon.
 Michael Stirling knew he loved her when he saw Francesca Bridgerton for the first time. Unfortunately, she was only 36 hours away from marrying his cousin and best friend, John Stirling, the Earl of Kilmartin. Almost worse is that Francesca and John remain very much in love throughout their marriage, with Michael the occasional third wheel. He gets up close and personal with a woman he can never have, a woman he would never even try to have because he loves his cousin, but a woman that he loves. They become very close friends. Then, John dies tragically and unexpectedly. Michael can’t handle Francesca’s grief or his own and he flees to India. Four years later, Michael knows it’s time to return, and heads to London early to avoid Francesca, with whom he has not corresponded. Francesca heads early to London to find a husband, because she desperately wants a child. Unsurprisingly, they collide, and neither can handle the attraction that they suddenly feel for each other.
This was a really different take on romance. I can’t remember another book like it, or even one in which the heroine was previously happily married. There might be one, but my experience is a bit limited. Anyway, it’s always the male who has had the experience, whether it comes to previous marriages or affairs. Here, though, both of them have to deal with John’s memory and how to reconcile their feelings with how he would have seen things. I think it’s well done. Francesca especially struggles, because she was happy and she loved John and she’s afraid he’d think she was betraying him.
I also liked how the tone of the book was different from the rest in the Bridgerton series. Not only is the situation very different but the main character, Francesca, is described as feeling a little distant from her family because she’s more serious than they are, though with a snarky edge. Not only does Quinn tell us that, she shows us as well, a fair mark of her talent I think. This book is angsty (although I never thought of it that way until I saw another reviewer say so) and less “fun” than her other books, but its different take on romance and emotional strength are well worth it. I nearly cried at the end, twice, and honestly, who could say that about a typical bodice ripper?
Julia Quinn is definitely my favorite romance author. If you’ve ever considered reading romance or you’re just in the mood for something lighter, start with her. She consistently produces quality stuff with a slightly different edge and with much more between the characters than physical attraction.
Buy When He Was Wicked on Amazon.
 So, back in my crazy romance reading teenage days*, I recall liking this author. When I saw this book at my favorite charity bookshop, I thought 10 cents was a steal. And then I read it.
Portia Cabot has loved Julian Kane for at least five years before this story began. During some mysterious business in a crypt, Portia nearly died to save him and has been repaid by abandonment. Julian is a vampire and feels he must leave her to save her from his fate. In this book, he’s back, and their love story gets an ending.
I guess I don’t really like paranormal romance. I also know that I missed out on a lot of back story here which occurred in some of the other books. Still, I didn’t really like the characters and I wasn’t really interested in them. I think people like paranormal romance because it adds this element of excitement and lust – oh no, he might kill me! Dangerous men! Oooh! And so on. Well, maybe I’m wrong (tell me if I’m wrong!). I don’t really fall for it though, having never fallen for a dangerous man (apparently I am unusual in this) and one of my big things about romance is that I have to find the love bit believable. I find that difficult here, probably because I’m missing out on the actual falling in love. I like series romance, but not when I can’t pick up one of the series and “get it”.
That muddle cleared up, I rather liked the ending. So it wasn’t all bad anyway! I think the rest of the series should be read before this one. Just in case you’re interested, though, here ‘s a handy Amazon link.
*Yes, I am reading it now, but I have been sticking to favorite authors and really highly recommended books since I decided to try the genre out again in 2008. I don’t like the run-of-the-mill bodice ripper, I like well done, believable, clever romance.
 Considering today is Valentine’s Day, what better to write than a review of my latest romantic read?
Penelope Featherington has been in love with Colin Bridgerton for years. She can even tell you when she first fell in love with him. Unfortunately for her, Colin treats her as an extra sister and once declared, without knowing that she was there, that he would not marry her. Penelope was mortified. Since then, he’s traveled the world and she has settled into spinsterhood. Not one man has ever offered for her hand, and though that’s in large part thanks to her mother, shyness, and a horrible wardrobe, it hurts. When Colin returns, his world has shifted on its axis just a little, and Penelope realizes that she’s been hiding her true self for far too long.
