Unraveled by Courtney Milan

Unraveled by Courtney Milan
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

Unraveled by Courtney Milan: 4 1/2 stars

"Maybe he'd simply given himself a Miranda quota."

When Miranda Darling appears in a disguise and using a false name to testify untruthfully as a witness to a crime, Magistrate Turner, better known as Lord Justice, recognizes her. She had been a witness before him before, although not in a disguise. He follows her home, and they become intertwined - a young woman of dubious parentage and the brother of a duke.

Courtney Milan writes exceptional historical romances. Her style and characters are unique. Smite Turner is a deliciously damaged hero: a man of uncompromising integrity and attention to duty. He rejects sentiment as weakness, and feels that he is too damaged to deserve happiness. He lives in austere rooms, his life confined to the discharge of his duties as a magistrate in the criminal courts of Bristol. He does not indulge in second thoughts - his mind, once made up, is inalterable.

Miranda Darling, the heroine, is a headstrong young woman with a taste for dangerous men. She is not a young woman of his social class - the daughter of a pair of actors, she grew up in a theater troupe. The two of them agree that Miranda will become Turner's mistress for one month. For that month, he will provide for her, and then, at the end of the month, she will be paid a thousand pounds - a veritable fortune for a girl of her social class.

The interactions between these two main characters are wonderful. Miranda is irreverent, sarcastic, and not even slightly intimidated by Turner. She softens him, and makes him wonder if, maybe, he shouldn't demand more than the circumscribed, sterile life that he has been with satisfied with until he met her. She unflinchingly accepts every part of him, even the parts that are harsh, frightening, and unyielding.

This book was nominated for the RWA historical romance of the year, and it deserves the accolades it has received. The romance is bittersweet and compelling. It is interesting because it is set, not in London, amongst the ton, but in Bristol. And while Smite Turner is an aristocrat, he is no gentleman of leisure. It is beautifully written.

A few of my favorite quotes:

"So why was it that she heard "Miranda, darling," instead? Maybe he paused for emphasis. Maybe he paused to indicate a comma. Never had one little punctuation mark mattered so much."

"If this was magic, magic was tiring. It drained him until he was bone-weary, until all that was left was a deep, empty ache, and a desire to belong to someone else, if only for a few moments."

"You anchor me without holding me down. You frighten me without threatening my future. You're unflinchingly devoted. I love you."

Private Arrangements by Sherry Thomas

Private Arrangements by Sherry Thomas

My rating: 4 of 5 stars

What happens when inalterably headstrong falls in love with unrequitedly stubborn.

This was a sad book. That I really liked anyway.

When the book opens, in 1893, Gigi has just asked her husband, Camden, for a divorce. The two spouses haven't seen one another more than three times in the decade since they married. He lives in America, she resides in England. They are cordially estranged.

Private Arrangements flips between 1883, the past, and 1893, the present. The story truly begins when Camden and Gigi meet in 1883 shortly after her fiancé, the Duke of Tremaine, has unexpectedly died a mere two weeks before he was scheduled to wed her. Gigi is extraordinarily wealthy, with a tinge of common to her cash. Camden is extraordinarily well-bred, with a tinge of royalty to his pedigree. Attraction blossoms within moments of their meeting.

Gigi is a girl after my own heart. She is unabashedly wealthy and determined to make a good marriage. Her mother wants her to catch a duke, and she decided that the best way to accomplish this was not by charming him into a wedding. Rather, she bought up all of his debts prior to his death and blackmailed him into proposing. After he dies, she informs Camden, his heir and the new duke, that she will call those debts should he decline to take the place of her erstwhile, deceased, fiance. Camden declines, politely, because he has made a promise to one Theodora von Schweppenburg, a penniless singer.

Gigi is not the sort of girl who would let a little thing like a promise to the insipid Miss Schweppenburg stand in the way of something she wants, so she engages in a bit of light deception in an effort to persuade Camden to marry her. To her surprise, and dismay, she not only feels bad about the deception, she falls in love him. Deeply, devastatingly, irrevocably in love with him.

