eyes.2c Reviews

The Duke Effect (Rogue Files #7) by Sophie Jordan ****             It's that Nora ... again! The Nora Langleywho's happiest concocting various healing substances, setting bones, and generally physicking those around her. The same Nora who in 'While the Duke was Sleeping' had inadvertently given her sister something to alleviate her menses pain that ended up having an aphrodisiac effect. That was an interesting factor in the mix! Well Nora's still using her healing abilities. This time however she ends up using ducal heir Constantine Sinclair with as a test subject using just a touch of her ahem! pain medicine, and once again the path of mischief opens up in unexpected new ways. Con, formerly an army colonel had been communicating with Nora's father so imagine his horror when he realizes he's been bearing his worries to a woman! Not the feted Doctor--but his charlatan (in Con's eyes) daughter. He does give her the chance to assist with the problemsof chr...

Love Is a Rogue (Wallflowers vs Rogues #1) by Lenora Bell            **** First in the  Wallflowers vs Rogues series. Lady Beatrice Bentley, a studious young woman whose desire is to write an etymological dictionary and not marry runs smack bang into the desire she's rarely been brave enough to think about. The attraction she experiences for the carpenter Stamford Wright, her brother Drew, Duke of Thorndon has employed, to make repairs to his Cornwall property destroyed any notion of the tranquility she'd hoped to find for her special project. Beatrice's time to pursue her word smithing for her great dictionary is precious and the permission to do this was a bargain Beatrice had reached with her mother.  The point of their understanding is that when she returns to London she'll fully participate in the coming season, and not hang about amongst the pot plants avoiding all and sundry. Beatrice's mother is quite desperate to marry her off. Beatrice ...

A Very Highland Holiday:  A collection of six enchanting seasonal novellas   by Kathryn Le Veque, Jennifer Ashley, Tanya Anne Crosby, Kerrigan Byrne, Eliza Knight, Darcy Burke ***** What a stunning array of authors in one beguilingly gift wrapped cover. Some of my favs entertaining with Christmas surprises of the past, of the unknown. All stories are set in the Calvine Village in the Scottish Highlands. Balthazar’s Tavern on the road to Inverness is the focal point for the stories. Culloden is nearby and the tavern owner's daughter Carrie has setup a secret room of artifacts from the battle, from both sides of the conflict. Some Carrie has collected, some have been brought to her. She calls the room 'the Chamber of Sorrows. That’s what it is, ye know… a place full of sorrow. But it’s also a shrine tae the brave dead.”' The Earl in Winter by Kathryn Le Veque is set just months after the Culloden War. (1746) A  Sassenach, the new Earl James de Lohr, has come looking for his...

The Virgin Who Ruined Lord Gray (The Swooning Virgins Society #1)   by Anna Bradley           ***** What's not to LOVE! Take a dubious school, the Clifford Charity School on the edge of Seven Dials, led by the mysterious Lady Amanda Clifford, and a small cadre of different and fascinating girls. The fact that they all love to read Miss Radcliffe's stories is rather endearing. There are rules of course. All must be present for any reading to continue is one of the most important. Take one of their members, Sophia Monmouth, who is an endearing, brave and shrewd  spirit, who has mastered the art of surveillance, of disappearing into the background, mostly! Then take a Bow Street Runner turned Earl!  (Oh my, putting two of my fav tropes together is so a recipe for success! Add in treachery, murder and an innocent branded killer! My cup runneth over! ) It seems these young women, Sophie in particular, are trained in quite different ways at this mysteri...

My Last Duchess (The Wildes of Lindow Castle #0.5) by Eloisa James              ***** Of course I was going to love Ophelia (Lady Astley) and Hugo's (the Duke of Lindow) romance. James has not disappointed. Having adored the Wilde children's travails, this prequel provides a lively background to Hugo and Ophelia's meeting and eventual marriage. Mind you it was a close run thing as the widowed Ophelia had decided not to marry again. Why should she? She has a lovely home, running smoothly with supportive staff. Hugo decided he needed a Duchess to help organize his eight wonderfully high spirited children (well except for his rather priggish heir, Horatius).  After running away, well hastening her departure from a Ball where she was being pursued by Hugo, his jumping into her carriage takes Ophelia down a different track. All very Cinderella, especially the description of the carriage which doesn't quite turn into a pumpkin but it's fate becomes a p...

