Love Saves the World: May 2014

Thursday, May 29, 2014

Throwback Thursday: Historical Romance Edition #37

Thank you to Shabby Blogs (http://shabbyblogs.com/) for the free frame!

Happy Thursday, everyone! And welcome to a new feature on Buried Under Romance and Love Saves the World.

What is Throwback Thursday?
Traditionally, Throwback Thursday celebrates nostalgia, asking participants to post a personal photo or an image from their past -- usually from 5 to 10 years ago. There are a lot of book blogs that also do a book-related Throwback Thursday.

The Historical Romance Edition:
Since Mary of Buried Under Romance and I are unapologetic lovers of historical romances, we've decided to focus on our beloved genre.

Here are our rules:
1. It must be posted on a Thursday.
2. It must be a historical romance novel published before October 3, 2008.

A Visit From Sir Nicholas by Victoria Alexander, published November 2004

Blurb:

Everyone knows that an Effington always gets her way ... but this time it's not going to be easy!

Lady Elizabeth Effington simply could not suitably feel the joy of the Christmas season. Ten years had passed since she had boldly declared her love for Sir Nicholas Collingsworth. He rebuffed her and set out to seek his fortunes, while Elizabeth was left a woman scorned. Now, she discovers in horror that the inheritance she's managed beautifully was never hers to control. No, power over her finances lay in the hands of the last man she ever wants to see again: Nicholas!

But running Elizabeth's life isn't part of Nick's plans. He's intrigued when he discovers that the frivolous and flighty girl he once knew has turned into a beautiful and capable woman. Nick vows to woo -- and win -- her, and while she seems unmoved by his fervent seduction, he swears he will not rest until she accepts that most precious gift of all -- the gift of love.

Victoria Alexander's Effingtons rivaled Stephanie Laurens's Cynsters and Julia Quinn's Bridgertons in terms of interesting characters and memorable love stories. Of the Effingtons, Elizabeth's is one of my favourites. It's got an old flame who has returned, a second chance at love -- and it's all wrapped up in a sweet Christmas story.

To find out more about Victoria Alexander and her books, click below:
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Head over to Mary @ Buried Under Romance and Ki Pha of Doing Some Reading for their picks for Throwback Thursday.^_^

Fellow historical romance readers are welcome to join us. Enter your link below so we can visit your TBT: HR Edition post for the week! (Then go here to copy the Link code to your blogs.)

Tuesday, May 27, 2014

Review: Silk and Scandal by Cassandra Dean (short story)

Click here to buy the book on Amazon
Cassandra Dean's Silk series features a trio of aspiring barristers and the women In their lives. Silk & Scandal is the first book and features Thomas Cartwright and Lady Nicola Fitzgibbons, neighbors and childhood friends. Lady Nicola is the daughter of a diplomat and has live most of her life away from London. It is a surprise that she managed to find one friend: Thomas Cartwright, adopted by the Lord Harry and Lady Millicent at a young age.

Now he is studying to be a barrister and Nicola is away again, accompanying her father across the world. It is during this separation that Thomas sees how very disparate their circumstances are: she's the granddaughter of an Earl, and he is a nobody aspiring to be a somebody. She creates scandal wherever she goes and he wants to build a proper career in politics. They've exchanged letters all their lives, and have shared a wonderful friendship, but Thomas makes the painful decision to end their correspondences -- believing it would be best for the both of them.

I don't believe that Nicola intended to be scandalous. I think it's just part of her life tragedy, that, unwittingly, trouble finds her even when she isn't looking for it. She has done her best to live properly, but, I think, the primal need for companionship and friendship sometimes overpowers good sense. It's also very sad that, the one person she expects to understand and accept her has also rejected her.

Well, it appears I have done it again. The Scandalous Lady Nicola, that's what they whisper here of me, when they think my back is turned and I cannot hear.

