WWJAD is quick fun read. The story is flirty and cute just like the hero, Lord James Shermont. Read it in the bathtub, on the beach, while waiting in line at the post office, wherever, it’s sure to make you smile and leave you eager to turn the page.

Eleanor Pottinger (yes it is unfortunate that is her real last name) is a fan of Jane Austen. We meet her trying to get a room at a Jane Austen convention only to be told the room she booked has been given to somebody else. Luckily there was a newly renovated suite that was available…if she didn’t mind ghosts!

Of course Eleanor changes her mind about ghosts the minute they materialize. Sisters Deidre and Mina from the time of Jane Austen need Eleanor’s help. They are stuck as ghosts and can’t move on without her help. Eleanor jokingly offers to help if they can guarantee she can meet Jane Austen. They agree and before Eleanor can cry “Just Kidding!” Deidre and Mina have transported Eleanor back into the past.

When Eleanor wakes up she is stuck in the Regency era and is believed to be the girls’ widowed cousin Ellen who was arriving from America. Eleanor plays along and gets away with it because they haven’t seen the real Ellen since childhood. The ghosts tell Eleanor her tasks are to keep them out of the clutches of Lord Shermont, a rakehell of the worst sort, and to make sure their brother, Teddy, doesn’t enter into a duel with Shermont over their reputations.

Eleanor was once foolish enough to try and make a Mr. Darcy out of a Wickham, is she smart enough not to do the opposite? What would Jane Austen do?

Rating: 4.5 Stars

Buy: What Would Jane Austen Do?

Originally posted 2009-04-28 05:47:31. Republished by Blog Post Promoter

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The cover is fantastic on this book. The color scheme is wonderful with gorgeous yellows, blues, and shades of brown. It was an impulse buy because of it. The back blurb was intriguing. That’s about the last truly good thing I can say about the novel.

The writing made me wince several times. I’m not a reader who will nitpick when it comes to phrases and objects in historicals, simply because outside of reading I don't have a background in the time period. That said, this book is filled with contemporary phrases that read very out of place. It started innocuously enough with ‘what a relief’ and fell apart from there with common curse wordage especially the jarring use of the word fuck.

I had no patience with the hero, Greyden Kane. The Duke of Ryeton is a scarred recluse determined to shun all of society in an effort to stay good. He was the worst sort of rakehell when he was younger and treated women abominably. One so much so she had him attacked. He's very good at getting in his own way and being too obtuse to notice. His change of heart at the end just didn't do it for me and left me vaguely bored.

Rose Danvers is practically a ward under Greyden’s care. When her father died he left her and her mother in a heap of debt and greatly diminished prospects. Rose knows she and her mother must be a burden on Kane but can’t do anything about it. She suspects he has feelings for her but she can’t get him to admit it. Their relationship takes off when she decides to seduce him at the beginning of the novel. I would say she's sheltered and should have no idea about this but she's been stealing her mother's Voluptuous magazine which publishes how-tos and erotica. It didn't seem very believable. Why would her mother have the magazine subscription when she remains in mourning?

Lady Margaret Devane was a virgin until Greyden Kane. She is the one society and Grey think most likely behind the attack, but there isn’t any proof. Is she determined to ruin Rose as she was?

Rating: 1 Star

Buy: When Seducing a Duke

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Let Sleeping Rogues Lie is as scintillating as the title sounds rolling off the lips. Sabrina Jeffries weaves a tale of deception, half-truths, and omission. Sordid pasts litter throughout the story, many alongside the main characters, and a few directly related to the main characters. The only thing to watch out for is the mention of child abuse, which was inflicted on the male lead and drives him in ways he’s only beginning to discover.

Anthony Dalton, Viscount Norcourt, never thought to be titled. He was after all, the second son. His father must have bemoaned the facts of his heir and spare, a simpleton and rogue respectively, but no more than Anthony bemoans his dead brother’s idiocy. Dying and leaving his daughter without a guardian was quite possibly the worst move imaginable on Wallace’s part. Now poor Tess is being held by Anthony’s aunt and uncle, the Bickhams.

The Bickhams, Eunice and Randolph, are without a doubt the worst people in all of England. Becoming parents of one biological offspring did not make them kinder. Cruel to their own daughter, their offenses against Anthony as a young boy, still give him nightmares. Anthony can’t stand the darkness, the loneliness of the night. Perhaps, this is why Anthony is such a rakehell, filling his nights with the company of willing widows and whores. Only delving further into his character will tell.

Determined to win custody of his niece, Anthony fights for respectability. He quits his partying, and his lascivious behavior, even going so far as to curb his drinking of strong spirits. Now he must gain Tess a school, to prove the advantages of money and title against those of a seemingly stable home life. Unfortunately, it is coy Miss Madeline Prescott that gets in his way by helping him.

First he’s offered up as an expert in rakehells and rogues to the headmistress of Tess’ new school. He must show his responsibility by showing up promptly every day for two weeks and teaching the young misses about fortune and virtue hunters. And in offering her help, Madeline wants Anthony to do her a favor. She needs to clear her father of scandal with the testimony of one man, a man known to be in Anthony’s wild party circles. Anthony curses his rotten luck even as he yields to the temptation that is Madeline Prescott. On her part, Madeline is just as affected by Anthony as he is by her.

Can a love built on deception last? Would the truth break the fragile bonds growing between them or make them stronger? Only trust and faith will tell.

Rating: 3 Stars

Originally posted 2008-08-14 05:29:14. Republished by Blog Post Promoter

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Desperate Duchesses is not one of Eloisa James’ best. I could barely focus in the beginning on all the name dropping and afterwards I was more inclined to think poorly despite all the book’s promising potential. The writing style was overly choppy and scenes jumped very helter-skelter throughout making the book a chore instead of fun to read. It is very clear that this is not a stand alone book. There are two love stories that make up this novel the main one of Lady Roberta St. Giles and Damon Reeve, the Earl of Gryffyn, and very clearly Lord Beaumont and his wife Jemma as they dance around each other. I confess I could not finish this book to find out if they got together or not due to lack of interest. A despicable man named the Duke of Villiers and Damon’s son Teddy are also entwined through chess matches, lust at first sight, wetted beds, and picnics.

Roberta was a laughing stock. The Rambler’s Magazine portrays her as a deformed mono-brow sickly girl next to her father the Mad Marquess, who is on his knees with his arms raised high pleading with God for a match for his daughter. Roberta of course is far from deformed, ugly, or possessing any disfigurement, but she can’t escape the reputation that clings to her when she’s around her father or his poetry. She’s had it, she has. Roberta will marry a sensible man, one who won’t make a fool of himself or spout poetry. The Duke of Villiers is just the right man, but he was notorious for not caring about scandal and sleeping with most of the women in the ton. She would have to trick him into the parson’s mousetrap.

Damon is also a notorious rakehell and while he and Villiers share that reputation they are as night and day. Damon possesses an honorable streak and finds himself drawn to Roberta when she comes to his sister’s home in an effort to be brought out properly into society. The more she spurns him the more he desires her. Some of the sultriest scenes are stolen moments where he convinces her to show him what she knows of kissing. But even as they exchange kisses, Roberta stands steadfast in her self-declared love of Villiers and desire to marry him. There had to be some way to win her heart, to prove to her that Villiers was the wrong rakehell and he was the right one.

Rating: 2 Stars

Buy; Desperate Duchesses

Originally posted 2008-12-01 13:52:11. Republished by Blog Post Promoter

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