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By: Marcia, guest reviewer

Grace Eversleigh has a problem.  She is in love with a highwayman and a Duke.  Neither is marriage material since socially the highwayman with beneath her and the Duke is well above her.  The fact that they are both the same man does not help her situation at all.

Grace is a woman from a good but undistinguished family who was thrown out her home after her parent’s death.  Her only possessions are her self-respect and good name.  Never one to miss a good opportunity, the dowager Duchess of Wyndham hired Grace as a companion.  Late one night while returning home from a local dance in the dowager’s elegant coach, she and Grace are held at gunpoint and robbed by a masked but charming highwayman.  The dowager insists that she knows his voice and is convinced that he is her grandson.  She gives him the ring off her finger as proof.  The next morning the Dowager, accompanied by several servants, kidnap the highwayman for the purpose of returning the dukedom to him.  Never mind that there is a current Duke of Wyndham who has been fulfilling these duties well for many years.

The ring is familiar to Jack Audley.  He has one just like it left to him by his father who drowned in a shipwreck off the coast of Ireland.  His mother survived the same shipwreck, but only lived long enough to give birth to him. Having been raised with love and laughter by his maternal aunt and uncle, Jack was told only that his father was from a good English family.

The underlying theme of this book is about being worthy…worthy of position and love.  For some readers today, this may seem a little farfetched.  After all, today we believe that an individual should go after what they want.  But in England, during the early 19^th century, this was not the case.  Duty to one’s family and county were foremost, as well as, knowing one’s place.  This social structure was supported by the prevailing religious belief that God did not intend for man to be happy. It will take tremendous courage for Jack and Grace to take a chance on their personal happiness.

Julia Quinn’s first novel about the Cavendish family is a winner, told with humor and wit.  This is a ‘feel good’ novel where all the characters, including the dowager, are sympathetic and their motivations are clear.  The story moves along smoothly with a tightly constructed plot.  It is a great book to read in summer on a sunny beach or wrapped in a blanket on a cold winter’s day.

Four Stars

Originally posted 2009-01-12 05:25:18. Republished by Old Post Promoter

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The winner of Amelia Grey’s A Duke to Die For giveaway was selected from qualified entries using Random.org. Before I announce who won, I would like to take a moment to thank Amelia for being so generous with us. Be sure to check out her interview with LRP here and drop a little love. Without further ado the winner is:

MJ wrote:

I love all animals!! As a child we had dogs, cats, a monkey, crow that could talk, a parrot, a minah bird,horse, ponies, a mule and even an alligator. - plus more!!! Somehow, I married an animal hater!!! I really miss my pets tho. My favorite was Petunia the pig, who was raised from a bottle and lived inside til she got too big!!

Congratulations MJ! I will be emailing you (provided my internet doesn’t die again) soon. If you don’t hear from me send me an email at reviewromancenovel@yahoo.com

Thanks to all who commented!

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Today Amelia Grey blogs with Love Romance Passion with a really important writing tip. Please join me in welcoming her!

I am going to go out on a limb here and expose the real Amelia Grey.  I am not a dog person.  Don’t get me wrong, I think dogs are cute, but I didn’t grow up with a pet in the house so I’ve just never learned much about dogs or cats.  If I ever get a dog, I think I would like a Toy Poodle or a Yorkshire Terrier.  I mean dogs just don’t come any cuter.

You are probably wondering where I’m going with this….I do have a point.  Although I know it is not wise to write about things of which I have no experience, I needed a dog in my current book A Duke to Die For.

The sweet, little dog, Tulip was only going to be in one chapter so I thought, hey, I can do this so I wrote her in.  It wasn’t that hard to do, or so I thought. Luckily, I had an author friend who has a dog, read that chapter for me just to make sure I had the little doggie doing all the right things.

Well, when she got through marking it up with her red pen, I was flabbergasted at how much I didn’t know about dogs!  Her comment to me was, “Tulip might as well be a stuffed toy dog sitting in Henrietta’s lap.” She kindly reminded me that dogs sniff, shed, drool, scratch, and bark.  They like to be rubbed and petted and talked to, and well, I could go on, but I think you get the idea.  The worst thing I did was call Tulip a she sometimes and a he at other times!  I know, I know, that’s terrible.  I couldn’t believe I had messed up so badly on one little dog.  I found out it’s harder for me to write one chapter with a dog in it than a whole book with the hero and heroine.

I’ve heard it over and over again in writing workshops through the years, “write what you know”.  After that experience, I’m taking that advice to heart.  Needless to say, I think it will be a long time before I put another dog in a story. Who’s your favorite pet companion-real or in literature?

Amelia Grey is giving away a copy of A Duke to Die For to one lucky reader. Open to US and Canada readers only. Enter by leaving Amelia a question or answering hers about pets. Winner will be announced April 15th, 2009.