But, Thomas, I ask you, can I help it if two gentlemen see fit to duel over me? You may be assured I did not lead them on, no more than any other girl here. Perhaps I danced with each more than was seemly, and I may have shown a little more affection than was wise, but they both should have known there was nothing in it. They, as I, saw fit to relieve the unmitigated boredom that is the British quarter in Hong Kong.
- Prologue

Now, Nicola is back and wants answers from Thomas. It's an emotional confrontation between two very good friends and I could really feel Nicola's anxiety over being rejected by Thomas: she really doesn't have anyone else in her life, and definitely not anyone who knows her as well as Thomas does. She's very focused on saving their friendship.

How was it she'd been gone and yet he could still read her? She was overly bright, because she worried about his response. She spoke quickly, because she couldn't bear it if he refused her. Bloody hell, eight years had passed. Eight. How could he still now her so well?
- Chapter 1

* * *

Clearly, he needed her help and, knowing Thomas, he would not ask. Making her way to his side of the desk, she stopped beside him. Without comment, he watched her, back still rigorously straight. Hesitantly, she lifted her hand and smoothed her fingers through his hair.

He flinched.

Instantly, she froze. She would not force him to accept her comfort, and she would not be the cause of any more distress.
- Chapter 3

I wanted to dislike Thomas for not understanding, for not being a better friend ... but, considering his background, I understand why Thomas continues to strive to better himself. Thomas believed Nicola would hold him back, but, in fact, Nicola has the opposite effect on Thomas's life and career.

This short story is a very nice study of the opposites-attract theme. At 5 chapters, this is short, sweet and completely satisfying. I also enjoyed reading the letters between Nicola and Thomas, and the letters seem to be a common theme in this series of short stories. (After I finished this book, I went and read Silk & Scorn , the second book in the series.)

To find out more about Cassandra Dean and her books, click below:
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Sunday, May 25, 2014

Review: The Rogue's Proposal by Jennifer Haymore

Click here to buy the book on Amazon
Click here to buy the paperback at The Book Depository
So many things have happened to Lord Lukas Hawkins in such a short period of time. First, his mother has mysteriously disappeared. Then, he discovers that he was the product of an adulterous relationship between his mother and a neighbor.

Such revelations are enough to drive any man to drink, but Luke's drinking problems started long before that ... and we wondered why. This is his story.

Luke has always felt the need to prove himself to his older brother, the Duke of Trent, and has always fallen short of his own expectations, leading him into a downward spiral of disappointment and dejection. Now he sees an opportunity to redeem himself and has asked to take on the investigation into their mother's disappearance. He has been following a series of clues that has sent him to Cardiff, then to Bristol, looking for information about Roger Morton, a man who is connected to the Duchess's disappearance.

Emma Curtis is also looking for Roger Morton, who is responsible for her husband's death and her family's loss of fortune and subsequent decline. When she hears that Lord Lukas Hawkins is looking for Morton, she approaches him with an offer: she will help him find Morton, but he must bring her along.

Emma possesses vital information that could lead Lukas to his mother, so he agrees -- even offering his own (quite scandalous) counter-proposal to his beautiful new traveling companion, which Emma refuses, telling Lukas that they would never have "relations" ...

One will notice in Luke's conversation how much value he places on the idea of good: being good enough, being too good for someone like him, etc. Luke projects the image of confidence and indifference, but his insides are being gnawed by fear and insecurity that stems from his childhood and the abuse he suffered from his "father", the former Duke of Trent. Even Emma comments on the irony of their situation: Luke believes Emma is too good for a rogue like him, but it is Emma, in her straitened situation, who is actually not good enough for a duke's heir.

... "I want you, Emma. I have since that first night. Every single night, my body is an inferno burning just for you. And every night I deny it. Every night I suffer. Will you beg> Will you relieve my suffering?"

Her throat was dry. She squeezed her eyes shut because she couldn't bear to gaze into the blue fire of his. Soon, that fire would consume her. "I ... I don't know."

"Don't do it," he whispered, his breath whispering over her lips. He brushed her lips with his gently as he continued. "I'm not good enough for you. Angels aren't meant for devils."

