Category: Novella

Beguiled at the Wedding by Deb Marlowe, Jane Charles & Virginia Heath

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

Beguiled at the Wedding (A Summer Wedding at Castle Keyvnor Book 2)Beguiled at the Wedding by Deb Marlowe

Tracy’s rating: 5 of 5 stars

Series: A Summer Wedding at Castle Keyvnor, #2

Release Date: May 22, 2020

This anthology was another delightful addition to the fabulous Castle Keyvnor series!

Miss Penneck & the Pixie Poem by Deb Marlowe – 4 stars – A sweet romance between a bookshop owner and a progressive printer, aided by a book loving Pixie. This well written, fast-paced novella opens with Puff, a young Pixie who loves stories and who is still trying to figure out her magic, fifty years later she still hasn’t figured it out, but has attached herself to the local bookshop, owned by Miss Lowenna Penneck. Lowenna hasn’t been in Brocka Morrow long, she learned of the empty shop and leased it from the Earl at Keyvnor Castle. She has settled in with her widower father, who is still grieving the loss of his beloved wife. Lowenna hopes the shop will be the fresh start they both need. Ruan Trevellick arrives in Brocka Morrow looking to make a fresh start too. He is a printer and was invited to set up shop in the village by the Countess. Imagine his surprise when he finds a bookshop in his space! A trip to the castle confirms that they were both promised the space and the Earl and Countess promise to make things right. In the meantime, Lowenna offers to let him set up his press in her back room – an offer he gladly accepts. Things progress quickly between them and seem to be going well, until Ruan’s past catches up with him and he may have to give up the woman he loves to save her! It will take the help of a Pixie to give these two their HEA. A completely wonderful story with cameos from previous characters, Pixies, sweet kissing love scenes, a nasty villain and a wonderful HEA.

A Spirited Courtship by Jane Charles – 4 stars – A sweet second chance love story featuring Diana Vail and James Bryant, the Earl of Somerton. Diana has fallen in love with James and believes he loves her too, until she overhears his friends speculating about his relationship with Diana – they are sure he is just using her to keep his matchmaking momma at bay, they also hear that James slept with Diana’s widowed mother!! Diana is so distraught by this news that she finds James, slaps him and tells him she never wants to see him again! Months pass as they meet again at the wedding of Lady Gwyn at Castle Keyvnor. James hasn’t gotten over Diana and has no idea why she was so upset, he was going to let her go, but seeing her again stirs up his feelings and he wants answers!! Throw in a trio of ghosts that need to break a curse by helping a maiden find true love and you have a very fun story! This novella was well written, fun read with kissing only love scenes, a stubborn heroine, meddling ghosts, witches, gypsies, a pixie or ten and a nail biting ending.

Written in the Stars by Virginia Heath – 5 stars – Of the three, this second chance romance was my favorite. Five years ago Cecily Grimshaw and Spencer Tremayne were madly in love and on the brink of marriage when Chaos wreaked havoc on their HEA. Cecily sees a woman leaving Spencer’s house in a wanton display of dishabille and she imagines the worst – she writes a letter breaking with him and quits her job as governess to get away from him. He is stunned and heartbroken, he had planned to marry her and practice law, but in his despair he gives up his dreams and joins the military – keeping them apart for five long years. The Powers that Be need to set this couple back on track and only have two weeks to do it – Serendipity assures Destiny, Luck, Cupid and Reason that she has it well in hand – she has set her plan in motion to reunited the lovers, they are not convinced until they learn that she has them set to meet again in Brocka Morrow and Castle Keyvnor and with a little help from a fairy – Serendipity is sure she will prevail – after all, she hasn’t missed a deadline in 10,000 years!! This was such a sweet story, with wonderful characters, magic, witty banter, touching flashbacks and a sweet HEA.

This is an ongoing series of interconnected stories, but they can all be read as stand alone novellas and I promise if you read one, you will want to read them all!!

*I am voluntarily leaving a review for an eARC that was provided to me*

I Love The Earl by Caroline Linden

On By BarbaraIn Barb's Reviews, Georgian Era (1714-1837), Novella1 Comment

I Love the Earl (The Truth About the Duke #0.5)Barbara’s rating: 4/4.5 of 5 stars

Series: The Truth About the Duke #0.5
Publication Date: 8/2/11
Number of Pages: 147

This was a lovely introduction to the ‘The Truth About The Duke’ series, we meet the Duke, learn about him unexpectedly becoming a duke, but we don’t really see much of him. We learn to like him, dislike him, and then like him again. We learned that he was troubled and that it had something to do with a youthful romance, but no explanations beyond that. The other books in the series feature his sons (many years later) as they fight the scandal the duke left behind and find their HEAs along their journey. This novella features the duke’s sister Margaret.

I listened to the audiobook which was narrated by Gildart Jackson. His characterizations were consistent – you always knew which character was speaking. He has a nice voice and accent consistent with the time and place. Personally, I thought the pacing was a little slow, but after I increased the playback speed, it worked out just fine.

Let me start by telling you that I loved both of the main characters in the book. One of my favorite things is that you never have to overlook or forgive either the hero or heroine for anything. They are both so very true to who they are. They are honest and straightforward with each other. One of the best things is that there is absolutely no angst nor any TSTL moments. It was a lovely, fairly light-hearted, romantic read.

Margaret de Lacey has long accepted that she is a spinster. Once, she dreamed of love, marriage, and children, but no longer. She is content living with her brother and managing his household. Then, her brother unexpectedly inherits a dukedom and her whole world changes. She’s gone from the plain, uninteresting, drab woman in whom nobody was interested, to a very wealthy heiress with all of the penniless fortune hunters chasing her. Well, she’ll not accept any of them without being very, very sure they are as interested in her as they are in her fortune.

Rhys Corwen, Earl of Dowling is probably the most destitute of those looking for a fortune. He is very, very reluctant to marry for money, but he’s exhausted all of his options – even selling the furnishings in his homes. He’s agreed to go through a list his friend has of eligible heiresses. He’ll meet them, then he’ll decide whether he can go through with it or not. He’s met two or three of the ladies on the list, and then he meets Margaret de Lacey. Goodness, she is intriguing and he is drawn to her. He decides right then that she will be his.

Rhys constantly turns up wherever Margaret happens to be and they always have at least a brief interaction. Will he manage to change her mind about him? Will she ever accept him? What dastardly thing does her brother do? Can they find their HEA? You’ll just have to read this fun novella to find out.

I do wish the epilogue had been just a tad more fleshed out, it seemed just a bit rushed. I would also have liked to have seen more of a reconciliation between the siblings – a visit would have been so much better than a letter. I understand this was a novella, but just a few more pages would have made it absolutely perfect.