Couldn't resist...

I thought I was going to be too busy to post today but now I can't resist, I went shopping for books and DVDs this morning and although I didn't find what I was looking for I still found something to spend money on:

Patrice Hannon - Dear Jane Austen, A Heroine's Guide to Life and Love
Pride and Prejudice - the DVD, the Keira Knightley version, I know it's not as good as the 1995 one but I've been wanting to see it and couldn't resist.

Then I got home to find the mail box full with:

Anne Perry - A Christmas Visitor
Anne Perry - A Dangerous Morning
Patricia Cornwell - The Last Precinct
Anya Seton - The Winthrop Woman
North and South - The DVD I mentioned a few days ago

Wasn't this a great first day of vacation?

On Vacation

Finally!!! These last few weeks were pretty busy at the office and I'm looking forward to some rest and relaxation.

I'll come back to posting in the first week of October hopefully with lots of photos and interesting things to tell but I know I wont resist checking my email once in a while.

We will be staying in Vila Nova de Milfontes but we plan to visit all the nearby villages and beaches. We have been to Alentejo so many times and we never really explored this part so we're looking forward to it.

Bye!!!

False Angel - Edith Layton

Since I keep complaining about wanting to read more traditional regencies and not being easy to find them Ioana was kind enough to lend me this old one. She told me it was her favourite of Layton's books and I was immediately interested since I know she doesn't give good grades easily.

Lord Joscelin Kidd, Marquess of Severne, was the handsomest and most charming nobleman in London -- and the most notorious. Not only had he been divorced under shocking circumstances from a young and innocent bride, but since that disastrous event he had shown no scruples -- and met no refusal -- in conquering beauty after beauty.

The lovely Lady Leonora Talwin had heard all the stories about him and understood them only too well, having seen from her womanizing father's example how base and brutish men could be. Never, she vowed, would she fall victim to a rake like the scandalous Severne.

But if Leonora thought she knew all too much about men, she knew far too little about her own foolish heart to daunt this lord who feasted on such feminine frailities...

I'm really happy to say that I enjoyed it very much too. It had an original plot, engaging characters and a villainess the likes of which I never seen before.

Leonora seems to say the wrong thing every time she gets close to the Marquess of Severne. Decided to apologise she approaches him at a ball and soon they discover how much they have in common. There is however someone else interested in Joss, Leonora's cousin who she kindly treats as a sister and to whom she introduces every eligible party will soon find a way into the Marquess' good graces.

Leonora is a heroine with a strong sense of fairness, she feels she must not interfere if Joss and Belle are destined to be together but at the same time she can't stop being confused, and feeling miserable by his attitude. In contrast Belle shows herself with a total lack of scruples in trying to get what she wants. For a long while it seemed the heroine was reduced to suffer in silence but finally the hero, after being made to look the fool for half the book, decides to be honest with himself and choose between one of the two.

I think I was a bit upset when Leonora seemed to be destined to fall victim of her own ethics in not wanting to interfere, manipulative people always have a field day when they find someone who wont resort to lower tactics and that's what makes it so unfair. Fortunately someone else was suspecting the truth but I was happy that Joss reaches the right conclusions all by himself even if a bit late. I think Layton's has done a great job to make us dislike Belle's characters so much and she ends the story still very much irredeemable.

Grade: B+

My newest addiction...

I have to face it! I have a new addiction besides books...and it only took a few days to get me hooked! But let me excuse myself by saying this is all A.'s fault! Yep believe it or not she made me start watching these TV series, these wonderful period dramas and it just seems I can't get enough of them. I can't thank her enough!! I'm afraid this week even my book addiction has suffered and I haven't read as much as I use too... Since I can't talk about books here are some examples of why I'm hooked:





and the one that started it all for me...



Oh, and whoever invented You Tube deserves an award!! (of course they probably have several already!)

Die For Me - Karen Rose

I have enjoyed all of Karen Rose's previous books and I've reviewed all of them her. It was with great expectations that I started this one!

