More or Less a Marchioness by Anna Bradley

Barbara’s rating: 4 of 5 stars

Series: Somerset Sisters #1
Publication Date: 2/6/18

This is a delightful beginning to the Somerset Sisters series. We met the older two Somerset sisters in the Sutherland Scandals series and now we get excellent introductions to the younger sisters (Iris, Violet, and Hyacinth) in this book. It was also nice to re-visit Charlotte and her Captain West and to learn how happy they are ‘rusticating’ in the country. We also get a re-visit with Lady Annabel from Charlotte’s book – I don’t know if it will happen, but I’d really like to see her get her own HEA.

I believe this book is as much about two people discovering and embracing who they really are as it is about their love story. Phineas Knight (Finn), Marquess of Huntington and Iris Somerset both live behind masks – maybe they’ve lost who they really are because they constantly present a different fact to the world. Iris gets her grand epiphany first and gives Finn a run for his money after that!

High spirited, stubborn, outspoken, fun-loving Iris Somerset had buried all of those traits deep within her when she came to London for her season. Mostly to please her grandmother and to give her sisters a scandal-free chance at marriage. She presented herself as quiet, demure and biddable and became the most desirable lady of the season. She was courted by the very proper Marquess of Huntington and accepted his proposal though they hardly spoke when they were together and certainly didn’t know a thing about each other. She was actually okay with that – until …..

Very prim, proper and oh so aristocratic Phineas Knight, Marquess of Huntington needed a wife. He thought the debutants were all pretty much interchangeable and he didn’t really care which one he got as long as she was quiet, proper and biddable. His first choice was Lady Honora, but he was perfectly fine with Iris. Finn’s family had a scandal and he had become the Marquess at eight years old. Then, he was raised by indifferent guardians who shipped him off to school and left him there. He never knew love or family – nor was he ever allowed to be a child. Because of the scandal, he was constantly taunted, teased and bullied. It is a wonder that he turned out as well as he did. That childhood shaped Finn into the man who abhorred anything improper or scandalous.

After overhearing a scene between Finn and his former mistress, Iris finally realized she could NOT be the person she was pretending to be. In a pique, she broke off the engagement. She hadn’t really thought through the implications of doing that – so she didn’t tell anyone but Finn. There is a villain in the picture and Finn wants to protect her from him. She won’t have it – and becomes more and more the person he just knows he doesn’t want for a wife – but – he wants Iris more and more. He’ll have a devil of a time wooing her – can he win her? You’ll just have to read the book and see.

This book is well plotted and well written with fully developed and interesting characters. I will be excited to read Violet’s book next.

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“I requested and received this e-book at no cost to me and volunteered to read it; my review is my honest opinion and given without any influence by the author or publisher.”

Twelfth Night with the Earl by Anna Bradley

Barbara’s Rating: 4 of 5 stars

Series: The Sutherland Sisters #3
Publication Date: 11/14/17

A delightfully entertaining holiday read. It is full of sweet love and redemption. While this book doesn’t feature any of the Sutherland’s, it does feature one of the characters we met in the last book, Lady Charlotte’s First Love. I liked Ethan in that book even though he was somewhat presented as a bad boy. You knew he had a good soul because of the way he stood up for Lady Charlotte. I was so glad to visit with him again in this book and learn his story.

You just have to like and smile at Ethan Fortesque, Earl of Devon, from the beginning. It is almost Christmas, he’s in his cups and he’s on his way from London to his country seat, Cleves Court in Cornwall. He’s thinking about all of the bad things that have happened in his life and especially about his wastrel father and he has this conversation with himself. “Too much . . . . earling? Earlishness . . . ? Lordshippery … .?” You can tell he has a good sense of humor.

Ethan had vowed never to set foot in Cleves Court again. He wanted to let it molder into the ground, to put it and everything in it from his mind forever. He thought his father had closed it up two years ago just before he died, but has just recently learned that it had been left it up and running. Ethan doesn’t care that it is almost Christmas – he wants it closed and closed now!

He’s tired and cold as he approaches his childhood home. He expects to find his old housekeeper and maybe one or two other servants in residence. Imagine his surprise when he arrives to a brightly lit home with carriages in front and the sound of Christmas carols wafting out to him. Well, he’ll put a stop to that right away – how dare they have a party in his house, without his permission.

Theodosia (Thea) Sheridan, has loved Ethan since they were children. She wants, above all else, to help him learn to deal with his pain and to learn that he cannot run from it. She knows that closing Cleves Court won’t quiet his demons – they’ll follow him wherever he goes if he doesn’t deal with them and make peace with them. Her challenge is to get him to stay at Cleves Court long enough to realize that and to make his peace.

You’ll meet three delightful imps in this story – Henry and George who are ten-year-old twins and Martha their six-year-old sister. They are orphans who are staying at Cleves Court while the orphanage is being repaired. These three have impishness and mischievousness fine-tuned to an art. Maybe they are just what Ethan needs to push him along the way to deal with his ghosts.

I hope you’ll give this lovely book a read. It is so much lighter and sweeter than the other two books, Lady Eleanor’s Seventh Suitor and Lady Charlotte’s First Love, in the series. It truly is a lovely holiday read.

“I requested and received this e-book at no cost to me and volunteered to read it; my review is my honest opinion and given without any influence by the author or publisher.”