Barbara

My Once and Future Duke by Caroline Linden

Barbara’s rating: 4 of 5 stars

Series: The Wagers of Sin #1
Publication Date: 2/27/18

Sophie Graham had a wonderful life – two loving parents, travel, meeting varied and interesting people – until those parents died of consumption when she was twelve years old. Her grandfather was an awful person who had disowned his son (Sophie’s father) because he married the woman he loved rather than marry as his father wanted. That cold and unfeeling man became Sophie’s guardian. He certainly didn’t want her or anything to do with her so he took her to Miss Upton’s Academy For Young Ladies and left her. He made sure that she understood she was not welcome in his home and would not be coming there for holidays nor would he pay her tuition past the age of eighteen – after eighteen, she would be totally on her own. Sophie made two wonderful friends (Miss Eliza Cross and Lady Georgiana Lucas) at that school and they remained her staunch supporters. Lovely, accomplished and intelligent, Sophie understood quite quickly that the only person she could depend upon to take care of her was herself and she set out to make her fortune and hopefully find a nice decent man with whom to make a family.

You have to admire Sophie because she managed to take care of herself from the time she was twelve. She became strong and independent – and she had a plan. She was going to London as the widow Mrs. Sophie Campbell, and she was going to use her greatest skill to make her fortune. That skill was playing cards and she had learned it at her father’s knee, learning to figure the odds, game rules, etc. She rarely lost. Her goal was to gain a fortune of ten-thousand pounds because that should be enough to help her attract an upstanding gentleman as her suitor. Then, she’d marry and start a family. That plan was going well – she already had four-thousand pounds in her account – but then she lost the biggest bet of her young life!

Jack Lindeville, Duke of Ware, is weighed down by his responsibilities – to the dukedom, his mother, his brother and even the daughter and widow of his father’s best friend. Once upon a time, he had been a fun-loving and happy young man who laughed and enjoyed his life. Then, his father died after a boating accident and duty called with its stifling weight. Now, all Jack does is work and try to control his brother, Phillip, to keep him from running up massive gambling debts. Jack has become cold and hard as granite – and he has no idea how lonely he is. ** Note here — Jack’s mother is a piece of work. If he controlled her, he wouldn’t have too much trouble in controlling Philip. — Just sayin’ **

Phillip’s favorite place to gamble is the Vega Club because of the ambiance and the presence of the lovely Mrs. Campbell. He loses regularly to Mrs. Campbell, but he also loses to many others at the club. One large loss of Phillip’s is the last straw for Jack. His temper is flaring when he arrives at the Vega Club to pay off Phillip’s debt and finds said brother at the tables when he had just promised to stay away from gambling for a month. Jack is incensed and decides he’ll teach Philip a lesson – then he really loses that temper and wagers himself. He certainly doesn’t expect to win the wager and is aghast when he wins – because he has won the company of the lovely Mrs. Campbell for a week. What in the world is he going to do? Why – he’s going to abscond with her to Alwyn, his favorite home – where they are stranded by a rainstorm. He can’t take her back to London because the roads are impassable and the coach has a broken axle.

Jack and Sophie are in for an emotional ride. Watching two determined, smart and independent people work their way through their budding feelings, trying to stay away from each other and coming to terms with their feelings is nerve-wracking. Can they overcome Jack’s mother and her plotting? Can they curb Phillip’s gambling and his animosity toward Jack? Can they really find their HEA? You’ll just have to read this lovely book to find all of the answers.

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Earl of Weston by Anna St. Claire

My rating: 4 of 5 stars

3.5 Stars rounded up to 4
Series: Wicked Earls’ Club #6
Publication Date: 2/14/17

This new-to-me author has included my two favorite elements in a book – mystery and romance. Well, actually, it was a little short on the romance side but was probably typical for marriages of that period. I believe that the book tried to cover too many elements for a novella and I didn’t really feel complete with either of the elements – especially the romance though. There was potential – and they were getting there – but I don’t think a great romance was there yet. The characters had great potential, but they didn’t feel fully developed – although the hero and heroine were fairly well developed. Some of the story also felt a bit contrived – yes, I know it is a story and they are all contrived.

There are some light moments in the story with an incorrigible parrot. He’s absolutely priceless – and the real hero of the story.

Edward Hunter, Earl of Weston, had returned to England from a mission for the crown to find his brother, Robert, dead. Then, a short time later his father died and Edward unexpectedly assumed the title he didn’t want. After some questioning and investigating, Edward came to believe that his brother was murdered rather than dying in the duel he was supposedly fighting. Edward drinks too much and gambles too deep – he always has – and that causes a rift with his mother who blames him for Robert’s death. When Edward finally gets a clue to the whereabouts of a witness he’s been seeking, he and his best friend, Bergen, headed to a house party at the home of Lord Bentley.

Hattie Longbottom is a twenty-six-year-old spinster who is as naïve as the day she was born. Since the age of sixteen, she lived in a very small village taking care of her ailing mother. She’s very involved in the church and takes all of those homilies to heart. Her bright spot is her parrot, Archie. After the death of her mother, she had the choice of living with an aunt (without Archie) or with her half-brother. She chose to live with her brother because she could keep Archie.

So, here is one of those contrived bits I mentioned. The village reverend puts Hattie and Archie on a coach to travel to her brother’s residence. This is a brother who loves his sister and cares for her – he is a member of the aristocracy, but we don’t learn what title he has – we do learn it is less than an Earl, so it must be a Viscount or Baron. At any rate – there is no way he would have allowed his sister to board a mail coach, unchaperoned (or otherwise) to travel to him. He would have sent his coach or come himself. So – that whole part of the story was just not believable to me. There are other bits that felt contrived, but that was the biggest one.

The author used a term that is new to me and I have to find out more about it because it is the first time I’ve seen it used and I have read a lot of Regency period romances. She used it in relation to winning bets. So, I’ve got some research to do. I’m not questioning the use of the term or whether it is correct or not – just something I haven’t seen before. Here’s one place it is used – “Edward was one monkey richer after five games of piquet.” I just have to find out what a monkey is!

I enjoyed the story and would try another book by this author should she choose to write another Regency. I don’t believe that is her normal genre, but I’m not sure.

Flippin' Pages Book Reviews

Author: Barbara

My Once and Future Duke by Caroline Linden

Earl of Weston by Anna St. Claire

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