Author Archives: rebeccabook17

2018 Book #99 – The Duke I Once Knew by Olivia Drake

Posted in Book reviews, Historical Romance by

Title: The Duke I Once Knew
Author: Olivia Drake
Date finished: 12/28/18
Genre: Historical romance
Publisher: St. Martin’s Paperbacks
Publication Date: December 31, 2018
Pages in book: 333
Stand alone or series: #1 in the Unlikely Duchesses series
Where I got the book from: NetGalley
NOTE: I received this book for free from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review. This in no way affected my opinion of the book, or the content of my review.

Blurb from the cover:

When two childhood sweethearts find themselves together after years apart, does their romance have a chance to be rekindled now that he’s a duke and she’s a governess? Olivia Drake’s new Unlikely Duchesses series begins with The Duke I Once Knew, where first love is always the sweetest…

For years, Abigail Linton devoted herself to caring for her parents and her siblings’ children. Now, eager to create a life of her own, Abby seizes upon a position as a governess on a neighboring estate. Unfortunately, her absentee employer is Maxwell Bryce, the Duke of Rothwell, the notorious rake who once broke her youthful heart. But since he hasn’t set foot on his estate for fifteen years, Abby assumes she’ll never have to lay eyes on him ever again. Then, from out of nowhere, Max appears. He is stunned to come face to face with the girl next door he fell for years ago—before he went away, and she stopped writing to him. . .even though Abby swears that he is the one who left her without a word. Could it be that this spirited, witty spinster has won Max’s heart all over again—and that they may have a second chance at love?

My rating:  3.75 stars out of a scale of 5

My review: I was provided a free copy of this book in exchange for an honest and fair review.

I tend to accept more requests for first books in a series since it is sometimes easier than trying to jump in on the middle of a series. This book is the first in a new series by this author. Max (the hero in the story) was a little rough around the edges, it took me longer than I had expected to really start to like him. He ended up being an ok guy but he wasn’t my favorite hero. Abby was ok too, if a little weak. There was a plethora of characters but for the most part they were easy to keep track of – I made up a little Linton family tree with the first chapter to help me keep everything straight. Overall the childhood sweethearts reunited trope is not my favorite – it always makes me so sad that they’ve lost so much valuable time together. Overall the book was pretty good – there were parts of the book that I liked and parts that I didn’t like. It was definitely an enjoyable read though and a very sweet love story – I’d recommend it!

Link to author website

Click on the cover to go to the book’s Amazon page

2018 Book #97 – Not the Duke’s Darling by Elizabeth Hoyt

Posted in Book reviews, Book series, Greycourt series, Historical Romance by

Title: Not the Duke’s Darling
Author: Elizabeth Hoyt
Date finished: 12/23/18
Genre: Historical romance
Publisher: Forever
Publication Date: December 18, 2018
Pages in book: 496
Stand alone or series: #1 in the Greycourt series
Where I got the book from: NetGalley
NOTE: I received this book for free from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review. This in no way affected my opinion of the book, or the content of my review.

Blurb from the cover:

Freya de Moray is many things: a member of the secret order of Wise Women, the daughter of disgraced nobility, and a chaperone living under an assumed name. What she is not is forgiving. So when the Duke of Harlowe, the man who destroyed her brother and led to the downfall of her family, appears at the country house party she’s attending, she does what any Wise Woman would do: she starts planning her revenge.

Christopher Renshaw, the Duke of Harlowe, is being blackmailed. Intent on keeping his secrets safe, he agrees to attend a house party where he will put an end to this coercion once and for all. Until he recognizes Freya, masquerading among the party revelers, and realizes his troubles have just begun. Freya knows all about his sins-sins he’d much rather forget. But she’s also fiery, bold, and sensuous-a temptation he can’t resist. When it becomes clear Freya is in grave danger, he’ll risk everything to keep her safe. But first, he will have to earn Freya’s trust…by whatever means necessary.

My rating:  4.0 stars out of a scale of 5

My review: I was provided a free copy of this book in exchange for an honest and fair review.

I’ve really enjoyed Hoyt’s Maiden Lane series over the past few years, so I was excited to see that she had a new series coming out. I liked this book, the plot was really interesting. It was a very feminist inspired novel, which I’m cool with. It is always nice to read a book that empowers women, especially historical romances. I will say that this book had a lot going on – there were a lot of characters and a lot going on with the plot line. I had to take notes at first because I wanted to make sure I kept track of what was going on. I’m glad I stuck with it because the plethora of plot points and characters made for a really interesting story – I didn’t want to put the book down! The small down side was that I felt like we didn’t get to know some the characters very well since there were so many characters involved. I still really enjoyed it though and I’d recommend it! I look forward to seeing what’s next in the series.