The Last Druid (The Fall of Shannara #4) by Terry Brooks     ****     The Shannara series. Wow! I remember reading Sword of Shannara when it came out in 1977. I was giddy with the newness of it all. And down through the years I’ve eagerly tracked the Shanarra stories. Not all appealed to me but when you're a fan you carry on. Now here we are at the last Hurrah! In this fourth episode of the Fall of Shannara we come full circle.  Of course there's magic, intrigue and adventure, old memories, descendants from the original crew encompassing new twists. A fitting conclusion to Brooks' Magnum Opus, the Shannara sagas. We've come a long way from that first novel. A Random House - Ballantine ARC via NetGalley   

Once Upon a Time in Bath (Brides of Bath #7)   by Cheryl Bolen            *** I just couldn't really connect with Dot and Appleton. Forrester Timothy Appleton, recently elevated to Viscount Appleton, rushes to make the aqauintance of the strange,  cat loving heiress come to Bath (amazing what a new outfit does!) Miss Dorothea Pankhurst, leaving a lot to be desired. Having gambled away his entire fortune and estates to the alarming and odious Mr. Henry Wolfe (who's like a more coldly, soulless edition of the obsequious Jedadiah Slope) Appleton needs an heires like NOW! I didn't like his gaming disaster, even if things were a little off. There's such a thing as folding when things look bad, isn't there? Still for the sake of the story, which entails dark deeds, murder, near mishaps and Wolf's attempts to get close to Appleton's sister, Annie matters are not simple on any front. The plot ran along a well chartered route that although giving us a sati...

Death and the Maiden (Mistress of the Art of Death #5) by Samantha Norman, Ariana Franklin **** Young maidens are missing and drowned in the Fens of 1191. No one in authority is putting things together. The Fens! Truly some of my favorite medieval mysteries have been set here! Adelia Aguilar is not the woman I remembered her to be. Admittedly she is now older and retired, but still as oblivious and yet at the same time as frenetic as usual. Adelia has been training her daughter Allie in her craft, so when the call comes for help with an old friend's illness, she reluctantly sends Allie to Ely. Partly at the urging of Allie's father and her love, Rowley, Bishop of Saint Albans. He is worried about Allie's future and that she won't have the protection of a patron like Adelia did. (Of course the ugly spectre of healers being accused of witchcraft stands in the background) One of the most interesting characters is Lady Penda of Elsford with her wolf cloak and skill with th...

Lyon's Prey (The Lyons Den)   by Anna St. Claire              **** Must say I'm really enjoying this series. This time a Lord and Lady find themselves at the mercy of the matchmaker, the Black Widow of the Lyon's Den, abetted by the  Lady's mother, the Lady's propensity to impulsiveness, and the Lord's inclination to drink himself into a stupor. Evan Prescott, the fifth Earl of Clarendon, lost his wife in child birth and hasn't recovered. For the past twelve months he's been intent on drowning his sorrows, sans son. So it comes as a shock when his sister returns the child and departs. Evan is forced to set caregiving events into motion. A nanny and a complacent wife seem in order for starters. Lady Charlotte Grisham pays a visit to Evan to complain about a near accident between his coach and her brother. However as she's a single woman who's visited his home she ends up in BIG TROUBLE! Enter the Black Widow an old friend it seems of Charlott...

London's Most Elusive Earl (Midnight Secrets #4)   by Anabelle Bryant         *** Scoundrel and irrepressible rogue,' Lord Jonathan Cromford, Earl of Lindsey, is being brought to heel by his disdainful, dead father. Until Jonathan marries and has an heir his father's will determines he cannot claim his full inheritance. Time limits and hoops to jump over have been set, effectively whittling Jonathan's choices. Lady Caroline Nicholson has returned from Italy with her family determined  to make an unparalleled match and be married before the end of the season. Having cousins who are adept at weaving their way through society will help, that is, until she meets Jonathan.  From high society to the murky world of art heists and fabulous fakes, the stakes and subsequent choices are high for Jonathan and Caroline, never more so than when Caroline realizes she can't meet the demands dictated to Jonathan. Some tense times carry the day in this read although the...

Napoleon’s Run: An Epic Naval Adventure of Espionage and Action (William John Hazzard #1) by Jonathan Spencer ***** Spencer has not only written an energizing Naval saga around the times of Nelson, but he's thrown in a mystery, a love story and intrigue that sweeps from Cape Town to Naples and on to Malta, between 1795 and 1798. Our hero William John Hazzard, Lieutenant of Marines, has become an embittered disillusioned figure after his Cape Town endeavours and what he perceives as a politically motivated treachery and dishonor on the part of the Admiralty. For me Hazzard is a man in the vein of of Cornwell's Sharpe figure. (Whom I have for ever  been in love with--or is that Sean Bean? Oh my! Shallow side of me revealed!) I'm really enjoying this new anti hero, somewhat of a berserker when pressed. No wonder another of my fav. historical writer's Michael Jecks likes this. The enemy within? Figures within the Admiralty who obfuscate situations, and lie to Hazzard, send...

