From the shelf: When a Scot Ties the Knot (Castles Ever After #3)

Title: When a Scot Ties the Knot (Castles Ever After #3)

Author: Tessa Dare

Genre: Historical Romance, Regency Romance
Date read: September 14-15, 2015
Dawn rates: ★★★★★  (5/5)

Summary (cr: goodreads)

On the cusp of her first London season, Miss Madeline Gracechurch was shyly pretty and talented with a drawing pencil, but hopelessly awkward with gentlemen. She was certain to be a dismal failure on the London marriage mart. So Maddie did what generations of shy, awkward young ladies have done: she invented a sweetheart.

A Scottish sweetheart. One who was handsome and honorable and devoted to her, but conveniently never around. Maddie poured her heart into writing the imaginary Captain MacKenzie letter after letter … and by pretending to be devastated when he was (not really) killed in battle, she managed to avoid the pressures of London society entirely.

Until years later, when this kilted Highland lover of her imaginings shows up in the flesh. The real Captain Logan MacKenzie arrives on her doorstep—handsome as anything, but not entirely honorable. He’s wounded, jaded, in possession of her letters… and ready to make good on every promise Maddie never expected to keep.

My Review: (also in goodreads)

Castles Ever After series: Romancing the Duke, Say Yes to the Marquess

Wow, this the third book of the Castles Ever After series! This would be the only series I have read from Tessa Dare and I absolutely love it. But of course I have to play favorites: I really loved the first book featuring Izzy and Ransom. I laughed and cringed at their love story. I also liked the second book featuring Rafe and Clio but not as much as I loved the first book.

Just when I thought I could settle with the fact that I am too biased with the first book, I was wrong. Logan and Maddie captured my heart. They are my new favorite duo from the Castles Ever After series. Maddie is someone who wants to follow her dreams outside of marriage and that is something unacceptable during their time. Women were supposed to wed into good families early and start a family. If a woman is married, they could not land a job like an independent woman they should make their family the top priority. That is the reason I don't like the victorian/regency times. Although I am in awe on how they handle love. 

Being independent woman is the reason why Maddie gave life to Captain Logan MacKenzie: a dashing Scottish lover who is a figment of her imagination. She writes to him and tells her family about their love story and that is her excuse to not attend the London season in search for a husband. She is living the dream while lying to her family. She should've gotten away with it by killing her imaginary lover off but then comes the REAL Captain Logan MacKenzie. That is how the story starts.

I would like to advise everyone not to read this in a public transport, I repeat: "Do not read this in a public transport". You will be laughing and cringing like crazy that the people near you would look at you like you're a fool. There are so many scenes in which I laughed out loud forgetting the fact that I wasn't at home. Seriously, their love story would make me embarrass myself to death. I liked Maddie's character despite her innocence with regards to love. Their chemistry and humor combined is off the charts. My favorite scene was at the bog where Logan was doing a one-man play while Maddie was stuck....hilarious. Grant may be Maddie's favorite person but mine would be Callum.

Till the next read...

From the shelf: When the Duke Was Wicked (Scandalous Gentlemen of St. James #1)

Title: When the Duke Was Wicked (Scandalous Gentlemen of St. James #1)

Author: Lorraine Heath

Genre: Historical Romance, Regency Romance
Date read: September 7-8, 2015
Dawn Rates: ★★★★ (4/5)

Summary (cr: goodreads)

They are England’s most eligible bachelors, with the most scandalous reputations. But for the right woman, even an unrepentant rogue may mend his ways…

Lady Grace Mabry’s ample inheritance has made it impossible for her to tell whether a suitor is in love with her—or enamored of her riches. Who better to distinguish beau from blackguard than her notorious childhood friend, the Duke of Lovingdon?

With no interest in marriage, Lovingdon has long lived only for pleasure. He sees little harm in helping Grace find a proper match. After all, he’s familiar with all the ploys a scoundrel uses to gain a woman’s favor. He simply has to teach the lovely innocent how to distinguish honest emotions from false ones. How better than by demonstrating his wicked ways? But as lessons lead to torrid passion and Grace becomes ensnared in another man’s marriage plot, Lovingdon must wage a desperate gamble: Open his heart fully—or risk losing the woman he adores… 

My Review: (also in goodreads)

Second chances is the theme of this story. It is London Debutante season once again and because Grace wants a husband who will love her past her dowry, she seeks help from her childhood friend Duke Lovington. Lovington has been acting like a scoundrel since his wife and daughter died, a marriage he had since he was 19, so he wasn't sure if he could give the right advice about love since he has loved and lost greatly. I liked the fact that whatever was brewing between the two of them, it had a sense of familiarity especially because they grew up together and Grace once held a torch for Lovington.

Till the next read...

