Tag: historical romance series

Book of the Week

Book of the Week: A Nobleman’s Guide to Seducing a Scandal

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Yes, yes, I finished this on Monday, but I finished it on the train to work, before 8am and Goodreads still thinks that’s Sunday so it’s all fine right? Not cheating at all.

Anyway, Major Rufus D’Aunstey is the new Earl of Oxney and owner of a remote and ancient Manor House in the vicinity of Romney Marsh. He’s already been through a months long battle in the court with his uncle about his inheritance, and now Luke Doomsday, the son of a local smuggling clan has turned up with another claim against the title. But Luke is also a secretary, and Rufus needs a secretary to help him untangle the mess that his predecessor left behind him. Soon the two of them are allies, except Luke has a reason he wanted to come to the manor and it wasn’t to do with being a secretary and it’s all about to get a bit complicated.

This is the second in K J Charles’s Doomsday books set in the same area and with the same smuggling family on the one side, but some years later and a different family on the other side. You don’t need to have read the first one, although it may enhance the experience, this is standalone. This has got smugglers and terrible relatives and a happy ending after a certain amount of adventure. I also really like the setting – The Unknown Ajax is one of my favourite Georgette Heyers and this has a lot of the smuggling themes from that plus the tension between a military hero and the people who have turned to smuggling to get by but dialled up to 11 and with more normal people. All in all it’s a really satisfying read.

As you can see, I have a physical copy and I’ve spotted it in a number of the larger bookshops, so you should be able to get hold if it if you want a paperback, or of course you can get it on Kindle and Kobo.

Happy Reading!

books, romance, series

Romance series: The Fitzhugh trilogy

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The topic of today’s post probably shouldn’t come as a surprise to you if you were paying attention on Monday because I basically read these (slightly out of order) in less than three days!

So this trilogy follows the Fitzhugh siblings – two sisters and their brother as they find their happy endings. Each book centres on one sibling but also has bits of the other siblings’ stories – I read Ravishing the Heiress (book two) first because I got an offer for it and went back for book one straight afterwards because of the split narratives. Book one is Beguiling the Beauty featuring Venetia, who has been widowed twice and hears herself being insulted by the Duke of Lexington and decides to get revenge – and of course falls in love with him in the process. Book two is Ravishing the Heiress – Fitz’s marriage to Millie was arranged – he got her fortune to save his estates and she got to be a countess. EIght years on they’re best platonic best friends but he has no idea that she’s been in love with him all along. Will he realise before it’s too late. And then book three Tempting the Bride is Helena – who has been risking her reputation through the first two books after falling in love with a man who has married someone else. But she ends up engaged to her brother’s best friend who has been tormenting her for years (because he’s secretly in love with her) after a rendezvous goes wrong. And then she loses her memory…

The amnesia plot – and the disguise plot in the first book – are pretty wild but they do work. The third book is actually my least favourite of the three – despite or maybe because of the slow build you’ve seen with Helena and David through the other books. But then I don’t really love amnesia plots usually although as far as they go this isn’t too bad and it does round off the series nicely. My favourite (of course?) is book two because I love a marriage of convenience historical – to the point where I’m sure I must have written a post about my favourites but it seems not. Like their cousin the Fake Relationship contemporary, they are just my absolute catnip and Fitz and Millie are a great couple – friends where one of them hasn’t realised that they’ve fallen in love after all and that the other has been in love with them the whole time.

Anyway, thoroughly recommend. If you’ve read Sherry Thomas‘s Lady Sherlock series I think you’ll recognise the writing style, but these are definitely straight romances rather than the historical mystery with a romantic subplot that she’s doing with Charlotte Holmes. Which reminds me, I’ve got the latest in that series waiting on the shelf. I should really go and read that shouldn’t I…

Have a great weekend everyone.

books, historical, romance, series

Romance series: The Survivors Club

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Mary Balogh has a new book out this week – Remember Me is the second book in her Ravenswood series, so today I’m taking the opportunity to talk about one of her other series – the Survivors Club books.

The six novels and one novella in the series follow six men and one woman who are injured in the Napoleonic Wars and end up convalescing at the same place – the home of the Duke of Stanbrook. In the way of such series, each book follows one of the group as they find love, with glimpses of previous couples as you go through as well and building to the final romance as you get to know the whole group.

I’ve read five of the novels and the novella as well and like reading Mary Balogh when I want something a bit less dramatic than some of the other equivalent historical romances. The heroes and heroines are a little older – old enough to have been soldiers for the men, and som of the women are widows, others have remained unmarried for Reasons. They all have real problems to overcome, but the angst is low and there don’t tend to be many stupid misunderstandings that could be solved with a conversation along the way. Basically you’re getting non-cookie cutter heroes and heroines and characters who grow and fall in love and mature without much melodrama. Although at the end of the series there is a touch of that. But by that point if you’ve read most of the others, then you’ll let it off because you’re getting the romance you’ve been waiting for for a couple of books!

These should be fairly easy to get hold of, I’ve seen all of them in the shops in paperback – although they came out a few years ago (the series was completed in 2016) so it may be slightly trickier now. But they’re also all on Kindle and Kobo.

Happy weekend everyone!