Season for Temptation by Theresa Romain

Sweet and unassuming romance
3 stars

Julia Herington is thrilled when her stepsister, Louisa, becomes engaged to a rich and handsome viscount. James, Viscount Matheson is witty, unconventional and perfect husband material. Julia only wishes she could find a man exactly like him - especially now she can’t have James herself.

James is torn. Louisa is all anyone would want in a wife - poised, elegant and intelligent. However, it’s headstrong, rash and quirky Julia that he can’t get out of his head. Engaged to one sister while in love with the other - what is a viscount to do?


From the start this book sets itself out as light and frothy. Julia is portrayed as a quirky and unconventional heroine while James is an honorable and likeable hero. Neither are offensive in any way but neither do they really stand out from the crowd. Their interactions are sweet but again not particularly memorable or overly romantic.

The same is true of the story. It plods along quite nicely with nothing startling or offensive happening. I couldn’t understand the motivations of the characters for behaving as they did (especially Louisa) and couldn’t help but want things to be wrapped up a little quicker than they ultimately were. As it was, it took almost two thirds of the story before James and Julia even kissed and there wasn’t even any sexual tension to tide things over before it got to that point.

There were an alarming amount of modern language and Americanisms throughout the whole story which is irritating in any period book and pulls you completely out of the story. I also spent an unusual amount of time trying to figure out how the main family were related. It didn’t matter to the story but I just couldn’t understand it all until it was explained about 20 pages from the end.

All in all this was a sweet story that I read through quite happily. I’ll probably not remember about it in a couple of days as, unfortunately, inoffensive and unassuming also means forgettable. 3 stars which is probably quite generous and not really a story I would go out of my way to recommend.

Too Wicked to Wed by Cara Elliott

Readable and pleasant romance
3 stars

Lady Alexa Hendrie has always felt out of place in the ton. She’s outspoken, independent and feels much more at home in the wilds of Yorkshire than in the glittering ballrooms of London society. But when she is forced to London by her reckless brother, she finds herself suddenly in the lair of the notorious Irish Wolfhound - Connor Linsley, Earl of Killingsworth.

A rake of the worst order, most ladies are rightfully fearful of Connor. All, that is, except Lady Alexa. One sinful kiss leads to another and soon the pair are on an adventure full of intrigue, lies and lust. But will one extraordinary lady really be able to tame the Irish Wolfhound and bring her the greatest love she’s ever known?

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This story shot off at a quick pace with the action of Alexa and Connor’s first meeting happening almost instantly and their first kiss not much later than that. That then set the standard for the story as for a long while that was as much as the plot amounted to - meeting and kissing, meeting and kissing, with different settings thrown in each time.

That aside, both Alexa and Connor were likeable enough characters although neither really stood out or really inspired me to care for them individually or as a couple. There were some secondary characters, Gryffin and Cameron - “The Hellhounds” whose books make up the second and third in The Lords of Midnight Trilogy - but they weren’t particularly inspiring either. I had assumed that the other couples mentioned in the book were from previous stories by Elliott but can find no mention of their stories anywhere. This confuses me as it felt like I was expected to know these stories and these characters while reading this book.

Despite what I said earlier regarding the plot, I had absolutely no trouble finishing this book and did so quickly enough. The writing was fine, if a little pretentious and flowery for my tastes on rather too many occasions. There were also Americanisms and incorrect usage of British English which were annoying but luckily didn’t happen too often to actually spoil the book. I didn’t find the love scenes overly sexy or sensual - only a day later I can barely remember them which says something.

Overall, this was a nice story but nothing more than that. It won’t be a story that I will remember but it’s not offensive and it’s worth a read if it’s on your shelf or in your Kindle. 3 stars.

A Rogue By Any Other Name by Sarah MacLean

A fun and emotional romance
5 stars

Ten years ago, Michael Lawler, Marquess of Bourne, was left with nothing to his name except his title. Now a partner in London’s most notorious gaming hell, Michael is a cold and ruthless man who will stop at nothing to get his revenge - even marrying Lady Penelope Marbury - his childhood friend for her dowry.

Penelope was put firmly on the shelf when she was jilted and left for fortune hunters. She is determined to find adventure, passion and love. Luckily for her, Penelope dreams of finding all these things with her new husband, even if he’s no longer the fun loving man she remembers.

Bourne is determined to spare Penelope from the hard and unsavoury man he has become but he has no power to fight against the love that she will offer if he takes the greatest risk of all.

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Sarah MacLean has been an auto buy for me ever since I read the wonderful Nine Rules... This story doesn’t quite reach the same heights but I still loved it and definitely feel it’s deserving of 5 stars.

Michael is my favourite kind of hero - tortured, full of angst and feels undeserving of, while really in need of, the love of a good woman. I also just adored Penelope. She appeared briefly in Eleven Scandals... but this book starts a new series (the Rules of Scoundrels Quartet) so there’s no need to have read any books to understand and enjoy this one. Penelope was feisty and fun while also being quite vulnerable and naive at times. She was someone that I really rooted for from beginning to end.

