Category: Blog Tour

Blog Tour — The Determined Lord Hadleigh by Virginia Heath

On By BarbaraIn Blog Tour, Regency Era (1811-1820)Leave a comment

The Determined Lord HadleighThe Determined Lord Hadleigh

Haunted by Penny Penhurst’s courage on the witness stand, meticulous barrister Lord Hadleigh offers her a housekeeper position at his estate. Despite trying to stay detached, Hadleigh is charmed by her small child and surprised by how much he yearns for this proud woman! Can this he break through his own – and Penny’s – barriers to prove he’s a man she can trust…and love?

Purchase Link – http://viewbook.at/kingselite4

Barbara’s Review

This is an exceptionally fine ending for this well-written, well-plotted series. The characters are all wonderful and you get to spend time with all of the earlier heroes and heroines. To make it even better, at the end, we see all of them ten years into the future and learn what has happened in their lives during that time. It is one of the best endings (book or series) I’ve read in a long time!

The King’s Elite has been pursuing a traitorous band of smugglers throughout this series. They aren’t your ordinary smugglers; they are aristocrats from the highest echelons of the Beau Monde. All sorts of goods are brought into England – liquors, laces, whatever is wanted – and they are exchanged for guns and ammunition to aid Napoleon. In the first three books, the ring members were slowly and painstaking identified and rounded up and a member of the King’s Elite found his HEA in each. This book features the Crowns Prosecutor, Viscount Tristan Hadleigh and Lady Penelope (Penny) Penhurst, widow of the traitorous Viscount Penhurst who was murdered in prison so that he couldn’t provide States Evidence. This book is slower paced than the others. There are no exciting life and death situations, etc. It is just a romantic journey between two troubled souls while preparing for the Trial of the Century.

The Crown wanted to make an exception of Viscount Penhurst, so they impeached him, reverted his title and estate to the Crown and tried him, not in the House of Lords, but as a commoner in the regular judicial system. Every day of the trial, Hadleigh watched Lady Penhurst as she stoically attended the trial. He admired her courage and dignity. He appreciated that even more when, upon cross-examination of her testimony, she willingly testified against her husband – offering much more than he’d even asked.

Lady Penhurst is now penniless, homeless, and has a young son to care for. Hadleigh can’t stand the idea of a gently bred, lovely young woman trying to exist on her own in Cheapside, so he does his best to surreptitiously help her – until she finds out. Then she peels the skin from his hide. How dare he try to control her – no matter how well-meaning he is. She has just escaped an abusive and controlling man and she will absolutely never allow anybody to have control over her again. She will manage to support herself and her son – after all, she is the daughter of merchants and she can find a way to support herself.

Lord Hadleigh has secrets himself. Something about Lady Penhurst pulls him – maybe it is because she reminds Hadleigh of his mother who was also abused. He couldn’t help his mother, but maybe he can help Lady Penhurst.

When the Crown needs to bring Lady Jessamine (Book 2 – The Uncompromising Lord Flint) to London to prepare her as a witness in the final trials of the case, Hadleigh realizes he can kill two birds with one stone. He offers his closed and boarded-up family estate to the Crown for housing the witnesses and to act as a place for the King’s Elite to work out of while they are near London. Then, he persuades his superiors to hire Lady Penhurst as the housekeeper. It is only for the few weeks before the trial, but it is an opportunity for her and her son to be safe and maybe build up a bit of a nest egg while she decides what to do next.

I absolutely adored both Lady Penhurst and Lord Hadleigh. It isn’t often that I like both main characters equally, but I did this time. They both had so many hurts buried deep inside – and each was just what the other needed in order to heal. It took them a bit to get there – especially Lady Penhurst – but it was glorious when they finally made it.

I highly recommend this book and this series. There is enough detail that you could read this as a stand-alone book, but you would be missing so very much if you don’t read the first books in the series.

