Tag Archive | novel

Inconvenient duchess came at the right time

The Inconvenient Duchess
by Christine Merrill

In the prologue Marcus makes his mother a promise while she is on her dying bed. He promises to marry a girl who was coming because of a promise his mother made to her childhood friend. Marcus is a duke and needs to get married to produce an heir.

Miranda arrives at his door during a rainstorm. Soaked to the core, the Butler does not turn her away. While she is waiting, she meets a very charming man and is hopeful that he is the Duke. Only to find out later that he was St. John, the Duke’s brother and the Duke and St. John do not get along at all. Miranda is so naive that she does not discern the undercurrents of animosity between them. Marcus marries Miranda to save her honor but he makes it plain that he does not really want to do so.

Marcus bad attitude come about because he is quite jaded with women. In the beginning it seemed that he was still grieving his first wife, but he was disgusted with her deception and thirst for position and wealth. With all his emotional baggage, he has a difficult time understanding how Miranda can be true loyal and seemingly innocent.

After a non-eventful wedding night Marcus goes on his fact-finding mission in London to determine his mother’s sins. He wants to understand what caused her to feel so guilty to make him promise to marry Miranda. And while the Duke is away, young brother is doing his best to charm the new bride Miranda. It was like leaving a lamb in the company of a hungry wolf. She is confused because she thinks he’s being overly kind to welcome her to the family. Considering she is an innocent, she is clueless to his real intentions. As the reader I could tell St. John was up to no good.

I was wondering:

How far would St John really go?
When is Marcus getting home?
When will Miranda get a clue?

Marcus was in need of an honest woman who would live in harmony with her marriage vows. Miranda had a hard life through no fault of her own and she needed a chance to prove her worth. I got my happy ever after ending and Marcus and Miranda get what they need. St. John got some of what he deserves and a great dose of undeserved kindness.

The title The Inconvenient Duchess still puzzled me. The only thing I can think of is that Miranda arrived at Marcus’s house at an inconvenient time I’m not sure what other title I could suggest, but the title does not really give any indication of the plot. Nevertheless I enjoyed the story. I was stressing a little bit because I wanted it to work out for Marcus and Miranda and knew that St. John was the main source of conflict.

Accidental countesses need love too

Dec25

The Accidental Countess (Harlequin Historical, Accidental Series Book 1)

I started reading The Accidental Countess (Harlequin Historical, Accidental Series Book 1) kind of late at night. And it was a work night no less. But the story sounded very interesting that I wanted to read just a little bit. Stephen has lost his memory and does not believe it when Emily tells him that they are married. Not only are they married but they are also the caretakers of two children which belonged to Emily’s brother.

During the course of the book Stephan is trying to understand what happened to him because he lost three months of his life after the attack that gave him amnesia. Stephan is investigating what happened to him and how did Emily’s brother die. Additionally there are some goods that were stolen and he’s trying to figure out what happened to that. Through it all, most importantly what does Emily really mean to him?

Emily blames Stephen for the fact that her brother was murdered. She accuses him of being at his house of his mistress instead of with her brother and that is the reason why her brother was attacked and killed.

At this point, I was thinking, “Yes Stephen, you have a good reason for being at your mistress’ house. Right?”

Meanwhile Emily is trying to have some pride about herself because she realizes how much she loves him but she doesn’t want to share his affections with a mistress. Add the fact that his family do not see her as worthy of being a countess contributes to her having lowered self-confidence in her ability to remain his wife.

At this point, I was frowning trying to figure out when are things going to start looking up for the couple. I want a happy love story.

This story was entertaining and I am glad that it all came together as Stephen was getting his memory back uncovering different pieces of the puzzle and putting them together. Stephen knew what he was doing when he married Emily. Once his memory came back, he remembered his reasons. I have not decided yet if I think they were good ones. Since they were married, they worked at it and made the best of it.

When you start reading it, you might not want to put it down. That is what happened to me . I would recommend reading this book on a weekend afternoon when you have plenty of time. Like I said, I was reading it on a work night and needless to say I did not get a lot of sleep at night. I could not sleep until I had my happy ever after ending.

