Month: May 2023

Cinderella’s Deal With The Colonel by Jenni Fletcher

On By BarbaraIn Barb's Reviews, Regency Era (1811-1820)Leave a comment

Cinderella's Deal With The Colonel (Mills & Boon Historical)Barbara’s rating: 5 out of 5 Stars
Series: Standalone
Publication Date: 5/25/23
Period: Regency London
Number of Pages: 268

I loved everything about this delightfully entertaining, witty, romantic book! I do mean everything – from the author’s note in the front – which I totally LOVED and agree with – to the preview of an upcoming book by another author at the end. Sandwiched between the author’s note and the preview was a lovely story of romance, growth, and learning what it really means to be a family. With most books, I seem to love one of the main characters, but only like the other. Not in this book, I was enamored with both of the MCs from the first and could hardly wait for them to get their HEA – which they most definitely did. While this appears to be a standalone book, I could easily see a second book where the current Marquess (can I say dies) and Sabrina finds a true HEA for herself. Yes, that would be a satisfying story to read.

Colonel Lord Theodore Marshall, a hero of the recent wars, had sold his commission and was going to go to America. Though he had no love for his home and family, he decided to pay a brief visit before his departure. His mistake? He sent word he was coming. When he arrived he found his brother had mired the marquessate in scandal and financial ruin and then run away. He just disappeared – and now, Theo was left to clean up the mess because as a man of honor, he couldn’t do anything else. He. Was. Stuck. He had a termagant of a sister-in-law to contend with, massive amounts of debts, piles of paperwork, and, well, just more than one man ought to have to handle when it wasn’t his mess in the first place. Perhaps the worst was the scandal his brother had created when his investment scheme went belly up and caused several people in the ton (and out of it) to lose massive amounts of money. How could Theo ever make any of that right?

Miss Abigail Lemon has had the absolute worst month of her short twenty-two years of existence. Her father died of a heart attack and as an only child, she was left totally alone to make all of the arrangements. Then, another blow at the reading of the will when she found there was no money for her, the banks were taking her home, and she had no place to even lay her head. The final blow, the one that did her in and stiffened her spine at the same time, was when her betrothed, the man who said he loved her and would always stand beside her, quickly let her know that without her dowry, they couldn’t marry.

During that one awful day of the reading of the will and Henry’s betrayal, she also learned the cause of the loss of her father’s fortune. He’d invested in a building venture headed by the Marquess of Salway. Well! She had worked herself into a total temper and proceeded to march to the Marquess’ home and to tell him exactly what she thought of him and that he owed her at least a recommendation for a place to work – something that would put food in her belly and a pillow under her head at night. When she was quite through with her tirade, the man politely told her that he was not the Marquess, but his brother – and that the Marquess had left the country.

OMGoodness! Abigail’s despair was palpable as she left. What would happen to her? Where would she go? What would she do? Theo’s need to help and Abigail’s need for a place to live and income led them to a workable solution. What neither of them wanted nor expected was an attraction – but it was there and it was such a delight to watch them work together to solve the problems of the estate, form a friendship, and learn to care for each other.

You’ll love the secondary characters – especially Kitchen, and Lady, the dog. I came to really like Sabrina, the marchioness. It was nice to watch her grow from a total mean-spirited shrew into someone who was a caring mother and friend. So, yes, I would like to see Sabrina get her own HEA.

I can definitely recommend this book and I hope you will love it as much as I did.

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

View all my reviews

The Heiress Bride by Madeline Hunter

On By BarbaraIn Barb's Reviews, Part of a Series, Regency Era (1811-1820)Leave a comment

The Heiress Bride (A Duke's Heiress, #3)My rating: 3 of 5 stars

Barbara’s rating: 3.3 of 5 Stars
Series: A Duke’s Heiress #3
Publication Date: 5/23/23
Period: Regency
Number of Pages: 320

This is the third, and I believe final, book in the series. We find the third and final heiress as well as identify and punish the villain(s) who has plagued the dukedom by murdering the previous duke and making several attempts on the life of the current duke. So, most of the mysteries are cleared up – and those that aren’t – well, I had to wonder why they were ever in there in the first place. I have read all of the books in the series and my actual ratings have moved down with each book. I rated the first book as a solid 4 – the second book as a 3.5 – and now this one with a 3.3 – so maybe it is good that the series is finished.

I have loved Nicholas Radnor, the new Duke of Hollinburg since the first book. He is handsome, charming, and honorable. He was unprepared to be the duke, but has stepped into the role as best he can and is making strides to become the duke he has never trained to be. His uncle, the previous duke, left the dukedom in a mess by bequeathing most of his personal fortune to three heiresses he didn’t even really know. So, of course, without any funds, the dukedom flounders and Nicholas would be required to find a loveless marriage with an heiress to keep it afloat. While Nicholas isn’t happy about the state of affairs, he has more or less accepted it and is settling into being the best duke he can be. He’s hoping the third and final heiress won’t be found because not having to give out that portion of the inheritance will at least give him a little breathing room to get the dukedom on an even financial footing before he has to make decisions about what to do long-term.

Iris Barrington has absolutely no clue she is an heiress when she knocks on the door of the Duke of Hollinburgh. She’s only there to try to find the truth about a long-ago wrong that was done to her grandfather – and to set it right and rehabilitate her grandfather’s name. She is totally shocked to learn of her potential inheritance! Still, her goal is to right a wrong, the inheritance is just the icing on the cake.

I just didn’t love Iris and I didn’t really feel the chemistry between her and Nicholas. For me, the book got off to a slow start, and spent a lot of time in libraries and talking about the book trade, etc. I know that time was supposed to show them growing closer to each other, but for me, it just dragged along.

Aside from the overarching mystery that has run through all of the books, this one had a couple of additional mysteries pertinent to Iris and Nicholas. The first one is the mystery of why and how Iris’s grandfather was wronged. That was basically solved and the beginnings of a solution were set in motion. The second mystery had to do with some factories Nicholas had inherited. We got a quasi-answer, but no real final solutions, so I had to wonder why we would include them in the story at all. All of that page time could have been devoted to more character-building and interactions between Iris and Nicholas.

I believe the best scene in the book was when the three heiresses, who had become fast friends, decided to have an adventure and went to a women’s entertainment venue. It wasn’t exactly a brothel for ladies because it did have other entertainments there – but it was close enough to one. They were listening to bawdy songs and dance routines, etc.

For me, this was a bit disappointing as the wrap-up for a series and it was in desperate need of an epilogue to show how their futures evolved. I mean, we didn’t even get a wedding in this book!

I am glad to have read the book as it completes the series, but I wouldn’t read it a second time, nor would I purchase it for a friend. For me, it just wasn’t the book Nicholas deserved and I was disappointed. Should you choose to read it, I hope you will love it.

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

View all my reviews