"I'm no angel," she whispered, "and you're no devil." ...
- Chapter 5

Emma is also dealing with her own insecurity: she married a man who she thought loved and valued her, only to realize (too late) that he was after her money. She had been married three months and it was a disaster from day one. She feels she is responsible for what happened to her family's fortune, and now intends to rectify the situation. She knows that Luke desires her, and it surprises her. She had one experience with a man, observed the proper courtship, and married him. She believed she had chosen her late husband carefully, but later discovers that she had fooled her (and her family). Now, Emma finds it difficult to accept that anyone could want her, want to be with her, and love her.

What a naive, stupid little girl she'd been. So taken with a handsome and dashing Henry Curtis. He had a curricle like this one, but smaller and even more dangerous. Riding in it had made her feel so reckless and wild, so brazen. The first time he'd taken her riding in Hyde park and kissed her behind an elm tree, she'd been so breathless and excited she'd nearly swooned.

She wasn't that girl anymore.
- Chapter 3

This is a story of two people seeking redemption, and, in the process of finding it, find something greater: love and acceptance. I admire how Emma handled Luke's alcohol problem. In the beginning, she paid attention to his habit, but didn't push or pry too much. When they reached a certain point in their relationship, Emma drew the line and was able to help Luke manage his addiction. In the beginning, she had used her body as a means of distraction, but, it was actually when she didn't allow Luke into her bed, that awakened Luke from his stupor.

"Em," he said softly, "the drunken version of me is so much better than the nightmare version."

"The best part of you is the real you. Not the you that has been dulled and subdued by drink."
- Chapter 14

I felt sorry for Luke and what he suffered at the hands of the old Duke. It was very brave of him to bear it silently -- that none of his siblings would know or feel what he was going through. Luke always believed he was evil, that he was bad ... but, in truth, Luke possesses such an amazing heart. Despite all that he had gone through, he still stands up for the weak and defends the defenseless. He tries his best not to hurt the people around him. I think it is a reflection of Luke's character how he comes to visit Bertram at the asylum every month. For most, Bertram would be considered an extraneous variable. He served his purpose in the first book, and should, by all accounts, be forgotten already ... but Luke has not forgotten about Bertram and sees him as someone with value.

Their love story runs alongside the search for Roger Morton and the Duchess of Trent. As I mentioned in my review of the first book, I love how Haymore has expanded this mystery ... Like a pebble dropped in a pond, the ripples of one simple action has spread wider: where is the Dowager Duchess now? Who is she with? And why? I look forward to The Scoundrel's Seduction, which will be released on May 27.

To find out more about Jennifer Haymore and her books, click below:
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Thursday, May 22, 2014

Review: The Duchess Hunt by Jennifer Haymore

The Duchess Hunt by Jennifer Haymore
Click here to buy the book on Amazon
Click here to buy the paperback at The Book Depository
How this story begins confused me: the Duchess of Trent has disappeared, leaving no word and no trace. Simon, the current Duke, and his brothers were called home by their sister, Esme, and Sarah, the head maid, who also happens to be a Hawkins childhood friend. They are a family already steeped in scandal, and could not afford to weather through another one, so they all agree to keep their mother's disappearance a secret.

I was a bit confused by Simon's plan: the family has agreed to keep the situation quiet, and pretend that nothing is amiss, so Simon decides to return to London for the Season, which isn't anything out of the ordinary because that is where he usually resides -- the strange thing is that he decides to bring Esme to London. Esme had a disastrous first Season and had decided not to return this year.

1. Why leave for London when the disappearance happened at Ironwood Park?
2. Why bring your socially-awkward sister to London "to act like everything is normal" when everyone knows how much she dislikes society?

I can't help but feel it was a thinly-veiled attempt of getting Simon and Sarah together, which was fine, by the way, because I really wanted to read about them. Sarah met Simon when she first moved to Ironwood Park with her father, who had been hired as gardener at the estate. The young duke rescues her after she falls and gets trapped in a blackberry bush, and brings her to the main house. From then on, Sarah's life has intertwined with that of the Hawkinses, and she and Simon grow especially close.

