The Highlander’s Forbidden Mistress by Anna Campbell

The Highlander's Forbidden Mistress (The Lairds Most Likely, #7)The Highlander’s Forbidden Mistress by Anna Campbell

Tracy’s rating: 3.5 of 5 stars

Series: The Lairds Most Likely, #7

Release Date: June 30, 2020

Widow Selina Martin attends a house party with her betrothed, Cecil Canley-Smythe just weeks before they due to marry. Selina doesn’t love Cecil any more than she loved her late husband, but she does love her son Gerald and will willingly sacrifice her own happiness to ensure his future. She has finally resigned herself to a passionless, loveless marriage when a chance meeting changes everything.

A well-known rake, Brock Drummond, the Earl of Bruard, noticed Selina from the moment he laid eyes on her. He knows that she has noticed him too and makes sure they meet. She has just concluded a meeting with Cecil in the library and has taken a moment for herself before heading up to bed, when Brock makes himself known. They talk and she is surprisingly candid about her relationship with Cecil and why she must marry him. Brock offers her a week of pleasure; no strings attached and is surprised and excited when she agrees. And so, begins an affair that will rock them to their core and may break their hearts and shatter their perfectly constructed plan when it ends!

This was a very well written book, with likable characters that were easy to sympathize with, some very HOT love scenes, a true hero moment at the end and a nice HEA complete with an epilogue. So why not 5 stars? Sigh – she was betrothed to another man and cheated on him with Brock – I just can’t like that – if she wasn’t actually betrothed, if she was just being courted with the expectation of marriage – I might have been less upset, but I felt like she made a commitment to Cecil and she went behind his back and had an affair, with the intention of keeping it from him and marrying him. That is just not something I can nonchalantly overlook. This is the seventh book in the series and can easily be read as a standalone title. Despite my disappointment in the heroine’s cheating, I know this doesn’t bother everyone and if you fall in that category, I would happily recommend this book.

The Heart of a Hellion by Jess Michaels

The Heart of a Hellion  (The Duke's Bastards, #2)

The Heart of a Hellion by Jess Michaels

Tracy’s rating: 4 of 5 stars

Series: The Duke’s Bastards, #2

Release Date: July 14, 2020


Selina Oliver is one of the former Duke of Roseford’s bastard children, raised by her mother and stepfather, Selina’s life was not happy and the only good thing her father ever did for her was leave her an inheritance – that she used to start her own life, which she lives on her own terms. Now her half-brother Robert, the new Duke has made it clear that he wants Selina to be part of his life. Selina resists, Robert and his wife Katherine are wonderful, but Selina has secrets that could hurt them and make them hate her if they ever found out the truth. She enjoys getting to know them and being part of a family, but still keeps her distance. She is invited by Katherine to join them for a country house party and is going to refuse, until she learns that the Countess of Winford will be attending. The Countess has something that Selina wants and she can’t pass up the opportunity to get it! She accepts and hopes that her family never figures out that Selina is the infamous thief known as “the Faceless Fox”.

Derrick Huntington and his partner Edward Barber are private investigators for hire and currently are looking for the Faceless Fox. They get a tip that the Fox will be attending Roseford’s party and go to see their good friend Nicholas Gillingham in hopes that he can secure an invite for them – he is Roseford’s half-brother after all. Nicholas comes through for them and they arrive at the party. Derrick is immediately drawn to Selina. They take each other’s measure and even though Derrick is sure Selina is hiding something, he quickly falls for her and she for him. They begin a passionate affair, but soon Selina’s secrets are exposed and HEA becomes impossible – or does it?

This was a very well written, fast-paced story with quite a few extremely steamy love scenes (that is not a complaint!) Selina and Derrick are wonderful characters and I really wanted them to find their HEA – but it doesn’t look possible and while I wasn’t shocked by the resolution, I was still impressed – it was a very well executed twist that saves the day. The book has a bit of intrigue, betrayal, remorse, heartbreak and as previously mentioned, some smoking hot love scenes as well as an easy to hate villain, cameos with former characters from the 1797 Club and a HEA that almost didn’t happen! This is the second book in the series and has loose ties to the 1797 Club series, but it can easily be read as a stand-alone title. I enjoyed the book and would happily recommend it!

I am voluntarily leaving a review for an eARC that was provided to me by NetGalley and the publister.