Month: April 2021

The Accidental Duke by Barbara Devlin

On By TracyIn Georgian Era (1714-1837), Regency Era (1811-1820), Tracy's ReviewsLeave a comment

The Accidental Duke (The Mad Matchmaking Men of Waterloo, #1)The Accidental Duke by Barbara Devlin

Tracy’s rating: 4 of 5 stars

Series: The Mad Matchmaking Men of Waterloo, #1

Release Date: April 14, 2021

Anthony Bartlett lost much more than just his arm in the war, he lost the life he knew as the “spare” to the Duke of Swansborough. With the death of his older brother, Anthony became the duke’s heir and inherited not only his brother’s courtesy title of Marquess of Rockingham, but his brother’s fiancée as well, and he wants neither – much to his father’s dismay. But after almost a year of convalescing – the duke is done coddling Anthony and makes his position clear – Anthony will marry and produce an heir. Anthony seemingly agrees but plans to find a way out of his unwanted betrothal.

Lady Arabella Gibbs is the only child of the Earl of Ainsworth and is equally determined to escape the bonds of matrimony. But when she meets Anthony, she sees a wounded soul and her sweet, caring nature cannot turn her back on his suffering. She offers Anthony her friendship, which he immediately rebuffs. And while Arabella doesn’t want to marry and agrees to work with him to end the engagement, she is still set on helping Anthony overcome the deep, unseen wounds that are still festering in his soul.

Slowly, Anthony realizes his mistake in trying to push away Arabella, and she soon becomes his lifeline in his struggle to be “normal” while dealing with flashbacks to the war. They have formed a true bond and are exploring their shared attraction when they are outmaneuvered by their parents and marriage becomes unavoidable. But marriage is the least of their problems when it becomes clear that Anthony’s father has betrayed him and they are taken captive by an evil man set on “fixing” Anthony. After months of confinement, they are finally able to escape but to save his love, Anthony will sacrifice himself to see her free – a sacrifice Arabella is not willing to let him make as long as she has breath in her body – with the help of Anthony’s friends, she declares war on the duke to save the man she loves!

This was a very deep and emotional story, written with startling and heartwrenching detail. As always the author has researched her subject matter and produced a well-plotted, original, interesting story with wonderful characters, warm love scenes, great secondary characters, accurate historical detail, and a beautiful love story complete with a happy ending. I did enjoy the story, but in all honestly, I found the book a little bit on the wordy side and was guilty of skimming through excessive dialogue that really did nothing to progress the story. All in all, it was a good book that I would be happy to recommend.

*I am voluntarily leaving a review for an eARC that I requested and was provided to me by NetGalley and the publisher. All opinions in this review are my own. *

At Sea: A Viv Fraser Mystery by V Clifford

On By BarbaraIn Barb's Reviews, Contemporary, Mystery, Scottish/HighlanderLeave a comment

At Sea: A Viv Fraser Mystery
My rating: 3.5 of 5 stars

Series: Viv Fraser Mystery #7
Publication Date: 3/28/21
Number of Pages: 186

I’ve enjoyed the Viv Fraser series because she is so quirky – she is a hairdresser, academic doctor, newspaper journalist, consummate hacker, government agent for the NTF – you name the profession, she’s probably done it. She’s had relationships with both men and women and is currently unattached because of the death of her last lover. The writing is well done and the characters are likable.

There is a LOT going on in this book and it all seems to be left unfinished. Viv is still mourning the loss of Sal who was killed while working a case in the United States. She’s still trying to figure out what to do about the inheritance Sal left her and she’s also still trying to figure out – by fair means or foul, what happened to cause Sal’s death. She’s not even completely convinced that Sal is really dead. In addition to all of that, she’s called in on a case where something is going on in the Irish Sea and they need to figure out what that is. AND… some gangsters from her father’s past are harassing her. So, there is no shortage of story threads in this book.

DCI Marconi (Mac) and Val travel to Camp 16 on the Irish Sea to work on a joint mission with the military because something is going on and they are not sure what it is. Is someone trying to ‘recover’ the spent atomic fuel (uranium) that has been encased in concrete blocks and stored in an area of the Irish Sea? Is someone trying to recover old WWII weapons from the sea bed? Is something else totally different going on? There is excitement with boat chases in stormy seas, bomb explosions, and attempted abductions by US government FBI agents. Oh! Goodness!

The bones of this book were so very good and I enjoyed every word, but nothing was brought to completion. It was a total and complete cliffhanger for everything that was going on. That really bugged me – especially when you add in that I have no clue about what is in the wind for a relationship between Viv and Mac. Personally, I’d like to see them get together because I like both of them very much and I think they’d make a really good match for each other. I love mysteries, but I really need a good romance to go along with it, and I think Mac is the perfect fit for Viv.

Again, I enjoyed every word of the book, but it just wasn’t finished as far as I’m concerned. IF these storylines were going to be wrapped up in a future book, then there should have been some indication of that in this book. As it is, all of it is just left hanging. I’ll be looking forward to the next book to see what happens with it and hopefully, some of this will be wrapped up then. If not, I’m not sure how I’ll feel about that.