Giveaway

Giveaway to Win 2 x e-copies of The Determined Lord Hadleigh by Virginia Heath (Open INT)
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Author Bio

VirginiaHeathWhen Virginia Heath was a little girl it took her ages to fall asleep, so she made up stories in her head to help pass the time while she was staring at the ceiling. As she got older, the stories became more complicated, sometimes taking weeks to get to the happy ending. Then one day, she decided to embrace insomnia and start writing them down. Despite that, it still takes her forever to fall asleep.

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Blog Tour – More Than A Rogue by Sophie Barnes

On By BarbaraIn Barb's Reviews, Blog Tour1 Comment

Barbara’s Review

** 4.5 stars rounded up **

We met Emily Howard and Griffin Crawford in the first book of the series, No Ordinary Duke. They were attracted to each other from their first meeting, but each knew nothing could ever come of it. Griffin would soon be leaving England to return to Austria and his clockmaking business while Emily knew she’d never marry because – well – who would want her. This is book two of the series, but it can be read as a stand-alone. However, I would recommend reading the first book of the series first simply because it is a marvelous book and the author does a wonderful job of setting up the series and introducing the characters.

In the first book, we learned that there was a total of four sons in the Crawford family along with a cruel, hateful, spiteful father and an ineffectual mother. There was George, the heir and then the triplets Caleb, Griffin, and Devlin. George was always treated well, spent time with their father, etc., but the other three were expected to do their father’s bidding – no matter what. When Caleb rebelled and ran away rather than bend to his father’s will, Griffin and Devlin soon did the same. That was ten years ago and now they have all returned to England because both George and their father died and Caleb is now the Duke of Camberly. The once close brothers have grown apart and both Griffin and Devlin will leave England again – well – actually – Devlin has already left and Griffin will be on his way in a few days. That is – he was – until the ball at Camberly House.

In the six years she’d spent living in the country with her friends Lady Cassandra and Mary, Emily hadn’t ever believed she’d return to society – and had no desire to do so. However, since Mary had married Caleb Crawford, Emily had to be supportive and that meant being in London to attend Mary’s first ball at Camberly House. Emily knew she’d never marry, but, just once, she’d like to experience a kiss – nothing more – just one kiss. She had decided that Mr. Bale would do nicely for that kiss – so she agreed to a refreshing walk outdoors with him.

Griffin saw Emily step out of the ballroom with Mr. Bale and hurried after them. When he found them and it appeared that Mr. Bale was preparing to kiss Emily, he stepped forward and summarily sent Mr. Bale back inside. Griffin hadn’t expected to have to face Emily’s wrath, but that is what he got. As they talked on the way back in, Griffin couldn’t help but give in and give Emily that first kiss she wanted so badly. It was a chaste kiss, not the kind he wanted to give her, but it was a kiss nonetheless. Only, it was interrupted by her mother, her sister, and her aunt – all of whom insisted that they must now marry.

While Griffin was willing to acquiesce to their demand, Emily was not. She told them that there was no way she’d ruin Griffin’s life by tying him to a bride he didn’t want and she promptly headed out of the ball. When Griffin determined that she was headed back to Clearview, the home she’d shared with the other women for the last six years, he headed out after her.

What a wonderfully seductive dance they did around each other. Neither wanting to be attracted to the other, but powerless to fight it. Throw in a total lack of communication on the important issues, a meddling mother, additional suitors, and past secrets and you have a volatile mix. Their path to their HEA is definitely not smooth nor easy but well won.

I enjoyed this book thoroughly, but it did seem to be a bit unevenly paced in places. I was also not nearly as invested in Emily and Griffin as I had been in Mary and Caleb – but I still loved them.

The epilogue in this book is absolutely to die for. It will absolutely make your heart soar. The epilogue takes place forty-five years in the future and shows Emily and Griffin getting ready to go to Austria for the birth of a grandchild. What a lovely, lovely scene and it shows how their love has grown and endured.

I definitely recommend this lovely read and hope you enjoy it as much as I did.