Mally - Sandra Heath

HOMECOMING

Mally came to her girlhood castle home in Wales to discover what should become of her as a woman.

With her was Sir Christopher Carlyon. who begged her to be his wife and whose passion was devilishly hard to deny. Missing was her younger sister. Who had vanished with - of all disreputable types of gentlemen - an American.

And making her feel both all-too-comfortable and increasingly uneasy was her extraordinarily charming host. Richard Vallender. who claimed to be Christopher's most loyal friend even as he drew closer and closer to Mally.

The questions of the heart and the seductive lies of love- twin puzzles for a young woman who found that all that was once so safe and familiar was now so menacing and strange....

I am, slowly, getting to the bottom of the TBR pile and this time I found another Sandra Heath book. I have loved a couple of her books and been less sure of other. This one, unfortunately, falls in the second category.

Mally is a young widow, she has a beau in Sir Christopher Carlyon but she doesn't seem much interested in him. At the moment she is more worried with her younger sister who has disappeared and she fears she went away to marry someone her family wouldn't approve of.

My main problem is that I never felt I actually knew Mally and what I did know of her wasn't very interesting. I couldn't understand why she kept Carlyon around if she didn't want him; it seemed kinder than leading him on. I didn't feel like I really got to know Carlyon, by the way, but he seemed a lot more involved with her than she was with him.

Then the mystery did get me a bit, or lot actually, confused. First Mally's sister had run away to marry, then it seemed something darker was afoot.. When she meets Vallender she first believes he may be the villain who took her sister or at least know what happened to her and when they all find themselves at his castle she can't help but being attracted to him despite everything.

I suppose the idea is to introduce a bit of a gothic feel in the story - mysterious man, mysterious castle but maybe because I wasn't really invested in Mally as a character it didn't really work for me.

Grade: 2/5

Regency Rose - Caroline Brooks

THE INFORMAL EARL


The Earl of Llandath seemed intent on thoroughly disrupting young and lovely Miss Kate Vaughn's life. When this dark and handsome nobleman returned from abroad to reclaim his ancestral estate, he raised clouds of speculation about where he had been and what he had done.

Then, most unfortunately, he caused Kate to lose here position in the wealthy Stockwood household and shattered her hopes of finding true love with the gallant and idealistic Stockwood heir. And to add to Kate's distress, as she trudged wearily along the highway toward a fearful future and a quite probably dreadful fate, the earl swept her up into his coach and informed her that he would take charge of her whether she wanted him to or not.

Kate was at the mercy of a lord she had every reason to loathe. And mercy was the one thing that the Earl of Llandath had no intention of offering...

 

I have more than a few doubts on how to review this story. First of all Llandath is not the dark and mysterious man that the blurb seems to suggest and Kate is well able to get herself in trouble without his help.

She is a young lady's companion and fallen in love with the young lady's brother. Her love is reciprocated but you can easily see that the boy is a weakling and that nothing will come of it. When she meets Llandath while walking the fields Kate has no problem is pretending that she is part of the family she serves and making him believe she is a well born lady. Llandath also pretends to be someone else but when later he visits the house expecting to find her the deception is revealed and Kate finds herself out of a job and with no beau because her suitor refuses to stand up to his mother. When Llandath encounters her walking the streets in the rain he decides to help her find a new job. The new job, surprinsingly, is as an actress in a theatre company.

There are several things that I felt could have been better explained, Llandath's past for instance remains a bit too mysterious. It's also obvious from the beginning that he is helping Kate because he is attracted to her but she never seems to see it. Then I'm not sure that just because Kate is good at pretending and imagining stories that she would be a good actress. But she quickly becomes that company's main attraction. She also keeps pining for her lost beau for too much time.

The story does have some attempts at humour. Not enough to make this a funny story though which left me undecided where the author wanted to take this. Especially after Kate's former suitor and his sister both end up in the care of Kate I had my doubts about the plausibility of all this and couldn't help being a bit sorry for Llandath who didn't seem to be any close to getting his HEA.

So, not exactly to my taste I'm afraid and since I wasn't really invested in the characters the whole story dragged a lot in the middle and later parts. People who like to read about theater settings might find this interesting though.

Grade: 2/5

Lord Caliban - Ellen Fitzgerald

THE DREADFUL DEBT

Lord Rodger Colbourue had saved Clemency's life one terrifying day when she was trapped in a collapsing tower; and he came to her rescue.

Now he had come to claim that life he had saved, as he proposed marriage without a promise of love, and demanded she trust him even though he filled her with fear

There was no one to save her now--not Damian, who had stolen her heart and then vanished... not her beautiful cousin Beatrix, who had vanished, too, in a disquieting cloud of mystery... not her parents, who wanted only that Clemency be wed at last.

