Barbara’s rating: 5 of 5 stars

Series: The Mad Morelands #3
Publication Date: 1/8/18 (First Published 2004)
Number of Pages: 416

I am really loving the Mad Morelands who aren’t really mad, just a bit unusual and eccentric. I really liked Reed Moreland in the last book and as I got to know him in this book, I came to admire him as well. The book is well-written, romantic, filled with characters you’ll love and includes a mystery that is engrossing but doesn’t take away from the romance.

Three years ago, Reed Moreland decided it was time for him to purchase himself a country estate – one where he could raise his children once he was ready to marry. He found the perfect place – Winterset – and he also found the perfect woman for him. He woos her and loves her – and he’s sure that she loves him too. Yet, when he asks her to marry him, she turns him down by telling him that they wouldn’t suit and that she doesn’t love him at all. After three long years, he still loves her just as much – and when he has a nightmare that convinces him she’s in danger, he heads back to Winterset. Of course, he tells himself it is so he can sell Winterset and finally put the past behind him.

Anna Holcombe was totally, completely, irrevocably in love with Reed Moreland three years ago. They had spent the most wonderful month together and then – her world totally imploded when she got some ghastly news. When Reed proposed, she had no choice but to refuse his suit and to do it in such a way that he’d leave and forget about her. She’s spent the last three years trying to get over him as best she can and she finally has her life where it is pleasant if not happy. Now, Reed is back at Winterset and he’s convinced she’s in danger. Silly man – of course she isn’t in any danger.

When a housemaid disappears from Anna’s household – and then her mutilated body is found, everybody begins to speak of the Beast. The wounds on the poor girl’s body certainly looks like a beast of some sort did it – but is the beast a man or an animal? Then, a second murder – and the victims, the wounds harken back to murders from fifty years ago. How can they possibly be related? As more attempts occur and secrets are uncovered, Anna and her brother Kit are in more and more danger. Reed and Anna work together to unravel the murders and the secrets that have been hidden for half a century.

If you love a great romance AND an intense mystery, this is the book for you.

I voluntarily read and reviewed an Advanced Reader Copy of this book. All thoughts and opinions are my own.

Barbara’s rating: 5 of 5 stars

Series: The Mad Morelands #5
Publication Date: 1/30/18
Number of Pages: 376

We’ve watched the boyish antics of Constantine (Con) and Alexander (Alex) over the first four books of the series – and now, they are all grown up and are getting books of their own. I love that we’ve gotten to see the lively, intelligent, rambunctious, inquisitive, and mischievous boys grow up and that we’ve been a party to their mischief. We’ve seen them with their menagerie of animals – from a parrot to a boa constrictor – and we’ve held our breaths as they’ve been kidnapped. Now, we get to watch them find their HEA’s – and that is an adventure as well! This book gives us Alex’s HEA and the next book, His Wicked Charm, will allow us to see Con’s HEA. Frankly, the first book I read in this series was Con’s, and I was so impressed – loved it so much – that I’ve gone back and read the entire series – in order. I have loved each and every book in the series.

Alex Moreland is now twenty-five years of age. He and his brother Con own a building in London where they each have their offices. Con has a detective agency (it was once his sister Olivia’s) and Alex is an architect. Alex and Con have a strong twin connection – they know what each other is thinking without actually speaking, they can sense when the other is in trouble, etc. Neither has ever had that connection with anyone else. However, Alex is having that anxious, restless feeling that he usually associates with Con having trouble of some sort. Except, he knows it can’t be Con because he was just speaking with Con who is setting out to do an investigation. As he ponders those feelings, while still in Con’s office, the feelings get more intense – so he steps outside the office and sees a man hurrying through the outer door – only – it isn’t a man. It is a woman dressed – very poorly – as a man – and she mistakes him for Con. When he encourages the misconception, she tells him her tale. She has absolutely no idea who she is and remembers nothing about her past. She knows she arrived in London on the train – and the hackney driver suggested Con’s agency as a good one for finding lost things – and she is lost. The only clue she has to herself is a locket with the name Sabrina and a date so she assumes that must be her name and her birthdate. If you’ve read the previous books, you know that the Morelands fall in love – fast, hard and forever – so you won’t be surprised to learn that Alex is already lost – he just doesn’t know it yet.

Sabrina has no idea who she is. She has no idea why she is in London. Does she live there? Nothing seems familiar. Was she meeting someone at the train station? Nobody approached her – but then she was dressed as a man. Why was she dressed that way? She has a knot on her head, bruises on her face, and bruises like fingerprints around her upper arm. How did she get them? She’s very anxious and fearful and is sure that she is running from someone, but she has no idea who it is. When the hackney driver recommends the Moreland Detective Agency to her, she readily asks him to take her there. When she meets the detective, she’s sure she knows him, but when he doesn’t recognize her, she assumes that she is mistaken.

Alex wonders if this isn’t an elaborate hoax designed by Con, but quickly decides that isn’t the case. With no place else to take her, he takes her to his parent’s home. Sabrina doesn’t realize she’s headed to the home of a Duke and once she discovers that, she isn’t inclined to stay there. Alex convinces her to meet his mother – and she quickly sets Sabrina at ease and insists she stay with them.

The investigation begins in earnest and, of course, that proximity draws them closer and closer. Each knows that they cannot act on any attraction because one of the things that was in Sabrina’s possession was a wedding ring. Is she married? Is she running from an abusive husband? Maybe it is just a keepsake from her mother or another beloved relative. Who knows?

Things get tense when the villains appear and try to lay claim to Sabrina, but Alex will protect her no matter what. Seeing them work together and thwart the villains was lovely and seeing Alex learn to use more of his special ‘gift’ was great.

I loved this book and I hope you will as well.

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