DIE FOR ME is the story of Vito Ciccotelli, a Philadelphia homicide detective. Vito is called to the scene of a single grave in an isolated snowy field and suspects there might be even more graves beneath the snow. He enlists the aid of archeologist Sophie Johannsen to map the field - and they find a 4x4 matrix of graves, dug with military precision. Nearly half the graves are still empty - the killer isn't finished yet. As Vito investigates, he finds Sophie's expertise in medieval weapons and warfare to be even more valuable than the map she's generated. The villain is an artist who is fascinated with capturing the moment of death. His life goal is have his art viewed by millions - and the fastest way to do that is by converting his death art into a video game where the murder seems all too real - because it is real.

I'm having some trouble grading it though. After I had complained about her murderes also being victims and how that upset me a bit she finally wrote a truly bad guy, who is evil and has no excuses. As usual she is very good in the suspense part, here not so much about the next victim but about when and where will the killer be discovered and caught.

I had a few problems however with the hero and the heroine. I just couldn't find any chemistry between them. They were nice people and certainly deserving of a happy ending but I have a few doubts about why they fell in love besides the phisical attraction. It's true that their respective pasts were difficult and needed some closure but Rose has written other damaged characters with whom I can better relate to.

In this book Rose leaves a lot of loose ends, maybe all the time used to give space to the secondary characters who are now hero / heroine material interfered with my enjoyement of the story. But of course I am now looking forward to Nick, Maggy, Susannah and Daniel's stories as all the other Ciccotelly brothers.

All in all it was still a very strong book.
Grade: B-

Callander Square - Anne Perry

Callander Square is book 2 in Anne Perry's Thomas & Charlotte Pitt series. Once again it brings us to Victorian London, it's rich neighbourhoods full of secrets and where everyone seems to have something to hide.

Murders just didn't take place in fashionable Callander Square, so Inspector Pitt's well-bred wife Charlotte couldn't resist finding out why one had. Suddenly there she was, rattling the closets of the very rich, listening to backstair gossip, and unearthing truths that could push even the most proper aristocrat to murder....

The plot revolves around the discovery of 2 babies buried in the square of a high society neighbourhood. Inspector Pitt is in charge of the case and soon his wife Charlotte decides to do a bit of investigating too. She reveals her plans to her sister who moves freely in high society and they both manage to have the inside facts and gossip of the residents of the square while Pitt has to stick to interrogating servants and ocasionaly the masters.

I really liked this book. It's more about victorian society, how they lived both the servants and the masters, than about solving the mystery. That's part of it yes but we primarily meet the female society with it's social rules of calling and leaving cards, of what's considered important to women and not to men. Actually it's like they have two separate areas of action, the women in the house and the men outside. It's about how men occupied their time and the relationships with the lower classes. The hypocrisy and the double standard that existed. All that is mentioned in the book and sometimes actively explained by the characters. There is a group of very strong female characters who analyse their situations and proceed accordingly - Charlotte, Emily, Lady Augusta and even Adelina Southeron. The men involved seem to be weaker, with the exception of Pitt and Coronel Balantyne, they all seemed to have something to hide. As an exceptional portrait of victorian society I think it's even better than the previous book in this series - the Cater Street Hangman.

Regarding the mystery itself we have little clues to whom might be guilty and in fact had we not been told it wouldn't be easy to guess and especially the reasons for it. After I found out I could only think: How victorian! Charlotte and Pitt are very likeable people and Emily, Charlotte's sister who didn't seem all that nice in the previous books reveals herself a practical and level headed woman in her opinions about society in general.

Grade: A

North & South

I spent last sunday curled up on the couch watching this series that A. sent me! It was very good!

The story it's about the contrast between the living in the south and the north of England, the south is more about landed gentry and the north about the industrialization. The clash between the two occurs when Margaret Hale moves to Milton, in the North, and discovers a way of life and priorities very different from the ones she is used to. She is shocked when she visits a cotton mill and finds the owner, Mr Thornton, beating one of his employees who had been caught smocking in the weaving room and also later when she tries to befriend a mill worker and his daughter. This friendship will make her aware of the workers's difficulties and will lead her to a strained relationship with Thornton, Margaret's feelings will only change after he has proposed and she has refused him and as she slowly gets to know him better. It was a beautiful series, a wonderful BBC adaptation with some very good actors, I can't resist mentioning Sinead Cusack. And of course now I have a new author to discover - Elizabeth Gaskell who wrote the book the series was based upon.