Link to author website

Click on the cover to go to the book’s Amazon page

2018 Book #95 – Secret Sisters by Jayne Ann Krentz

Posted in Book reviews, Romantic suspense by

Title: Secret Sisters
Author: Jayne Ann Krentz
Date finished: 12/17/18
Genre: Romantic suspense
Publisher: Berkley
Publication Date: December 8, 2015
Pages in book: 336
Stand alone or series: Stand alone
Where I got the book from: Purchased!

Blurb from the cover:

Madeline and Daphne were once as close as sisters—until a secret tore them apart. Now it might take them to their graves.

They knew his name, the man who tried to brutally attack twelve-year-old Madeline in her grandmother’s hotel. They thought they knew his fate. He wouldn’t be bothering them anymore…ever. Still their lives would never be the same. 

Madeline has returned to Washington after her grandmother’s mysterious death. And at the old, abandoned hotel—a place she never wanted to see again—a dying man’s last words convey a warning: the secrets she and Daphne believed buried forever have been discovered.

Now, after almost two decades, Madeline and Daphne will be reunited in friendship and in fear. Unable to trust the local police, Madeline summons Jack Rayner, the hotel chain’s new security expert. Despite the secrets and mysteries that surround him, Jack is the only one she trusts…and wants. 

Jack is no good at relationships but he does possess a specific skill set that includes a profoundly intimate understanding of warped and dangerous minds. With the assistance of Jack’s brother, Abe, a high-tech magician, the four of them will form an uneasy alliance against a killer who will stop at nothing to hide the truth….

My rating:  4.25 stars out of a scale of 5

My review:

I have read a lot of books by this author in the past and I just love her books. I purchased this book from a discount book store in Williamsburg, VA while I was on vacation a couple months ago. I have been having trouble keeping up with my review schedule (I’m chafing against how constrained I’ve been in my reading schedule the past few years) so I decided to pick this up and read it! 

I haven’t been super thrilled with some of this author’s other recent releases. It started to feel like there was a “plot formula” that was being followed. And while this book’s plot does still feel a bit similar to those I’ve read in the past, I still really enjoyed it. There were definitely some things that felt different about this one, I felt really interested in how things were going to turn out. And although I had somewhat of an idea, the plot twists kept me guessing right up until the end. There was a great build up in tension within the plot line but I still thought there was a lack of chemistry between the main characters. It felt almost like the emotions at play were a tad forced, it didn’t feel like there was a depth of real emotions there. This could have just been me personally not being able to connect much with the characters, but I find that this is a common issue for me with this author’s more recent work. It didn’t take much away from my enjoyment of the story though since I enjoyed the plot line so much. I’d still recommend reading it!

Link to author website

Click on the cover to go to the book’s Amazon page

2018 Book #93 – A Christmas Date by Camilla Isley

Posted in Book reviews, Contemporary romance by

Title: A Christmas Date
Author: Camilla Isley
Date finished: 12/9/18
Genre: Contemporary romance, romantic comedy
Publisher: Pink Bloom Press
Publication Date: October 25, 2018
Pages in book: 231
Stand alone or series: #3 in the First Comes Love series
Where I got the book from: Author/publisher NOTE: I received this book for free from the author/publisher in exchange for an honest review. This in no way affected my opinion of the book, or the content of my review.

Blurb from the cover:

No one wants to be single at the holidays.

Even Little Miss Grinch, Nikki, a successful and independent woman, must face her bachelorette status at the most horrible time of the year.

December is her personal version of holly-jolly hell: a merry torture made of couples kissing at every corner, forced vacation days, and an inescapable family reunion.

And when her baby sister announces she’s engaged—to Paul, the man Nikki is secretly in love with—and that he’s spending the holidays with them, Christmas starts looking bluer than ever.

Nikki can’t possibly survive an entire week trapped home as the family’s spinster. But she has no time to meet men or to try the newest dating app, she’s too busy working as a video producer for an advertising agency. 

So what’s a girl to do? 

Nikki has the perfect solution: to hire a fake boyfriend.

Luckily, her job gives her access to an endless catalog of gorgeous actors to choose from.

But Nikki will soon discover that keeping business and pleasure from mixing isn’t so easy, and that she might not be immune to a little mistletoe magic. Especially not when she picked out the perfect man as her Christmas date…

My rating: 4.0 stars out of a scale of 5

My review: I was provided a free copy of this book in exchange for an honest and fair review. 