This was cute. I found it to be far more stereotypical than most of Quinn’s other romances and I agree with the people who say that the drama over Lady Whistledown takes away from the romance side of the story. I have been interested in Penelope since the start of this series – it’s hard not to feel for a girl who is always shy and dressed in yellow and orange – and I was happy to learn more about her and appreciate a bit more of what was going on behind the scenes. I had a bit of trouble understanding just why Colin suddenly saw what a great woman she was. After all, since she’s such good friends with the family, he probably had ample opportunity to get to know her before. That said, I know in high school I developed crushes on guys after knowing them for a while, so I suppose it’s possible that once he was ready for something new, he could consider her in a different light. I also found his crisis interesting – his brother Benedict had a similar problem in his book, but Colin doesn’t worry about being distinct from his brothers, he just worries that he’s not accomplishing anything that matters. That’s certainly a feeling I could relate to, although I don’t have a nice cushion of money to fall back on if I don’t feel like doing anything.
Overall, I think it’s hard to recommend this one without reading the others. I was already attached to these characters as both Colin and Penelope are in the first three books of the series. I will still say that if you want a entertaining, light, cute read, you should definitely go with Julia Quinn.
Buy Romancing Mister Bridgerton on Amazon.
 As these books are essentially two halves of the same story, I thought it would make the most sense if I reviewed them together. Thomas, duke of Wyndham, has been raised to power and privilege, knowing from birth what it was to be, essentially, Wyndham. He’s been engaged to Lady Amelia since they were babies. His grandmother, however, is a stodgy old dowager determined to make everyone’s life miserable, particularly that of her companion, Grace Eversleigh, a girl whose parents were country nobility but on their death found nothing for herself but this position. Into this established little picture comes Jack Audley, a former soldier turned highwayman with a disturbing resemblance to Thomas’s dead uncle – his father’s older brother. If Jack is proven legitimate, their whole world will be turned upside down.
In the first book, the central characters are Jack and Grace, and everything is seen through their point of view. In the second, we see things through the eyes of Thomas and Amelia. These books get a lot of criticism for being mostly the same story, but I think when you know that going in – as you should if you’ve read any summary or even heard of the books – you can’t really complain, because why did you bother reading the second one in the first place if you didn’t want to hear the same story told a bit differently? That’s my main gripe with most of the reviews I’ve read. I found the second book intriguing enough even with the same plot, because the characters are different and that’s really why I was interested in it. The search for legitimacy and what it means to each person is explored through all four of them and I think it’s a different way of looking at romance. I particularly like that the first one focuses on the lower class (although none of them are low class, they’re all of gentle birth) who are about to experience a lift in status, while the second explores the issues of identity that Thomas has, realizing he’s not the duke after all and how much of his identity rests on that – and how much doesn’t. Amelia has these issues to a much lesser extent given that she seems to have less attachment to her future as duchess and instead wants to marry a man she actually likes.
Now, I did feel like these didn’t quite live up to the first few I read by Julia Quinn, I must admit. I didn’t feel qu ite that same spark with the characters – they just weren’t as lively, there wasn’t as much chemistry, and I didn’t have that smile on my face at their interactions. She still does deal with a real life issue here though – identity crisis and how we define ourselves – and there’s also Jack, who reflects, in a small way, our terrible habit of letting those who fight for our countries languish and struggle because once their duty is done we’re not interested. So I wouldn’t say Quinn has lost it, because I still enjoyed these books. I think they’re great for romance. I just don’t think they’re quite up to her standard, and I think that before you read them, you should know that they consist of the same basic plot told through the eyes of two different couples.
Whew! That was a lengthy review for me. If you’re interested in these books, check out The Lost Duke of Wyndham and Mr. Cavendish, I Presume on Amazon.