So for all of the above I highly recommend it! Not to mention the eye candy that is Richard Armitage! I totally agree that all that intensity makes him a worthy rival of Colin Firth's Mr Darcy!

Dead Right - Brenda Novak

I started this book with a great deal of anxiety and expectations. I knew Madeline wants to discover what happened to her father but I really didn't want her to do that. I wanted her to forget about the whole thing because her family has already suffered so much and she doesn't even realise that.

The people of Stillwater, Mississippi, are asking questions about murder. Again.

Twenty years ago, Madeline Barker’s father disappeared. Despite what everyone else thinks, she’s convinced her stepfamily had nothing to do with it. But the discovery of his car proves he didn’t just drive away. Worse, the police find something in his trunk that says there’s more to this case than murder.

With no other recourse, Madeline decides to hire a private investigator—even if the cops don’t like it. Even if her family doesn’t like it. But when PI Hunter Solozano begins to uncover some shocking evidence, someone in Stillwater is determined to put a stop to Madeline’s search for the truth. And that means putting a stop to her. Permanently.

Well I thought it started to be a bit unbelievable the way that Madeline behaved. With every strange reaction her family members have had, even her aunt - who in previous books was set against her stepbrother - tells her to drop it and she never finds any of that weird? I could understand the need she had to know what happened in the past but with all the suspicions and the suspicious behaviour that had been happening for years I think she should have sat her family down and have an honest talk. She never even read her mother's diaries or the police report on Clay's arrest that night...

I had mixed feelings about the PI she hired. He had his own parcel of problems but he feels immediately attracted to Madeline and he immediately smells something fishy. He seemed too good to be true in the way that he immediately reaches all the right conclusions and even makes Clay trust him with the secret. It was odd also that Madeline only having been involved in a relationship with Kirk rushes to one with a total stranger.

Another thing that really bothered me was that in this book she totally explores the sexual abuse angle. Much more than in the previous books, it upset me and I don't think it was really necessary. Besides it had never been mentioned that someone else was involved in Barker's actions, it seemed a bit artificial. Just to create an antagonist. I think I would have prefered if the suspense continued in a more rational way and with less graphic details. And the way it ended I felt there was really no closure for them. I think I needed a final scene with some cronfontation between them and their ghosts but Clay was the only one who addressed what really happened that night... since Grace was the true victim it seemed more right to me to have talk to Madeline about it.

Grade: I considered giving it a C+ but since I enjoyed the other 2 books so much I'm going for a B- instead.

New Additions to the TBR pile

This week I hit the jackpot, look at all the books that arrived:

Rachel Gibson - Tangled Up In You
Rachel Gibson - I'm in No Mood For Love
Yasmine Galenorn - Ghost of a Chance
Susan Wiggs - Lord of Night
Edith Layton - Surrender to Love
Edith Layton - False Angel
Edith Layton - The Game of Love
Edith Layton - Love in Disguise
Brenda Novak - Dead Right
Karen Rose - Die For You
Liz Carlyle - Never Lie to a lady
Loretta Chase - Not Quite a Lady
Alison Weir - The Six Wives of Henry VIII
Jennifer Donnelly - The Tea Rose
Anthology - A Regency Christmas V
Mary Jo Putney - River of Fire
Mary Jo Putney - The Diabolical Baron
Anne Perry - A Christmas Journey

A friend's wedding...

Today my friend Sara is getting married. I've mentioned her on the blog because we used to do crafty projects and attend craft fairs together. I'm really happy for her and I sincerely hope they will be really happy together!

A. mentioned she wanted to see a picture of me dressed for the wedding so I leave you with one ;-)

Too lazy to craft...

I've been so lazy lately, it's been a long time since I got involved in any crafting projects. I've been seing some beautiful things online though, some of them a true inspiration... I'll have to post some links one of these days, today I leave you with my Flickr favourites!´



PS. I know there's another way to post your Flickr favourites in a way that if people click on it they are redirected to the Flickr site but I after spending some time searching I didn't find the how to explanation. If anyone knows could you please let me know?

