eyes.2c Reviews

The Trouble with Dukes (Windham Brides)   by  Grace Burrowes 'I’m glad you didn’t die fighting' For the new Duke of Murdoch, slightingly whispered to as the 'Duke of Murder' by the rapacious of the ton (in clubrooms, behind fluttering fans and gloved hands), these words uttered by Megan Windham are balm to his battle weary soul. Very loud sighs of satisfaction and content from this reader! Heady stuff! I adored the reluctant battlefield warrior turned Duke, running the season's gauntlet with more trepidation than the night before a battle. The story of Hamish McHugh, the Duke of Murdoch, and his brave set upon Lady Megan Windham is a treat. I did think the Windham Brothers were somewhat slow on the uptake with the situation surrounding Megan. And the way they kept all just missing the truth and consequently the danger to Megan made me want to shake them. They just didn't see the villain of the piece! Thank goodness for Hugh ... and his dele...

Lady Lost  (Lost Heiresses #3) by Jane Goodger.        I really enjoyed Lady Lilian Martin. She is spirited and feisty. Lord Marcus Granton withdrew from the world when the scandal of his wife found dead in bed--another man's bed, broke. He's hidden himself away on his cliff top estate overlooking the North Sea. Gothic enough for you?  When Lilian descends (well collapses really) on his bolthole  looking for asylum and respite having been accused of murder, quickly followed by  a child and a plethora of servants, Marcus' hard fought peace of mind is shattered. Lilian gets under his skin in more than one way. Lilian's sister Theresa is a piece of work. However that doesn't mean that I would wish on her the marriage she ended up with. Theresa's husband is a depraved decadent. Puzzling to me was the way Theresa just peters out. What happened to her? A NetGalley ARC ****

A Season of Ruin (Sutherland Scandals #2)   by  Anna Bradley                                                    A darkened room, mistaken identify, a lovers tryst gone awry, and the unforgiving ton! Robyn Sutherland  finds the kisses he shares with another leave him unsettled. Lily Sommerset, who's not looking for an untrustworthy rake, especially her brother-in-law. She wants a beau without a blemish on his record, like the handsomely pedestrian Lord Atherton. Lily appears to suffer from an anxiety disorder. Everything must line up and Robyn, selfish hedonist, and wickedest rake in London, doesn't fit the bill, although his kisses do make her melt. Lily, the perfectionist seems to go from one scandal to another due to the actions of Robyn--all reported in the latest scandal sheet. Robyn is in the words of the elderly L...

The Danger of Desire (The Sinful Suitors #3)   by Sabrina Jeffries When his cousin  Lady Clarissa  asks the dedicated rake Warren Corry, Marquess of Knightford, and member of the St. George's Club, to watch out for her friend Miss Delia Trevor during her London season, neither realize that Corey will be inextricably intwined into Delia's life, despite his best intentions. But then neither did Corey know that Delia dressed as a man and gambled the night away in various notorious hells. When Warren recognized the woman beyond the gambling youth facade, to say his is somewhat startled downplays his reaction. Delia is searching for the man who'd been  instrumental in her brother's death--that is until Corry sussed her out. What's a rake to do? Two people, each with a problem and each with a different way of handling their world are inevitably drawn to each other, both fascinated and annoyed by each other. Will love find a way through the secrets they hold? ...

Hers to Heal (Black Eagle Ops #2) by Vonnie Davis Another winner in the Eagle Ops series. This time it's Reece Browning who is fighting PTSD and the use of an artificial limb. His physical therapist and ex-Marine Gina Wilson, is part of the equation along with her daughter Piper. Piper is a gem. Tricky and loveable. Reece and Gina's story is tender, confrontative  and fiery.  Along the way a couple of others from ZQ's team come to Warrior Falls. Davis seems to combine a touch of Zane Grey with the raunchy reality that surrounds the men in this series. I like the human face of these characters, their interplay and support for each other. Gina has her own particular set of 'demons' to exorcise. I really appreciated Davis' support and understanding for women in service and the particular issues they face.  This story only touches on what I am sure are deep emotional scars for some of these women.  The  dedication at the back of the book...

