Category: Georgian Era (1714-1837)

The Georgian era is a period in British history 1714 to 1830. The kings were all named George: George I, George II, George III and George IV. The sub-period of the Regency is defined by the Regency of George IV as Prince of Wales during the illness of his father George III. The definition of the Georgian era is often extended to include the short reign of William IV, which ended with his death in 1837.
Preceded by: Restoration
Including: Regency era
Followed by: Victorian era

The Rebel Wears Plaid by Eliza Knight

On By TracyIn Georgian Era (1714-1837), Jacobean/Stuart Era (1603-1714), Scottish/Highlander, Tracy's Reviews1 Comment

The Rebel Wears Plaid (Prince Charlie's Angels, #1)The Rebel Wears Plaid by Eliza Knight

Tracy’s rating: 3.5 of 5 stars

Series: Prince Charlie’s Angels, #1

Release Date: June 30, 2020

Jenny Mackintosh is a fierce supporter of Prince Charles Stuart and leader in the Jacobite cause. Known only as Mistress J, she is amassing troops and supplies for the Prince’s return, which is no small feat as her brother Hamish is a staunch supporter of the English King George. She walks a fine line of discovery between obedient sister to an Englisher support and Jacobite rebel – but so far, she has successfully been able to keep her secrets. She is out on a recruiting mission when she comes upon two men and offers them aid.

Toran Fraser is aiding the English commander Boyd with capturing rebels when he realizes his cousin Archie is among the men and that Boyd plans to kill them. He makes a choice and saves his cousin, but in the process makes Boyd his enemy. He is a man on a mission, he sided with the English in an effort to bring down the rebel known as Mistress J who killed his mother. But when he meets Jenny, he is not sure if he believes her capable of the horrific murder of his mother. He leaves Archie in her care and flees the safe house and returns to his uncle’s home – where he learns his uncle, the chief of the clan Fraser AKA the Fox has once again changed sides – now he says he is on the side of the rebels. Toran takes his cousin Simon, his younger brother Camdyn and little sister Isla and returns to find that the safe house is no more, but he finds one of her men and convinces him to take them to Jenny. The more time he spends with Jenny the more he can’t believe she killed him mom. And when he learns the truth, he will do whatever is necessary to gain her trust.

Jenny is attracted to Toran, but she isn’t sure she can trust him, even when he time and again proves himself worthy. She tries to ignore what is happening between them, but when he saves her from a fate worse than death, she can no longer deny her feelings or her faith in him. But Jenny is a woman in power and she isn’t sure she can have it all – will Toran be a true partner or will he try to control her?

I have read almost all of Ms. Knight’s Indy publications and love her work, so I was super excited for her first big publishing house offering, but sadly, this book just wasn’t what I was hoping for. She picked a very hard era and setting for a HEA and I truly wish she had added an epilogue set years later – because I know how the return of Bonnie Prince Charlie is going to play out and as a Jacobite – a long-lasting HEA is not likely! I liked the story and the historical facts were well researched and incorporated well – but I did have a bit of a hard time with Jenny’s character – she came across as a very strong woman, but a bit power-hungry and not willing share her power with a partner, it was almost like she wanted a consort, which would have been fine, but to make it work, Toran had to conform, so he went from being a strong warrior to her lap dog – I just wish there had been a better balance of power between them. Overall, the writing is good, the story is interesting and well-paced, but most of the “romance” and the mild /warmish love scenes don’t take place until almost the end of the book, so the romance did take a back seat to the historical fiction. This is the first book in the series and we are introduced to the other two “angels”, but this book stays completely on point and doesn’t even hint at Annie & Fiona’s stories.

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

A Rogue No More by Lana Williams

On By TracyIn Georgian Era (1714-1837), Regency Era (1811-1820), Tracy's ReviewsLeave a comment

A Rogue No More (The Rogue Chronicles, #3)A Rogue No More by Lana Williams

Tracy’s rating: 4 of 5 stars

Series: The Rogue Chronicles, #3

Release Date: June 23, 2020

After the death of his father, Thomas Raybourne is tasked by his brother, the new Earl of Carlington with turning the family publishing business into a success. Thomas has no experience in publishing and is widely known as a rogue, a reputation he relished until just a few months ago. Now he is focused and wants to succeed, he has overhauled the entire publishing operation and learns that unfortunately the only book they have that is making any money is a murder mystery written by A. Golden. But he is shocked to learn that A. Golden is actually Miss Annabelle Gold, the lovely girl he kissed on a moonlit terrace a few months ago!

Annabelle has a passion for writing and used her talent to help her family financially when her father’s business began to decline along with his memory. But now that her sister Caroline married the Earl of Aberland and things have begun to look up for the family, Annabelle can once again write for the pure joy of it. She has written the second book in her mystery series and has been waiting to hear from her publisher. When she doesn’t hear anything for weeks, she finally makes the trip to their office. She is just as shocked to find Thomas there as he was to see her – but he is surprisingly supportive and eager to publish the next installment. She can’t deny that she is attracted to Thomas, but a deep-seated fear of losing herself if she marries has her keeping all potential suitors at bay – including Thomas.

They make plans to reissued the first book and publish the second one, but just as they finalize their plans, there is a murder that clearly mimics a murder in her first book. They decide to hold off publishing until the murderer is caught and work together to find out who (and why) they are using her book as inspiration. They stumble across a potential suspect, which ends with them forced into a betrothal, yet gives them no evidence to stop the murderer. But when a second mimicked murder doesn’t tie to the victim of the first murder, they race to stop their villain before they can strike again. All the while, Annabelle and Thomas grow closer and wonder if they can defy the odds and find their own HEA. But when the villain approaches Thomas and threatens to destroy someone he loves; will Thomas be able to thwart them or will he make Annabelle’s worst fears come true?

I thought this was a well written, nicely paced book with likeable characters, very low steam love scenes and an interesting mystery. Thomas and Annabelle are a wonderful pairing and you can’t help but root for their HEA, the mystery was good, but the villain wasn’t much of a surprise to this reader. There were cameos from previous characters and I enjoyed catching up with Caroline, Aberland, Louisa and Granger and was thrilled that there was an epilogue. This is the third book in the series, but it can easily be read as a stand-alone title.