eyes.2c Reviews

A Lark's Gambit  (Verity Lark’s Mysteries #6) by Lynn Messina         ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ Verity Lark finds herself in something of a conundrum about many things. There’s her relationship with Lord Hardwicke Coulson, the Marquis of Ware’s son, varied household personality arrangements and innovations, keeping together her aliases and disguises (which I adore), and her unspoken need to continue her way of doing things. Then there’s the Marquis himself! Double Hmm! The Ton has left London for the summer and her personae Mr. Twaddle-Thum is somewhat bereft of gossip for his column. “ One could not detail the aristocracy’s many quirks and foibles when the aristocrats were not in London to quirk and foible. Twaddle found it vexing indeed.” Freddie, owner of the London Daily Gazette, comes to the rescue with a list that included Verity’s former employer, an all out leacherous sleaze, and repellent person, the Earl of Stetchford. It’s Verity’s investigations at a Venetian Brea...

Lady Ashley Never Behaves  (Season of Secrets #4) by Bronwen Evans        ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ The tale of the Duke of Blackstone and Lady Ashley Ware’s sudden marriage of convenience transforming into a love match has lots of wrinkles and surprises. Who knew pain could bring two people together? Raven is torn up by the murder of his beloved mistress, Ashley’s been the unwarranted epitome of scandal for three years. Consolation shared in a public place! Well!! Loved it! A Dragonblade ARC via NetGalley.                                               Many thanks to the author and publisher.

No Ordinary Lyon  (Lyon’s Den Connected World) by Sherry Ewing      ⭐️⭐️⭐️ The Waterloo injured hero, Captain Gideon Tyler, scarred and withdrawn, with memory loss is a common enough trope.  The woman, Miss Violet  Barnet, a practicing apothecary, is come to London at the behest of her cousin, Patience, a recently married countess. Violet has agreed to look for a possible husband at the Lyon’s Den gambling establishment. Perspective suitors  were  introduced to her by Mrs. Dove-Lyon. Patience has paid the match makers fee. Of course there’s a wretched villain who has evil on his mind, and knows our hero Gideon from time spent together in the war.  I find it hard to get over the pet names the main characters call each other, Sir Knight and Lady Angel. Very twee. A Dragonblade ARC via NetGalley.                                           ...

A Lyon for Luck : The Lyon’s Den Connected World by Chasity Bowlin      ⭐️⭐️⭐️ Miss Daphne Aces has been hard done by that’s for sure. She’s an heiress but her parents want her inheritance to clear their debts. Parents who are willing to trade you for money to a despicable future husband. Mrs. Bessie Dove-Lyonx helps solve her problem and introduces her to the newly and unexpectedly peer, Fletcher Quill, Lord Aldwyn  who’s come into an inheritance that’s in debt to the hilt. Once before Daphne had been abducted by someone fleeing to Gretna Green with her. As a result her fiancé broke the engagement and she is shunned by society. This time Daphne flees on her own terms. A rather untaxing lovely read. A Dragonblade ARC via NetGalley.                                               Many thanks to the author and publisher.

Fast and Fastidious  by R. M. Caldwell        ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ Lucy Elliot is different. Operating in her world means she needs guidelines to take her through social occasions. If all she had to do was fathom a mechanical problem or design a carriage, things would be fine. Walking into a ball has her heading to a quiet nook to acclimatize. By accident Lucy discovers the Night Races. The egalitarian event is held near to the village, once a month when the moon is full at midnight. Lucy’s life is changed.  Two years later Lucy meets a cavalry Captain at the races. She’d already met the indisputable champions of the Night Races, Dante Torres and his crew. Captain James Dashwood had arrived in the neighbourhood to stay at one of his father’s properties, Ellsworth Manor. Lucy suspects he’s been sent here to avoid gambling debts or something else. Interestingly there’s been a series of government papers, coaches and men have gone missing. This quiet village has be...

Better than a Duke by Suzanne Enoch ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ Two wonderful scamps belonging to a  widowed Marquis, and a widowed lady living next door, form a strong friendship. As do their parents. Both Beckett Raines, the Marquis of Hentrose and Mrs. Irish Silbern are beset by manipulating relatives trying to marry them off to highly suitable parties who are underhanded and nasty. How to get that HEA their children, young Lady Becks (nine years old) and Edmond Silbern (slightly older) want is beset with problems, riotous behavior and startling events. I laughed and gasped the whole way through!  A fabulous read with so many unusual and amusing incidents. I loved it! This is a keeper to be reread when you want a laugh. A Tor ARC via NetGalley.                                               Many thanks to the author and publisher.

Can't Get Enough of the Duke  (Thunderbolt Club #2) by Lenora Bell        ⭐️⭐️⭐️    As cavalryman Lieutenant John Crewe lay dying on the battlefields of Belgium his commander Deckard Payne, Duke of Warburton promised to become the guardian for his young daughter, Annalise. Wounded, it takes several years for Dex to find his ward. I loved to two main characters, the delightful Annalise, budding author, and the brooding battle scarred duke, her guardian. I equally enjoyed the story of the dragon written by Ana unfolding before every chapter. A cunning metaphor. In the end though the story became all too predicable. Ana’s search for her father leads her into trouble. We knew it would. The surprises weren’t as effective. The potential five star read, devolved for me into a pleasing read. A Avon and Harper Voyager ARC via NetGalley.                                   ...