The story touches on class stratification and how a Duke comes to fall in love with a housemaid. At first, Simon tries to narrow the gap between them, by promoting Sarah as Esme's companion. It's an eyebrow-raising moment, especially coming from Simon who is such a stickler for propriety, and Simon pretends, for a while, that it might work between them. Sarah knows nothing would come of their relationship, but she cannot help what she feels for Simon. She'd always been taught and told to "remember her place". In a sense, both of them defy social strictures for the sake of their love.

Raising his hand, he bent his head and rubbed his temple, then blew out a breath and met her gaze again. "I shouldn't -- mustn't -- touch you. I want to do right by you, Sarah. It is morally reprehensible for me to have these feelings for someone who is under my care."

If she were a London debutante, it might be different. But she was Sarah Osborne, his head housemaid, and she understood exactly why Simon felt like it would be morally reprehensible to touch her again. It had everything to do with those vast chasms that separated her social class from his.

Damn them, she thought brutally. Why must it matter? He was hungry for her -- she could see it in his eyes, hear it in his words. And, Lord knew, she was hungry for him too.
- p. 47

* * *

"Whatever you choose to give, I will take it gladly and hold it close. I have no expectations, Your Grace. I promise. I just want to live for today. Enjoy today. Let's for once, worry about tomorrow when it comes."
- p. 130

The courtship part of this novel is nicely done, but it is the mystery of the missing duchess that really grabbed my attention and I had wished it had been made the central focus of the story. I'm currently reading the second book, The Rogue's Proposal, and, I have to say, I love how Jennifer Haymore has plotted/planned out the duchess's disappearance -- and how something so simple is expanding into an all-out conspiracy. I love how the clues are being uncovered and pursued. It really is a very clever mystery! ^_^

I'm also a bit invested and hope the duchess is found because I liked her when Sarah first met her. She seemed a wonderful mix of grand and down-to-earth and I loved how she always had her children with her. I also thought she was so open and kind in accepting young Sarah and allowing Sarah to study/grow up with her own children.

However, when she disappeared, I was a bit surprised to learn that her children had thought she was flaky and unpredictable -- and I didn't see her as such that brief time we meet her at the beginning of the book. This aside, the mystery is fascinating because:

1. There is no crime scene. The dower house was not ransacked. There was no sign of forcible entry or struggle or theft. The only thing missing is the duchess's cache of jewels.
2. It was just the duchess who disappeared, but also her two servants.
3. When interviews were conducted, no one had seen anything unusual and no one could recall any strangers/new people around the area.

The Duchess Hunt also delves into the story of the Hawkinses, which ties in the story of the missing duchess and Simon. They're a motley family, with an older half-brother and with both their parents known for their indiscretion. In his generation, Simon's brother, Lord Lukas, seems to be carrying out the family tradition of debauchery. Simon believes, as the head of the family, and, as a duke, that it falls unto him to save his family's reputation. He has been a model duke, very proper and very polite -- and has tried to keep the rest of his siblings in line, which has caused a lot of friction between him and Luke, his heir. As the story continues, more family secrets are revealed and more pieces of their mother's past comes to light. The travails of the House of Trent is really engrossing (and, honestly, rivals that of the real House of Windsor. ^_^)

The Duchess Hunt is the first book in Jennifer Haymore's The House of Trent series. To find out more about Jennifer Haymore and her books, click below:
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Throwback Thursday: Historical Edition #36

Thank you to Shabby Blogs (http://shabbyblogs.com/) for the free frame!

Blurb:

A woman who wants to know what she's been missing ... A man perfectly suited to train her ... Christie Kelley weaves a scintillating novel of one rapturous night of ecstasy ...

A Woman Yearning For A Taste Of The Forbidden ...

At twenty-six, aspiring novelist Avis Copley intends to wear spinsterhood as a badge of honor. But when she discovers a volume of erotica that ignites a searing fire within her, Avis realizes just how much she doesn't know about the actual pleasures of the flesh. Determined to learn more, she devises a daring plan ...

A Man Ready To Teach Her Much, Much More ...