Cool Shade - Theresa Weir

I had never read Theresa Weir before and approached this book with no expectations. I'm happy to say that I enjoyed it, I found it both original and interesting.

Maddie Smith has never been one to hang around any place too long. After losing her job as a late-night disc jockey, she has little reason to stay in Tucson. When she receives a message that her estranged sister has disappeared, she figures she might as well go to Nebraska and see what's up with her unreliable sibling. There she learns that her sister is linked to the mysterious Eddie Berlin, a recluse and a very sexy guy. Maddie takes a personal interest in Eddie as she searches for clues about the disappearance of her sister.

Meanwhile, Eddie is shouldering problems of his own. The former manager of a pop star killed by a crazed fan, Eddie feels responsible for the singer's death, and as a result, he hasn't wandered off his own property in more than four years. Still, he is attracted to Maddie, experiencing feelings he thought he would never know again. A stolen tape of a recording made by the late rock star and other clues bind the couple together. It soon becomes clear that these two deserve each other, and when they finally feel comfortable with the fit, they find they are greater as a pair than they could ever have been as individuals.

I really liked that they were both flawed characters. Maddie with her difficulty in staying in one place for long and with relationships and Eddie in getting out of his house. They are both insecure and when they first got involved I was wondering where the story was going from there. I was a bit worried but Weir pulls it off beautifully making them seem fragile and tentative in their dealings with each other. They are too afraid to admit their incipient feelings for each other, especially because they don't really know each other and it's very interesting how they end up knowing each other better without being aware of it.

Part of what makes the book work it that she created really unique and diferent characters, especially Eddie Berlin who really doesn't seem hero material with all his problems. Her characters seem human, their behaviour is real. There's a mystery as a secondary plot that I found was a nice touch and not taking too much space.

Grade: B

And many thanks Ro for sending this my way!

Obsession - Katherine Sutcliffe

I first got this book because I found the back blurb interesting. It was only when I picked it up a few days ago that I discovered that this a sequel to another book with the same hero/heroine. I have no idea how the author managed to end that book in a way that could be considered a romance since when this one starts they have been apart for years and the hero thinks the heroine married someone else.

Trey Hawthorne, the Duke of Salterdon, once had a reputation that would humble the Marquis de Sade. Then he found his heart's desire in gentle, innocent Maria Ashton, whose healing touch ignited a forbidden passion between the noble duke and the lowborn vicar's daughter. Defying his family, Hawthorne intended to wed Maria -- but she mysteriously vanished before he could take her as his bride. After tirelessly searching for her for months, Trey gave up hope and reverted to his former wicked ways.

Now, chance has led Trey to his beloved at last -- but the devastating truth behind her disappearance might prove more than he can bear. As he fights to rescue his beautiful Maria from a life of torment, Trey wonders if in saving her, he will also finally save himself -- or if the fight will cost him everything....

The interesting thing about this book is that it's told in the first person from the hero's point of view. I'm sure there must be other's around but I don't remember reading any. Other than that this is pretty much written in the "bodice ripper" style. We have an alpha male who is completely over the top, always barking orders and mad about something. The heroine, who has spent the last years in an asylum for the insane and is not exactly aware of what is happening to her for the first half of the book. And the proverbial other woman who is fighting for the hero's love and no matter how many times he sends her away she never goes.

I have some trouble with these kind of books nowadays, everything seems so exagerated - actions, feelings, motives - that I just can't relate with any of them. It's more or less like watching a south american soap opera where everyone and everything is larger than life.

Eventually the hero conquers every obstacle and manages to end up with the heroine. Despite that many events of the previous book are mentioned in this one I don't think it is essential to read it first but it does seem that all of the reasons for the main couple to be in love were just there and here we just know it because we are being told.

Grade: C+

Whe I first started reading romance I read several by Sutcliffe that I greatly enjoyed but for now I think I'll stick to her romantic suspense titles.

It's that time again...

To sit back, relax and enjoy a nice vacation... and this time we even managed to decide where we want to go with some advance! We're going here:




Now I have have to decide which books to take with me!

The Pleasure of Her Kiss - Linda Needham

Another new to me author dug up from the TBR pile. And after trying this book I think I'll stick to known author for a while.

