Book Review: The Perks Of Being A Beauty

Author: Manda Collins
Title:  The Perks Of Being A Beauty
Publisher: St Martin's Press
Publish Date: June 18, 2013
Buy: Amazon

Review Copy Provided By: Net Galley
Blurb: The beautiful Miss Amelia Snow is not accustomed to being snubbed by the gentlemen of the ton. But when her mother dies unexpectedly, forcing Amelia to take employment as companion to a wealthy cit's daughter, she quickly learns to play down her looks or risk losing her position. When her employers, the Smithsons, decide to throw a country house party, she is determined to fade into the background. But how can she when the Smithson's guest of honor is Lord Quentin Fortescue, the childhood friend who stole her heart?

Younger son, Lord Quentin Fortescue, is far more interested in his host's cotton mills in the north than he is in courting the man's dim-witted daughter. But it's the girl's companion who makes him look twice. Years ago, Miss Amelia Snowe rejected his proposal without a backward glance. Quentin has molded himself into just the sort of man she'd have wanted back then, but is Amelia still the smug beauty who broke his heart? And can either of them risk their newfound positions to indulge the fiery attraction that burns between them?

Review: Manda Collins is one of my go to writers for historical romance. I always enjoy the stories and the characters.

This novella takes one of the not so nice girls from the Ugly Ducklings series and sees her reformed. Amelia snow was really the "B" word in the 3 previous full length novels. (All of which I highly recommend)

A change in fortune has brought her low and sees her working as a companion to Harriet Smithson. It is during a house party that she meets an old flame...one that she didn't treat too kindly when he had proposed to her years before.

I wish that somehow we could have had a longer story than the 70 pages of this novella. Once readers really get to know Amelia, you can't help but like her, but I really would have liked to have known more of what really made her what she was before her mother died. Even more so, I would have loved some flashbacks to when she first knew Quentin.

Oh and Quentin is the kind of hero that you really want in your own life. There may have been issues between the two, but he was instantly protective of Amelia and you knew just as quickly that he still loved her.

This is the kind of story that you will instantly feel is too short, because Manda writes characters you want to know..you want to be part of their lives.

Still if a novella was all that we could get for Amelia Snowe and Quentin Fortescue, I'll take it.

Rating: 5 flowers

ARC Book Review: How To Dance With A Duke

Author: Manda Collins
Title: How To Dance With A Duke
Publisher: St Martin's Press
Publish Date: Jan 31, 2012
Buy: Amazon
Review Copy Provided By: Net Galley
Book Blurb: What’s a wallflower to do when she’s suddenly in need of a husband? Use all the pluck and moxie she can muster to get what she wants…

SHE’S IN NEED OF A PARTNER

Miss Cecily Hurston would much rather explore the antiquities of Egypt than the uncharted territory of marriage. But the rules of her father’s exclusive academic society forbid her entrance unless she weds one of its members. To clear her ailing father’s name of a scandalous rumor, Cecily needs to gain admission into the Egyptian Club—and is willing to marry any old dullard to do it.

AND HE HAS ALL THE RIGHT MOVES

Lucas Dalton, Duke of Winterson, is anything but dull. He’s a dashing and decorated war hero determined to help Cecily—even if that means looking the other way when she claims the dance card of Amelia Snow, this season’s most sought-after beauty. But Lucas has a reason for wanting Cecily to join the Egyptian Club: His brother went missing during one of Lord Hurston’s expeditions to Egypt. An alliance with the explorer’s bluestocking daughter could bring Lucas closer to the truth about what happened…or it could lead him to a more dangerous love than either he or Cecily could have imagined….

Review: Put down whatever you are doing and buy this book! I mean it! Buy it NOW! Manda Collins' debut novel is absolutely stunning and flawless.

All the characters are well rounded and so likable and the storyline moves along at the perfect pace. It is nearly impossible to find anything to complain about, except it was easy to figure out who the culprit was in the mystery. That I had figured out halfway through, though I didn't understand the full scope of the evil. But the mystery, though it makes up the story, isn't half as wonderful as the love story of Cecily and Lucas.

Cecily is a wallflower who thought she was condemned to a life of spinsterhood, until she started her quest to clear her father's name in the death of William Dalton, and find his journals. Lucas is William's brother and a Duke. The two have an instant attraction, and from the start you want these two together.

When Lucas compromises Cecily and they have to get married, I thought the story would go downhill, but no. Their marriage only made it better. And I so adored Lucas. He was loving and protective and vulnerable and he was in no way the alpha male that dominates so many romance novels. That's not to say he isn't a strong man, he just isn't arrogant or obnoxious in the way he goes about protecting Cecily.

The best part of the story and the saddest was after they found the body of his brother and he sobs that he wished he would have let his brother ride his pony. I was near to tears as I read that.

Lucas is the kind of hero I want for myself!

Cecily was a bluestocking but while she was smart, she was also loving and not totally absorbed in intellectual pursuits. That made it easy to like her, as well as the other two Ugly Ducklings, Juliet and Maddy.

This is the first book in a series and I can't wait to read the next one "How To Romance A Rake." Manda Collins is going on my must read list from this day on!

Rating: 5 flowers