From the shelf: The Luckiest Lady in London (The London Trilogy #1)

Title: The Luckiest Lady in London (The London Trilogy #1)

Author: Sherry Thomas

Genre: Historical Romance, Regency Romance
Date read: September 4-7, 2015
Dawn Rates: ★★★★ (4/5)

Summary (cr: goodreads)

Felix Rivendale, the Marquess of Wrenworth, is The Ideal Gentleman, a man all men want to be and all women want to possess. Felix himself almost believes this golden image. But underneath is a damaged soul soothed only by public adulation.

Louisa Cantwell needs to marry well to support her sisters. She does not, however, want Lord Wrenworth—though he seems inexplicably interested in her. She mistrusts his outward perfection and the praise he garners everywhere he goes.But when he is the only man to propose at the end of the London season, she reluctantly accepts.

Louisa does not understand her husband's mysterious purposes, but she cannot deny the pleasure her body takes in his touch. Nor can she deny the pull this magnetic man exerts upon her. But does she dare to fall in love with a man so full of dark secrets, anyone of which could devastate her, if she were to get any closer?

My Review: (also in goodreads)

One of my favorite romance sub-genre has always been historical romance. It may well have been because of being in love at first read with 'Pride and Prejudice'. But mostly of how both protagonists carry themselves. They quarrel and flirt with ease, humor and poise. Even their coupling (as they call it) is quite lovely to read, like poetry. I enjoyed this novel quite a lot. This plot is kind of cliche with having an arranged marriage in a season where debutantes go to London to find the perfect match. Louisa is in London to marry to help her family even though she has no dowry to promise her future husband. With the help of her aunt sponsoring her, she's in. She had a couple of gentlemen in mind when she was singled out by London's Ideal Gentleman Lord Wrenworth dubbing her as the luckiest lady in London and the story starts from there. The plot has all the necessary ingredients for an arranged marriage: the interest, the looks (especially the looks), and of course the chemistry plus the male protagonist's sad past. All in all, I enjoyed reading this. Plus, I think Felix would be a lovely professor.

Till the next read...

From the shelf: Say Yes to the Marquess (Castles Ever After #2)

Title: Romancing the Duke (Castles Ever After #2)

Author: Tessa Dare

Genre: Historical Romance, Regency Romance
Date read: August 2-3, 2015
Dawn Rates: ★★★ (3/5)

Summary (cr: goodreads)

Your presence is requested at romantic Twill Castle for the wedding of Miss Clio Whitmore and . . . and . . . ?

After eight years of waiting for Piers Brandon, the wandering Marquess of Granville, to set a wedding date, Clio Whitmore has had enough. She's inherited a castle, scraped together some pride, and made plans to break her engagement.

Not if Rafe Brandon can help it. A ruthless prizefighter and notorious rake, Rafe is determined that Clio will marry his brother—even if he has to plan the dratted wedding himself. 

So how does a hardened fighter cure a reluctant bride's cold feet?

● He starts with flowers. A wedding can't have too many flowers. Or harps. Or cakes.

● He lets her know she'll make a beautiful, desirable bride—and tries not to picture her as his.

● He doesn't kiss her.

● If he kisses her, he definitely doesn't kiss her again.

● When all else fails, he puts her in a stunning gown. And vows not to be nearby when the gown comes off.

● And no matter what—he doesn't fall in disastrous, hopeless love with the one woman he can never call his own.

My Review: (also in goodreads)

Castles Ever After series: Romancing the Duke

This would be the second installment of Tessa Dare's castle series and this time the story revolves around Clio, an earl's granddaughter being engaged to Piers, a marquee's son for the longest time. Clip wants to end the relationship (if there ever was one) but it seems that everyone is against it including Rafe, Pier's brother and her childhood friend. I liked Clio and Rafe's chemistry and I'm all for the evolution of their friendship. I really didn't like her sister Daphne and brother-in-law's behavior towards this and it does mean that the writer clearly depicted a hateful character and I love it. Although I liked the first book more, there were parts of this book that I loved here and there that made me laugh at some parts.

Till the next read...

From the shelf: Romancing the Duke (Castles Ever After #1)

Title: Romancing the Duke (Castles Ever After #1)

Author: Tessa Dare

Genre: Historical Romance, Regency Romance
Date read: August 2, 2015
Dawn rates: ★★★★  (4/5)

Summary (cr: goodreads)

In the first in Tessa Dare's captivating Castles Ever After series, a mysterious fortress is the setting for an unlikely love . . .

As the daughter of a famed author, Isolde Ophelia Goodnight grew up on tales of brave knights and fair maidens. She never doubted romance would be in her future, too. The storybooks offered endless possibilities.
And as she grew older, Izzy crossed them off. One by one by one.
Ugly duckling turned swan?Abducted by handsome highwayman?Rescued from drudgery by charming prince?

No, no, and… Heh.

