Month: September 2019

Earl of Dryden by Tammy Andresen

On By BarbaraIn Author Collaboration Series, Barb's Reviews, Regency Era (1811-1820)2 Comments

Earl of Dryden (Chronicles of a Bluestocking, #1)Barbara’s rating: 4 of 5 stars

Series: Chronicles of a Bluestocking #1; Wicked Earls’ Christmas #1; Wicked Earls’ Club #13
Publication Date: 9/24/19

The authors of the Wicked Earls’ Club series are giving us part two with the series Wicked Earls’ Christmas series. I don’t know if the release schedule is the same as the original series or not, but that one released a new novella every two weeks.

I loved meeting and getting to know The Earl of Dryden and Miss Chloe Finch. At first glance, they are an improbable match, but as you get to know them, you realize that they are actually perfect for each other. I loved seeing them find their HEA.

Fenton (Fin) [sorry, we never learned his last name], the Earl of Dryden, has a dark and troubled past. He still feels as if he’s filled with that darkness and hates to be anywhere near society. Over the last few years, he’s recovered his health and then built up his bankrupt estate – but the rumors about him are wild. Many think he is associated with the criminal element – though he isn’t. He certainly isn’t marriage material – nor does he trust himself to marry because he can’t do anything that would send him back into that dark place and emotions could do that.

Chloe lost her father before she was even old enough to form a memory of him. However, her mother made a loving and happy home for them. Then, when Chloe was thirteen, her mother died. That was when Chloe’s nightmare began. She went to live with her aunt who was cruel to her, belittled her, denigrated her, and abused her. Chloe lost her ability to speak. She wanted to speak, she just couldn’t get the words past her constricted throat.

Things become more and more intolerable at home, but there is no way for Chloe to escape. She’ll never get a proposal because – well – she can’t speak to the gentlemen. Many of those gentlemen now think she’s a joke and that she is deaf and dumb. None of them want to chance passing her affliction on to their own children.

While at a ball, Chloe’s aunt was being particularly mean and Chloe turned and spoke to the statue that was beside her – “Would you save me, kind sir, from the dastardly tongues of wicked old women?” Then, the statue answered back, “Why yes, I will.”

Fin couldn’t believe he’d just uttered those words – yet there was something about that lovely young woman that drew him to want to protect her and save her.

I really liked Fin who was a very good man, he just had a troubled past and Chloe was just what he needed to bring light into his dark places.

This is definitely a good read and I am looking forward to reading the next books in both the Wicked Earls’ series and The Chronicles of A Bluestocking series.

I voluntarily read and reviewed an Advanced Reader Copy of this book. All thoughts and opinions are my own.

Once A Spy by Mary Jo Putney

On By BarbaraIn Barb's Reviews, Regency Era (1811-1820)4 Comments

Once a Spy (Rogues Redeemed, #4)Barbara’s rating: 4 of 5 stars

Series: Rogues Redeemed #4
Publication Date: 9/24/19
Number of Pages: 368

I thoroughly enjoyed this story. I thought the hero, Simon Duval, was a heroic man every sense of the word. He was protective, honorable, kind, considerate, a leader who was respected by his men and his superiors and most of all very caring. The heroine, Suzanne Duval, Comtesse de Chambron, is free from slavery, but she’s been living in poverty in London. Suzanne is not the fragile woman you’d think her to be after enduring the things she has, but, she can’t stand any man’s overtures.

We first met Suzanne in the third book, Once a Scoundrel, when she helped to rescue the heroine, Lady Aurora Lawrence, from the harem in which they were both imprisoned. Suzanne had spent years enduring torture in the harem where she was owned by one of the cruelest men alive. Before that, she had been married, at fifteen, to a cold, unfeeling aristocrat who took her young, tender love and promptly cheated on her and treated her with disrespect and disdain. She went from that directly into slavery where she did what she had to in order to survive. Suzanne is native French, but with the Napoleonic wars going on, she asked to be returned to England when she was rescued. Even the French émigré’s won’t accept her when she returns – in their eyes, she is ruined – a whore – not fit for polite company. So, she supports herself by taking in piecework.

Colonel Simon Duval had met Suzanne at her wedding when she was marrying his much, much older cousin. He was seventeen and she was fifteen and they became friends. All these years later he has learned about Suzanne’s life and her return to London. He plans to find her and assure that she is well – and maybe even help her if he can. Simon has seen years of war and cruelty – death beyond measure – including the woman he loved. He thinks he’s unfeeling, he doesn’t even feel desire anymore.

When Simon visits Suzanne at her boarding house and they talk a bit, he surprises himself by asking her to marry him. It will be totally in name only with no physical intimacies at all. He wants a friend, someone to spend his life with, but no romance. That should work out for both of them because she cannot bear the idea of any man touching her. It takes a bit, but he manages to convince her that it can work – and even gives her an out and stability if it doesn’t. Poor man — he doesn’t count on his desire reawakening — now what is he going to do!

I’ve seen some reviews that said the first part of the book was too slow – at least the part about coming to physical intimacy. I disagree. I think Simon was wonderful in the way he dealt with Suzanne and I think if you put yourself in Suzanne’s shoes – having had unspeakable sexual tortures visited upon her by a sadistic man – you’d realize that Simon has to be very slow in reawakening her desire. Frankly, it is a wonder it ever happened. The other parts of the story beginning-to-end weren’t slow at all.

Once they traveled to Brussels, the action really picked up. The very real danger in Belgium and France comes across in the actions and descriptions in the book. Suzanne shows her bravery – as does Simon. Each makes their own significant contributions to the war effort after Napoleon escapes from Elba.

I loved that this book wasn’t about insta-lust. I loved that the love and intimacy grew over time until they were both ready for it. That made the romance so very believable.

One thing that came out of the blue and just threw me – one of those ‘Say-What’ kinds of things – had to do with Lucas and his ‘gift’. I didn’t see a need for it in the story – but – I can only assume that it will have something to do with a future book focusing on Lucas. We’ll just have to wait and see.

I voluntarily read and reviewed an Advanced Reader Copy of this book. All thoughts and opinions are my own.