And, he falls equally in love with her. When he learns of her deception, shortly before the wedding, he plots an exquisite revenge. They would have one passionate night - their wedding night - and he would decamp from her side permanently.

What I loved about this book:

Ultimately, this is a book about second chances and maturity.

I loved Gigi. She was unapologetically lively and intelligent, with a passion for life. She loves her husband, but accepted that she had lost him through her own bad behavior, and accepted complete responsibility for her part in the schism. She didn't however, allow his repudiation of her to destroy her. She developed a full life for herself, using her financial solvency to benefit other young women who made poor choices in their youth. She has grown up considerably, and tries very hard not to
make the same mistake twice. In her zeal to avoid the mistakes of her youth, she very nearly makes an altogether new one.

I also loved the secondary romance between Gigi's mother and her neighbor. Oftentimes in these regency romances, the mother figure is a combination of ridiculous and irritating. The character development seems to frequently stop right where Jane Austen left it with Mrs. Bennett. Gigi's mom was, of course, an ambitious mama, but she was also bright and intellectual. A bit of a bluestocking, really. And the mature romance was lovely to behold.

I'm conflicted about Camden. He wasn't the kind of hero I was expecting, but he was the kind of hero that Gigi needed. His stubborness was a vice, though, and not a virtue, and it is because of his inflexibility that both he and Gigi were deprived of a full decade of happiness. There was a
poignancy to their HEA because it was delayed well beyond the time that the separation made sense.

Overall, this was a really good historical romance read. It was engaging and beautifully written, with an appealing heroine and a likeable hero.

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Lady Fortescue Steps Out by M.C. Beaton

So, my amazon prime borrowed book of the month was:



It is short, and sort of expensive for the length at $5.59, but I've heard good things about M.C. Beaton (she writes the Agatha Raisin series) so I thought I would give it a go.

So glad I didn't buy it. So, so glad.

So, really, I don't have a lot to say about this book. The premise behind the book is that a whole bunch of "poor relations" get together in Regency London and start a sort of a hotel so they can make some money and live more comfortably. The premise was cute, and had promise.

Overall, though, the book really didn't work for me. I couldn't make up my mind if it was intended to be satire (not biting enough), comedy (not funny enough) or romance (not romantic enough). The characters, who should've been sympathetic, were mostly extremely unlikeable.

The central romance between the Duke and the character whose name I can't even remember (not a good thing in a romance novel) was pretty cute. Overall, though, I won't be checking any more of these out. Thanks, Prime, for giving me a free chance to decide that they aren't for me.

2 stars -- only because it is reasonably well-written. I expected better.

Playing Catch-Up: The Lost Duke of Wyndham

REVIEW:

I love Julia Quinn's Bridgerton series -- at least the first 5. I have enjoyed some of her other books, as well. This book is definitely not her best work. If you are considering buying your first Julia Quinn, do yourself, and Ms. Quinn, a favor. Purchase The Duke and I instead, and read the Bridgerton series from there. You will find much more to enjoy.

Ms. Quinn's strength, in my opinion, is in her dialogue. She has an unerring ear for convincing, fluid and witty conversation between her characters. I also always enjoy her characterizations. In this book, as in her others, her Hero and heroine are interesting, flawed, well-drawn individuals.

It is true, as well, that Julia Quinn's mediocre effort is better than the best work of many romance writers. The Two Dukes of Wyndham was perfectly acceptable. The Hero is charming, rakish and handsome. The heroine is beautiful, genuine and likeable. Nonetheless, this book simply falls short given the author's capabilities. I found myself more interested in the anti-hero, Thomas who is apparently the hero of the second book of the duology, Mr. Cavendish, I Presume. I also found the villain, the Duchess, simply too unlikeable, too over-the-top unpleasant, and too unredeemably mean-spirited. No one is that terrible to everyone all of the time.

I would give this one a pass. If I had spent more than the $1.99 on it than I did, I would have been annoyed.

Edited: upon further reflection, I feel that two stars is too harsh for this book. I am changing it to three-stars. While Ms. Quinn is capable of better, as an objective measure, this book equals 3-stars in comparison to the efforts of other authors.