Tempting A Proper Lady by Debra Mullins

Captain Samuel Breedlow had returned home after being missing for nearly two years to find his fiancee announcing her engagement to another man, a man he hates, the Earl of Raventhorpe. As he storms forward to announce that Annabelle is his fiancee, Priscilla Burke sees her future as wedding planner to the ton going up in smoke. She tries to dissuade Samuel but he know the true nature of the Earl, after all, it was he who left Samuel for dead on a deserted island. Samuel finally leaves the party but not without giving a few glances to the lovely Cilla.

Cilla has her own reasons for her first wedding as the wedding planner to go off without a hitch. She needs the income that the position would give her as her husband has passed away and she refuses to marry again, as she was burned badly by her husband. So when Samuel comes to her and proposes that they stop this wedding, she is appalled. But Samuel persists and is able to show some of the true evil colors (really low, vile things) of Raventhorpe to Cilla. Cilla realizes she must help Samuel as she cannot allow her friend to marry this villain so she proposes a plan to Samuel...he will teach her the ways to please a man so she may become a mistress if her wedding planner job falls through.

I very much enjoyed this book. Watching the attraction turn from lust to love was very well done (and quite steamy!). There is a wonderful set of secondary characters that add just enough to the story without overpowering it but leave you ready for more of their stories. (And I am happy to see that Samuels friend, John Ready is the hero for the next book, Too Wicked to Love.) Overall, this is a good romance book with a bit of intrigue and suspense to help it move along but not overwhelm the storyline of two people who are not looking for love but finding it anyways. This was my first Debra Mullins book and I will be looking for more! 4 stars

To Tempt a Rake by Cara Elliott

Kate Woodbridge had a very unusual childhood for a granddaughter of a duke. She traveled the world with her parents acquiring expertise in botany and has no real claim for all the traditional English customs. But a promise to her dying parents forces her to return to London and try to build a relationship with the stogy old duke. Thankfully she meets up with the other intellectual ladies in the 'Circle of Sin' and has somewhere where she feels like she belongs but she still does not tell the ladies all her shameful secrets of her past.

When she meets the cousin of one of her friends, Marco, the Conte of Como, she is quite flustered as they have met in the past and she just hopes Marco does not remember her. Too bad he eventually places her unique scent and remembers where and why they have meet before. By this time they are both at her grandfathers country home for a party, Kate is there at her grandfathers request, and Marco is there on some secret business for the government and everything goes into a tailspin when there is a murder and the blame is pointed at Kate.

This is the third book I have read from Cara Elliott and I have enjoyed every single one. It has a wonderful mix of heated romance, mystery and touching relationships between family members. There is a small side romance between a couple of the older characters that I very much enjoyed and thought it added a nice warmth to the storyline, along with a few chuckles, watching those two hard headed people butt heads. You can feel the attraction between Kate and Marco right away, and even though they previously met in the second book (To Surrender To A Rogue) you don't need to read them in order, though you do get more of a sense of their early relationship. When Kate and Marco must embark on an adventure together that neither one expected, Marco finally comes to terms with why his is such a rogue (this part I thought could have been expanded upon a bit more to give him a bit more history) and Kate finally finds the love she has been missing since her parents death from more than one place. This is an excellent trilogy and I look forward to future books from Ms Elliott. 4 stars!

I won this book on goodreads.com through their first reads program, thanks!

Till Dawn with the Devil by Alexandra Hawkins

This was yet another enjoyable, quick read for me from Alexandra Hawkins. This is the story of Gabriel Housely, Earl of Rainecourt aka "Reign". Reign catches a glimpse of a pretty woman with blue bows on her gown and when he finally finds her in the room, Lady Sophia is chatting with a man he believes is of questionable character and sweeps her off to dance. Little does he know that Lady Sophia suffered an horrible accident as a child and her vision is damaged and she avoids dancing as she can not see well enough to keep up in an unfamiliar surroundings. When Reign calls her clumsy, she about bits his head off!

Now Reign and Sophia share a terrible tragedy from their childhood and when Reign discovers who she is he tries to put his feelings aside. But he happens upon her in town one day and show her a bit of archery...and I guess they had several encounters like this, but like the previous book, this was all off the pages. Not quite sure why both books had so much of the developing relationship take place off the pages but its the one major thing that bugged me about both books.

Anyways...Sophias brothers force her into accepting marriage to help cover their gambling debts and Reign catches wind of this plan and comes to Sophias rescue by offering marriage to himself so he can protect her. Now Reigns first wife died a tragic death that he is blamed for, though he had no part in it, and has vowed to never be duped by love and happiness and marriage again. But something about Sophia settles in his heart and just never lets go. When they are forced to leave London and return to his country home, the scene of the tragedy of their young lives, there is quite an odd twist that I did not see coming. Again, a tad unbelievable like the first book, but it had me turning the pages quickly to see how it all unfolded. This is a great story of love and trust and healing huge hurdles and the added bonus of a visually impaired heroine that is not afraid to speak up for herself makes this a good book not to start before you go to bed...unless you want to stay up all night reading it! Looking forward to more of these Lord of Vices, I believe there are seven men so hopefully we get seven books! 4 stars

All Night with a Rogue by Alexandra Hawkins

Hmmm, what to say, what to say? This book is full of all those cliches you love to hate. First, the book opens with our hero, Alexius Braverton, Marquess of Sinclair, aka Sin, having a pleasurable moment in the garden with another mans wife. But when he sees a small white plume float down on the ladys head, he glances up into the tree and meets the terrified glance of Lady Juliana Ives. Juliana has scaled the tree to get away from a persistent sutior...she does not expect to witness a rendezvous between her hostess and the decidedly handsome man. As Alexius helps Juliana down from the tree she refuses to give her name and hurries inside, leaving Alexius a tad befuddled.

