The Wedding Trap by Tracy Anne Warren

From ugly duckling to beautiful swan

Eliza Hammond has always been quiet and reserved- hardly the best qualities for finding the man of her dreams and living happily ever after. A new heiress, Eliza is financially secure, courtesy of her aunt's fortune, but even great wealth has its drawbacks since every greedy, fortune-hunting bachelor suddenly finds Eliza irresistible.

To help her best friend, Violet takes Eliza's romantic dilemma into her own hands, enlisting the social skills of her brother-in-law, Lord Christopher "Kit" Winter. Kit helps transform Eliza into a stunning belle, certain to attract a worthy beau. There's just one problem: Eliza has always been head over heels in love with Kit, the very man who is trying to find her a husband! But during Eliza's sometimes-comic extreme makeover, and with a few secret love lessons from Kit on the side, sparks- and passionate kisses- begin to fly. Kit soon finds himself completely overcome by an all-consuming desire for Eliza. But if he fails to realize his true love for her, he may lose this fair lady forever.

The culmination of the Trap trilogy, this book features the younger brother and the best friend of the hero and heroine from The Husband Trap.

Eliza is a perennial wallflower, but now she is a rich wallflower and Violet Wyndham has taken it upon herself to find the best match that she can for her friend. Kit becomes involved after he offers his opinion on the unsuitability of a couple of the potential husbands, and suddenly he finds that he has volunteered himself to become the tutor to Eliza. Eliza is extremely uncomfortable, for no one realises that she has been secretly in love with Kit for years. He had been overseas and she had finally convinced herself that she had no more feelings for him, so to have to be in such close proximity to Kit now shouldn't be a problem right?

First things are a change of appearance and wardrobe, then a brush up on dancing and social skills. Inevitably, the attraction between Kit and Eliza starts growing and when Eliza asks for a lesson on kissing no one is more surprised than Kit to feel the sparks between them.

Meanwhile, Eliza's cousin has designs on her fortune and comes to ask Eliza to marry him, an offer that she does not hesitate to turn down. His brooding presence is never far away, and he plays a big part in the final part of the book.

There were many examples of humour running through this book, not least the hairdresser that gave Eliza a makeover who would have given many of today's most flamboyant stylists a run for their money. Eliza's emergence from wallflower to femme fatale was a relatively slow but charming emergence. Before long though, Eliza is attracting all sorts of attention, including offers of marriage from an eminently suitable candidate. Chances are we will see more of Lance Brevard in a future book.

Kit is perfect hero material - definitely not an alpha hero, but he was funny, handsome and charming. He was also a bit slow in realising how he felt, but it all came good in the end. I did like the very ending.

Oh, and a note about Jeanette! Yes, she was still haughty, but she certainly seems to have calmed down and we saw more of her playful side in this book.

I am glad that this author was recommended as Author of the Month for December, and I will definitely be looking for her next books! The three books in the series have been very consistent in quality and tone. Oh, and once again, the cover of this one is much nicer in real life than it is in the pictures that are available on the net.

Rating 4/5

Finished reading 27 December 2006

The Wife Trap by Tracy Anne Warren

Your presence is requested at a wedding deception.

After orchestrating a scandalous high-society ruse, Lady Jeannette Brantford is banished from her family’s estate in England and sent to live with boring elderly cousins in the Irish countryside. But Jeannette’s exile is surprisingly eventful. En route to her dreaded destination, she encounters Darragh O’Brien, a devilishly handsome architect who transforms Jeannette’s punishment into a delicious whirlwind of wits, words, and undeniable passion.

Although no less than a duke could satisfy a lady of her status, Jeannette is unable to extinguish the burning desire she has for Darragh’s smoldering looks and sizzling kisses. Little does she know, her dashing Irishman is no commoner. He’s the eleventh Earl of Mulholland–and he’s thoroughly enjoying the irresistible game of hard-to-get. But before he reveals his true identity, a little temptation and trickery are in order to teach his fair lady a lesson or two about love.

I mentioned in my review for the first book in this trilogy, The Husband Trap, that Jeanette Brantford was one of the most selfish and horrible female characters that I had read, and that the author would have to do a fantastic job to redeem her in my eyes.

Jeanette was the Incomparable of her year - the one that all the other girls making their debuts wanted to be like, the one that all the men wanted - and quite frankly a shallow girl for whom the only thing that mattered was being popular, even if achieving those aims meant hurting those around her, including her sister.

After being packed off in disgrace, the only possible thing that can make matter worse is to meet a common architect who is completely insensitive of her need to sleep past 10am each morning. What ensues is a war of wills that gets very, very dirty with practical jokes included, and a growing attraction that they cannot seem to fight.

