The Duke is Mine - Eloisa James

He is a duke in search of a perfect bride.
She is a lady--but a long way from perfect.
Tarquin, the powerful Duke of Sconce, knows perfectly well that the decorous and fashionably slender Georgiana Lytton will make him a proper duchess. So why can't he stop thinking about her twin sister, the curvy, headstrong, and altogether unconventional Olivia? Not only is Olivia betrothed to another man, but their improper, albeit intoxicating, flirtation makes her unsuitability all the more clear.
Determined to make a perfect match, he methodically cuts Olivia from his thoughts, allowing logic and duty to triumph over passion...Until, in his darkest hour, Quin begins to question whether perfection has anything to do with love.
To win Olivia's hand he would have to give up all the beliefs he holds most dear, and surrender heart, body and soul...
Unless it's already too late.
Don't miss a new version of The Princess & the Pea, asking an age-old question: What is a perfect princess?

I get the feeling that Eloisa James but have a funny. mischieveous sense of humour, that is especially in evidence in these Fairy Tale books of hers. I did enjoy it in the previous books but here it's like she goes over the top. It's the dialogue, the characters, the situations... And I have to admit that it was that exageration that made me enjoy it.

The main character is Olivia. Her and her sister Georgiana were raised to become duke's wifes. In fact Olivia is already bethrothed to one duke's son. I was a bit worried at first because having a hero divided between two sisters is not a thing I usually enjoy. Especially when I think Georgiana is such a nice girl and, at least in the beginning, a lot more level headed and interesting (at least to me) than Olivia. I have been checking the novellas James has written connected with this series and I'm sad that I don't see one about Georgiana.

Olivia is also divided between her young fiancée, who is mentally challenged and the hero, who also has some problems dealing with people and emotions. Despite these issues, that might have made the story a bit sad the truth is that it is quite humourous. Like the previous installments in this series it has language and atitudes too modern for the period, or just too suited to the author's plot but if you read it like a funny story with no expectations of real life and historical accuracy it works. 

I think the book dragged a bit towards the end though. I didn't see the point of taking the characters to France and all that last part could, in my opinion, have been cut short but I gather, from the author's note at the end, that that is were it approaches the fairy tale that it is supposedly inspired on. It is my least favourite of this series, partly because I was unfamiliar with the faity tale and partly because I never did like Olivia and her duke as I likes the other romantic pairs in the previous books.

Still, this is a series I plan to continue...

Grade: 3,5/5

Inês de Castro - Maria Pilar Queralt del Hierro (Port. HF Challenge)

My first read for the Portuguese Historical Fiction Challenge was a book about Inês de Castro, by far the most tragic queen of Portugal as she was only crowned after her death. I had no expectations for this particular book but the story of Inês de Castro is one that I have been curious ever since I first started studying her at school. There's something about such a powerful, and tragic, love story that has an irresistible appeal and one can't help but want to find out all possible details about the woman who put father and son fighting against each other and who drove the country to a civil war.

The book starts with the story of Pedro and Inês being told to the spanish writers Luis Velez de Guevara and Lope de Vega (real characters who wrote plays about Inês de Catro). It starts with a young Inês at her parent's home and follows her to the home of D. Constança Manuel and, when this young lady marries Prince D. Pedro to the court of Portugal where her fate is sealed.

Queralt del Hierro provides a fictional account that relies mostly of the feelings the characters developed for one another and the examination of the their motives. Before the passion that binds Pedro and Inês the focus is on the friendship between Inês and Constança, even after the queen realises the depth of feeling between her friend and her husband. I definitely gained a new respect for D. Constança.

The story proceeds through Inès murder at the hand's of D. Afonso's men and the subsequent war, the  search for the killers and the crowning of Inês' cadaver. The author also manages to include Teresa Lourenço, D. Pedro's lover after Inês, who became the mother of King John I. I don't think much is known about her and I thought it sad that she ends up being such a tragic figure as Inês in this story.

As a whole I enjoyed it but I think it could have been richer with more details from the period, their daily lives and, eventually what drew Pedro and Ines besides a powerful attraction that made them fall in love almost at first sight. I would have liked to know the people behind the legend and as it is, I think we stayed mostly with what the legend mentions.

I definitely am curious now to read other books about Inês and see how they compare. There's an author's note at the end of this book that lists all the other books devoted to Inês de Castro that I found particularly useful. 

