Just Finished:
Synopsis: He has tried hard to forget her.
Kev Merripen has longed for the beautiful, well-bred Winnifred Hathaway ever since her family rescued him from the brink of death when he was just a boy. But this handsome Gypsy is a man of mysterious origins—and he fears that the darkness of his past could crush delicate, luminous Win. So Kev refuses to submit to temptation…and before long Win is torn from him by a devastating twist of fate.

Can she remember the man he once was?
Then, Win returns to England…only to find that Kev has hardened into a man who will deny love at all costs. Meantime, an attractive, seductive suitor has set his sights on Win. It’s now or never for Kev to make his move. But first, he must confront a dangerous secret about his destiny—or risk losing the only woman he has lived for…

My Thoughts: I have been looking forward to Kev and Win’s story ever since I finished Mine Till Midnight (I know, I know, that was just last week….). This one did not disappoint.

Seduce Me at Sunrise takes up where MTM left off. What I liked about how SMAS started is that LK devoted two chapters to Kev’s history with the Hathways, going back in time to explain why Kev is the way he his. The instant connection between him and Win also added so much to the story for me. Additionally, there was also the history of the Hathaway parents and getting to know them as well.

No surprise, I absolutely loved this story. I really felt for Win, putting her heart out there to only be trampled on by Kev, thinking he is doing the right thing for her by not letting her be with him. I honestly wanted to delve into the pages myself and slap him upside the head a time or two.

Then came page 244. I’m not going to spoil it for anyone who hasn’t read the book yet, but that was the turning point for me. That was where Kev became my #2 favorite LK hero of all-time. If you’ve read it, I’m sure you know what I’m talking about. If you haven’t read it, you need to and when you come to this page, you’ll figure it out.

Additionally, there was the relationship between Cam and Kev. I enjoyed seeing them come closer and bond. I look forward to seeing even more of this in future Hathaway books.

Now, Dr. Julian Harrow. He was predictable. I had him figured out right away. Again, not going to go into details, but you already know Kev and Win are going to end up together by the end of the book. So, you know one of two things are going to happen with Dr. Harrow. He’s either going to be exceptionally good and back away gracefully, or he’s going to be exceptionally bad and try to rid himself of the competition so that he can have Win all to himself.

Then there are the Hathaways. I still don’t feel like I know Poppy very well ~ hopefully she will be explained in more detail in upcoming books; Beatrix has matured somewhat and I cannot wait to see how she’s grown by the next book; Leo ~ I’m so looking forward to his and Miss Marks story (someone put a shout out to LK to finish it soon!); and Amelia and Cam were an integral part of SMAS so I felt justly caught up with them.

In MTM, we either saw or got mentions of all of the four wallflowers. In SMOS, we got to see Simon and Annabelle! I hadn’t realized I’d missed them so much until they were featured here. It was great to catch up on these characters and their lives as well.

Win and Kev’s story was everything I expected and more. I’m so glad to see how strong Win became. She’s a wonderful heroine. As for Kev, I’m so glad he came to terms with demons and allowed Win to love him; and allowed himself to love her. It made for a great story.

Verdict: The story was Excellent. Of course, I actually read this one “on time” so now I expect it’ll be another year before I get my fix of the Hathaways (although I hope not!!!). I know I said it before, I cannot wait for Leo and Miss Marks’ story!

Labels: Avon, Excellent, Historical Romance, Lisa Kleypas

Just Finished:
Synopsis: It was love at first sight for Lady Viola the night she met the dashing viscount John Hammond. Swept into a whirlwind courtship, it wasn’t until after their vows had been spoken that Viola learned the shattering truth: her beloved John had never loved her, had married her for her fortune…and worse still, saw nothing wrong with that. Heartbroken, she vowed never again to let the deceiving scoundrel into her bed.

John never intended to hurt the headstrong beauty who has become a stranger to him. Now, after years of sham marriage, he is in need of an heir, and John is faced with a luscious, intriguing challenge—seducing his own wife. He must persuade Viola back into their marriage bed, but this time, he may be the one to lose his heart.

My Thoughts: I had my mind made up before I ever started this book that I wasn’t going to like it. I didn’t like the character of John in the first two books of the series and just didn’t see how LLG would redeem him. He was a man who married for money and then left his wife in order to pursue his sexual exploits in what seemed to be the bed of every other woman in London. When his cousin dies and it is forced upon him to produce an heir he must try to win Viola’s affections and persuade her to give their marriage a second chance.

I really enjoyed the character of Viola ever since she schemed to bring Anthony and Daphne together in Guilty Pleasures. I thought she deserved better than John and felt like he had a lot of work to do in order make up for the past 9 years of adultery. As I read the book, I just wasn’t sure that he did enough. Sure, he seduced her back into his bed, but I didn’t feel that he did enough to cause Viola to forgive him and fall in love with him again. Maybe that’s just me. I tend to read too much into my books sometimes, tend to personalize too often.