Now Izzy’s given up yearning for romance. She’ll settle for a roof over her head. What fairy tales are left over for an impoverished twenty-six year-old woman who’s never even been kissed?

This one.

My Review: (also in goodreads)

This would be the first book I read from Tessa Dare. A historical romance set in a castle of all things. Izzy Goodnight who once believed in happily ever afters was now coping with life, penniless and trying to elude questions about her father's stores after her father died. Until she found out that she had an inheritance courtesy of her godfather and a castle no less. It was then she meets the near blind scarred duke and turns his life around. The formula of this story is rather the same as the other historical romance novels wherein a man with the title has a dark past he wants to escape would then be enamored byt the woman who turns his life upside down. Sure the sex scenes were there but what I like about historical romance (flashback: Barbara Cartland's novels) is that they ere done tastefully compared to modern contemporary romance. Not those written with such profanity and carnality but with the right amount here and there. Plus the fact that I love reading deep words only historical romances possess. 

Till the next read...

From the shelf: The Girl You Left Behind

Title: The Girl You Left Behind
Author: Jojo Moyes
Genre: Historical Fiction, Romance, Chick-Lit
Date read: September 5-9, 2014
Dawn Rates: ★★★★ (4/5)

Summary (cr: goodreads)

France, 1916. Sophie Lefevre must keep her family safe whilst her adored husband Edouard fights at the front. When she is ordered to serve the German officers who descend on her hotel each evening, her home becomes riven by fierce tensions. And from the moment the new Kommandant sets eyes on Sophie's portrait - painted by Edouard - a dangerous obsession is born, which will lead Sophie to make a dark and terrible decision.

Almost a century later, and Sophie's portrait hangs in the home of Liv Halston, a wedding gift from her young husband before he died. A chance encounter reveals the painting's true worth, and its troubled history. A history that is about to resurface and turn Liv's life upside down all over again . . .

In 'The Girl You Left Behind' two young women, separated by a century, are united in their determination to fight for what they love most - whatever the cost.

My Review: (also in goodreads)

Other books: Me Before You

The reason I tried to read this book is because of the love I felt in reading her other novel, "Me Before You". I didn't try to read reviews of this book so that I would be in constant surprise and there were some scenes that made me feel exactly that. The story takes place in two time dimensions, a hundred years apart, bound by a painting threaded by different circumstances: 1916, a place where ware ensues in a little town in France and 2006, a time where a widow is struggling to make ends meet after the sudden loss of her husband. Just as I was curious on what happened to Sophie, time suddenly skips to Liv. The ending was really interesting and as the story unfolds on what really happened to the owner of the painting, Liv finally lets go of everything that binds her to the past and finally gives Sophie the justice she deserves.

Till the next read...

From the shelf: "The Stranger I Married" by Sylvia Day

While I was lounging on the net just to find good recommendations (via Good Reads), my cousin Ate Sandy gave me a bunch of e-books..as promised (yey~). And because reading has always been my first love, I was ecstatic and tried it at once.

Sylvia Day's "The Stranger I Married"

First up was Sylvia Day's novel "The Stranger I Married". The book would be classified as a historical-romance novel with a hint (or dash) of erotica. Okay~ so I was awakened (?) to that particular genre because of my curiosity on the 50 shades bandwagon months before (I think I read the trilogy about around May) ~more on my 50 shades infatuation later (that would be another post)

The story revolves around the lives of Lady Isabel Pelham, a widow who fulfills her sexual desires on different paramours but never willing to give her heart again and the dashing, rogue a.k.a. ladies man Gerard Faulkner, Marquess of Grayson who changes mistresses similar to changing clothes. Grayson offered her a marriage of convenience saying that this way he could get out of the other ladies' delusions of marriage and she could do whatever she wanted without letting her men fall in love with her. He, married but ecstatic that his love Emily would bear his child and she, left alone.  It was the perfect setup since they agreed to stay as friends. Not until he heard the devastating news about Emily that made him disappear without a trace for 4 years...that's where the story starts.

My opinion? All stories on marriages of convenience (most of the time) would eventually drag into someone getting hurt, and this was no exception. The only redemption is how the characters would settle their differences and clean out their issues. In this case, Pel (Isabel)'s issue was that she was afraid to give her heart and be vulnerable in front of someone else again after what her late husband did to her. Grayson was afraid to repeat everything and lose someone he cares about..again. I think the story lacked of conversations between Pel and Grayson out of the bedroom (though the steamy scenes were described enough) about them talking about serious stuff. But I guess the turning point about the issue on children did satisfy me. I loved the Abigail - Rhys side story which was like a spin-off on the main protagonists story.

I would recommend this book if anyone is looking for a one-time thing, sort of a past time. This was a simple read and I sort of breezed through it. But still, it was entertaining.

"The Stranger I Married" gets ★★★ (3/5)

Till the next read...