Month: September 2019

After the Spy Seduces by Anna Harrington

On By BarbaraIn Barb's Reviews, Georgian Era (1714-1837)2 Comments

After the Spy Seduces (Capturing the Carlisles, #6)Barbara’s rating: 5 of 5 stars

Series: Capturing the Carlisles #6
Publication Date: 9/27/19
Number of Pages: 316

Goodness – can those Carlisle’s get any better? It is a good thing there aren’t many of them left without their HEA’s or the author would be hard-pressed to keep making them better and better. I really am sad to learn that the author doesn’t intend any more full-length novels in this series – but maybe a novella or two. I’d like to see some associated stories for those characters that we meet and like, but don’t hear from again – like Garrett Morgan.

In this suspenseful, action-packed book filled with mystery, intrigue, and romance we finally get the answer to the mystery that was left hanging in the series The Secret Life of Scoundrels. Again, we meet Nathaniel Grey, Along Came a Rogue, and he has been very busy since his book. He’s been hot on the trail of the traitor, knows who the traitor is, and now all he has to do is spring his trap. Well, it WAS all he had to do until someone got in his way.

Christopher (Kit) Carlisle has been searching for the man who savagely murdered his partner – and now he has him in his sights. That man, Garrett Morgan, will be in the pub tonight meeting French spies and Kit is going to catch him in the act. Kit arrives early to get the lay of the land, and eventually, a boy/young man comes sauntering in and sits down with the French. Has Garrett sent someone in his place? Apparently, because he isn’t in sight. Then, things go south and Kit ends up rescuing the young lad – only it isn’t a lad – and he recognizes the woman. It is Diana Morgan, daughter of General Thaddeus Morgan. (NOTE: we met Diana in As the Devil Dares). Is she working with her brother?

Diana’s brother, Garrett, has been kidnapped and she is required to pay the ransom which is a few pages from her father’s diary. Diana will do absolutely anything to protect her family – even dressing as a male and strolling into a tavern to deliver pages from her father’s papers to a kidnapper. When the kidnapper refuses the papers, things don’t go well and the kidnapper tries to harm her – only to be thwarted by – of all people – the scapegrace Christopher Carlisle.

Nobody in this book is who they appear to be and they are all filled with secrets and agendas. It is fun to figure out who is who and what their agendas are. There is a fun twist at the end and, of course, a lovely HEA.

I hope you’ll enjoy this book as much as I did!

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

To Wed a Wild Scot by Anna Bradley

On By TracyIn Georgian Era (1714-1837), Regency Era (1811-1820), Scottish/Highlander, Tracy's Reviews3 Comments

To Wed a Wild Scot (Besotted Scots, #2)To Wed a Wild Scot by Anna Bradley

Tracy’s rating: 3.5 of 5 stars

Series: Besotted Scots, #2

Release Date: September 17, 2019

Lady Juliana Bernard is in a bind, he father is dying and thanks to the interference of a spurned suitor, has changed his will, Juliana will only retain custody of her orphaned niece Grace if she is married, if not Grace’s guardianship will be given to Lord Cowden. Having let her betrothed go so he could marry for love and desperate to make sure Cowden doesn’t get custody, Juliana writes to her dearest friend and former betrothed, Fitzwilliam “Fitz” Vaugh, the Duke of Blackmore. When her letters go unanswered, Juliana sets out to find him in Scotland.

After days of travel, they finally make it to the Scottish border in Gretna Green, weary and filthy Juliana is stunned to see Fitz at the inn – but closer examination reveals that it is not Fitz and when the man asks if she is alright, it is clear he is Scottish, but he looks exactly like Fitz and she decides he must be related and follows him. 3 days later, she is sure she is right when he stops at the inn that she sends her letters to Fitz – and watches in horror as the man reads her letter and then burns it! Then as he is leaving she hears him telling the innkeeper that if an English lady shows up, to send her back to England. Furious, Juliana follows him to the castle. He realizes he is being followed and is shocked to learn she is the woman who has been writing to Fitz.

Logan Blair is Fitzwilliam’s younger twin brother, when their mother died giving birth, their uncle claimed Fitz as his heir and returned to England – Logan did no see his brother for 28 years, but once his uncle died, Fitz made his way to Scotland to be reunited. Logan has acted as Laird for years since their father died and is worried that Fitz will do what so many English landowner have done and “clear’ the lands – for years Logan has been working to protect his people, by relocating them. And when Fitz came to the castle, Logan encouraged him to become betrothed to a local girl, Emilia – thinking that he would be less inclined to evict people if he was married to a Scottish girl – so he has been burning Fitz’s letters from Juliana, he wants nothing to interfere with his plans. But when she shows up he has no choice but to take her to see Fitz.

Fitz is appalled when he learns what Logan has done and offers to marry Juliana. But Logan tells Juliana that Fitz is already betrothed and his future wife is pregnant – leading Juliana to inform Logan that she will have to marry him instead, a solution that Logan is vehemently opposed to – leading Fitz to have to get involved.

This was a well written, fast read, but I can’t say that I loved it, it was OK, but I really didn’t like Logan at the beginning, I understood his motivation, but his refusal to marry her after interfering and burning their letters was a complete jerk move and then later jumping to conclusions and seemingly forced misunderstandings just really dimished my enjoyment in the story. This is the second book in the series, but it can easily be read as a stand-alone title.

*I am voluntarily leaving a review for an eARC that was provided to me by NetGalley and the publisher.*