How to Train Your Highlander (Broadswords and Ballrooms #3)   by  Christy English I have been waiting for Mary Elizabeth Waters' story ever since I first viewed her sword fighting in Hyde Park. Knife carrying, horse whisperer, marriage avoiding, feisty and endearing young Highlander woman that she is. Mary Elizabeth's main objective is to avoid marriage and flee back to her beloved highlands, despite the iron will of her demanding English mother. Now is Mary Elizabeth's time. Mary had been sent by her mother (well exiled really) along with two of her brothers to England to marry. However she just kept getting into hot water. Not for nothing did the ton label her the Hellion of Hyde Park. Hellion! Highlander! Both of the aforementioned and a whole lot more. Mary Elizabeth is a gem, an original! I love her. When her mother sends her to a house party in Northumberland at the home of one of her oldest friends, with a view to marrying her friend's son,  Harold P...

To Tempt an Heiress (The Runaway Desires #2)   by  Susanna Craig Slavery, abolitionists, a headstrong, willful heiress, piracy, and a chase across the oceans from Antigua to London. And this is just the beginning! Plenty of heart stopping action, frisson between the two main protagonists make this an excellent addition to this latest in the Runaway Desires series. Andrew Corrvan is presented with a strange business request. To kidnap Tempest Holderin, compassionate Antiguan sugar plantation heiress.          Tempest's plantation manager and close friend Edward Cary is concerned that the vile, supercilious and self serving Lord Nathaniel Delamere will compromise or even force Tempest into marriage. With her father dead, Tempest has no protectors in the wider plantation community. Tempest is a radical thinker, fan of Mary Wolstencroft, and committed to freeing the slaves on their plantation, Harper's Hill, her dead father's futur...

The Dare and the Doctor (Winner Takes All #3)   by  Kate Noble   Margaret Babcock is a joyously unassuming and unusual young woman. A horticulturist whose fingers are constantly itching to turn the soil and make the food that will enhance and sustain her grand experiment--to produce a rose that will survive the English climate and bloom more than once. She is continuing the work begun by her beloved mother. Margaret shares her work and insights with her particular friend Dr. Rhys Gray. Neither seems to think it unusual that they exchange letters weekly and sometimes three times within that space. Rhys is overjoyed that Margaret will be coming to London for a meeting with the society, but he'd forgotten the family problems that he is being counted on to solve. Those problems squarely interrupt Rhys' plans for his and Margaret's amusement but family has a way of knocking one off a set course. Rhys and Margaret find themselves in difficult situations. With t...

The Heiress and the Hothead by Sabrina Jeffries.   Having inveigled an invitation to  a Christmas house party, the radical Lord Stephen Corry, meets his match in Miss Amanda Keane. Stephen is a prolific writer who champions the cause for better mill working conditions and practices. He wanted to interview the American owner Montague Mills for an upcoming article. Mill owner Amanda, and heiress, has modern and compassionate ideas about cotton milling, workers conditions and the treatment of children particularly. Answering a friend's call to help stir a would be suitor into action, Lord Stephen Cory finds himself under the mistletoe kissing a different young woman by mistake.  A deeper than usual Christmas romance skating the surface of a not so light issue, conditions in mills and factories that are still present in various parts of the world. I must admit that the dalliance during a fire took on a certain absurdity, that maybe fits with the surfac...

Campbell's Redemption (Highland Pride #3)   by  Sharon Cullen Widowed Cait Campbell is a healer who assists Brice Sutherland with an underground movement smuggling Scots being pursued by the English after Culloden away to Canada. Living alone as she does in an isolated cottage on the edge of Campbell lands, Cait's is the perfect place to harbour these hunted men, women and children. Cait has a complex background, granddaughter to two powerful clan chiefs, she turned her back on all that when she married a Campbell. Now the Campbell chief Iain has come to call as English soldiers have been killed near her cottage and the English are stirred up. Cait's husband John was killed protecting his Laird. Cait has sought  peace away from the reminders of her beloved husband. Now Cait's hard fought peace  of mind is fiercely challenged, as is her heart. Iain is both a highland chieftain and an English Lord. He sees only the way forward is to deal with the Engli...