Darragh realises quite early on that he is quite attracted to her, and attempts to tell her who he is, but she is unwilling to listen and so he decides to keep his identity to himself. Darragh is a really good hero - smart, funny and sexy. I would have been happy to read Darragh in any book - very nice indeed, and the grading that I have given this book is marked up as a result. This book once again proves that I can live with a heroine that I have issues with as long as the hero is really, really good! The only issue I have is that I am not sure that teaching someone a lesson is really a great foundation for a relationship!

Jeanette...well...I guess the author came close to redeeming her, but it wasn't a total redemption. From being a completely unlikeable character in The Husband Trap, Jeanette for me got to the point of being bearable. She will always be attracted to society and all that means, but she is also beginning to realise that maybe a bit of balance won't go astray. A few more years of lessons with Darragh and I am sure that eventually she will get sorted out!!

One interesting thing about Jeanette is her past. It was quite interesting

I commented on the cover of The Husband Trap, and said that it wasn't quite so garish as it looks in all the pictures, and that is true of the green in this cover as well. The green stripes are actually much more muted than they appear to be above!

Rating 4/5

(Finished reading on 26 December)

The Husband Trap by Tracy Ann Warren

Here comes the substitute bride. . . .

Violet Brantford has always longed for the passionate embrace of Adrian Winter, the wealthy Duke of Raeburn. Problem is, he's set to marry Violet's vivacious, more socially polished look-alike twin sister, Jeannette. But when Jeannette refuses to go through with the ceremony mere minutes before it is to begin, soft-spoken Violet finds herself walking down the aisle and taking vows in her sister's place. Soon shy Violet is a high-society wife, trying to keep her real identity a secret while living out the fantasies of her wildest dreams.

Adrian thinks he knows exactly what he's gotten himself into: Jeannette may be flighty and, well, a bit self-involved, but she's the picture-perfect wife to carry on the Winter name. Yet this marriage of convenience brings the groom more than he bargained for when he finds his sweet, innocent wife surprising him at every turn. And though he never planned on true love, Adrian is definitely in danger of losing his heart.

Tracy Anne Warren was chosen as the Author of the Month for December over in the Historical Romance Chat group on Yahoo, and for once I managed to read the book in the month that I was meant to, having finished this book on 19 December! I have to admit that this wasn't an author name that I had never really taken much notice of before - I won't say that I had never heard of her before, but I certainly couldn't remember reading much about her or her books.

Normally I am pretty strict on myself in terms of what I will or won't buy as opposed to borrowing from the library, but I was out at the shops one day and wanted to have something to read while I ate my lunch, and for some reason I didn't have a book in my bag so I went in and bought this one. After reading this one I very quickly ordered the next two in the series!

This books starts out at the wedding of Adrian Winter to Jeanette Rose Brantford, or at least that is who he thinks he married at least! In reality he has married Janette Violet Brantford, called Violet by everyone who knows her, and Jeanette's twin sister. Violet has been in love with Adrian for as long as she can remember and therefore agrees to swapping with Jeanette. Luckily she only has to remove her glasses to be almost identical to her sister.

With the wedding out of the way, Jeanette (masquerading as Violet) is packed off to Italy as a companion to her aunt, and has to behave like Violet, whilst Adrian and Violet go off on their honeymoon, and start to get to know each other. Adrian is somewhat surprised by the almost complete change of personality his bride has had but he attributes it to the fact that she is putting on a performance when in society to be ultimate society Miss, and that this is her real personality - in a way I guess he wasn't too far off.

In the end it is Adrian's brother Kit who sees through the facade and realises that things are not quite as they seem. Adrian realises soon enough that there is something amiss and it is only a matter of time before the truth comes out.

Violet was an extremely likable character - she has been the quiet, bookish younger sister of ultra popular Jeanette, but as she grows more confidence she shows herself to be intelligent, witty and poised and more than good enough to be Adrian's duchess. The only thing about Violet is the ease with which her sister can manipulate her into doing things that she doesn't want to do. There is one too many episodes of swapping places within the book for my liking!

As for Jeanette, she is one of the most selfish and manipulative characters I have read in a long time. She is the heroine of the second book in the trilogy, and to say that the author will have had to work hard to redeem her is probably an understatement. At one point after Adrian and Violet have been happily married for months, Jeanette decides that she actually does want to be married to Adrian and tries to swap places back again - what a bitch!!

Adrian was a good hero, if not exceptional. It took him a while to actually catch on to what was happening around him, and having fallen exceptionally hard for his lovely new while, it took him a long time to come to his senses, but overall he was a very drool worthy hero! As for his younger brother Kit, having already finished the third book in the trilogy I can tell you that he pretty much fulfils the promise shown in this book!

Just a comment on the cover - all of the cover pictures I could find, including the one above show the book with almost candy pink stripes - in reality the pink was a lot more subdued, and was almost metallic in finish. Nowhere near as gaudy as the pictures look!

Whilst there probably wasn't anything truly earth shatteringly original in this book, it was a well written historical romance with strong characters and an engaging storyline!

Rating 4/5