A Wager at Midnight  (Betting against the Duke #2) by Vanessa Riley       ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ There’s a certain cadence of prose running through Riley’s novels about the Duke of Torrance and his wards, the Wilcox ladies. I really enjoyed this title in the “Betting” series. Scarlett Wilcox had made a bargain with the Duke. He could choose a husband for her. Scarlett’s greatest desire is to research medical science in particular the eye, in order to understand the cataracts that beset a favorite companion. To attend medical lectures she must disguise herself as a man. She presents herself as Scotland Wilcox. This leads to some problems when taken up by a group of medical men, whisked off to White’s and thence to a brothel! Scarlett wants to know more about Dr. Carew. Is he brave enough for her? Her time with him disguised as Scotland was interesting. Carew (who’s recently been jilted) is thinking of Scarlett as wife material, but will he take her scientific desires seriously? ...

A Most Unsuitable Suitor  (Spicy Regency Romances) by Emma Orchard             ⭐️⭐️⭐️ I really tried to get into this story but I kept leaving it and picking up something else. The plot moved slowly, and my interest waned.  Unusual, because normally I enjoy Emma Orchard’s titles. Allegra Constantine has to choose a suitor. Her fancy alights on the unsuitable Max Severin. Her other suitors are like Goldilock’s porridge “just not right.” But Max?! The two main characters figuring out if marriage was in the cards or not left me yawning and completely apathetic to their plight. They were quite commanding each in their own right, but together, the chemistry balked. Even though the pace picked up in the last parts, I was just over it. A Boldwood Boooks ARC via NetGalley.                                               Many thanks to the auth...

The Halifax Hellions  (Halifax Hellions #1-2) by Alexandra Vasti             ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ I thought I was going crazy when I started Margot’s story, one of the Halifax twins. I wasn’t. I had read it before on Vasti’s website. I enjoyed it just as much the second time around. Her relationship with Henry Mortimer is outrageous and  chaotic, not to mention the carriage crash! A real one! Matilda’s story! Well that’s certainly an eye opener. Again outre, and enchanting with a touch of the gothic. Matilda’s relationship with the Marquess of Ashford, Christian de Bord, emerges as challenging, tender and different. We have four people who are kind, often leave turbulence in their wake, and loving.  Some broken, others stalwart and true.  Margot and Matilda must sort out their responses to life as it’s been, their lives as twins, and where and who they wish to become. In doing so they become unmoored  and yet more whole. Delightful! And yes ...

The Lyon Who Desired Me  (The Lyon Den’s Connected World)   by Tracy Sumner           ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ There’s been a flurry of tales lately about scientifically or mathematical bent young ladies struggling in society to either make a good marriage, not wanting to be married, or married for convenience, all the while hiding their intellectual abilities under a bushel as it were. Not so Lady Louisa Radcliffe. She’s known for her explosions and incendiary  happenings. Louisa has a large dowry and is the daughter of a duke. However she decides to take charge when it looks like a dullard, a senseless earl, is going to offer for her. Louisa wants more. She seeks help from the mysterious Mrs. Dove-Lyon. Louisa’s interests have landed on the volatile rake and gambler Dominic Beckett, who just happens, in a convoluted roundabout way, to be related somehow to Mrs. Dove-Lyons. Louisa’s decision is based on an encounter with Dominic in a bookshop when they were bo...

Sense and Suitability  by Pepper Basham           ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ Only Emmeline Lockhart, Gentleman’s daughter with no dowry to speak of, could turn heartache into something else. When she waited in the garden for Simon Reeves to propose, nephew to the Viscount of Ravenscross, little did she know that he’d left her after penning a short note. Emme is devastated and retreats to her home in St Groves to heal and write. Would that the healing would happen! The writing certainly is. Stranger things do happen, especially whilst she’s visiting a distraught widow on behalf of her cousin Thomas, the local vicar. Emme certainly didn’t expect to meet Simon, now Viscount Ravenscross, after she’d chased a young child on a rather fast horse. A girl she’d spied dragging a sack onto the back of her horse replete with the widow’s stolen chickens. Nor did she expect to be precipitously thrown over her own horse’s head into a pond only  to be rescued by said Viscount. Simon ...

These Violet Delights : A Novel by Madeleine Roux      ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ Violet Arden has always seen things differently. Her heart and mind follow the siren’s call of creativity. Unfortunately her aspirations as an artist hit rock bottom when she’s publicly confronted at an exhibition in Mayfair by the fiancée of three years of her French mentor, Renaud Moncelle. The same Renaud who’d spun lures about marrying her. Not only that, Violet overhears a derogatory comment by a gentleman about her displayed painting.  That gentleman was Alasdair Kerr, a neighbour near her home. All is enough to send Violet back to Warwickshire. An important female artist, Cristabel Bilbury, joins her to continue her instruction. Here Violet again meets Alasdair. He recognizes a fellow thinker in Violet but will that be enough?  There’s a history between the Kerr’s and the Richmond’s / Arden’s.  That history is going to play out in dangerous ways. A fascinating regency tale woven around ...