Maria V Snyder is in the house!

Woot, woot!

Actually, she's not in my house, she's being featured over at Zeek's today, and there is a chance to win a signed copy of one of her books! A couple of years ago I read Poison Study, and absolutely loved it. It is fantasy, but very accessible fantasy. I have several books that I consider giving to friends for gifts, and Poison Study is one of them!


Another exciting giveaway this weekend is over at Book Smugglers where they are having a weekend of Loretta Chase, and there's a chance to win copies of her newest book, Your Scandalous Ways.

Miss Wonderful by Loretta Chase

Alistair Carsington really, really wishes he didn't love women quite so much. To escape his worst impulses, he sets out for a place far from civilization: Derbyshire - in winter! There he hopes to kill two birds with one stone: avoid all temptation - and repay the friend who saved his life on the fields of Waterloo. But this noble aim drops him straight into opposition with Miss Mirabel Oldridge, a woman every bit as intelligent, obstinate, and devious as he - and maddeningly irresistible.

Mirabel Oldridge already has her hands full keeping her brilliant and aggravatingly eccentric father out of trouble. The last thing she needs is a stunningly attractive, oversensitive, and overbright aristocrat reminding her she has a heart - and not to mention a body he claims is so unstylishly clothed that undressing her is practically a civic duty.

Could the situation be any worse? And why does something so wrong feel so very wonderful?

Loretta Chase is one of those authors whose name is bandied around as a must read, particularly in relation to Lord of Scoundrels. I have read that book, but other than that my exposure to her writing has been rather limited having only read one novella. Having said that, I did go into this book with high expectations...but unfortunately I was a bit disappointed.

Alistair Carsington has a long history of getting himself into trouble where both women and money are concerned, and his parents have almost despaired of him finding a suitable bride. Behind a foppish facade and a sharp wit, Alistair hides the extent of the suffering that has haunted him since he returned from war. In order to help the man who saved his life, Alistair agrees to head to Derbyshire (in winter no less!) and try and get his plan to build canals approved by the locals.

Unfortunately for him, this plan brings him into direct opposition to Mirabel Oldridge. Her father is a brilliant horticulturist who struggles to see what is going on around him in the more mundane events of day to day life, so it is Mirabel who Alistair must deal with and she is determined that there should be no canal.

For the most part I did enjoy the humour in this book, although I do have to confess I did get a bit bored with all the jokes and emphasis on Alistair's penchant for fashionable clothing, his very fastidious appearance, and his shock at how terribly Mirabel dressed. Having said that I did love the final scene where they were getting married and both of them were a bit dishevelled having been unable to keep their hands off each other! (Highlight to read spoiler)

Whilst this wasn't the absolutely amazing book that I wanted to read, it was good, and as I sit here now thinking back to the book, I am almost tempted to borrow it again from the library to see if maybe, just maybe, I hadn't judged it a bit harshly when I read it the first time around!

This is the first book in the Carsington series. I have heard very good things about the later books in this series, but my normal library doesn't have them in. I have however just discovered that the library that I joined recently does have all the rest of the series, so I will be borrowing them from there.

Three Weddings and a Kiss - Anthology

Featuring Kathleen E Woodiwiss, Catherine Anderson, Loretta Chase and Lisa Kleypas, this anthology is kind of strange in one way. Kathleen E Woodiwiss, who I have never read before, is, according to the cover at least, the major contributor to this collection, yet her story is only 40 pages long, and is in effect a long excerpt/introduction to her book A Season Beyond a Kiss.

The first story in the book was Fancy Free by Catherine Anderson. Can I just say ARRRGGHHH and be done with it? No...okay, I will mention a couple of other things. I rolled my eyes in disbelief several times, but I did finish it...just because I don't like to let a book defeat me.

Rachel Constantine is determined to get revenge on Matt Rafferty for humiliating her younger sister, and so she sets up a scheme with one of the "soiled doves" (if the girls from the bar were called soiled doves once in the first two chapters, then they were called it ten times!!) from the local bar in order to drug his drink so that he can be humiliated the next morning in front of the whole town. The plan goes awry though when Matt's older brother Clint drinks some of the whiskey by mistake, and then when Rachel accosts him in the street she cannot tell the difference between the two men because she is practically blind without her glasses. The plan was to take Matt Rafferty to the town church, get him out of his trousers and leave him there so that when the town comes to church the next morning he will be humiliated. Everything is going to plan, albeit with the wrong brother, until when Clint passes out he falls on her and she bangs herself on the head and also passes out. When the town does come to church, they find both Rachel and Clint there, and there is no choice but to marry them off because Rachel has now been compromised....o-k-a-y....