But then, John made the ultimate sacrifice. He made a speech that rivaled the one Anthony made in Guilty Pleasures. The man made a fool of himself all for the sake of proving his love to Viola, and even I forgave him.

Verdict: This was Very Good. It was great seeing Anthony and Daphne (Guilty Pleasures), and Dylan and Grace (His Every Kiss) again and I enjoyed seeing all of the couples interact together. In spite of myself, I found myself really liking this story and I was so glad to see that LLG made John a redeemable and even likable hero.

Labels: Avon, Guilty series, Laura Lee Gurhke, Very Good

Just Finished:
Synopsis: Everyone knows about Dylan Moore—his brilliant talent and his pleasure-seeking ways—but no one knows the torment that lies beneath his reckless veneer. Only one woman gets a glimpse of the forces that drive Dylan’s soul, a woman who haunts his dreams and evokes his passions as no other woman ever has before.

Disgraced and destitute, Grace Cheval wants nothing to do with the seductive man who desires her. When Dylan offers her a position as governess to his newfound daughter, she knows his true intentions are dishonorable. Yet she finds this charismatic man hard to resist, and she returns his passionate kisses with a fire that matches his own. Can Dylan dare hope that this proud, spirited beauty will melt the ice around his heart?

My Thoughts: I thoroughly enjoyed this book from beginning to end. I loved that both of characters were flawed in some way and had demons they were trying to deal with. Dylan’s was that he was a composer who could no longer compose; Grace’s was that she had fallen in love with a temperamental artist before and knew the pain of when that fiery love died.

I wasn’t quite sure what to think when the daughter, Rachel, was left with Dylan. Sometimes stories that have children in them seem to focus more on the child and not on the main characters. Luckily this was not the case here. Rachel was a great addition to the story ~ and really, the catalyst to Dylan and Grace because without Rachel, Dylan would have never needed a governess.

Verdict: This was Very Good. I thoroughly enjoyed Dylan and Grace’s story and look forward to reading the third book in this series, The Marriage Bed, soon.

Labels: Avon, Guilty series, Laura Lee Gurhke, Very Good

Just Finished:
Synopsis: For prim and shy Daphne Wade, the sweetest guilty pleasure of all is secretly watching her employer, Anthony Courtland, the Duke of Tremore, as he works the excavation site on his English estate. Anthony has hired Daphne to restore the priceless treasures he has been digging up, but it's hard for a woman to keep her mind on her work when her devastatingly handsome employer keeps taking his shirt off. He doesn't know she's alive, but who could blame her for falling in love with him anyway?

Anthony thinks that his capable employee knows all there is to know about antiquities, but when his sister decides to turn the plain young woman in gold-rimmed glasses into an enticing beauty, he declares the task to be impossible. Daphne is devastated when she overhears… and determined to prove him wrong. Now a vibrant and delectable Daphne has emerged from her shell, and the tables are turned. Will Anthony see that the woman of his dreams has been right there all along?

My Thoughts: This is the first book in the Guilty series.

First off, I disagree with the book synopsis. Anthony’s sister, Viola, really didn’t have anything to do with Daphne’s transformation. I just have to say that up front.

I really enjoyed this book. I loved Daphne’s spirit. Here is an intelligent woman working for a man she is secretly in love with. Until she overhears him describing her as a stick insect on a twig with no feminine appeal who works like a machine. From that point on, she vows not to love him anymore. In fact, she quits her job and tells the man it is because she just does not like him. Being a Duke, Anthony is not used to people talking to him this way and is completely baffled by it. And then he sets out to change her mind. First about the job. Then about him. The end result was a great tale, with him proposing and her rejecting him.

I loved how the relationship between Anthony and Daphne flowed, even if it did seem too convenient. But, I’m a fairly forgiving reader and will overlook almost anything if the story is good enough. And the story was good enough. The development of the friendship between the two characters was done very well and I could hardly put the book down once I started it.

And by the way, probably the best last two pages of a book I’ve read ever. Ever. Really.

Verdict: This was Very Good. I enjoyed Anthony and Daphne very much and am looking forward to reading more in the series soon.

Labels: Avon, Guilty series, Laura Lee Gurhke, Very Good

Just Finished:

Synopsis: Penrose, Cornwall ~ September 20th ~ To Do
~ invite the dowager duchess and the other ladies in the club to stay
~ prepare for Quinn’s arrival
~ pretend you haven’t loved him . . . forever

He had once been her cherished childhood companion, and then the man she had lusted after in secret, but Georgiana Wilde hasn’t seen the recently widowed Quinn Fortesque since the day he married another woman and shattered her heart. Then fate intervenes and brings the man she dreams about each night back to her . . .