 Sophie Beckett is the illegitimate daughter of the earl of Penwood and that fact has marred her entire life. Raised by servants in a life of privilege until her father’s untimely death, Sophie is brutally cast down into the world of the servants by her stepmother, who hates her. One day, Sophie’s stepmother and stepsisters head off to a ball at the Bridgertons’. Knowing how much she wants to go to this ball, the servants conspire to help her attend. There, she meets Benedict Bridgerton and sparks fly, but she has to leave at the stroke of midnight. Benedict, enchanted, fails to find her, until they meet again several years later. Sophie has fled her stepfamily and taken a service job at a home where Benedict attends a party. He doesn’t recognize her, but takes her to his cottage with him when she is forced to leave her job, and unsurprisingly, sparks fly once again.
As you can tell, this is a retelling of the ever-popular Cinderella story, but goes beyond the typical legend. Benedict does not find her when he looks for her, and instead falls in love with her a second time, as a servant. The class struggle in Regency Britain is bitterly visible here; Sophie’s bastardy blemishes her entire life as her stepmother hides her inheritance and thus does not allow her to be a lady. She can’t even dream of marrying Benedict as a simple servant. That doesn’t stop this couple, though, as the Bridgerton family isn’t your typical aristocratic family, and I loved the way it all turned out in the end.
Naturally, this is darker than the first two novels in the Bridgerton series, but if possible, I loved it even more. I loved what it revealed about society and I grew very attached to these two in particular. In addition to Sophie’s reduced status, Benedict struggles with his identity and disappearing within his large family. He comes into his own here in making his own family rather than just vanishing behind his many brothers and sisters. Quinn always deals with these real issues in her romance novels, making them deeper than your average bodice ripper (and there isn’t much bodice ripping here, either, I think just one scene, so if that’s what you’re looking for, look elsewhere!).
Buy An Offer From a Gentleman on Amazon today.
 After enduring a severely difficult childhood, Merripen, real name Kev, is left for dead until the Hathaways find him and take him in. He finds a sort of home with them, though his awareness of his past prevents him from engaging fully as a son of the family. Unfortunately for him, however, he has loved Winnifred Hathaway since the first moment he saw her, and she is the reason he stayed with the family in the first place. He can never tell her, though, since a worthless gypsy is not who she deserves. Win, weak from an illness, knows that she can’t show Kev how she feels about him until she gets well, but that just adds to her determination to finally win the man she’s loved for so much of her life and show him that he is worthy of her after all.
I loved this book. It’s so emotionally charged and their relationship is so tortured that I just couldn’t look away from the page. Kev is again a tortured hero, but in a such a realistic way. He was treated like he was dirt for his entire childhood and those beliefs have been driven into him. It’s not a surprise that he considers himself unworthy of Win, but also that he just can’t stay away. She’s the perfect antidote for his harsh upbringing with her gentle but determined ways. Watching them overcome the barriers between them was fascinating, compelling, and moving. I also loved the flashes back to their youth together and the development of their relationship, and there is plenty of development here. I couldn’t put this book down and I read it long after I should have been asleep. Definitely, definitely recommended. This is what romance should be. And now I’m really looking forward to this author’s other work!
Buy Seduce Me at Sunrise on Amazon today.
 Having read and mildly disliked the first of the Spice trilogy, I decided to go with this one next, given that I’d heard it was better and completed the Knight Miscellany.
Eden Farraday is sick and tired of living in the jungle with her botanist father. She desperately wants to return to London, but ever since her mother’s death, her father has been convinced that London is a deadly place and refuses to take her back. He doesn’t concede even when they lose funding, even though his assistant desperately wants Eden and she doesn’t want him back, or even when the opportunity arises with the arrival of Sir Jack Knight. Jack is heading back to London and could take the family, but Eden’s father refuses. So, no one should be particularly surprised when Eden is found as a stowaway on Jack’s ship. Jack agrees to take her with him for a scandalous price, but finds that instead he finds a family and a love while making Eden’s wildest dreams come true.