Avis chooses Emory Billingsworth, a fellow novelist --not to mention a beautiful specimen of manhood -- to instruct her in carnal pleasure. But when the brash Earl of Selby, Banning Talbot, a man she has known for years, unearths Avis' true intentions, he claims she's made a dangerously bad choice. Volunteering his services for one wicked night of reckless, abandoned passion, Banning promises he will satisfy all of her deepest longings. Yet Banning cannot begin to imagine the effect his willful, voluptuous, and very eager student will have on him -- or how far an innocent lesson in desire can go ...

This is the first book in one of my favourite series of all time: Christie Kelley's Spinster Club series. (Just reading through the blurb makes me remember the wonderful group of Elizabeth, Avis, Jennette, Victoria, and Sophie (she's my favourite) ... and makes me want to reread this series again! (Or I should start on her new Wise Woman series? ^_^)

To find out more about Christie Kelley and her books, click below:
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Head over to Mary @ Buried Under Romance and Ki Pha of Doing Some Reading for their picks for Throwback Thursday.^_^

Fellow historical romance readers are welcome to join us. Enter your link below so we can visit your TBT: HR Edition post for the week! (Then go here to copy the Link code to your blogs.)

Wednesday, May 21, 2014

Blog Tour: Woo'd in Haste + Wed at Leisure by Sabrina Darby (Review + Giveaway)

Love Saves the World is thrilled to participate in Sabrina Darby's blog tour for her two new novellas, Woo'd in Haste and Wed at Leisure, part of her The Taming series.

Avon is hosting a Tour Wide Giveaway for a Two Digital Sets of WOO'D IN HASTE & WED AT LEISURE by Sabrina Darby. Enter through Rafflecopter below. To follow the rest of the tour, click here.

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About the novellas:

Blurb:

Miss Bianca Mansfield is ready for her debut. If only her older sister didn't insist on marrying first. She's doomed to wait to find love. Until she meets ... him. For Lucian Dorlingsley, Viscount Asquith, recently returned from an extended tour abroad, it is love at first sight. He's determined to meet Bianca, even if it means masquerading as a tutor to her young half-brother. Soon Bianca is torn between love and duty and about to make a desperate decision. Can Lucian calm her fury over his betrayal when he reveals that he's not nearly as improper a match as he seems? And will they ever be able to find a match for her older sister to turn this masquerade into wedded bliss?

Release date: May 13, 2014

Buy Links
Amazon: http://www.amazon.com/Wood-Haste-The-Taming-Series-ebook/dp/B00FJ3A8LO
B&N: http://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/wood-in-haste-sabrina-darby/1117005052?ean=9780062304483

Blurb:
The stunning follow-up to Darby's Woo'd in Haste.

In all of Sussex -- scratch that -- in all of England, there is no one prettier than Kate Mansfield, and Peter Colburn, heir to the Duke of Orland, has known that since the age of 15. But since her vivacious nature comes with a temper to match, Peter has always masked his hunger for her behind ruthless teasing. As far as Kate is concerned, there is no one as annoying or as incredibly handsome as Peter. So when he surprises her with a sudden and romantic courtship, Kate is sure this must be his idea of a sick joke.

After all, he's the one man who knows how flawed she really is. And the only man to whom she has ever been so attracted. It's only after she rejects him that she realizes he might actually have been serious. And she just might be regretting her hasty decision. As Kate's determination wars with her traitorous heart, it may be too late. Now she's putting everything, including her reputation, on the line to give this accidental tragedy a happy ending.

Release date: May 27, 2014

Buy Links
Amazon: http://www.amazon.com/Wed-Leisure-The-Taming-Series-ebook/dp/B00FJ3A8NC
B&N: http://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/wed-at-leisure-sabrina-darby/1117005053?ean=9780062304513

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My Review:

Woo'd in Haste is the first book in Sabrina Darby's The Taming series, which is loosely based on William Shakespeare's The Taming of the Shrew. Darby's The Taming series features two sisters: Bianca and Kate Mansfield, the former has to wait patiently to have her Season because the latter has insisted that she must marry first. Bianca has been secluded in their country home in Waterford while Kate and their stepmother have been enjoying all that the London Season has to offer. Bianca had been been content to accept her older sister's demands, but, she is growing tired of waiting and reading about all the new experiences that Kate is having in London in her letters. She's tired of her sister's tantrums and dramatics and pretenses at being close and Bianca wants to live her life now and the first decision she makes is to stop reading Kate's letters. The next is to start voicing out her own wants and needs to her father.