Returning to the estate on family business, Quinn would like nothing more than to turn the land over to Georgiana and leave the memories of his former life behind. But then the brooding marquis finds himself under the spell of the hidden beauty he once left behind. With her barely concealed passions, Georgiana melts his coolly guarded heart. Suddenly his well-ordered world is in danger of crashing down. And it all begins with just one kiss. . .

My Thoughts: This is the second book in The Widows Club series.

I’m a sucker for unrequited love or lost love stories. This is why I bought this one, and also its predecessor, A Dangerous Beauty. Not being one to read series books out of order, I quickly read Book 1 in the series and enjoyed it immensely, so I had great hopes for The Kiss.

***POSSIBLE SPOILERS ~ READ AT YOUR OWN RISK***
The Kiss, however, started off slowly for me and it took me quite awhile to warm up to it. I liked Georgiana. She had a spunk and energy that I really appreciate in a heroine. She also had wounds that she hid away from everyone and managed her life quite well in spite of them.

I enjoyed Quinn very much. It seemed he not only came home to claim the Marquis title but also to make sure there were not doubts that Georgiana should be considered the legal Marchioness, due to her ill-fated marriage to his cousin, Anthony. Even when he found out through the usual means that he marriage had never truly been consummated.

As with the prior book, there did seem to be a lot of misunderstandings and assumptions in abundance in the tale as well. Quinn assumed Georgiana loved Anthony; Georgiana assumed Quinn could never love her; Quinn accused Georgiana of wrong-doing; and Georgiana just let him assume incorrectly about her. Those things always seem to drive me crazy, but I can be forgiving up to a point if the story is good enough. This story was good, but not so good that I didn’t tire of these misgivings in the end.
****END SPOILERS****

Again, a host of wonderful side characters added to the depth of this book and also lay the groundwork for several more Widows Club books to come. I was also glad to see much of Luc and Rosemunde (from A Dangerous Beauty), Ata, and Grace. Added to the mix is Farleigh, Quinn’s precocious 9-year-old daughter who was a delight in every page she was in.

Verdict: This was Good. It took me a bit of time to warm up to Quinn and Georgiana, but after I did I enjoyed it. It’s going to be a long wait until February 29 when Grace’s book Love with a Perfect Scoundrel is released.

Labels: Avon, Good, Sophia Nash, Widows Club Series

Just Finished:
Synopsis: A Courageous Outcast . . .
Rosamunde Baird has lost everything and has no choice but to accept an invitation to spend a season with a dowager duchess and her clandestine ladies club. Determined to stay in the shadows and live quietly, she has sworn never again to come face to face with adventure and temptation, two things that brought her ruin years ago. But then the Duke of Helston dangles before her the very things she craves most...

Lord Fire & Ice . . .
Mysterious Luc St. Aubyn is well known for exuding blistering passion at night and frost the morning after. But dark mystery swirls around this audacious war hero. A tragic past has driven the Duke of Helston to hide the twin secrets of the dowager’s Widows Club and his own infamous writing talent. When he’s blindsided by his reactions to a virtuous siren, he has no choice but to reveal all during a scandal that will doom them …or save them, if only they dare to believe in love.

My Thoughts: This was my first book by Sophia Nash and I was not disappointed. She did a great job of storytelling and world building with this one. I was hooked from the first sentence to the last.

****SPOILERS****
In the beginning, I enjoyed Rosamunde’s youthful spirit. She loved sports, such as racing horses. She was carefree, and most importantly, she was her father’s favorite child. I loved reading about her crush on young Henry who was to be the next Duke of Helston and how after she won a race with him she tentatively asked him for a kiss as her reward. I thought it was all so sweet. But then it took a turn. Henry told her he loved somebody else. And although the kiss between Henry and Rosamunde was very innocent, it was reported to be much worse than it really was. So, rather than be forced into a marriage with a man she knew didn’t love her, she ran and married a man she thought was kind, and who she thought she would able to have at least a convenient marriage/friendship with because her reputation was ruined. She was wrong.

Eight years later, she’s widowed and the Dowager Duchess of Helston has invited her to stay at her estate to be part of her Widow’s Club. And it is there where she meets Luc, the younger brother of boy she’d kissed so many years ago. Luc and Rosamunde form a fast friendship which I enjoyed. I enjoyed learning more about his family through his point of view. It was wonderful watching the closeness that formed between the two characters and seeing them share secrets with each other that they had never shared with anyone else.
****END SPOILERS****

There are also a host of wonderful side characters in this book, but the two I’ll mention are Ata and Sylvia. First and foremost is the Dowager Duchess, Ata, a very spirited woman who heads up the Widows Club. She is short in stature but believes she makes up for it by wearing dresses that flow just a few inches too long. Of course, because he dresses are too long, she is always tripping over them. Also, there is Rosamunde’s sister Sylvia, who has remained faithfully by Rosa’s side since she left the family home eight years ago. However, Sylvia’s got secrets of her own that she’s trying to hide.