So Clint takes Rachel back to his home that he shares with his 7 brothers, and basically she finds that it is a shambles with dirty dishes everywhere, no clean clothes, so Rachel sets to cleaning up straight away...o-k-a-y...that's what I would do on my wedding day as well. However when it comes to cooking, it turns out that Rachel can't cook to save herself, she is a vegetarian in a carnivorous household, and she can't even read the recipes. Much hilarity ensures as she misreads recipe after recipe, but she still manages to gain a foothold in the hearts of all the Rafferty boys. Everything is hunky-dory until Aunt Hester arrives and takes over and Rachel runs back to her town because Rachel feels as though she is no longer needed!

This story was apparently published before her first book was even published which was kind of interesting. A frustrating 2/5

Next up The Mad Earl's Bride by Loretta Chase, and this was probably the best of the bunch. Dorian Camoys is a friend of Dain from Lord of Scoundrels, and is convinced that he is going mad, especially seeing as his mother was died as a result of her own madness, and he knows that he has similar symptoms. When Gwendolyn Adams approaches Dorian with an offer of marriage in exchange for support in setting up a hospital where she will be able to practice medicine. Seeing no other viable option, Dorian agrees. Now Countess of Rawnsley, Gwendolyn throws herself into investigating exactly what is wrong with her husband, and she comes up with a surprising answer.

There was a huge epilogue, given the size of the novella, and this story could easily have been expanded to be a complete novel. Rating 3/5

The reason why I got hold of this in the first place was for the Lisa Kleypas entry, Promises. Lidian Acland is basically on the shelf, because she is waiting for the man who she believes is the love of her life, Chance Spencer, who went off to Europe promising to come back for her. When Lord Eric de Gray catches a glimpse of Lidian he thinks she is beautiful, but vacuous. He changes his mind when she assists his sister in a dress crisis. Eric then begins a pursuit of Lidian, trying to convince her that she is wasting her time pining for Chance, especially after he finds out that Chance has actually been back in London for weeks without coming to see her. When Eric tells her that Chance has been spending time at Cravens (yes that Cravens), Lidian impulsively sneaks off at night by herself to confront him. Eric has to save her and whisks her off for a night at the pleasure gardens at Vauxhall.

Whilst this was an okay read, I guess I never really understood what drove Eric to pursue Lidian so persistently. There didn't seem to be THAT much chemistry between them. The romance between Lidian's widowed mother and Eric's reprobate uncle was a nice touch too. Rating 3/5.

And then we come to Kathleen Woodiwiss's contribution, called The Kiss. Jeff Birmingham is buying an amazing hat as a birthday present for his sister-in-law, when he comes across a young girl whose stepfather is about to sell her into marriage. Instead Jeff insists on buying her, washing her up, and marrying her himself. And that's about it. If for only the fact that this shouldn't have been the headline act...Rating 1.5/5

Overall, a disappointing 2.5/5

Lord of Scoundrels by Loretta Chase

This was a book that has been pretty much hyped for me ever since I joined the girls at Historical Romance Chat. And it has to be said with good reason!! Yes I loved it Rosario!

Dain was an unhappy child who was deserted by his mother, and then packed off and all but disowned by his father. As a consequence, the main defence mechanisms he has learnt are to become the hardest person around, the most notorious rake. He also has a terrible self image, thinking that his dark, mediterranean looks are nothing but ugly, and that they go perfectly with his dark insides. When we first meet him, he is living in Paris, living a life of gambling, drinking and whoring along with a group of his rake friends.

Into this world comes Jessica Trent, trying to rescue her dimwitted brother who likes to be in this world, but is losing so much money that he is nearly bankrupting them. Jessica was orphaned when her parents were killed in a carriage crash, and was bought up be her eccentric grandmother. As a consequence she is more free spirited, and liberated than most young ladies. She has also turned down numerous offers of marriage with the hope of opening her own curio shop.

With neither of them admitting that they want each other, Dain and Jess are constantly playing games around each other. Jess locates a valuable Russian icon that she offers Dain if he expels her brother from his circle of friends, instead Dain draws him further. Dain tries to ruin her reputation by (gasp) removing her glove in a public place and caressing her bare skin, in a scene that was very touching (no pun intended). All of Paris is agog watching the beauty and the beast as they circle each other.

After being witnessed taking things too far in the garden during a ball, Jess' reputation is ruined, and Dain refuses to do the right thing and stand up for her reputation, so she shoots him in a very funny scene (if shooting someone can ever be funny!). After various negotiations, Dane eventually orders her to marry him. Once they are married Jess tries to reach through the hard exterior to the man underneath who she knows is not the beast that he, and everyone else, thinks he is. Watching Jess do this is so moving. A lot of the time whilst reading the second half I was close to tears as they both struggled to understand their own emotions and each other. Having said that, this book was also laugh out loud funny. The introduction of Dain's illegitimate son added additional strength to the story. Watching Dain try to figure out how to love a boy who was so like himself, when he couldn't like himself was beautifully done, and the associated storyline added pace and intrigue to the story.

This book was an excellent, excellent read, and is definitely one of my new favourites of the historical romance genre.

Rating 5/5