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...