The relationship between Michael and Penelope was filled with chemistry and passion. The letters that started off each chapter were a lovely addition and really built on the pair’s past relationship. It was also easy to see the pair growing and falling in love which was a treat to read and kept me turning the pages at all hours.

I’m looking forward to the other stories in the series and would recommend this book to you if you like a fun and interesting romance with great characters and good storytelling. 5 stars.

Lady Sophie's Midnight Seduction by Dorothy McFalls

A quickie erotic encounter
4 stars

Lady Sophie is a self avowed spinster and happy with her lot in life. But ever since her father’s death she has had to deal with his heir - Lord Benton Black who is determined to make her his wife.

Lord Benton-Black confuses and confounds Sophie but when he begins to haunt her dreams she realises she must confront him - and her true feelings.


This was a short story that I counted at around 35 pages long so will only take you about 20 minutes from beginning to end.

Despite its short length I decided I liked the main characters and their relationship with each other. This was an erotic story and while it was steamy - it really didn’t sizzle or heat up the pages overly much.

Having said that, the writing was fun (any book that features the word ‘zounds!’ gets points from me!) and I liked the characters, their interactions and the conclusion.

For a short, historical story that’s not too expensive, you can’t go wrong with this one. 4 stars.

The Viking's Touch by Joanna Fulford

Absorbing romantic story
4 stars

Viking adventurer, Wulfgar Ragnarsson, lives life on the edge, cheating death and making his fortune as a mercenary all to escape the pain of his past. When his ship and crew need to make repairs he finds himself thrown into the company of the beguiling widow, Lady Anwyn.

Lady Anwyn is tasting freedom for the first time but there are many who would try and win her heart and her lands. To protect herself and her son, Anwyn will do anything – even if it means giving herself to a warrior who will never give her his heart.


Upon reading the inscription in this book I found that it appears to be the sequel to The Viking’s Defiant Bride however this book stands completely alone so you can still enjoy it even if you know nothing of the first story.

From the outset I was charmed by this book and the writing style. I’m not sure whether all the language was completely correct to the time period but it was still engaging and the interactions interesting.

Anwyn was a likeable character – strong and defiant but still true to her time period and never becoming a stereotype. Wulfgar is my favourite type of hero – someone who is strong and tough but with a sensitive core and that is crying out for the love of a good woman. The pair had great chemistry and as such I would have liked the love scenes to be a little more in depth.

The story itself kept me interested and I always wanted to carry on reading just a little bit more each time. The ending was wonderful and a good culmination of everything that had happened throughout the story.

Overall, if you like tales of Vikings and the women that tame their hearts and enjoy a good romance then I really think you will like this story so it’s one I would recommend to you. 4 stars.

Fool For Love by Eloisa James

Not particularly exciting
3 stars

Lady Henrietta Maclellan has always dreamt of having a London season and falling in love with and marrying the perfect man. However Henrietta cannot have children and so she contents herself with living in the country and resigns herself to a life of spinsterhood.

But then Simon Darby arrives in her sleepy little town and makes Henrietta long for stolen kisses, whispered words of longing and illicitly dangerous love notes. Soon the pair are inadvertently causing a scandal and although neither had planned it, each may be exactly what the other needs.


This had all the elements for the perfect story: an arrogant lord who is brought down by the love of a woman who is so far from what he expected yet perfect for him in every way. I so wanted to love this book but it really missed the mark for me.

I liked the premise of the story and at first I liked and was rooting for both Henrietta and Simon as they seemed to play off each other well. However it wasn’t long before my liking for both Simon and Henrietta took a turn for the worse. Simon was described as an elegantly perfect man who wore an astonishingly large amount of lace over his clothing including his red velvet suits. Despite the reason for the lace being explained away, the image of a man, any man, in a red velvet suit does not tend to make me giddy with lust! I could also understand Henrietta and was sympathetic to her plight however when she schemed to trap Simon into marriage simply to suit her selfish wants I really questioned her as leading lady material.

As well as the main story there was the story of Esme and her baby which, despite taking up a fair number of pages, was never resolved by the end of the book. There was also mutterings of Simon’s best friends Rees and his estranged wife and talk of a married Duchess who seemed to have been previously engaged to one of the other characters within the book. I now realise that this book is part of a series after Duchess in Love and before A Wild Pursuit and Your Wicked Ways although if I’m honest this book did little to make me want to read the rest.

Finally, the number of modern Americanisms in this book was truly appalling – babies 'spitting up' and people telling others to 'give over' were just two of the more memorable that had me shaking my head in annoyance. Then you have to add in the surprisingly frequent amount of spelling and grammar mistakes littered throughout the text as well as some baffling instances of repeated words.

I’ve read and very much enjoyed Eloisa James before but I would only recommend this book to avid fans or those reading The Duchess Quartet in order. It’s not truly terrible but it just didn’t grab or hold my attention to any degree. 3 stars.

The Seduction of Scandal by Cathy Maxwell

Romance full of intrigue and deception
4 stars

Daughter of a duke, Lady Corinne, refuses to marry Lord Freddie Sherwin. He may be the catch of the season but he’s also a pig and Corinne only wants to marry a man she can love. So rather than face a life of misery she runs away. Only to find herself in the arms of notorious highwayman, Thorn.

