Book Review: Aurora Rose

Anne Worboys and her two star-crossed lovers: Nicholas le Grys, the second son of the Rundulls and Rose Snape the granddaughter of the butler. They are a wonderful example of people that should never fall in love with each other, but they do.

The result has consequences for both. Nicholas' love for Rose finds him accused of murder of a man who attempted to rape her, in a time when there really was no justice for the lower classes. When the two escape to London together things go from bad to worse.

Ultimately the two end up married to different people. Nicholas, because he drunkenly proposed to Cressina (who looks much like Rose) and Rose because her unborn child needs a father. They also end up on the same vessel headed to New Zealand.

Both characters are very strong willed and both marry people that let them trod all over them. I don't know which spouse I felt sorrier for, Cressina, because Rose was always there in the background and because she had the male child or Daniel, because he was really just a pawn and that's why I find it hard to like Rose.

Rose is very manipulative and she doesn't seem to care who she uses to get what she wants, which is Nicholas. Her lack of love for her children other than Giles is disturbing too.

The author did do a wonderful job at showing the colonization of New Zealand and the troubles the settlers faced from the natives. It proved to be a very exciting read at times. The book read more like a saga rather than a romance novel and one that was rather hard to put down.

Book Review: Taming Her Irish Warrior

There's a reason Michelle Willingham's book is up for a RITA this year. Taming Her Irish Warrior is wonderful without being cliche. The main reason for this is that both lead characters showed great strength, even when things weren't going their way.

Ewan MacEgan had come to win the hand of an heiress, Katherine, who just happens to be Honora's sister. But even when he does win her, he finds himself with feelings for Honora that he just can't ignore, and neither can she and Honora has problems of her own.

Her deceased husband's son, wants to claim her as a lover so that he can gain a treasure his grandmother supposedly told her about. Because she's left her husband's land, John has abused the serfs. She's desperate to find a way to remove John from power, even if she has to fight him, and Honora is just the woman to do that. She's a tomboy in every sense of the word, and trained with Ewan, but Ewan would prefer her doing other things.

I loved how determined Honora was in helping her people and how determined Ewan was to help her so that she wouldn't be hurt. They put everything aside for what or who they believed in.

This was my first book from Ms. Willingham and it won't be my last.

Book Review: When Strangers Marry

Any lover of historical fiction can't go wrong with a book by Lisa Kleypas and this book is no exception. It has all the things in it that make for a good romantic read; hot steamy sex, a little bit of suspense, and characters you can't help but fall in love with.

Kleypas creates a whole cast of characters that you will welcome into your life because of their strength and their flaws and each character in this book has something in their past that makes them "interesting."

Lysette Kersaint stumbles into the life of Maximilien Vallerand fleeing from an abusive step-father who is trying to force her into a marriage she doesn't want. Max is looking for a way to best a rival, who had an affair with his murdered first wife, oh and he's been accused of murdering that first wife. Add to the mix his twin sons, two brothers and his mother and you get a very interesting array of characters.

The story is set in New Orleans and is also full of the history of the time which really gives the story a colorful background.

This is one of those books that my grandmother would have enjoyed because you get a good story and you feel like you've learned something while reading it. This is a must read for historical romance fans. It would be on my keeper shelf if it weren't falling apart.

Book Review: The Dangerous Debutante

The Dangerous Debutante is book two in Michaels Romney Marsh Trilogy. This story centers around Morgan Becket and Ethan Tanner the Earl of Aylesford.

Morgan meets Ethan on her way to her brother's home in London. The two have more chemistry than any couple has a right two and they enjoy stirring up trouble with the ton, even though Morgan only stays in London for about a week, mostly because her brother Chance and his with Julia are at their wits end trying to figure out how to deal with her and her lust for Ethan. The two are very much alike as Morgan often says "Like recognizes like."

The book's strong point revolves around Morgan and Ethan's characters. Its not often that two characters connect from the beginning. The only tension between them is sexual.

The only thing that bothered me was how Morgan's family wasn't developed nearly enough. We know that there's something mysterious about them, but everything is cloaked in mystery. If you haven't read the first book in the series (and I hadn't) you are left wondering what is going on with the Becket's.

Book Review: Mistress Of The Sun King

Mistress Of The Sun King is a fictional biography of Athenais de Montespan the second mistress of King Louis XVI of France. The story starts with Athenais' move to the court of France and then skips to her marriage and subsequent affair with King Louis XIV. Not much of her life is detailed in those first areas, until she starts to be noticed by the king.

This novel is definitely a very romanticized telling of Athenais' rise to be 2nd in power in France, but this was writen as a love story, which is why her fall from grace is not part of this book. Even in doing that, its impossible not to find Athenais to be a greedy, scheming woman who will do and often did anything to stay in the position of the King's favorite. In the beginning of the book, its very difficult to like her at all and though she becomes more tolerable as the book progresses its very hard to change that first impression.

There's a lot of intrigue and scandal in this story. Most of which seems historically accurate or close to it. I particularly liked the inclusion of the possible child of the Queen's that could have been fathered by one of her dwarves.

Sandra's choice of character's is unique as most people seem to gravitate towards the queens and kinds as subject matter, but she chose the king's mistress, and for the most part, its an entertaining read.

As a society we like the bad girls, and Athenais was definitely a bad girl in her day. A great read that has made me want to learn more about her and Louis XIV's reign.