The Footman and I (The Footmen's Club #1)   by Valerie Bowman       **  1/2 A reasonably light hearted Regency romance with the plot revolving around three nobleman who end up at a 'ton' house party posing as footmen, or a groom. (As an aside these house parties are obviously places fraught with Intrigue and danger--for everyone!) It started off with Lucas Drake, the new fifth Earl of Kendall, who resigned his naval career post his brother's death. He knows he has to marry but he doesn't want to marry an empty headed, flittering social butterfly, he's looking for someone with a 'true' heart. Avoiding the debutante corps and their mothers is important. He convinces one friend to hold a house party where he will be installed as a footman. Two of his friends decide to join him, placing a bet as to whose disguise would be first uncovered. The Earl has another major goal he's been pursuing, to drum up support amongst his fellow Lords for the Employment Bi...

Misleading A Duke (The Wallflowers of West Lane #2)   by A.S. Fenichel     I really wanted to like this next in the Wallflowers series. Unexpectedly I found myself not at all in sympatico with Lady Faith Landon, even though she's found herself betrothed to a man she's hardly ever met Nicholas Ellsworth, Duke of Breckenridge. Of course she wants her fellow Wallflowers to help her investigate the mysterious Duke. The problem is that Nicholas is a secret agent and has been on a dangerous mission in France. Faith and her sister Wallflowers' actions put him in peril. Nicholas is furious. Hoping to mend the situation they lure Nicholas to an isolated castle in order to give Faith the time and space to make amends. Of course that goes pear shaped faster than you can take a breath. I tried several times to come to grips with the situation. I just ended up losing patience with Faith putting herself and others in danger. That I found hard to forgive. And she admitted that. ...

Snow: A Novel by John Banville         A Catholic Priest has been rather viciously killed. Detective Inspector (St. John pronounced Sinjun) Strafford has been sent to investigate. And that's an interesting aspect of the story as well. The snow and cold frame the story's heaviness to a nicety. The accompanying notes to the Father's death don't leave much room for us not to make the leap as to why he might've been killed but, the melding of Strafford's voice counterpointed by that of the dead man threw me. I wasn't really up for the very matter of fact explanations for abuse dropping from the perpetrator's lips. So reasonable, with such convinced righteousness. Very confronting and shocking!  Father Tom had totally convinced himself that it was his victims' fault. Banville's writing is so very disarming, and it's this tension that for me carries the drama. As do the cast of characters who inhabit the small village of Ballyclass. A plac...

Paris Time Capsule by Ella Carey        Strangely compelling story of a young woman who inherits an apartment in Paris. Cat Jordan travels from New York to Paris, clutching an old brass key as per a letter telling her of an inheritance from an unknown woman, Isabelle de Florian. It is only when the apartment is opened in 2015, having been closed since 1940, that an even more complex puzzle starts to unfold. There are many dead ends as Cat tries to come to grips with the path that has led to her. Let my bias reign. The story half won me at Paris and totally clinched it for me with the references to vintage fashion. Top that off with the charming Frenchman and the brash fiancé, well what can I say? Bliss! Based on a true occurrence, Carey has written a well crafted story that brims with hope, hidden secrets and mystery. Engaged to a merchant banker, vintage clothes collector and photographer Cat couldn't be further from her fiancé's self centered, all white...

A Pretty Deceit (Verity Kent Mystery #4) by Anna Lee Huber         An anxious call from her parents has ex British Secret Agent Verity Kent and her husband Sidney motoring down to her aunt's home in northeastern Wiltshire (well her cousin Reg's really!) to solve the problem of missing valuables and paintings, and well--ghosts! Not that Verity wanted to, but her mother can be quite persistent and Verity seems to be always trying to please her parents. The relationship with the parentals is more than a tad fraught. Of course this will give Sidney a chance to drive full throttle in his new Pierce-Arrow, replacing the one lost in a previous investigation. What Verity and Sidney are confronted with is a missing maid, a murdered man, and moreover, as they start to thread their way through things, a suspected link to their arch enemy Lord Ardmore. Matters escalate. Sidney and Verity are in danger along with their friend Max, the Earl of Ryde. Chief Inspector Thorea...

Brass Carriages and Glass Hearts (Proper Romance Steampunk #4) by Nancy Campbell Allen        I do enjoy steampunk but must admit I haven't read any for a couple of years. I was unsure if I wanted to get back into this genre, and wondered if I could read this without having a knowledge of the series background. I'm pleased to say this stands alone, so that's that hurdle down. I'm now committed to investigating the series, and a have renewed interest in this genre. I enjoyed Brass Carriages immensely. I loved the courage and vivacity of Emme (Emmeline Castle O’Shea) and the long suffering, dependable and broodingly, focused energy of Oliver (Detective-Inspector Oliver Reed). (Really? Oliver Reed? Mmm! I can see that!)  Emme is a strong advocate for the rights of the shifter community and is working on trying to repeal the Predatory Shifter Extermination Act. An important international conference, The International Shifter Rights Organization is being held...