Strong prose and adventurous sex scenes make the book worth reading.
A desperate young woman tries to trap a charming rogue into marriage but accidentally traps his severe and proper older brother instead.
London (Return to Homecoming Ranch, 2014, etc.) returns with the second installment of her Cabot Sisters series. Grace Cabot and her sister Honor are desperate to marry now that their stepfather has died and their stepbrother is approaching his own marriage. If they don’t, their mother’s madness will become common knowledge and there will be no hope of a husband for either sister—or for their two younger sisters still in the schoolroom. Grace decides her best bet is Lord Amherst, who has been one of her favorite flirts for two years and will make a tolerably amusing husband. But when Grace orchestrates a scene where she will be caught kissing Lord Amherst by the local vicar, she accidentally lures his older brother Jeffrey, the Earl of Merryton, instead. While Jeffrey and Grace both struggle in a new marriage to a stranger, Grace becomes increasingly aware that Jeffrey suffers from some torment. He finally reveals that he is ashamed of his own vivid erotic fantasies. He has learned to control his base desires by maintaining perfect symmetry and order and by an obsession with the number eight. Grace naturally helps him overcome the worst of his mental health problems, even as she herself grows to love his austere and quiet country home. The book’s premise is courageous. It’s not easy to make a hero like Jeffrey with obsessive-compulsive tendencies into a sympathetic character. The heroine is less successful, beginning the book as a self-centered flibbertigibbet and ending as a boringly dutiful wife.
Strong prose and adventurous sex scenes make the book worth reading.Pub Date: Jan. 27, 2015
ISBN: 978-0-373-77890-4
Page Count: 368
Publisher: Harlequin
Review Posted Online: Nov. 19, 2014
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Dec. 1, 2014
Copious historical details cannot mask a pointlessly slow pace. Might have worked better as a novella.
A reformed rake has to win the trust of a skeptical lady before he can woo her in this first of a traditional Regency trilogy.
Lady Adeline Wivenly is enjoying her first season in London when she attracts the attention of handsome flirt Frederick, Lord Littleton. “Frits” Littleton’s bloodline, wealth, and title make him a catch, but he is known as a rake. Worse, last year, he jilted Lady Dorie Calthorp, one of Adeline’s closest friends, after leading her on all season long. Frits knows he made a mistake with Dorie, but now he's ready to settle down, and Adeline has caught his fancy. Adeline avoids him as much as politeness allows, in deference to Dorie’s feelings, so Frits finds creative ways to cross her path during the usual social activities of the ton—carriage rides, plays, and balls. As Frits’ basic decency reveals itself, Adeline begins to question Dorie’s perspective. When she overhears another lady scheming to trap Frits into marriage, Adeline decides to warn him, throwing them together even more. In the meantime, Adeline is the target of an unscrupulous suitor who will stop at nothing to win her. Quinn (The Seduction of Lady Phoebe, 2019, etc.) creates a richly detailed traditional Regency world whose social rules dictate much of the characterizations and plot. Frits and Adeline are likable enough—they bond over their love of country life, especially animal husbandry—but their relationship moves at a glacial pace. Worse, they seem to have little effect on one another. While Adeline’s inexperience explains some of her naiveté, she is frustratingly bad at understanding basic human psychology. So many characters are crowded into the storyline that readers may need a chart to sort them out. A late and unwelcome incursion of politics and violence adds no excitement to the romance.
Copious historical details cannot mask a pointlessly slow pace. Might have worked better as a novella.Pub Date: March 31, 2020
ISBN: 978-1-4201-4967-8
Page Count: 368
Publisher: Zebra/Kensington
Review Posted Online: Feb. 8, 2020
Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 1, 2020
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
The leisurely pacing may frustrate some, but this sweet tale of mutual longing finally expressed repays the investment.
The dangers of fame in the internet era draw a former model and her longtime bodyguard closer together.
Katrina King is a retired model–turned–successful angel investor. She has battled debilitating anxiety and panic attacks all her life, thanks in part to her abusive and controlling father, but became terrified of venturing far from her well-secured home after she was kidnapped 10 years ago. She has a loyal, honest, and incredibly good-looking bodyguard in Jasvinder Singh, who also helps run her many ventures. Katrina has had a deep crush on Jas for years but is reluctant to risk their friendship by making a move. She's finally ready to try some exposure therapy at a local cafe when she becomes the subject of a viral social media post. When Katrina is endangered by the ensuing publicity, they retreat to Jas' family’s farm north of Sacramento. Jas is an Army vet with PTSD from a horrifying event that left him with a busted knee and a sense of deep betrayal. Little does Katrina realize that Jas shares her feelings: “It was her small acts of kindness that had sucked him in, her clever intelligence and sweetness that had kept him hooked.” Forced proximity on the farm finally breaks down her caution and his reserve, and they give in to their desires in sexy, sweet scenes. But Jas, a man of few words not used to acknowledging his pain, must stop hiding from his military past and his family issues in order to earn Katrina's love. With so much going on, the romance can feel secondary at times, although the couple’s strong history somewhat makes up for Rai’s (The Right Swipe, 2019, etc.) slowest of slow burns.
The leisurely pacing may frustrate some, but this sweet tale of mutual longing finally expressed repays the investment.Pub Date: April 21, 2020
ISBN: 978-0-06-287813-7
Page Count: 400
Publisher: Avon/HarperCollins
Review Posted Online: Jan. 26, 2020
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Feb. 15, 2020
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