So far I’ve read the other 2 books in this series and I have to say overall this is just a great series. The books are laugh out loud funny and short enough to hold your interest but long enough to still have a well developed story line. If you’re looking for a fairly quick but still engaging and fun read, these are the books for you! The characters in this book in particular were great – I liked Nikki a lot and I liked Diego a good amount as well. A lot of the characters in this book tended to be a little selfish, which isn’t necessarily my favorite thing, but it didn’t take too much away from my overall enjoyment of the book. I loved seeing the relationship develop between Diego and Nikki – the tension between their characters was really well done and the emotions in the story fairly leapt off the page. I really liked the book a lot and I would recommend it!

And the end of the Kindle book version included a preview for the author’s next novel. I don’t usually read previews but I did end up reading this one and it looked great! I really hope I get a chance to read it when it comes out!

Link to author website

Click on the cover to go to the book’s Amazon page

2018 Monthly Status Update: November

Posted in For the love of books by

This year is just flying by! I can’t believe Thanksgiving is already past and Christmas is not that far off. November was a busy month for me at work (again) but I was at least able to put aside work for a whole weekend at Thanksgiving and focus on spending time with my family. I’m trying to find more time here and there in December too that I can spend with my loved ones. So anyways, here are some highlights from November for me:

Monthly Stats:
# books read this month: 6
# pages read this month: 1,948
# books read year-to-date: 92
# pages read year-to-date: 30,433

Favorite Books I Read this Month:

I liked the books I read this month but I’m not sure that any of them were favorites – I’m going to skip this again for this month.

Other Posts this month:

The Duke of Kisses BLOG TOUR!!

Next Month TBR List:

I still have a solid list to catch up from October and November (and a few more from earlier in 2018) but I’m determined not to stress about it this month. My plan is to read what I can and maybe even slip in a couple unscheduled reads for books I’ve been wanting to read for awhile from my personal collection. Here is what I have scheduled for December though:

-The Accidental Beauty Queen by Teri Wilson
-My Favorite 1/2 Night Stand by Christina Lauren
-Not the Duke’s Darling by Elizabeth Hoyt
-The Duke I Once Knew by Olivia Drake

Hopefully I can fit these in! I’m hoping you all had a great Thanksgiving and have some more great Holiday plans coming up! 

Happy reading everyone!

2018 Book #91 – My One and Only Duke by Grace Burrowes

Posted in Book reviews, Historical Romance by

Title: My One and Only Duke
Author: Grace Burrowes
Date finished: 11/25/18
Genre: Historical romance
Publisher: Forever
Publication Date: November 6, 2018
Pages in book: 465
Stand alone or series: #1 in the Rogues to Riches series
Where I got the book from: NetGalley
NOTE: I received this book for free from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review. This in no way affected my opinion of the book, or the content of my review.

Blurb from the cover:

One minute, London banker Quinn Wentworth is facing execution. The next, he’s declared the long-lost heir to a dukedom. Quinn has fought his way up from the worst slums, and now he’s ready to use every dirty trick he knows to find the enemy who schemed against him.

Jane Winston, the widowed and pregnant, crosses paths with Quinn while her father is preaching to the prisoners. Believing his days are numbered, Quinn offers her marriage as a way to guarantee her independence and provide for her child. Neither thinks they’ll actually have a future together.

He’s a wealthy gutter rat out for vengeance. She’s a minister’s daughter who must turn a marriage of desperation into a proper ducal union. Are they doomed from the start or destined for a happily-ever-after?

My rating:  3.0 stars out of a scale of 5

My review: I was provided a free copy of this book in exchange for an honest and fair review.

This one was pretty long. For the most part I was able to stay interested but there were a couple parts where I though it got a tad dull. Overall though I thought the plot for this book was pretty creative – I haven’t read many other romance novels with similar plots. That being said I thought the ending wrapped up a little too quickly, for how drawn out the rest of the story was I thought the ending all came together pretty fast. Due to the length the reader is able to get to know the characters a little better, which I did enjoy. I didn’t love Quinn’s character though, even with the extra time. He was a little too deceptive for my tastes and Jane was so generous and loving. Other than items already discussed, I did enjoy this book. It wasn’t necessarily my favorite (mostly because it took me so long to get through) but I did enjoy it. I’d recommend it, especially since the plot was so different. 

Link to author website

Click on the cover to go to the book’s Amazon page

The Duke of Kisses BLOG TOUR!!

Posted in Blog tour by

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The Duke of Kisses, an all-new historical standalone from USA Today bestselling author Darcy Burke, is LIVE!