I liked this one much better. I could relate to the characters; Jack’s self-imposed exile made more sense once his history was completely revealed. As for Eden, on the other hand, what young girl doesn’t dream of glittering ballrooms and handsome men falling desperately in love with her? Isn’t that half of what these books capitalize on anyway? So, very believable, and I thought the romance was better too. This couple had the time to get to know each other. Occasionally Jack frustrated me by being one of those controlling males that some authors seem to think we like, but overall, I did enjoy this. Recommended for romance fans.
Check it out on Amazon .
 I’ve heard a lot about this author, mainly regarding her Wallflower quartet. I have one of those, but I’m waiting for the first one so I can read them in proper order. Meanwhile, I saw these new ones about the Hathaway family come out and decided to read them while I had the chance.
Amelia Hathaway’s family is a wreck. Her brother has inherited a title but is determined to throw it away by drinking himself to death, her sister Win is still weak from an illness, and there is no money to bring her younger sisters out in society. Their parents are both dead and Amelia takes upon herself the task of managing the family, with the help of Merripen, a gypsy taken in by the family after he was left for dead. Amelia has decided that she will always be a spinster and her family needs her, but that’s only until the addition of Cam Rohan into her life. He tempts her very much to let go and think about herself, while he for the first time contemplates putting down real roots.
As always with the romance novels, this one starts off the story of a very enchanting family, and I can’t wait for each character to have their own book. Amelia is determined and very stubborn, to the point where it annoyed me sometimes, but I still liked her. Cam, on the other hand, is your typical romantic hero; untamed to an extent, but in the end happy to let the woman “domesticate” him. They’re both appealing, but I couldn’t help but feel this book didn’t measure up to some of the recent reading I’ve done in the genre, simply because it is too focused on the physical. I could see Cam and Amelia grow to care for each other, but it irked me that sex seemed to replace this by the second half of the book and that he used their passion as a tool to occasionally keep her quiet; he explained afterwards and it’s not like she resisted but it still bugged me just a bit. In addition, their story was superceded in the end by other concerns, which I didn’t really appreciate. Amelia’s family took up more of the story than was warranted in some cases, and I normally prefer them to have their time in the spotlight in their own book. Perhaps this just underscores their position in her life; far too intrusive.
That said, I liked it well enough to go on to read the next book in the series, which I liked a lot more (and I mean a lot!), and I’m looking forward to the rest.
Check it out on Amazon
 Viscount Anthony Bridgerton is convinced that he’s going to die at age 39. Why? Because that’s when his father died and Anthony just cannot imagine ever doing anything better than his father, who is his idol. And so he decides to marry a woman who he will not love but who will provide him with children, namely an heir to carry on the Bridgerton line, and companionship for the remaining short years of his life. He singles out Edwina Sheffield, who is pretty and biddable, but doesn’t count on Edwina’s older sister, Kate. Anthony quickly develops a strong dislike for Kate, not realizing immediately that it’s because he wants Kate for his own; and I think you can take the story from there.
Another charming romance from Julia Quinn here. I really enjoyed how the slow approach went with this couple; they’re attracted to each other, but they both mask it with firm dislike and hatred for some time, sort of protecting themselves from their own feelings, until they realize that they actually enjoy each other’s company. I didn’t realize that some men (and women) really do believe that they will die young just because one of their parents did, but apparently this is a documented psychological phenomenon. That’s one of the things I like about Quinn. These books could get very predictable, but she always has an edge to the story that is outside what you’d expect from a romance novel, whether it be the girl who is always second best, the mental barriers present here, or a different take on a common fairy tale as we’ll see in the next book. It’s very easy to get attached to these characters, especially when members of the family continue to turn up in each successive book. Very amusing and very recommended for the romantics among us.
Buy it on Amazon.
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