Clemency knew that debts had to be paid-- but she trembled to discover how high the price would be...

Ok, so it's not every day that I get really annoyed with the characters of a book I'm reading, so annoyed in fact that when I finished reading their story I almost wallbanged the it. I usually like Ellen Fitzgerald’s stories so this one was a very unwelcome surprise.

I don't mind stories with villains, I don't mind the characters being fooled by the bad guy but when a simple conversation would be enough for everything to be uncovered, when people tell the heroine about what a bad character the villain is and she still doesn't believe them... well, sometimes it gets a bit too much and it starts seeming like the characters are too naive to be real. And that is exactly what happened here!

I really felt the story had much potential at first. Clemency met Rodger when in saved her for falling from a tower in ruins but she was in love with her friend Damian. Unbeknownst to both he predicament was arranged by her cousin Beatrix who wanted to see her dead so that she could be the young lady of the house. In time Damian leaves to fight in the colonies and Beatrix elopes with one of his friends. When Damian is thought dead in battle Clemency and Rodger decide to marry since they are friends and could have a happy life. And so they are falling in love with each and living happily till Beatrix returns to live with them and Damian comes back from the dead.

I could accept that Rodger's uncertainty and jealousy over his wife's feelings about Damian were easy to explore by Beatrix but that they stop talking and use Beatrix to carry messages for them, thus allowing her to plant the seeds of doubt in both their minds was a bit too much. And Clemency even abandons her husband still believing her cousin was a good woman! I'm afraid that was all a bit too much for me...

Oh and the blurb above? Is completely wrong, Clemency liked Rodger, she never feared him after she met him and he definitely did not come to "claim" the life he had saved...

Grade: 2/5

Father Christmas - Barbara Metzger

HE DARED BELIEVE THAT HIS MONEY COULD BUY ANYTHING!

A war hero's widow had few pleasures, especially when she was living under the miserly auspices of a stern father. But Graceanne had her beautiful three-year-old twin boys and that was joy enough.

Therefore she was shocked by the audacity of the Duke of Ware, who decided he could help himself to one of her babies. He needed an heir and she had a boy to spare. It was appalling! And she told him so with a swift kick to his manly pride.

But it was Christmas, after all, and 'tis the season of forgiveness. The gentleman was a charming rake to be sure, but there was no chance of his claiming her child—or her heart, though she was certain he was conspiring for both ....

Barbara Metzger’s Father Christmas kicked off my Christmas reading month. It is my first read by the author and I was a bit unsure whether I would like it or not. It started off well with the story of the Duke of Ware who needs an heir and Graceanne, his cousin’s widow who has twin sons and how he starts thinking one of the twins could be raised as his heir. The problem was the story soon loses direction. Instead of developing Ware’s and Graceanne’s relationship it takes us to Graceanne’s family problems, namely her idiot and selfish sister who runs away pregnant and unmarried to Scotland. Graceanne is forced to follow her and eventually adopt the baby she bores as her own. Naturally Ware, who is still only interested in the twins, believes the worst of Graceanne who doesn’t bother telling him that it’s not her child but her niece. We never feel the attraction between them, there’s no tension and honestly the plot didn’t seem like traditional regency. If you like light and fluffy this maybe for you but it didn’t work for me.

Grade: 2/5

The Lost Legacy - Vanessa Gray

THE BEASTLY SIR BELLAMY

A chill went through Miss Jessamine Dalton when she heard the name Sir Ivor Bellamy. Memories stirred o f the time when she had fancied herself desperately in love with this incredibly handsome and extravagantly wealthy lord--before his arrogance gave her pride no choice but to break off the match.

Now Sir Ivor Bellamy was entering her life again--to claim as his legacy, the great country estate that was the Dalton family's last refuge against ruin.

Somehow Jessamine had to best this man who had everything in his favor--including the power to rekindle the flames o f past folly and to melt a heart that had already betrayed Jessamine once...

I got this book because it had a “second chance at love” theme. I have to begin by saying that I was very disappointed in it. After being 4 years apart it seemed odd that the hero devises a plan to get the heroine back as if they had just met a week or two ago. Since they split with harsh words being exchanged it seemed to me that they would at first be uncomfortable around each other and then have to spend some time speaking of past actions and healing the rift. Instead they are thrown into a gothic mystery with ghosts and furniture appearing and disappearing, this could be the backdrop for them to engage in a common investigation, spending more time together they could have talked of what separated them and heal but not only that doesn’t happen as in the beginning the heroine suspects that the hero is the one behind the odd events.