I've heard of history-lite books and wallpaper history and this one went one step ahead for me. Besides the heroine addressing the servants by "Ladies and Gentlemen" it also had her answering things like "like a champ!". And this is supposed to be a victorian novel!

Regarding plot details the hero comes back home after spending 18 months away, he left on the same day he married the heroine. When he comes back immediately a big misundertanding occurs because he doesn't tell who he is and let's her believe he is someone else. While he was away she turned his hunter's lodge in a sort of Inn where rich men go to participate in hunting and fishing tournaments, she was clearly a very successful business woman.

The was also a mistery connected to the children the heroine was protecting but I stopped reading before I found out what it was. It's not that it was badly written and I'm sure other people will enjoy it. It's just that for me all those modern and anachronistic sentences kept getting in the way and since I wasn't finding the story interesting anyway I decided to stop reading.

My first DNF of 2007!

Oh if you want to know more about the plot go here. I have another one of hers in the TBR pile but it seems that story has one of my pet-peeves, a make believe country, not a chance that I'll be picking that one up...

Grade: DNF

New Additions to the TBR pile

Only two books this week but I have high expectations for both, the Hendrickson because it was recommended on another list and the Veryan because it's an author I've been meaning to try for a long time now...

Emily Hendrickson - Hidden Inheritance
Patricia Veryan - Love Alters Not

I think the Veryan is part of a series so I'll be looking for the others soon

Am I a Nerd?

What other answer could there be? History and literature are really my thing! I was expecting to be a little more of a nerd though!

A new adventure in the blogosphere...

I'm about to embark in a new adventure! For this one I think I'll have to start learning italian, not a big sacrifice as foreign languages are a favourite thing with me.

Starting today you'll be able to find some of my reviews in this blog. For now, the translations are courtesy of Anna and Maria Rosa. Maybe in the future I'll be able to write my own!

The Right Man - Anne Stuart

Half way though this one I realised I had already read it. I didn't remember much so I just went ahead with the reread.


Susan Abbott is almost on the eve of her marriage to her safe and boring fiancé when her godmother sends her a young man to hand deliver a present and witness the festivities. Naturally Susan starts to have doubts about the wedding and feeling more and more attracted to Jake.

I seldom pick up time travels but I didn't remember even that and now I'm sure glad I read it. The TT twist was interesting to give some insight into Susan's godmother and her story and also so Susan would get to know herself better as both stories have similar circumstances. It's written as one of those film noirs from the 40s or the 50s with dark characters, strong men and powerless women, all in a very cynical and nasty world. Of course some women are strong enough to fight and change what is expected of them. It was fun and nice to see her talking with her mother when this one was 9 years old. Actually this part was almost like a story inside another. The tone reminded me of another book by her I read a while ago: One More Valentine.

As usual Stuart creates very interesting secondary characters and there's a subplot about Susan's parents and why they split when she was a child. They are mentioned only briefly but one can see Stuart's trademark characters. And their story must be at least as interesting as Susan and Tallulah's.

One final word to say that it never fails to amaze me how Anne Stuart can write in so many different genres and always good, consistent stories. Even if I'm not too fond of some of them she is one hell of a writer!

Grade: A-

Christmas books to add to my pile...

It seems it's that time of year again when Christmas books start being announced. It's always a happy occasion for me as I really like Christmas stories - especially regency ones with house parties and fun games - and I start hoarding at Fall to read in December.

Here's some of the titles brought to my attention by Sybil:

A Western Winter Wonderland an anthology with a story by Cheryl St John among others. I've been planning to try her books for quite some time now so this might be the perfect excuse to do so.

An Affair Before Christmas the holiday theme is one of the things that made me put this book in the wish list, the other is to follow the love story of the secondary characters. I've been sadly disappointed with the first book in this series...

And here are some nice short stories to be found online:

The Christmas Wedding Gambit by Jo Beverley

Jane Austen and the Mistletoe Kiss by Jo Beverley

Christmas at Ardmore by Nora Roberts

The Quinn's Christmas by Nora Roberts



Any recommendations you want to share?

