eyes.2c Reviews

The Chaperone’s Secret  ( Classic Regency Romances #19)     by    Donna Lea Simpson                              I felt like I was reading a version of the Cinderella story with Cinders being Amy Corbett and her charge Rowena, the ugly stepsister. Amy has been snaffled away from her kind employer by Lady Rowena's autocratic father, the Duke, to chaperone his daughter during the coming season, and to ensure that Rowena finally marries. Failure is not an option. He really is a very unlikeable man. Unfortunately, Amy in accepting the employment that is, well 'fait accompli' is at the mercy of the Duke and his daughter.  Lady Rowena is disdainful of others and solely concerned about her impact on men in particular. Her shallowness and meanness is breathtaking. Lord Dante Pierson  sees a vision go by late at night when he's sprawled in the gutter with two helpful 'ladi...

An Eccentric Engagement  ( Classic Regency Romances #18)   by  Donna Lea Simpson.                                   I thought about the word 'charming', but that's not quite right. Sorrow Marchand is not charming, she's spirited and insightful and attuned to others. Her world is not 'charming.' It is however forthright, kind and true. We really don't see much of Sorrow's interaction with the ton. What we do see is her interaction with her very unusual family--one that is certainly far from any family her fiancé,  the Honorable Bertram Carlyle, has envisioned. We do see is the growth of Bertram and Sorrow's relationship into one of true understanding and appreciation, and for Bertram the coming into being his own man. Until now he's been at the beck and call of his domineering father, Lord Newton. The early arrival of Bertram's father  does put Sorrow through her pa...

The Rogue's Folly (Classic Regency Romances Book 10) by Donna Lea Simpson  Ah! The prim Lady May von Hoffen may be aghast at her widowed mother's scandalous behaviour over the years, particularly when she becomes the focus of various nefarious plots, but when she finds a handsome injured Frenchman at her very doorstep then perhaps the wheel is turning. Lady May is hiding out, dressed in greys with 'her hair constricted and tortured into a tight bun.' Having been kidnapped by her mother's lover, the despicable Captain Dempster, she was rescued by the handsome frenchman Etienne Roulant Delafont, himself rumoured to be a rogue and worse. Her thoughts often turn to that rescue as she assures herself that she 'loves him like a brother.' Now May is hiding away from society and society at Lark House in Kent. What she doesn't expect is the gallant Etienne to turn up injured  on her doorstep, well at the folly really, with his magnificent black stallion The...

A Matchmaker's Christmas (Classic Regency Romances Book 11) by Donna Lea Simpson What a corker!  Elderly Lady Bournaud decides to host a Christmas party and matchmaking event all in one and Sir David Chappell doesn't realize what he's in for. David owed Lady B more than an indulgence and her letter to him sounded plaintive. Was she sickening? So off he goes, lured to the wilds of Yorkshire, as do others. Beatrice Copeland, Lady B's companion has a dark secret that changed her life. Her comfort level is about to be challenged. As is Lady Bournaud's when her matchmaking plans go astray. I enjoyed the wild Canadian, Verity Allen, LadyB's cousin's daughter, (who refuses to marry properly!), and for whom the plot is hatched. The under estimated Lady Sylvia Hampton is amusing as is the vicar Mark Rowland. I didn't really warm to the two main characters, Beatrice and her nemesis from the past, Sir David Chappell. They fall short. Neither is fully rounde...

Married to a Rogue (Classic Regency Romances #9) by Donna Lea Simpson  The thing is I thought Lady Emily Sedgely was magnificent and loved Belle. Baxter, Marquess of Sedgely, however comes across as so Mr Darcy gone wrong. The fact that he had this passionate relationship with his wife, is presented as a determined man with a mind of his own and yet allows his mother to make his wife's life miserable just doesn't ring true. He is left looking foolish. Connecting these two different sides of his personality is difficult. A proud and pigheaded man, a man of 'uncertain temper' whose actions have brought about his own, and his wife's suffering, and the hiatus in their relationship. Yet in his unguarded moments of acknowledged love for his wife, and in the protection he shows towards his gamine mistress Belle, we see a different person.  Is Baxter a rogue? He doesn't come across like that to me. More a stubborn and wilful man who knows his due. I took a disli...

A Scandalous Plan (Classic Regency Romances) by Donna Lea Simpson Those managing females certainly abound in Regency novels. Were they so prolific back then? Jane Austen and Georgette Heyer have a lot to answer for. Now we have Lady Theresa Barclay, daughter of the Earl of Leighton. From the get go she is on the move, solving everyone's problems from the bullying biddies to the newcomer, the gentleman Mr. James Martindale, who has just moved his family to the bosom of her village. So of course Lady Theresa is going to manage his family as well. After all she does complain in the opening pages of how dissatisfied she's feeling after the rush of London. You and I might say that she is bored! In taking up the challenge to have the Martindale family accepted by the villagers , Lady Theresa might have gone a little too far, but after all, the means justify the ends, don't they? ...and if her heart breaks along the way, well it's all in a good cause, isn't ...

A Rogue's Rescue by Donna Lea Simpson                                                     With the opening paragraph I felt I was watching a David Attenborough documentary. I swear I heard Attenborough 's dulcet tones coming through as a voice over marking the rituals of the ton in full swing, to wit,                      ' Ingram stalked the crowded ballroom, his presence at the edge making the others nervous, like prey at a water hole that raise their heads and sniff the air to catch the scent of the black panther, rustling through the underbrush.' Enter Viscount Ingram, a man careless of society. Present is Ariadne Lambert, a wealthy and somewhat irregular spinster. Plots and counter plots are hatched to expose a scoundrel lurking within the bosom of the ton. Ariadne has taken up the chall...