Luc Dorlingsley, Viscount Asquith saw Bianca from afar and instantly fell in love with her beauty. Hearing about the condition to court/marry Bianca, Luc's friend, Lord Reggie quickly forms a plan and has Luc posing as a tutor to Bianca's younger stepbrother. This has allowed him in close proximity to Bianca and has given him the opportunity to fall more in love with her when he discovers the intelligent, kind-hearted woman behind the beautiful face.

Heat filled her own cheeks and a tingling of awareness scattered over her skin. He was not suggesting there was anything amiss with her at all.

No. This was admiration. The way Mr. Darcy had complimented Elizabeth Bennet's fine eyes.

This was admiration for Bianca's eyes.

Shock warred with embarrassment. She swallowed it all down. Forced a small smile. "What about my eyes, Mr. Dore? Do you find them entrancing? They are blue."
- loc 651

In many adaptations of this Shakespearean play, Bianca is always the placid, quiet sister -- the perfect foil for her tempestuous, irascible older sister. Darby's Bianca starts out in the same mold, but has grown tired of her role in this "play" and has decided to break out. Bianca is a very likable and sympathetic character and I thought she and Luc were perfectly suited to each other. I felt sorry that Bianca was never give the same chances as Kate was, so I'm glad to see that she got her happy ending.

...there were only three things in the world that she did care about: books, music, and Thomas. She had decided several years earlier, while still a child, that the rest of her family wasn't worth worrying about, from her sister's constant demands and histrionics to her father's inability to refuse Kate anything.
- loc 107

There are two big obstacles that our hero and heroine have to overcome: the first is the infamous stipulation regarding Bianca and Kate, and, second, Luc's deception. It really is a case of all's well that ends well, when Bianca decides to take matters into her own hands and acts.

...She crumpled the letter up decisively. "In fact, I won't anymore. that is the very last one."

There was something freeing about that decision. A bittersweet freedom.

But she was nineteen, and she refused to live her life any longer according to her sister's whims.
- loc 151 - 163

Darby also sets up the second novella, Wed at Leisure through Bianca's story and we see Kate through Bianca's eyes and we come to dislike her for her high-handed ways. Kate doesn't really say much in the first novella and what we know of her is from other people's accounts.

Between the two novellas, Bianca's story stays on the surface of things -- but she hints at something more. The deeper layer is presented in Kate's story, Wed at Leisure.

Everyone in their small community know Kate. They know of her spoiledness and of the infamous decree that she must marry first before Bianca could have her season. No one really likes her and Kate knows it's her fault. She has tried to show that she has changed, that she has matured and has become ... better -- but people could not forgive her for her past actions. No one likes Kate, except her stepmother and Peter Colburn, the Duke of Orland.

Frustration welled up inside her. Why was he saying such things? Of course, it was just what everyone else echoed. Everyone but her mother.

"You don't know anything about me," she said hotly, tears once again burning her eyelids.

"Then why don't you tell me?"

And for some reason she did.

About her mother, who hated her, who said Kate was ugly because she was so dark, who criticised everything Kate ever did, and little Bianca could do no wrong. About how no one ever paid her attention unless she did something terrible.
- loc 62

In Wed at Leisure, we see the reason why Kate behaved so brashly and shows her regret for her past actions. She knows she could never salvage her reputation in Waterford, so she and her stepmother have striven to show London a different Kate, a kinder, sweeter Kate -- and it is a liberating experience for Kate to be accepted, for once in her life. She had long suffered the rejection of her own mother, who openly favored Bianca over her and all Kate has ever wanted was love and acceptance. Unfortunately for her, her decision to act the shrew have caused the opposite of these things: she has alienated her sister and has no friends, except her stepmother.