Grade: 3.5/5

Waking Up With the Duke - Lorraine Heath

They are masters of seduction, London's greatest lovers ...Renowned for his bedchamber prowess, Ransom Seymour, the Duke of Ainsley, owes a debt to a friend. But the payment expected is most shocking, even to an unrepentant rake—for he's being asked to provide his friend's exquisite wife with what she most dearly covets: a child.
Living for pleasure, they will give their hearts to no one ...Lady Jayne Seymour, Marchioness of Walfort, is furious that such a scandalous agreement would be made. If she acquiesces, there must be rules: no kissing . . . and, certainly, no pleasure.
Until love takes them by surprise.But unexpected things occur with the surprisingly tender duke—especially once Lady Jayne discovers the rogue can make her dream again . . . and Ransom realizes he's found the one woman he truly cannot live without.

I guess I haven't learned my lesson yet because, after the Candice Hern book I read out of order, I started a trilogy with the last book once more. Every time I talk about my favourite westerns I mention Lorraine Heath's Texas trilogy. Such wonderful reads! I've read a few other books by her over the years but none has touched me as those three books and to be honest it had been a while since I picked up one of hers. A comment on one of the groups I belong to made me want to pick up something of hers and this was what I found in the TBR pile.

I was a bit unsure when I started it. First of all who comes up with these titles? I think they are just plain silly! And then the premise... This is a romance so I knew from the beginning that the h/h would end up together but having your heroine start as a married woman just doesn't make me run to pick it up. But on I went and now I'm glad I did.

For those of you who have read the Texas trilogy this is not as good as those but it did remind me, in terms of intensity of feelings and guilt of the characters, of those books. Although his friends idea at first seems idiotic to him, Ainsley eventually agrees because he loves Jayne and feels partly responsible for her unhapiness. That decision, though, costs him because he will be giving up his child and he will be invlved with a married woman, which he has vowed never to do. Jayne on the other hands feels keenly that she is betraying her husband and to make it worse with the man responsible for his problem.

I had no doubt that Jayne and Ainsley would fall for each other and eventually accept those feelings but I had a hard tnme understanding why Walfot was doing it. He professed his love for his wife but always seemed very cold when dealing with her. I did like it that we just find out the answer to that towards the end because  that way Jayne and Ainsley situation seemed even more difficult to deal with.

I did like Ainsley a lot more than I liked Jayne. He seemed more alive, with more depth and so more interesting. Once again I thought that I would very much liked to have met him in the previous books, especially as his brothers seem equally interesting. The ending dragged a bit longer than I think was necessary but overall it was an engaging read.

Grade 4/5

Ruthless - Anne Stuart (TBR Challenge)

Few outsiders will ever witness the dark misdeeds of the Heavenly Host. And among this secret society, where exiled Georgian aristocrats gather to indulge their carnal desires, fewer still can match the insatiable appetite of their chief provocateur, the mysterious Viscount Rohan.

Pursuit of physical pleasure is both his preferred pastime and his most pressing urge, until he encounters the fascination of a woman who won’t be swayed. And while his dark seduction appalls the pure and impoverished Elinor Harriman, she finds herself intrigued…and secretly drawn to the man behind the desire.

In May the TBR Challenge theme is "an author who has more than one book in the TBR". I would say Anne Stuart fits the bill quite nicely with more than a dozen books in my TBR pile.

I had heard a few comments about Ruthless. Mostly about how the hero was a bad boy - a trademark of Anne Stuart - and how the sex was almost forced on the heroine.

I have to say that I did enjoy reading it and while I did find the  first sex scene a bit violent (not physically violent btw) the rest just felt like your usual Stuart darkness and I was glued to the pages. I think that there is nothing particularly original here. If you've read To Love a Dark Lord you know what is going to happen and you can even take a good guess on how we are going to get to the happy ending. But it's really nice to read an author that knows how to write a good story and keep you interested in turning the pages the way Ms Stuart does.

Rohan can't help himself and as soon as he sees Elinor and talks to her he is totally captivated and wants to spend more and more time with her (not that he would put things this way...). Elinor is at first repulsed and then attracted to him. They both have plenty of tradegy in their pasts and have to deal with it as best they can, hurting each other along the way, before they reach their HEA.

As usual Stuart inserts a secondary romance. I wouldn't have minded to see those two spend more time with each other before falling head over heels in love but it was still a nice one. Elinor's sister does start as too perfect to be true but she does get better as things go by.

I am curious about the next books in this series but mainly because I am such an Anne Stuart fan. I have to admit that I don't expect much in terms of an original plot and am thinking I am going to get a variation of this one in the other books. Do correct me if I'm wrong, will you?