The Vincent van Gogh Atlas   by  Nienke Deneka  (Author),  René van Blerk  (Author),  Teio Meedendo  (Author),  Laura Watkinson  (Translator).     This is a superb production chronicling Vincent van Gogh's life journey--his early days, the places he lived, his various starts and passions, his communications with his family, his artistic development. An in depth look at the river Vincent's life flowed along. Van Gogh's story is supported by beautifully constructed pages.  Informative maps mark a clear path the most dedicated van Gogh aficionado would love to use for a pilgrimage, if not in actuality, at the very least via the written word, 'travelling in the footsteps" of Vincent van Gogh. Excerpts from letters between Vincent and members of his family are quoted, bringing van Gogh and his family to life. The narrative is accompanied by photographs and postcards from the time. Vincent's sketches and paintings of...

Dead Blossoms: The Third Geisha   by  Richard Monaco 1552. Three shipwreck survivors wash up on the Japanese shoreline and are immediately embroiled in a struggle for lordship and supremacy amongst the Japanese clans. Jiro Tazeko, a  classless samurai detective finds himself embroiled in the same unrest. The daughter of a lord's house has been murdered. One of the foreigners has been accused. However, Tazeko discovers some very odd facts, including the suspicion that the dead girl is not the Lady Osan. As plots are overlayed by more plots the end spirals out of control. All is revealed as this feudal world explodes in a fiery ball and then is reignited by a typhoon. Who wins is moot. What is left is ash and wind. I do like Tazeko, the hard boiled, hard drinking,16th Century Sam Spade type character. A NetGalley ARC *** 1/2

The Untouchable Earl (Fallen Ladies #2)   by  Amy Sandas When Lily Chadwick, debutante and innocent maid, is kidnapped, drugged and auctioned to the highest bidder in a brothel, she little expected to be bought by Avenell, the Earl of Harte, a man she has made eye contact with at various events. A man who sets her blood on fire. (Lily is one of three sisters whose dead father has left them in debt. They have come to London for the season, staying with their eccentric and fabulous great aunt  Angelique , the Dowager Countess of Chelmsworth. Only recently have the sisters come to realize how huge that debt is. (Sisters Emma and Pippa have their own secrets and the stories about them are developing simultaneously). Avenell's relationship with Madam Pendragon, owner of the brothel, has been one of long standing. She is privy to his secret--that touch causes him extreme pain. It was Madam Pendragon Avenell turned to for schooling in touch. She knows his Archill...

Tempting the Earl (The Muses' Salon #3)   by  Rachael Miles So how should you react when your father's drugged you, kidnapped you and then presented you with a bride as a fait acompy. If your  Harrison Walgrave, the Earl of Levesford,  you acquiesce, bed your bride and then flee to London and points abroad as an important secret agent for the English government. The left behind bride,  Olivia Walgrave,  is a woman of determination and strength--and an agent for the government. I Really liked  Olivia.   She was a fighter and survivor. Coming from an unsure childhood her fate could have been quite different if not for Lord Roderick's (Waverley's father) rescue of her, and subsequent placing of her in Mrs Flints school--a place where apparently young girls are educated and turned out as agents for the crown. Olivia has spent her years since being abandoned by Harrison yet determined to keep the estate in good order. She has also gathered tog...

The Legendary Lord (Playful Brides #6)   by  Valerie Bowman So what do you do when your parents have inveigled you into an engagement that you don't want, but that gives them no end of pleasure and lofty feelings of having done well? After all their daughter has landed Lord Brantford, the catch of the season, and a close companion of the Prince Regent. Lady Sarah Highgate, feeling the walls closing in, ran away to Scotland of course! Although it didn't help that she ended up in the wrong place in the middle of a snow storm knitting doggie capes and fending off apparent would be mayrauders with a sword she could  hardly lift. (I must admit to falling in love with Sarah in the hunting lodge stage!) And if your the owner of a hunting lodge that you've repaired to looking for a time of respite aware from the rapacious members of the ton, you don't expect to find a 'would be goldilocks' sleeping in your bed. What starts out as a mistaken encounter, end...