Frances Snowden can hardly believe her good fortune when she’s whisked away from her boring life by her sister who is now a duchess. Instead of becoming the third wife of her parents’ stuffy neighbor, she can be anything she wants: a doting aunt to her newborn niece, a debutante in London, or even an independent spinster. But when she meets and kisses a mysterious man on a walk in the countryside, she knows exactly what she desires—him.

David Langley, Earl of St. Ives, is resigned to marrying the dull woman his parents chose when he was a child. His future is suddenly, and happily, diverted when he encounters a captivating young woman who shows him everything he’s been missing. Ready to embark on a blissful life together, a long-buried feud between their families makes their marriage impossible. Nothing is more important than duty and family, but can he turn his back on love?

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Download your copy today!

Amazon: https://amzn.to/2PCyieJ

AppleBooks: https://apple.co/2Fh9sgz

Amazon Worldwide: http://mybook.to/TheDukeofKisses

Nook: http://bit.ly/2JH6G2H

Kobo: http://bit.ly/2Ose6aL

Paperback: https://amzn.to/2r3APk1

Add to GoodReads: http://bit.ly/2P9172I

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About Darcy:

Darcy Burke is the USA Today Bestselling Author of sexy, emotional historical and contemporary romance. Darcy wrote her first book at age 11, a happily ever after about a swan addicted to magic and the female swan who loved him, with exceedingly poor illustrations. Join her reader club at http://www.darcyburke.com/readerclub. A native Oregonian, Darcy lives on the edge of wine country with her guitar-strumming husband, their two hilarious kids who seem to have inherited the writing gene, two Bengal cats and a third cat named after a fruit.

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Connect with Darcy:

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/DarcyBurkeFans

Twitter: https://twitter.com/darcyburke

BookBub: https://www.bookbub.com/authors/darcy-burke

GoodReads: https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/5823441.Darcy_Burke

Pinterest: https://www.pinterest.com/darcyburkewrite/

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/darcyburkeauthor/

Website: http://www.darcyburke.com

Stay up to date with Darcy by joining her Reader Club today:

http://www.darcyburke.com/join-my-reader-club/

2018 Book #92 – The Duke of Kisses by Darcy Burke

Posted in Book reviews, Historical Romance by

51eQF-PRE9LTitle: The Duke of Kisses
Author: Darcy Burke
Date finished: 11/27/18
Genre: Historical romance
Publisher: Self-published
Publication Date: November 27, 2018
Pages in book: 254
Stand alone or series:  The Untouchables series Book #11
Where I got the book from: Social Butterfly PR
NOTE: I received this book for free from Social Butterfly PR in exchange for an honest review. This in no way affected my opinion of the book, or the content of my review.

Blurb from the cover:

Frances Snowden can hardly believe her good fortune when she’s whisked away from her boring life by her sister who is now a duchess. Instead of becoming the third wife of her parents’ stuffy neighbor, she can be anything she wants: a doting aunt to her newborn niece, a debutante in London, or even an independent spinster. But when she meets and kisses a mysterious man on a walk in the countryside, she knows exactly what she desires—him.

David Langley, Earl of St. Ives, is resigned to marrying the dull woman his parents chose when he was a child. His future is suddenly, and happily, diverted when he encounters a captivating young woman who shows him everything he’s been missing. Ready to embark on a blissful life together, a long-buried feud between their families makes their marriage impossible. Nothing is more important than duty and family, but can he turn his back on love?

My rating:  3.5 stars out of a scale of 5

My review: I was provided a free copy of this book in exchange for an honest and fair review.

I’ve been following this series for a little while now and I do enjoy each of the new stories that come out.  I really liked Fanny’s character in this book, though that is definitely not my favorite name for a heroine. David and Fanny were a really sweet couple and their story was definitely romantic. I felt bad for the other girl (Miss Stokes) since she seemed to like David and couldn’t really understand why she was being thrown out of the running. Also – there were a ton of characters in this book, and I had a lot of trouble keeping track of who everyone was, especially with their first and second names being used interchangeably. Other than that though, I did enjoy the book as it was romantic and sweet. I would recommend giving this book a read, along with the rest of the series!

Link to author website

Click on the cover to go to the book’s Amazon page

2018 Book #90 – Duchess by Design by Maya Rodale

Posted in Book reviews, Historical Romance by

51JSvzJkfVLTitle: Duchess by Design
Author: Maya Rodale
Date finished: 11/12/18
Genre: Historical romance
Publisher: Avon
Publication Date: October 23, 2018
Pages in book: 384
Stand alone or series: The Gilded Age Girls Club series Book #1
Where I got the book from: Edelweiss
NOTE: I received this book for free from Edelweiss in exchange for an honest review. This in no way affected my opinion of the book, or the content of my review.

