Category: Barb’s Reviews

Rogue Most Wanted by Janna MacGregor

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

Rogue Most Wanted (The Cavensham Heiresses #5)Barbara’s rating: 5 of 5 stars

Series: The Cavensham Heiresses #6
Publication Date: 6/25/19
Number of Pages: 384

WOW! Color me impressed. While I usually like this author’s books, I don’t love them. This one, however, I loved. I loved the characters; I loved the unusual storyline and I loved the writing. I may be a bit jaded, but I rarely tear up during the emotional scenes in a book – I think that is mostly because – well – it is a romance and I KNOW there will be a happily-ever-after at the end. This book managed to make me tear up and I began to wonder if this might be the one book where there was no HEA.

Lord William (Will) Cavensham comes from a very large, very loving and caring family. His parents, cousin, and siblings all married for love and Will wanted that for himself. Well, he did when he was nineteen and proposed to his cousin (third I think) Lady Avalon. She accepted him – but when he came to her home the next day to formally speak to her and her father, she told him she was betrothed to a marquess and had been for quite some time. That tore Will’s heart from his chest and he began to believe that he wasn’t good enough to find the kind of love the rest of his family has.

Ten years later Will has immersed himself in helping his family run the estates – he is a very busy, but unfulfilled man. He’s even begun to look at his family – not resentfully – but maybe enviously, because they have what he’ll never have. However, he drops everything and rides for four days straight when he receives an urgent message from his much-loved favorite aunt Stella.

Lady Theodora (Thea) Worth is that rarest of things – a female who holds a title in her own right. Well, she is supposed to be anyway. Thea was raised by the most loving of grandfathers, the Duke of Ferr-Colby. Her grandfather held the title of duke, but he also held the separate Scottish title of Earl Eanruig. The Scottish title was not tied to the dukedom but was to be passed down through the marriage lines – male or female. Thea’s grandfather raised her to love the earldom’s estate, Ladykyrk. She learned to run the estate and to care for the people. Then, about seven years ago, her grandfather began to be forgetful, then more forgetful. Thea couldn’t stand the idea that anyone would pity her grandfather or try to put him in an asylum, so she took over the running of both the dukedom and the earldom. She was totally isolated with her grandfather and retained only two servants as she took care of her grandfather herself. By the end of his life, he had no idea who she was and it broke her heart.

When Thea gets word that the distant cousin who inherited the dukedom is also claiming her title she panics. She thought that was all straight and in the process of her being named as the earl. Even worse, the original title grant papers cannot be found no matter how hard they look. With the new duke nipping at her heels, she goes to her grandfather’s friend and neighbor, Lady Stella and pours out her tale. Lady Stella advises her to marry and to look everywhere – again.

When Will breathlessly arrives at his aunt Stella’s, he learns that she didn’t exactly have a dire emergency. What she had was a neighbor in need and she wanted Will to marry the neighbor. Will certainly didn’t intend to wed this woman, but he would at least speak with her.

It was lovely to watch Will and Thea learn to love and trust each other. I was glad it wasn’t an overnight thing as it is in so many novels. Yes, they were immediately attracted to each other, but the love took a while. They were supportive of each other and weathered a lot of storms. With the new duke holding all of the cards, I had begun to wonder how they would come out of it with their HEA, but – they did – and I smiled.

I love books with epilogues and the one in this book was particularly lovely – it even very nicely sets up the next book – Wild, Wild Rake.

I have to say that I wasn’t a huge fan of the excerpts from the newspaper, The Midnight Cryer, at the beginning of each chapter. First, they were very nasty, but mostly they were too connected to exactly what had transpired to have been realistic. The person providing the information would have had to be right with Will and Thea at every moment for those articles to have been written. No big deal – I just didn’t care for them.

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

Project Duchess by Sabrina Jeffries

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

Project Duchess (Duke Dynasty, #1)Barbara’s rating: 5 of 5 stars

Series: Duke Dynasty #1
Publication Date: 6/25/19
Number of Pages: 352

This was an absolutely wonderful introduction to Sabrina Jeffries new series. There is an overall mystery to the series, I’ll not tell you what that is – but you’ll discover it in this book. We meet – and love – the five children of a duchess who has had three husbands – all dukes. She had one child, Fletcher (Grey), with her first husband; two children – twins – Marlowe (Thorn) and Gwyn with her second husband; two children, Sheridan and Heywood with her last husband. The series revolves around solving the mystery introduced in this book, the children learning more about their fathers, and each of them pursuing and finding their own HEA’s. I found each of them intriguing and can’t wait to get to know them better in their own stories. The next story (featuring Heywood) will be a novella, A PERFECT MATCH released in an anthology (Seduction on a Snowy Night) with authors Madeline Hunter and Mary Jo Putney. Then, in February of 2020, we get Gwyn’s story – The Bachelor.

Fletcher Pryde, the 5th Duke of Greycourt, had a lovely family life until he was ten years old. He lost his father when he was very young, so he didn’t remember him, nor does he really remember his first step-father. However, his second step-father created a happy, loving family for all of them. That idyllic family lasted until Grey was ten and the uncle his father had named as his guardian came to claim him. He even thought he might want to go with him. Then he saw his aunt and uncle’s true colors and his nightmare of a life began. He quickly walled off his heart and all emotions. He became cold and always, always in control. He also distanced himself from his family and had little interaction with them – even after his uncle died.

We first meet Grey as he’s receiving word that his step-father, Maurice, has died. He doesn’t want to, but he leaves for Armitage Hall. He’ll do his duty and then leave as soon as he can. However, he’s not prepared for what he finds when he gets there. He meets a sassy young woman standing in the hall and immediately starts making demands – as dukes do. She was having none of it and gave as good as she got. He had to wonder who that sharp-tongued woman was. Then, his brother arrived and introduced them. Uh-oh – he’d assumed she was a servant or merchant of some sort.

Beatrice Wolfe is the granddaughter of a duke, but she is penniless. She and her brother, Joshua, live in the dower house at Armitage Hall. Joshua was severely wounded in the Peninsular wars and he now acts as head gamekeeper for the estate. He is grouchy, uncommunicative, etc. – all those things we associate with PTSD today.

Beatrice has handled all of the arrangements for the funeral of her uncle, the Duke of Armitage, who has just died. She loves the family and wants to ease their way as much as possible. As she’s standing in the entryway arranging the funeral cookies, a man approaches and starts making demands and berating her. She knows he has to be the Duke of Greycourt just from what she’s heard of him. Well – he’s not going to speak to her that way.

Grey and Beatrice bicker right along with all of the other siblings in the house. It was so much fun to read because I’ve known big loving families who bickered just that way. Grey can’t believe he’s attracted to Beatrice – but he is – and he just won’t allow it. He’s in full control of himself and will absolutely not allow it. Right . . . We all know how that’s going to end.

With a mystery to solve, an acerbic brother to manage and a cruel aunt still reaching out to cause trouble, you begin to wonder if they can truly find their way to their HEA. Never fear, Grey is up to the task of assuaging Beatrice’s fears and concerns – it just takes him a while to get there.

This was an excellent read and I can’t wait for the next book in the series.

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