All of that being said, the title of the book The Accidental Countess (Harlequin Historical, Accidental Series Book 1) to me is a misnomer. I did not see how she was made a countess by accident. I know I stress too much over book titles, but it is what it is.

Dakota Home was sweet but confusing

Jul31

Dakota Home – Debbie Macomber

The main story centers around Maddy and Jeb. Years before they met, Jeb, a buffalo farmer, suffered an accident from which his body is not completely healed. Because of that, he is anti-social. His sister usually takes him his groceries but at times “forgets” items to get him out of the house and into town. On one of these trips into town he meets Maddy, new owner of the grocery store. Maddy is adapting to small town and becoming an active member of the community.
Maddy and Jeb are attracted to each other, but of course as goes in many romance novels, the man’s pride keeps him to fully embracing and accepting the fact that he is falling for this woman. But then something happens that snaps him out of his feelings of melancholy. So leaving his pride behind, he goes after the woman he loves. And it is happy ever after for both of them.

This was the first book by Debbie Macomber that I have read. I do not know if this is her style to have the novel focus on two characters but also dwell on the stories of some of the secondary characters at the same time. I do not know how I feel about so many mini stories in addition to the one main love story in one book. It seems that the mini stories were distracting because they were not fully developed. Even though all the people lived in the same town, jumping from couple to couple was like trying to watch multiple shows on television at the same time.

I like for the book to focus completely on one couple and their journey to find love. Other couples can be mentioned in the book, but only in passing without too much of their story. Then when the sequel focuses on another couple, I will have some name recognition and background information as the foundation for their story. The multiple story method got a little confusing. I was tried to keep the different couples separate but it was no use. I focused on Maddy and Jeb and disregarded the rest.

Click Dakota Home to buy your copy and let me know what you think

Romance Novel Review: Considering Kate – Nora Roberts

Jul11

Kate is an independent, sophisticated ballerina who establishes a dance studio in the small town where her family lives. Brody is a very good looking contractor doing the work to turn the building in the dance studio of Kate’s dreams. There is a mutual attraction and Kate sees nothing wrong with indulging herself. Brody, on the other hand, is more cautions because he has a young son.

The story progresses well and Nora Roberts does a good job of developing the characters into strong, but likable, personalities.

This was a very entertaining read with a good, solid story line. This is worth buying and reading while curled up with a blanket on rainy day.

Romance Novels: This is not REAL life people!

Jul2

Since I like to try to read books in a series, in the future, I will be reviewing several romance novels by the author Brenda Jackson. This post about the author is to give you an idea of what to expect when you read her books.

I like to say that Ms Jackson’s books are short novels (about 200 pages) since the books I usually read are double in length. I have read one book from her Kimani series and several more from her Westmoreland series. The Westmoreland series feature members of the super-rich Westmoreland family. Each generation of the family likes to have a lot of children. Even though they are born into a wealthy family, they have all appreciated what advantages they have had financially to work in various fields of expertise from professionals to sheep farmers. As a result, they are no strangers to hard work and they are down-to-earth (insert your daydreamy “Ooooo” here).

Ms Jackson’s books follow a simple formula:

Guy meets girl.
The intense attraction and desire between them is immediate (they cannot explain or deny their lack of self-control).
For whatever reason, one or both of them do not want a long term relationship
They usually fall in love in a matter of weeks. (from the books I have read so far, I think the quickest was 2 weeks)

Some readers who have bought Ms Jackson’s books have complained in their reviews about the lack of realism. To that I reply, “Whatever!”. I do realize that everyone is entitled to their own opinion, but people have to be reasonable. By choosing a romance novel, I think that a reader has to suspend normal belief to think that all of these short, passion filled relationships are going to lead to a long term, lasting happy marriages. I am sure it is possible, but the odds are not very likely. With inventive and fanciful storylines, these books are contemporary fairy tales, not to be confused with real life. Knowing the predictability of Ms Jackson’s books does not detract from the entertainment value for me.

If you are looking for real life romance stories, look it up in the encyclopedia. If you want an amusing diversion in the form of a romance novel, Ms Brenda Jackson will not disappoint.

That being said, as I read her books, I will be summing them up and reviewing them on here.