Verdict: This was Very Good. I enjoyed Luc and Rosamunde immensely and am looking forward to reading the follow up: The Kiss.

Labels: Avon, Historical Romance, Sophia Nash, Very Good

Just Finished:
Synopsis: The Awful Truth about Emily Ruth

Lucas Griffin has come to Port Gamble for one purpose: to get the Griffin family summer home out of the clutches of his evil ex-wife, Emily Ruth Griffin.

But before he can blink twice, she drops dead in the local grocery market. Now he's stuck with her ghost, and her little dog, too.

Not-So-Dearly Departed Lila Abbott has had her fill of rich summer people who crowd Port Gamble every year. Townie girls and summer boys just don't mix, and she's learned that the hard way.

But Lucas Griffin has a ghost problem that only Lila can solve, and she finds herself knee-deep in Cheez Whiz while Lucas and the deceased Emily Ruth duke it out.

Working together to clear his name and get rid of their pesky poltergeist, Lucas and Lila find themselves falling in love. Maybe this will finally be the forever summer for Lila Abbott.

My Thoughts:Hmm. Well, I honestly don’t know what to say about this book. I really wanted to like it ~ and I guess I must have on some level because I finished it. But, I expected more of a story. Especially since there were so many facets that should have been appealing ~ paranormal, murder mystery, opposites attracting, working class girl falling for the rich summer guy, etc, etc.

I liked Lila, and I liked Lucas. I’m just not sure I liked them together. I just didn’t feel it. Well, technically I guess I maybe felt it in the very beginning. And then again when they first do “the deed”. That was fun. And Chapter 16. I liked the end of Chapter 16. But any other time? No. Not really. And the ILY seemed to come out of right field. I don’t feel like I ever really get to know the characters, so maybe that’s why. I don’t know.

The story seemed to have a lot of holes in it for me. The storyline seemed choppy. And then there were a few misspelled words that the editor should have caught, but didn’t. That threw me a bit.

The side characters didn’t really add much to the story either. Except maybe Bonnie, Lila’s best friend. I liked her, or at least I would have if she’d been around more. But I wasn’t invested in the rest of them.

The whole whodunit part of the story was easy to figure out. I had that one pegged from the get-go. Not that there’s anything wrong with that. I’m usually pretty good at figuring that out. And I’m not big on mysteries anyway (says the girl who starts a book by reading the final chapter).

Verdict: I guess I’d rate it Okay. Again, I did finish it and normally if I completely dislike a book I don’t bother. So I must have liked something about it on some level. I just don't know what it is.

Labels: Avon, Okay, Paranormal, Suzanne MacPherson

Synopsis: Jack Audley has been a highwayman. A soldier. And he has always been a rogue. What he is not, and never wanted to be, is a peer of the realm, responsible for an ancient heritage and the livelihood of hundreds. But when he is recognized as the long-lost son of the House of Wyndham, his carefree life is over. And if his birth proves to be legitimate, then he will find himself with the one title he never wanted: Duke of Wyndham.

Grace Eversleigh has spent the last five years toiling as the companion to the dowager Duchess of Wyndham. It is a thankless job, with very little break from the routine... until Jack Audley lands in her life, all rakish smiles and debonair charm. He is not a man who takes no for an answer, and when she is in his arms, she's not a woman who wants to say no. But if he is the true duke, then he is the one man she can never have...

My Thoughts: This is another winner for Julia Quinn. What a great story this was! I was taken with Jake the moment he was introduced in the story and I liked him more and more the further I read. Same with Grace. The two of them are easily one of the best couples JQ has ever written. I loved Jack’s humor, his wit, his love of family, and most of all, his love of Grace. Just an awesome character. In Grace, I loved her loyalty, her caring, the way she found humor in almost every situation, and finally , I loved her love of Jack.

There were also some great side characters ~ Thomas, the man formerly thought to be the Duke of Wyndham who had befriended Grace when she thought herself no more than a servant in his household; Amelia, the young woman who found herself betrothed to Thomas since infancy who I got to witness form a tight friendship with Grace throughout the pages of this story; then there was the Dowager, a woman I loved to hate at every turn of the page, but yet also found myself liking in spite of myself.

Verdict: This was Excellent. I love Julia Quinn anyway, but this story was exceptional. It had a lot of emotion, and a lot of laughter which is what I expect from JQ. I am now anxiously waiting until October when I can purchase the follow-up book, Mr. Cavendesh, I Presume? which is the story of Thomas and Amelia. I cannot wait!

Labels: Avon, Excellent, Historical Romance, Julia Quinn