Don't Tell - Karen Rose

I'm waiting for Karen Rose's latest book to arrive at my doorstep and so this weekend I read the only book of hers that I hadn't read yet, Don't Tell.

DON'T LOOK...

It was a desperate plan. But Mary Grace Winters knew the only way to save herself and her child from her abusive cop husband was to stage their own death. Now all that remains of their former life is at the bottom of a lake . . .

DON'T TRUST . . .

Armed with a new identity in a new town, she and her son have found refuge hundreds of miles away. As Caroline Stewart, she has almost forgotten the nightmare she left behind nine years ago. She is even taking a chance on love with Max Hunter, a man with wounds of his own. But her past is about to collide with the present when her husband uncovers her trail and threatens her hard-won peace. Step by step, he's closing in on her— and everything and everyone she loves.

I'm happy to say I enjoyed it very much! I particularly liked the heroine, Caroline and how she managed to survive years of abuse and build a new life for herself. And I also liked her son very much and how he was always protecting her. I hope Tom will be a future hero in one of the books.

The story begins with Mary Grace / Caroline's husband finding out that she and her son may not be dead after all. He is a truly bad character, a cop who doesn't hesitate to beat and kill suspects when he feels like it and who is abusing is current girlfriend just as he did is wife. He is also a master of disguise and will go to great lenghts to find out what happened 7 years ago and where is his son now.

Caroline is working as a secretary, 7 years after she run away she has built a new life and made friends but she is still afraid her husband will find her. When she meets her new boss - Max Hunter - and gets involved with him she is faced with problem of having to tell him the truth. At the same time her husband is getting closer and nothing will stop him from getting his revenge.

Rose's characters are as usual very human and real and the fast paced action in this book kept me on edge and made me read it in one sitting. Rose introduces several characters who will appear in future books and they make an excellent set of secondary characters.

Grade: A-

Behind Closed Doors - Shannon McKenna

I hesitated before starting this one because I read another McKenna book a while ago and found it a bit too violent and sexual for my tastes with a hero of the caveman variety. But I had it in the TBR pile and I have been trying to make it smaller so I just decided to pick it up this weekend since I was in the mood for a romantic suspense.

EVERY MOVE YOU MAKE . . .
Surveillance expert Seth Mackey knows everything about the women that his millionaire boss toys with--and tosses aside. Raine Cameron is something different. Night after night, Seth watches her on a dozen different video screens. Her vulnerable beauty haunts him and her fresh innocence stirs a white-hot passion that he can barely control. Raine is pure temptation, but Seth has something more important to take care of first. He's convinced that his boss, Victor Lazar, is responsible for his half-brother's murder. He cannot put his secret investigation at risk, but he can't stop wanting her--craving her--and soon he knows he can't let Victor have her. For Raine may be Victor's next victim . . .
EVERY BREATH YOU TAKE
Raine knows she's being watched--but no one can see the secrets in her heart. She has reasons of her own to seek revenge on Victor Lazar, and she will, despite her fear--and the distracting presence of Seth Mackey. Though Raine has little experience with men, Seth's fiercely masculine good looks and animal sensuality stir her most erotic fantasies when she's alone . . .and lead her to a bold plan. Offering her body to him, surrending totally to his ruthless desire might well push her beyond all emotional limits--and beyond fear itself.

I found this hero very rough on the heroine as was the previous but in this story I could better understand it since there were no previous relationship between them. They didn't know each other and I could better believe how trust didn't come easy to Seth. Especially becouse the story starts with him spying on Raine and after they meet they are both keeping secrets.

Their relationship was very intense and it seemed to occupy most of the book and the mystery plots becomes secondary, it didn't seem all that developed. My problem was that Raine and Seth have a lot of sex but don't talk all that much. If we could have had less of the first and more of the second this would have been excellent.

Grade: I hesitated between a C+ and a B- and decided on the B- because I liked the ending, Raine was strong and stood up to her cave man!

New Additions to the TBR pile

3 more books found their way into my house...