Then, Alexius is summoned to his sisters and she begs of him to seduce this women whom she believes is stealing the attention of her suitor. Alexius reluctantly agrees to look into the matter so imagine his surprise when he is secluded at yet another ball in a room with yet another woman when in bursts Juliana being tailed by Alexius friend. He is more than happy to see her but when he learns her name finally, he is stunned when he realizes that this is who is sister wants him to seduce and ruin.

Oh, and ruin her he does! First there are pearls and a carriage ride. Then there is the music room scene. Then all of a sudden they are lovers all the time but this is never shown, just skipped over which bothered me. We were just supposed to believe they became lovers and developed feelings for each other, but that relationship was really never shown after their first time. But wait..we have a few more cliches that happen! Her mother gets into too much trouble gambling and is forced to make Juliana marry a vile man to settle the debt. But there is more of a twist there with a cousin and there is a big scene at the opera that shatters Juliana when she realizes that Alexius can not see the truth of the matter. She finally learns the truth of what Alexius was asked to do and refuses to speak to him. But naturally, she forgives him in the end and they get to live happily ever after.

Even though this book had many things I don't normally like in a book, I still stayed up late to finish it (and with a 3 and 4 year old, that doesn't happen often!). I just wanted to keep turning the pages to see what unbelievable thing could happen next. I have already started the next book, Till Dawn with the Devil and it has me turning the pages just as quickly (though not as many train wrecks this time). Overall though, if you can suspend reality a bit this is a great quick, steamy read. 3 1/2 stars

Ripe for Pleasure by Isobel Carr

Viola Whedon, former courtesan, is woken out of sleep one night to hear intruders in her home. She hears the men whispering that whatever they were looking for had to be there and as Viola was finishing writing up her second memoir of her past protectors, she assumes they are looking for it so it can not be published. She know she has hidden it well she flees from her room only to be saved from the villains by Leonidas Vaughn. Little does she know that Leo is somewhat involved in the burglary, through his cousin. Leo had came across some letters leaving him to believe that there was some hidden treasure stashed in her home and he shared this news with his cousin, who took it upon himself to proceed with his plan of finding the treasure no matter what the cost. Leo, on the other hand, has his own plan. He plans to seduce the lovely Mrs Whedon and secretly search him home. He does not count on his own feelings that start the moment he meets the slightly terrified eyes of Viola.

Viola also does not count on her own growing attraction to Leo. She shares her bed with him, without the formality of a contract, because as a younger son, he could not afford her anyways. But there is a much deeper reason she agrees to be in his bed and she refuses to believe it, just shoves it away. She has already been hurt in the past, becoming a penniless widow at seventeen and shunned from her family, she has a hard time accepting that Leo loves and accepts her as does his family. They have many hurdles to overcome though until they can reach their happily ever after. First, Leo is hiding the true reason she keeps getting attacked. Viola continues to believe it is about her manuscript and it takes Leo quite awhile to finally tell her the truth. Then Viola is abducted by Leos mother, but that, thankfully, was a pleasant altercation. One of the bright spots of this book was Lady Beau, Leos sister. She is headstrong and impulsive and always near a scandal. I am so happy to see that she is the heroine in the next book, Ripe for Scandal!

Overall, this was my first read from Isobel Carr, who has also written as Kalen Hughes. I enjoyed her writing and thought her characters were smart, funny and sexy. There is lots of drama fueled by the jealously of Leos cousin, passion, heartache and happiness. Even the inclusion of wigs and hoops and such for the time period of 1783, which I personally don't really enjoy, was done in a way that it did not hinder the story. I would have liked to have seen more of Violas back story though. We didn't really get a full sense of it until the end and I think it might have helped me understand her a bit more in the beginning had it all been spelled out earlier. There were a few loose threads that were left open also I thought but still, this was an enjoyable, steamy (always an added bonus when the lady is a courtesan) read and I will definitely be reading more from this author! 4 stars

I received this ebook via netgalley.com

The School for Brides by Cheryl Ann Smith

Miss Eva Black has worked hard to conceal her mothers past life as a courtesan and it has led her to open a school for courtesans who want to give up that lifestyle and settle down and be married. Eva keeps her life, personal and professional, very quiet and is quite surprised one stormy night to have an angry duke appear on her doorstep. Nicholas, Duke of Stanfield, is furious with this plain looking spinster for "stealing" his mistress and he wants her back, after all....he "owns" her. Needless to say, that gets Evas back even straighter than it already is and she tells Nicholas she is gone and married and happy. He is not happy with this turn of events, after all it took weeks to even locate Eva, and plans to get revenge on Eva by either having one of her current courtesans replace his lost one or Eva herself. As he finds the key to getting her to accept his proposal, he learns all of Evas secrets she has worked so hard to protect and she is forced to agree as she refuses to send one of her girls to him.

I really don't want to say much more about the story because it has quite a few surprises that I think are best read for yourself and enjoying in the moment. I will say though, that I really enjoyed this story. I liked the premise of it and I enjoyed Evas feisty and somewhat bold nature and Nicholas' deep desire for her and to protect her and their hot love scenes. I liked that both Eva and Nicholas had good relationships with their mothers. I liked all the little twists that popped up throughout, I just wished the ending would not have had so many within a short period of time. Overall, is this book going to wow you? Probably not. Is it something that will help pass away the time and help you forget a stressful day? It certainly could. I thought the characters were written well and the author did a good job with the storyline, even if the ending had a bit too much happening at the end. I know I will be picking up her next book, The Accidental Courtesan when it releases in October and I look forward to more from this author! 3 1/2 stars