At the Hall, she was not the Catherine Mansfield who had charmed London, but instead was the childish Kate, forever caught in the patterns set during the earliest years. With distance, she'd understood this. Yet each time she returned home, the emotions and anger made it impossible to think. Impossible to be any other way. Which was why she came home rarely. Indulged her desire for a sisterly relationship through regular correspondence. After all, with distance she could pretend it was perfect. In person, she was confronted again.

And yet, she could not forestall Bianca's entree into society forever, and Kate refused to stand in competition with her blond, beloved sister for society's affection.
- loc 198

I didn't like Kate when I read her in Bianca's story and I wasn't sure I liked her in her own story. Sabrina Darby has taken on the incredible challenge of transforming her "villainess" into a heroine. There is justification for Kate's behaviour, but, what I loved more was seeing Kate's repentance and her determination to make amends. It's truly a Sisyphean task for Kate and she falters many times ... struggling with the jealousy and insecurity that she feels inside. But it all shows that Kate is human and hurts and bleeds and cries like everyone else.

The heroes of the two novellas are an interesting contrast and emphasise the shallow/deep theme: one is new to the community and this is first experience of the sisters. Luc has never met Kate and knows only of her reputation. He was first attracted to Bianca from afar and only for her beauty -- but, what is wonderful about Luc is that he was not satisfied with just beauty and had wanted to get closer to Bianca and get to know her better. While his methods are suspect, the results were positive and he fell more in love with her. In the end, it wasn't beautiful Bianca that Luc married, but kind and thoughtful and sisterly and brave Bianca. Peter, on the other hand, has known the sisters his entire life. What is strange is that he has never paid attention to Bianca and, in Wed at Leisure, never had a memory of her. He knew she wasn't like her sister -- and that seemed to be the extent of their acquaintance. Peter's focus had always been Kate -- and his interest in her deepened when he saw a part of Kate that no one had ever seen before: a part that reminded him so much of himself.

There was Lord Reggie's plan to distract Kate with Peter, and Peter was vague about his participation -- but he did take the opportunity to get to know Kate better. I think it takes a very special person to see beyond Kate's well-earned notoriety. Did I like Kate the way Peter did? I don't think so. I found it difficult to shake off my own prejudices even after I had read of Kate's past, but I think this is part of the exercise of reading and being engaged in a story's characters. I appreciate what Darby has done in presenting this very familiar, very real sibling/family dynamic.

I think it's interesting how most stories only present us with one side, which is why it is most important, in my opinion, to read both books (Bianca's and Kate's) to get the complete picture. This is another excellent offering from Sabrina Darby.

Disclosure: I received review copies of Woo'd in Haste and Wed at Leisure as part of this blog tour. Many thanks to Sabrina Darby, Avon and Tasty Book Tours for the opportunity. Yes, this is an honest review.

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Author Info:

Sabrina Darby has been reading romance since the age of seven and learned her best vocabulary (dulcet, diaphanous, and turgid) from them. Her debut book with Avon Red, On These Silken Sheets, was a Favourite Erotic Romance finalist in the Australian Romance Readers Awards and a Best First Book finalist in the National Readers’ Choice Awards. Her new Regency novella, The Short and Fascinating Tale of Angelina Whitcombe, released July 31st from Avon Impulse and her first contemporary romance, Entry-Level Mistress, released February 2013.

Author Links
Website: http://SabrinaDarby.com 
Twitter: @SabrinaDarby 
Facebook: /SabrinaDarby
Romance Blog: TheBallroomBlog.com
Goodreads: http://www.goodreads.com/author/show/2983567.Sabrina_Darby

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Avon is hosting a Tour Wide Giveaway for a Two Digital Sets of WOO'D IN HASTE & WED AT LEISURE by Sabrina Darby. Enter through Rafflecopter below. To follow the rest of the tour, click here.

a Rafflecopter giveaway

Sunday, May 18, 2014

Free and Discounted Historical Romance Novels on Amazon

Hi, Fellow Readers! I hope you are all enjoying your weekend!

For this edition of book bargains, it's a group of firsts (in a series) and lasts plus a book bundle for a very low price. Enjoy~