Grade: 4/5

The Seventh Etching - Judith K. White (TBR & Hist Fiction Challenges)

A historic family drama based in and near 1640 Amsterdam, the wealthiest city on earth at the time, The Seventh Etching tells the story of two families over a one-year period. Both Griet and Johannes Verhoeven, farmers, in their early 20’s and Jos and Myriam Broekhof, wealthy merchants in their 30’s, face devastating losses that threaten their livelihoods and their marriages. After a major flood, Griet and Johannes attempt to rebuild two combined family farms – a unique, promising inheritance that initially brought them together, but now overwhelms them. Myriam secretly sells her husband’s valuable art collection to build a hidden monument to her deceased daughter. Jos suffers despair and defeat as he combs every corner of the city in his obsessive attempt to complete a set of playfully erotic etchings. It is a six-year old Gypsy orphan, Nelleke, who connects the two couples. Sprightly and spirited, Nelleke both delights and exasperates. Might this mysterious child have the power to heal struggling adults and find the permanent home she seeks? Does she, innocently and unknowingly, hold the clue to the missing etching, as Jos suspects?"

For last month's entry in the TBR Challenge (that ended up being an entry for HF challenge too) I chose The Seventh Etching by Judith K. White. But with the computer crashing I couldn't post it on time. It's a story that has been on my TBR pile for a few months now and I was feeling a bit guilty for not having grabbed it sooner.

I had no real expectation about what I was going to find when I opened this story and I am glad to report that I did enjoy it. Although at first it seemed that the action was going to be about the seventh etching of the title and Jos Broekhof search for it.  I think that, in the end, it is much more a portrait of the dutch society at the time. Both in the city and in the country with its different occupations and worries.

The little orphan Nelleke is the one who connects both worlds. We get to know about her when she is living with the aunt and uncle in their farm. When they start feeling she is too much for them to handle, her uncle takes her to Amsterdam's orphanage. The adaptation is not smooth but Nelleke soon continues to be the curious, lively child she has always been. I have to say that she was so lively, so full of questions, so full of life that at times I found her a bit annoying, she seemed a bit too perfect. But I really enjoyed reading about Amsterdam in the 17th century.

In the orphanage she meets Isabella, a young Spanish maiden who serves as a Big Sister to the children in her care. Isabella ended up in the orphanage after the ship where she sailed with her father went down at sea. Although she maintains a discreet presence due to the dutch /spanish wars she has no wish to go back to Spain and the arranged marriage that awaits her there.

She also meets the Broekhofs. Jos Broekhof is on a quest to find the missing etching of a prized collection that he bought from Nelleke's father. His obsession with the artistic designs will lead him to Rembrandt himself. But the little girl will also be his way back to the heart of his wife.

I really loved reading about these characters and the people they meet.  White gives a lot of attention to detail and it's like we are seeing the action unfold in front of us. In the end I think my main complaint about this story is that I felt I only glimpsed a bit of their lives and I wanted to know what hapened next in their lives. And if the small baby we meet at the beginning of the story will ever find out about his true parents.

A very pleasant read!

Grade: 4/5

(crossposted with some adaptation from HT)

2013 Portuguese Historical Fiction Challenge Update

The computer is finally working again so it's time for another update on our list of books read for the Portuguese Historical Fiction Challenge. I haven't posted my review yet because I lost it when the computer crashed (along with a few others) and I have to devote some time to write those again.

I'm really enjoying seeing the list of entries grow and I have been writing down the titles that I want to try. There are a lot of books that I hadn't heard of before and the reviews make them sound really interesting.

1. Quando Lisboa Tremeu by Domingos Amaral - reviewed by Mady
2. D. Dinis by Cristina Torrão - reviewed by Inês Montenegro
3. Já Não se Escrevem Cartas de Amor by Mário Zambujal - reviewed  by Inês Montenegro
4. Quando Lisboa Tremeu by Domingos Amaral - reviewed by Inês Montenegro
5. Angola, o Horizonte Perdido by António Coimbra - reviewed by Inês Montenegro
6. O Remorso de Baltasar Serapião by Valter Hugo Mãe - reviewed by Mady
7. O Evangelho Segundo Jesus Cristo by Jose Saramago - reviewed by Mady
8. Além Tejo by Catarina Pereira Araujo - reviewed by Patxocas
9. D. Maria I, a vida notável de uma rainha louca by Jenifer Roberts - reviewed by Inês Montenegro
10. Exilados by Manuel Arouca - reviewed by Inês Montenegro

If you want to join the challenge  and/or add any reviews you can find the details here. Looking forward to see what other books will be joining these on my next update.

Reviews on hold......

...Till the computer gets fixed