Tag: lgtbqia romance

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!

Book of the Week, books, new releases

Book of the Week: We Could Be So Good

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This week’s BotW is one of the books that I picked up on my buying spree while writing last week’s Kindle Offers and that I couldn’t help but read pretty much straightaway (within a week counts as straightaway for me) because it has a pretty cover and it was sitting there on my Kindle and Cat Sebastian is just so reliably good.

This is set in the world of newspapers in New York in the late 1950s. Nick is from the rough end of Brooklyn and has gone into journalism despite the disapproval of his family. Andy’s dad owns the paper and has sent him to work in the newsroom as part of the process of finding out how the business works. The two of them shouldn’t get on, and yet they do and soon they’re friends. Except that Nick really wishes it wasn’t just friends, but he knows that that’s all that’s possible. Isn’t it?

This is a very sweet slow burn love story. But its also low on angst and despite the 1950s setting you don’t need to worry too much about Bad Things Happening to characters because they’re gay. And you can argue about whether or not that is realistic or not, but I chose to believe that happy endings were possible and I think Cat Sebastian has done a really good job of figuring out a scenario where Nick and Alex can have one. I spent most of my time reading this with a big soppy smile on my face and really that’s what I needed. It’s sweet and romantic and it has a couple at the centre of it who get each other and want to make each others lives better in little ways and big ones. They’re both just happier when the other person is around them, preferably around them and happy. And there’s a really cute bit with a Cat. Perfect reading when you need a happy ending to make your day better.

I can see some people on Goodreads complaining about the fact that it’s written in the third person present, but honestly that bothered me so little that I didn’t even notice before I saw the reviews mentioning it. But to be honest, it’s very rare that the Point of View of a book bothers me – unless it’s second person, or the POV is inconsistent in some way. I can’t help that I’m not fussy like that!

As I mentioned at the top, I bought my copy on Kindle because it’s on offer at the moment for 99p, and the good news is it’s on offer on Kobo too. You’re welcome. I’m super pleased it’s on offer at the moment because it only came out in June and my experience with Cat Sebastian is that it’s unusual for her books to be at discount this quickly. So snap it up while you can and thank me later.

Happy Reading!