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Kathryn Caskie spins a delightful tale in How to Engage an Earl. My only complaint is the hero’s name. I mean really, Laird? I can’t decide if I am supposed to pronounce it like Lard, Lord, or L’AIR-ed. Apparently, Laird is a Scottish name, if that helps anyone else figure out how to say it.

So after Laird, Caskie gives us a much easier name to pronounce: Anne Royle. Anne is one of three Royle sisters; Mary was married off in How to Seduce a Duke and Elizabeth is younger than Anne. I figure that makes Anne the middle child. She’s very pale in coloring; white skin, flax hair, gold eyes, red lips. She’s also used to not being noticed. In fact, Anne is so unnoticed in crowds that she can literally steal the goblet that they are drinking from right out of their hands.

Of course, this is how Laird MacLaren first notices her and maneuvers her to try to steal his glass. Anne distracts him and manages to escape… with his drink, back into the crowd. That was not the last time Laird saw her that night however. Anne is set on the mission of finding the letters that will prove her heritage as a daughter of the Prince Regent. These letters are rumored to be in the Earl MacLaren’s bedroom. Thrilling and sexy, Anne’s presence in the master bedroom is only topped by Laird’s, who had gone up earlier to sleep off the brandy.

Not five minutes after her discovery by Laird in his bedroom than the rest of the ton finds out. The scandal was only narrowly subverted by his friend, Apsley, who claimed that she was in his room because Anne was Laird’s betrothed. Thrust into the center of attention, Anne is shocked speechless and highly uncomfortable. All Anne wants is out!

The next day Laird agrees she can end the engagement only after she helps change his character in the eyes of the ton. Laird wants to marry Constance Henceforth, but she will only have him if he’s changed. After all who would want a rake?

Rating: 4.5 Stars

Buy: How to Engage an Earl

Originally posted 2008-12-02 02:08:45. Republished by Old Post Promoter

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I generally liked this novel. It revolves around how a marriage once destroyed by infidelity can be healed. I have pretty strong views on this subject so I’ll talk about what ruffled my feathers. I’m like Viola, the heroine, at the start of the novel, looking at things in black and white. The author didn’t persuade me to think in gray matter, too bad Viola did. Luckily in the end she got what she deserved – a loving, devoted, adoring husband – but you could have fooled me. I still thought the hero was shy of truly learning how to love at the end of the book. However, you can be the judge.

Viola is the sister of a Duke and at the age of nineteen she knew she was in love with Viscount John Hammond. She also knew that despite the circumstances of his situation, he loved her, not the money she brought with her. How naïve she had been. John knew nothing of love; he was all empty words and passion.

“When unaccompanied by his love, a man’s desire was like the wind. It had no substance, and it was impossible to hold onto.” – pg 186

Now eight going on nine years after their vows, John has come to the decision to get himself an heir. For that, he will need to woo his way back into his wife’s bed. This task would prove impossible until he changed. But can a man like John, change his spots?

In the last ten pages he did. Until then the brute refused to take blame for more than half the novel and managed to in nearly every conversation lay the whole troubled affair at Viola’s feet. This is much like what happens in the movie Something to Talk About starring Julia Roberts. This made me really mad and when it wasn’t John telling Viola how she made him break his marriage vows and slip into other women, it was the Duke’s wife that was telling her how she wasn’t looking at things from John’s point of view.

John broke his vows. Period. The end. Case closed. What kind of man has to hide his dirty deeds behind his innocent wife? In today’s world with all the diseases that can be caught, a man who cheats ought to be charged with attempted murder if he slips back into his wife’s bed (undetected or not) without first having himself checked out thoroughly.

Viola first turns John away from their marriage bed when she learns that he kept a mistress during the entire time he was courting her. All his words of love, adoration, devotion were lies. She might have forgiven him those if the other woman wasn’t involved. After all impoverished lords needed funds and heiresses to make them solvent – he could have learned to love her.

John waits a month and leaves Viola to live a separate life. There he has count them, five, mistresses in the space of the years prior to his most devout attempt at reconciling. He only does it because he needs a legitimate heir to the viscountcy. Viola is the only woman who can grant him this. So once again he plans to use false words to get her into bed and if that doesn’t work the law is on his side and he can force her there.

But in his own words the five mistresses were her own fault for being cold to him. Poor baby. Eventually he says he is sorry for his part in breaking their marriage by using his young nephew to be his buffer. I don’t think Viola had any part to breaking the marriage. Distraught as she was she stayed with him (granted making him take separate sleeping quarters and refusing to allow him to use passion against her to win his way back into her good graces) until he left.

Marriage vows are not a one way street. A man and his needs can be resolved with a hand not another woman or any of her body parts. Fidelity goes both ways. If he required it of her then it was not an unreasonable request for Viola to make of him. John said it was and refused to be sexually blackmailed. Well what the hell was he doing when he refused to promise fidelity but sexually blackmailing his wife?

Has anyone read this book? What do you think?

Rating: 2.5 Stars

Originally posted 2008-10-06 15:07:06. Republished by Old Post Promoter

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