A Christmas Message: A Novel (Christmas Stories #14)   by  Anne Perry On the surface of this Christmas mystery, Victor Narraway and his wife  Lady Vespasia  (two of my favourite Perry characters) travel to Jerusalem for Christmas. En route, at their hotel in Jaffa, they run across an interesting older gentleman who hands them a parchment to deliver in Jerusalem just before he is killed by a mysterious figure "The Watcher". The story morphs into a Dali like journey of deserts and death, faith defined and refined, and deepening spiritual mysteries. Following the theme of the wise men seeking truth and wonderment as they track the star that lead them to Bethlehem, Narraway and Vespasia embark on a similar journey, followed by the dark watcher. Along the way they are joined by another. Three pieces of parchment, and the truth for all mankind, are part of this journey. Narraway and Vespasia are confronted by their own beliefs and the gradual refi...

Cast in Flight (Chronicles of Elantra #12)   by  Michelle Sagara Once more I was absorbed by this next in the Elantra Chronicles. O nce again, where Private Kaylin Neda is trouble surely follows--or precedes, it's a moot point and a truism!  This time we see more of the Aerians and Sergeant Moran dar Carafel in particular. The injured Moran is now residing with Kaylin, along with the rescued Barranis and the dragon Bellusdeo. When Moran is attacked, Kaylin comes in for some shocks. Shadow makes its appearance once again, and it's form appears changed.  The two Bararranis residing with Kaylin (one, Annarion is Nightshade's brother) are still coming to terms with coming into the now from their entrapped state. Bellusdeo is the same feisty female dragon. Kaylin is her wild and wonderful caring self who rushes in where others fear to tread. In Cast in Flight her thoughts and awe of the Aerians takes a different turn. Alongside Kaylin, we learn more ...

A Night of Forever: A Disgraced Lords Novel (The Disgraced Lords #6)   by  Bronwen Evans Arend Aubury as the emotionally fractured Frenchman, gorgeous to behold and trusting no-one is a wonderful hero. Lady Isobel Thompson as the step daughter of the despicable Victoria is a beauty inside and out. Of course the page sizzles whenever they meet and that sizzling increases in fervour as time goes on. (Almost too much sizzle and not enough story.) Isobel's vengeful stepmother Victoria appears to be trying to engineer an engagement between Isobel and Arente. They enter into a mock engagement in an attempt to entrap Victoria.  For those who don't know, Victoria has been systematically trying to destroy the members of the Libertine Scholars to pay for their father's dreadful sins against her (and given the extent of their depravities one can see why she is so gripped with the need for retribution). The point is that none of the Libertines have been ...

The Demon Girl's Song   by Susan Jane Bigelow I struggled with this. I just found it hard to relate to. Obviously though, plenty of others loved it. Basically the main character, Andin and subsequently the plot, did not draw me in. I took 7 days to read this. If I'd been engaged I would have taken a couple of hours. Because so many others were so positive, I can only conclude that this book was not a good fit for me.  A NetGalley ARC

The Advent of Lady Madeline: A Novella (The Lyons Pride # 0.5)   by  Pamela Sherwood Lady Madeline, eldest daughter of Harold Lyons, the Duke of Whitborough, has until now not been interested in any suitors, that is until she meets at Hugo Lowell, Viscount Saxby at her family's house party. Hugo has been contemplating marriage and has attended the house party at the behest of his sister to keep an eye on their younger brother. He is enroute to spend Christmas with a family whose daughter seems to be a promising bride. That was before he met Madeline. This pleasing novella bodes well for the series. A NetGalley ARC ***

Her Wicked Highlander: A Highland Knights Novella   (Highland Knights #2.5)   by  Jennifer Haymore Newly minted highland knight Maxwell White has been charged to safeguard Max Aila MacKerrick, a single highlands woman living by herself. Max is unthinking in his bundling up and kidnapping of Alia in the middle of the night from her lonely cottage--even if it is for her safety. A legendary dagger is the key point. A relic that will ensure the holder rallies the clans against the English crown. The highland knights must ensure that this doesn't happen. Alia is a feisty highland lass who will not go anywhere willing, least of all with a brawny warrior who hasn't the whit to disclose to her the dangers. Mind you the action moved quickly both in bed and out.  I did find Alia's quick acquiescence to sensuality surprising.  But then this is a novella and there's a lot to pack in just a few chapters.  Time lines aside, Max and Alia's story is deli...