Jacqueline Winspear - Pardonable Lies (a part of the Maisie Dobbs series)
Madeline Hunter - lady of Sin (I read it as an ebook and wanted a paper copy for my shelf)
Katie Fforde - Flora's Lot (I heard good things about it and got curious)

Simply Love - Mary Balogh

Anne Jewel and Sydnam Butler were two of my favourite secondary characters and I was really happy when Balogh decided to pair them up in Simply Love. After reading 2 or 3 average books I decided to pick this one up and see if it cheered me up.

New York Times bestselling author Mary Balogh returns to the elegance and sensuality of Regency England as she continues the enthralling story of four remarkable women–friends and teachers at Miss Martin’s School for Girls. At the center of this spellbinding novel is Anne Jewell, a teacher haunted by a scandalous past…until she meets a man who teaches her the most important lesson of all: nothing is simple when it comes to love.…

She spies him in the deepening dusk of a Wales evening–a lone figure of breathtaking strength and masculinity, his handsome face branded by a secret pain. For single mother and teacher Anne Jewell, newly arrived with her son at a sprawling estate in Wales on the invitation of an influential friend, Sydnam Butler is a man whose sorrows–and passions–run deeper than she could have ever imagined.

As steward of a remote seaside manor, Sydnam lives a reclusive existence far from the pity and disdain of others. Yet almost from the moment Anne first appears on the cliffs, he senses in this lovely stranger a kindred soul, and between these two wary hearts, desire stirs. Unable to resist the passion that has rescued them both from loneliness, Anne and Sydnam share an afternoon of exquisite lovemaking. Now the unwed single mother and war-scarred veteran must make a decision that could forever alter their lives. For Sydnam, it is a chance to heal the pain of the past. For Anne, it is the glorious promise of a future with the man who will dare her to reveal her deepest secrets…before she can give him all her heart

Anne is invited to the Duke of Bewcastle welsh estate by Joshua, the marquess of Hallmere who feels strong family ties with David, Anne's son. Since Anne hesitates in letting him go alone Freyja invites her to come along. In Wales Anne meets Sydnam one night when she was strolling outside. Scared by his appearance she runs away and later look for him at dinner to apologize.

They start a friendship recognising themselves as two scarred people by the hand life has dealt them with. They trust each other enough to speak of past dreams and desillusions and soon they became very attracted to one another.

I thought things were going rather well, I like damaged characters and I like that they heal through the power of love. However when Anne and Sydnam admit that attraction and loneliness to one another it's not of love that they speak but of friendship. It would be the perfect opportunity to share how they are falling in love with each other but instead a big misunderstanding comes of that afternoon of love. Sydnam feels he didn't please her and that he is not good enough and Anne feels he proposed out of obligation.

They separate at the end of the vacation month and after she returns to Bath Anne finds out she is pregnant. She writes to Sydnam who comes to marry her and suddenly all the peace and serenity they shared in Wales seems to be gone. They keep fighting with one another till it doesn't seem they are the same people. This part annoyed me a bit, I wanted things to happen a bit diferently instead of Anne just giving up her independence and writing Sydnam to come to the rescue. I wanted them to talk about it.

Then they decide to visit his parents, that was nice and I actually liked seeing Kit and Lauren again as their book is one of my favourites from the more recent books Balogh wrote. Sydnam starts to accept that he can still do somethings, like painting, even if he has to do it a bit differently. And then they decide to go and face Anne's parents. That's when it all went downhill for me. Since she decided to face them I wanted to have some closure, for them to accept how they had wronged her and harmed her and David. In the end nothing like that happens. Leaving things as they were did not satisfy me at all even if Anne acknowleges that if things had been different she wouldn't have found Syd. Mind you that these two have still not admitted their love for each other.

Then the grand finale is a party in Bath that all the Bedwyn's organise since there wasn't a proper wedding breakfast for Anne and Syd, they seemed a bit to much, a bit like a soap opera grand finale with all the characters smiling and enjoying themselves happily into the sunset.

This books has some similarities with Lord Carew's Bride, one of my favourite traaditional regencies. Whereas in that book a lot of emphasis is given to manners and behaviours, there are also two damaged characters and several misunderstandings between them. However the magic that exists in Lord Carew's Bride is absent in this book. Maybe the problem is that there isn't a worthy villain.

But I really did like the first half of the story when they were getting to know each other and sharing their thoughts and feelings.

Grade: B-