There was never a feeling of an attraction existing between those two and another thing is that heroine wasn’t really a likeable person and I couldn’t see how the hero would spend 4 years mooning over her. The name of the book refers to a lost treasure of the family and at some point I thought that secondary storyline would be more interesting than that of the main couple but in the end it’s also not explained clearly who was doing what and why.

These type of stories usually have a lot of angst because there is a past relationship to work through, so bad feelings and possible misunderstandings to explain and heal but here all those emotions were absent and I really couldn’t care less whether they ended together or not.

Grade: 2/5

THE DEVIL'S WEB - MARY BALOGH

REKINDLED DESIRE

The last time Madeline Raine had seen James Purnell, she had been but a chit of a girl, and at his mercy. Purnell had held her helpless in his arms - but protectively above the abyss of her own dangerous hunger for him.

He had left her then, not taking her innocence but taking her heart, as he vanished from England. Since then Madeline had reigned as society's most dazzling and heartless beauty, making all men pay for one man's rebuff of her.

Now James was back, more handsome and arrogant than ever. And Madeline steeled herself not to fall under his spell again. But she soon discovered that the melting power of passion ignited by love would not easily die…

What I did not like: people who know me, also know that I love Mary Balogh, she is one of my favorite authors, most of her books are at least readable, but most of the time very enjoyable. There was one book that I truly hated (“tempting Harriet”, and no, you won't catch me writing a review on that) and I never thought I will find another one to equal it, and even surpass it! But there it is! The devil's web!
For those who don't know, this is the last book in a series of three, and we have had glimpses of Madeline and James's love affair all through the series. It's one of those love and hate relationships, that honestly, need a lot of skill to be believable.

I've seen through the series that James has all the ingredients that make a tortured hero, so of course my interest is piqued. Why do we love tortured heroes?! Most of the time they only whine about their sufferings and make everyone near them feel unhappy?! And when we finally find out the reason for their “torture” it proves to be something that could be solved very easily by a few words of the heroine! But there you have it, the torturing syndrome got me again! And here we have a very fine example of it! James is absolutely impossible! I kept reading because I could not believe it, because a jerk like that was never found by me as a hero in a Balogh book. So I could not stop and just abandon the book, I had to keep trying, and maybe, there will be some explanation, some excuse, SOMETHING to atone for all the bad behavior of the hero toward the heroine. Because his excuse was rubbish for me - he did not feel himself capable of showing love (HA! Love! What about some decency at least and common courtesy. What about just treating your wife like she is a human being!) to the heroine because in his youth he knows himself to have impregnated the girl he loved and was not allowed to wed her himself – so he feels guilty.
Shortly, the hero and heroine are very attracted to each other, but they never seem to at least be friendly. Despite this, they decide to get married – and basically the reason is love – even if not acknowledged aloud in front of the beloved. And now begins the nightmare!
I honestly don't have anything against the heroine, it's obvious that she really tries to make her marriage work. She is not the boring type of heroine, she is active, full of life and very nice and patient with the hero, tries to understand him, tries to avoid discussions, but sometimes, out of nowhere, without any apparent reason, he strikes again. This is what I disliked the most – there were no reasons for what he does to her. They seem to have a good scene, and from nothing he gets prickly like a hedgehog and tells her something hurtful. Just like that! And that was a surprise honestly, because usually marriages in Balogh world, even those of convenience, are very polite, they sort of have some rules, and the hero treats the heroine with respect. Always! So it was very difficult for me to adjust to this new type of hero, who was also very unpleasant. And on top of everything else, he is also very possessive, distrustful and gives orders without explanations!
In the end the hero finds out that the reason for his “torture” was not a valid one (of course) and he finally talks with the heroine and after one last hurtful thing to say (like: oh, are you pregnant?! And is it mine?!), although, apparently, he had come to make peace with her. But they do acknowledge their love for each other in the very last pages of the book and decide to make their marriage work. Like anyone in his right mind would believe their marriage will ever work!

What I liked: there are some little things that I liked to read, or better, that ringed true. First, the first sex scene between the hero and heroine – it is one of the few where the heroine actually finds it a not so pleasant experience. Not that I'm glad for the poor heroine, but really I'm sick of reading about orgasms on the first time, especially when it takes place outdoors, on the hard ground!
Another thing I liked was to see that the hero does not escape his heritage. With a very cold and morose father he did not turn out to be a carefree, outgoing person. That's another thing that does not ring true to me in many romances – characters that come from very troubled parents, with very troubled childhoods, always overcome anything and get to be these beautiful persons with no flaws at all. Like they are not human!
I might have disliked immensely how the hero treats the heroine, but the truth is that it kept me on my toes. I read the book all anxious to find out how everything turns out to be. And that is something I have to admit :) grudgingly...

Grade: 2/5