Blurb from the cover:

In the first novel of Maya Rodale’s enthralling new series, an English duke vows to make an American seamstress his duchess…

In Gilded Age Manhattan, anything can happen…

Seeking a wealthy American bride who can save his family’s estate, Brandon Fiennes, the duke of Kingston, is a rogue determined to do the right thing. But his search for an heiress goes deliciously awry when an enchanting seamstress tumbles into his arms instead.

…and true love is always in fashion

Miss Adeline Black aspires to be a fashionable dressmaker—not a duchess—and not even an impossibly seductive duke will distract her. But Kingston makes an offer she can’t refuse: join him at society events to display her gowns and advise him on which heiresses are duchess material. It’s the perfect plan—as long as they resist temptation, avoid a scandal, and above all do not lose their hearts.

My rating:  3.0 stars out of a scale of 5

My review: I was provided a free copy of this book in exchange for an honest and fair review. I was really drawn to the cover on this book and I’ve heard good things about this author so I decided to check it out.

I didn’t end up loving this book. And it was definitely just because of personal opinions but I wasn’t a huge fan of the plot line, it just didn’t click for me. It just felt like a no-win situation. And while, yes in relationships you have to compromise for each other, it just felt like both the hero and heroine their whole thing on what they were working towards, they each decided to kind of give up a little in the end on that. Like Adeline – what happened to the people in her New York shop that she was employing? Did they find other jobs? I just was left feeling slightly unhappy I guess and it didn’t sit right. I never loved the hero to start I think was also part of the problem. Again – was totally a personal thing but I just didn’t click with him. And (again, personal) I don’t love that the American and English sides were mixed, for some reason in my mind they do better when they’re separate. These are really weird things that feel very nit-picky for me to complain about, which is why I’d still definitely encourage people to read it. I think it was a good book it just wasn’t a great fit for me personally. I did like the “feminist” kind of message included in the book and that one of the main points was the advancement of women in the workforce and as business owners.

Link to author website

Click on the cover to go to the book’s Amazon page

2018 Book #89 – The Highlander Who Protected Me by Vanessa Kelly

Posted in Book reviews, Historical Romance by

51hHzWO0HELTitle: The Highlander Who Protected Me
Author: Vanessa Kelly
Date finished: 11/7/18
Genre: Historical romance
Publisher: Zebra
Publication Date: October 30, 2018
Pages in book: 352
Stand alone or series: #1 in the Clan Kendrick series
Where I got the book from: NetGalley
NOTE: I received this book for free from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review. This in no way affected my opinion of the book, or the content of my review.

Blurb from the cover:

Lady Ainsley Matthews, heiress and darling of the ton, was expected to make a magnificent match. Instead she’s hiding on a remote Scottish estate, terrified that her vicious former fiancé will use her pregnancy to force her into marriage. One man can help her—Royal Kendrick, son of a distinguished Highland clan. Though a mistake drove them apart long ago, Royal is the only person Ainsley trusts to protect her baby—even if that means agreeing to never see either of them again . . .

Scarred in body and soul by war, Royal suddenly has a purpose—caring for an innocent babe and thereby helping the woman he can’t stop loving. But when Ainsley ultimately returns to Scotland, determined to be a real mother to her child in spite of the risk, there’s only one solution: marriage. And only one likely outcome: surrendering to the desire that’s simmered between them for so long, no matter how dangerous it may be . . .

My rating:  3.25 stars out of a scale of 5

My review: I was provided a free copy of this book in exchange for an honest and fair review.

There were a lot of things that I did like about this book. The plot line was pretty good – there were a lot of emotions embedded into the writing and there was danger and excitement. It definitely kept me interested and made me want to keep reading the story. At the same time though, I just could not catch on with Ainsley’s character. I thought she was selfish for pretty much the entire book and really just so rude to Royal, who is going out of ANY way to protect her and give her whatever the heck she wants. She was also really quick to push or pull on Royal’s emotions to suit whatever her needs were without enough thought to the consequences sometimes. Obviously everything worked out in the end (it is a romance novel) but I was pretty fed up with her mid-way through the book. And oh my gosh I thought the ending was heart-wrenchingly sad. I lie romance novels mostly because I’m guaranteed a warm and fuzzy, everyone’s happy ending. But this book threw me for a bit of a loop. Other than those things though, I thought this was a pretty interesting read. I’d recommend it.

Link to author website

Click on the cover to go to the book’s Amazon page