Tag: Jess Michaels

The Silent Duke by Jess Michaels

On By BarbaraIn Barb's Reviews, Regency Era (1811-1820)3 Comments

The Silent Duke (The 1797 Club, #4)The Silent Duke by Jess Michaels

My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Series: The 1797 Club #4
Publication Date: 11/14/17

What a book! I absolutely loved it from beginning to end – and couldn’t put it down until I could see how it all worked out. Do you want a broken heart? If so, just read the Prologue to this excellent book. The unimaginable pain a heartless and mean-spirited parent can cause is just palpable. Then, if you want a smile in your heart – read the rest of the book. It is an excellently written, well-paced, story of life-long friends finding their own happily ever after. It isn’t one of those books where they were in denial of their feelings – no – both knew they deeply loved the other. However, one of them (you guess which one) is stubborn beyond belief and doesn’t feel worthy of the other. Now, for the purists among us (yes, I’m one), the author did use a couple of anachronistic words – for instance, she used the word ‘sex’ to refer to the act rather than the gender. See this Facebook post by Ella Quinn for information on the etymology for ‘sex’.

Ewan Hoffstead was born mute. He was a lovely child, but his father could not accept that his heir was less than perfect and tried to beat, berate and shame him into speaking. Picture a grown man standing above a cowering two-year-old child screaming at him that he was broken and worthless. Imagine the damage that treatment would cause to a young child’s psyche. When Ewan was ten-years-old, his father was going to finally put him in an asylum in order to keep him from inheriting the title. Luckily for Ewan, his aunt and uncle took him from his parents and raised him with love and acceptance. Ewan was actually a very intelligent man, but everyone else seemed to judge him on his lack of speech. Or did they? Maybe it was just his perception that everyone was judging him negatively – but, that poor abused little boy always came to the fore and thought that they did. You’ll just fall hopelessly in love with Ewan when you read this book. He’s sweet, thoughtful, considerate and honorable.

Charlotte Undercross was a blonde-haired, blue-eyed girl of seven when she helped Ewan through the worst day of his young life. Then, together, they developed a hand-signing language to make it easier for Ewan to communicate with others. It turned out to be much too complicated for others to learn, but Ewan and Charlotte used it all the time. Charlotte loves Ewan with all of her heart and she has told him so and asked him to love her in return. When he refused, she married another.

Charlotte is now a young widow and she’s determined to have one more shot at a life with Ewan. If he still refuses, she’ll have to go back on the marriage mart. Ewan is hosting a Christmas celebration at his estate and several friends and family will attend – Charlotte is among those. Fate intervenes and a winter storm causes rivers to flood and Charlotte’s coach is the last one to make it over the bridge leading to Ewan’s home. That gives Charlotte several days alone with Ewan. Can she convince him to let go of his past and embrace a future with her? We sure hope so. Then, there is the remainder of his hate-filled family to contend with. Will they manage to oust Ewan from his title and cause irreparable harm?

This is a quick and lovely read and I hope you’ll enjoy it as much as I did!

Please check out my reviews at:
Blog: https://flippinpages.blog/
Facebook Page: https://www.facebook.com/flippinpages…
Twitter: https://twitter.com/FlippinPagesRev

“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.”

Please check-out our reviews of the other books in this series:
Book 1 – The Daring Duke
Book 2 – Her Favorite Duke
Book 3 – The Broken Duke

The Broken Duke by Jess Michaels

On By TracyIn Regency Era (1811-1820), Tracy's Reviews1 Comment

The Broken Duke (The 1797 Club Book 3)The Broken Duke by Jess Michaels

Series: The 1797 Club, #3

Release Date: September 12, 2017

Tracy’s rating: 5 of 5 stars

This series is phenomenal – there is so much emotion written into these books, that you can’t help but to be sucked in and become invested in the characters.

This is the story of Graham Everly, Duke of Northfield and Lady Adelaide aka Lydia Ford. If you have been following the series, you know that Graham was jilted in the previous book and that Lady Adelaide is dear friends with Emma, Duchess of Abernathe.

In the two months since Graham was jilted and lost his best friend in the process, he has been sulking. He didn’t love Meg, but his pride was hurt and he was angry at both Simon and Meg for their betrayal. He has been drinking and brooding ever since. His fellow dukes have decided that he has sulked long enough and convince him to go out with them to see a play. Grudgingly he agrees and is immediately captivated by the actress Lydia Ford. After the play, he meets her backstage and they share a passionate kiss.

Lydia Ford is not who she seems, she is in reality Lady Adelaide, daughter of the late Earl of Longford. When she hears the Duke of Northfield wants to meet her, she is terrified that he will recognize her and she will be ruined. She started acting to escape her unhappy home life and has been successful in keeping her true identity a secret. By day, she is the dutiful niece to the abusive, unstable Lady Opal. She is a wallflower, who wears spectacles and dowdy gowns. But by night, she is the bold and talented actress Lydia Ford. She meets with Graham and is relieved that he doesn’t seem to recognize her – but why would he? He is gorgeous, rich and popular and Lady Adelaide is a wallflower.

Graham feels lighter and happier after meeting Lydia and decides to stop hiding and return to society. To avoid a confrontation with Meg and Simon, Graham asks Lady Adelaide to dance and is surprised and delighted by her. The encounter causes Graham a bit of turmoil, how can he be attracted to two women at the same time? It isn’t exactly easy for Adelaide either, she is attracted to Graham, but can’t tell him her secrets.

Things between Graham and Lydia heat up and they share a passionate night together, but strangely, Graham feels out of sorts. He keeps crossing paths with Adelaide and they have formed a friendship. He has begun to care for Lydia, but he also has begun to care for Adelaide and his affair with Lydia makes him feel like he is betraying Adelaide. Adelaide is also having problems, the least of which is she is jealous…..of herself.

When a villain from the past attacks Lydia, Graham beats the man senseless and Lydia saves him from himself. They share another night together and Graham shares his deepest, darkest secrets with her. Adelaide is horrified by the pain and suffering Graham endured as a child and admits to herself that she is falling in love with this broken man. She knows that she will have to tell him her secrets and soon, as their night together might have complications. Graham awakens to find Lydia gone and he is more confused than ever – he wants both women and has no idea what to do. He turns to his friend James, Duke of Abernathe (Meg’s brother & Emma’s husband) for advice.

When Adelaide returns home, her aunt loses control and attacks her, she is saved when her friend Emma arrives and takes her to her home. Graham is also at Emma’s house and James tells him to let Adelaide go. He accepts this advice with a heavy heart, but when he goes to leave, he finds Adelaide in the library. When he sees her, he is confused, she looks more like Lydia and when she confesses the truth, he is overjoyed. They share another passionate encounter and he makes a decision.

The next day, he arrives to see Adelaide and tell her of his plans, but they are interrupted by her aunt and then by an agent from the home office with the news that Graham is the prime suspect in a murder. To save Graham, Adelaide confesses her affair with Graham. Her aunt goes crazy and attacks Adelaide again. Once she is taken out of the house, Adelaide and Graham decide to find out who the true killer is. Once they do, Graham tells Adelaide that they will marry.

The truth of the murder and his acceptance of his feelings for Adelaide, lead Graham to reconcile with Simon and Meg. It also leads Adelaide to try and make amends with her aunt.

This book is so good! It is well written, flows perfectly, has steamy love scenes, great secondary characters, a lot of secrets, nasty villains, some heart stopping moments, reconciliations and finally a sigh worthy HEA.

I would highly recommend this book, it is the third in the series and could be read as a stand alone title, but I think you would have a great understanding of the character’s motivations if you read the series in order.

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