Thorn is involved in a dangerous game – his identity is a mystery, his life a secret. Until Lady Corinne tumbles into his arms and turns his world upside down. If he wants her silence he must hide her until after her wedding day passes. But when passion flares it might be the most dangerous thing either has faced before or perhaps the start of a lifetime of adventure.


This is the fifth book in Maxwell’s Scandals and Seductions series after A Seduction at Christmas, The Earl Claims His Wife, The Marriage Ring and His Christmas Pleasure. Corinne briefly featured in the last book but apart from that the books stand very much alone and in this one at least, there are no appearances by the main characters from previous books.

From start to finish I really loved this book. It is full of intrigue and romance all the while maintaining the lightness that put me in mind of The Scarlet Pimpernel. However, the real highlight of the book for me had to be Thorn. When we first are introduced to him I was intrigued as to how he would fare as a romantic lead but he turns out to be a brooding, tortured and lonely man who desperately needs the love of a good woman. I liked Corinne too and together the pair had good chemistry. The writing was sharp and this is the kind of story you’re desperate to pick up again if you can manage to put it down in the first place.

My one negative about the book was the sheer number of typos. It drove me mad to see duplicated words, spelling mistakes, grammatical mistakes on top of the smattering of Americanisms dotted throughout the book. I realise that this isn’t necessarily the fault of the author so it’s a shame that it affected my feelings about a book whose characters and storyline I otherwise very much enjoyed.

Having said that, if you like regency romances that you can get lost in and really root for the characters then I would very much recommend this book to you despite its faults. 4 stars.

Seducing the Duchess by Ashley March

Unlikeable characters – unlikeable romance
1 star

In order to escape the pain of a disastrous marriage, Charlotte, Duchess of Rutherford, scandalises the ton with her wild ways. All she wants is for her husband to take note and give her the divorce she craves.

Philip, Duke of Rutherford, isn’t unaware of Charlotte’s debauched behaviour so he promises her a divorce in return for a favour of his own – she must teach him to be a better husband for another woman. Will they both begin to realise that they might not want to give each other up after all?


I love a good 'second chance at romance' story and the premise of this story really seemed to tick all the boxes for me. Unfortunately I was probably about 5 pages in before I began to have serious reservations about the story. Or, more accurately, the characters.

Philip has decided that he loves his wife despite marrying her for reasons other than love and not having spent much time in her company over the last few years. He wants her back and wants to atone for his sins so he is, in some ways, sympathetic. Charlotte on the other hand was just terrible. She was a shrew and instead of being strong she came across as a hard, unlikeable harridan who acted childishly and pathetically to get back at her husband. Her behaviour was atrocious and didn’t endear me to her one bit.

Because of my dislike of the characters it was very hard to care about them or the things that they did. There were very few tender moments and the love scenes didn’t interest me – possibly due to my lack of emotional involvement with the story overall.

To be honest, I found it really difficult to find the enthusiasm to finish this book. I even thought that the conclusion left it open to the couple falling out once again – but perhaps that’s just me being cynical. I don’t like giving books low ratings but I’m sorry to say I just can’t recommend this book to you. 1 star and I’ll be giving this author a miss from now on.

A Kiss At Midnight by Eloisa James

A magical Cinderella retelling
5 stars

After the death of her father, Kate Daltry is forced into near servitude for her stepmother and stepsister. But when her stepsister suffers a mishap that mars her perfect looks, her stepmother forces Kate to attend a ball in Victoria’s place. There, Kate meets a prince although this one’s definitely not as charming as she would have expected.

Prince Gabriel is one step away from being betrothed to a pretty and lovely Russian princess. So why is he so desperate to spend time with impoverished Kate – a woman he could never marry? And what will happen when he has to choose between his honour and a woman that he realises he can’t live without?


This is the first in James’ Fairy Tales series before When Beauty Tamed the Beast and This Duke is Mine. There is an e-book (Storming the Castle) that follows on from this story however all the rest of the series stand alone and have no connection to each other except the fairy tale theme.

From the first I liked Kate and felt for her situation. It was especially well done that although the stepmother wasn’t particularly nice, she wasn’t a caricature and was believable in her meanness! Gabriel was a very enjoyable hero and I always like a pair that bicker but are strong enough to stand up for themselves with each other. Together Kate and Gabriel worked really well and I really enjoyed their scenes together and thought the pair had good chemistry.

The story itself ticked over nicely and I loved the supporting characters who were vibrant but never overshadowed or upstaged the main romance. I never had a problem with wanting to pick up this book and keep reading. If I had to make one criticism it would be that there were a few too many Americanisms for my liking. Having said that, at the end of the book the author’s note explains that this is set in Fairy Tale land rather than being an actual historical so I’m not sure whether that was a deliberate move.

Regardless, this was a book that I thoroughly enjoyed reading. I felt the magic and adored watching Kate and Gabriel on the path to their happily ever after. 5 stars.