‘Scandal Wears Satin’ by Loretta Chase

STORY: From the Journals of Sophia Noirot: A dress is a weapon. It must dazzle his eye, raise his temperature . . . and empty his purse.

A blue-eyed innocent on the outside and a shark on the inside, dressmaker Sophy Noirot could sell sand to Bedouins. Selling Maison Noirot’s beautiful designs to aristocratic ladies is a little harder, especially since a recent family scandal has made an enemy of one of society’s fashion leaders. Turning scandal to the shop’s advantage requires every iota of Sophy’s skills, leaving her little patience for a big, reckless rake like the Earl of Longmore. The gorgeous lummox can’t keep more than one idea in his head at a time, and his idea is taking off all of Sophy’s clothes.

But when Longmore’s sister, Noirot’s wealthiest, favorite customer, runs away, Sophy can’t let him bumble after her on his own. In hot pursuit with the one man who tempts her beyond reason, she finds desire has never slipped on so smoothly .

REVIEW: I have to start this review with telling you of my first, and probably the only, encounter with Ms. Loretta Chase. It happened last year at RT’s here in Chicago, and it went something like this:

Me, as I was handing her ‘Not Quite a Lady’ [one of my favorite books by her]: “I…if…may…it’s my……” and at that moment my throat just gave out, my eyes filled with tears and I just gave up on talking and shoved the book at her, which she took and gifted me with the most gentlest of smiles and noticing the camera in my other hand, asked if I’d like to take a picture with her, to which I just nodded and we did. That’s what happens when you adore a writer. I’ve had the ‘fan girl moment’ of my life. This is someone who knows her craft, takes care of her audience by giving them what they crave in writing the most sensual, romantic, entertaining and interesting love stories that take a life of their own.

And then I read this book…

This is the only Loretta Chase book that I had to force myself to finish, and for the life of me I’m left puzzled as to why?!

It’s not like the characters are not three-dimensional, or that it lacks that witty dialogue for which she’s famous for. Plot and pace were decently developed and the book moved along, but in the end I failed to enjoy the story.

Something about it failed to grab my attention and carry me through, and I’m thinking it’s the main plot to this whole series that’s lacking that ‘something’ which attracts me to LC’s books.

I guess having a decent plot is not as good as having a more believable and solid one. Having three sisters in the dressmaking business being privy to aristocratic gossip and secrets just didn’t grab me much and I found them a bit too ambitious, not so likable and not believable.

I am really hoping that the next one will be more closely aligned to the first book in this series, or even better, to all of her books before this series all together.

Do I recommend it? Of course I do! It’s LORETTA CHASE! You may like all the wonderful shop talk and descriptions; humor, which is ever-present; steamy and sensual scenes that in the end were still romantic, and its well written prose. I did too, yet in the end, it left me only with OK and not with WOW.

*Book provided by the publisher through Edelweis.

Looking forward to…

BOOK BLURB: She’s his in every way…

When newly widowed Lady Fiona flees to Scotland in need of protection, Lord Gavin McLendon is powerless to refuse the British beauty. Especially when she offers herself in exchange. Now that the brooding Scottish warrior can think of nothing else but ravishing his delectable new mistress, even though he’s duty-bound to marry another…

But one…

Fiona is shocked when Gavin accepts her scandalous offer—and fretful at the thought that he will discover how little she knows of seduction. But when Gavin proves to be a skilled and achingly sensuous teacher, Fiona doesn’t want their passionate arrangement to end. Now she can’t help but wonder just what it would take to go from Scottish mistress…to Scottish wife.

EXCERPT here.

Coming July 2, 2013

 Amazon.com / BN.com

Looking forward to…

BOOK BLURB: A curse, a bachelor, and a spinster with a gun.

Perry Perriam has no time for marriage, but when he’s named heir to Perriam Manor he must marry a stranger or his family will lose the ancient estate. There’s a strange curse in the mix as well.

Claris Mallow has survived her parents’ tormented marriage and even though she’s living in a cottage on a very small income she has no intention of marrying anyone. She’s even willing to make her point with a pistol!

Coming August 6, 2013

 Amazon   / B&N Nook Store / iBookstore / Books a Million

Looking forward to…

BOOK BLURB: Sir Richard Harmsworth might be a darling of society, but nothing can erase the stain of his bastardy. Richard’s cool stare, indolent manner and insolent humor hide deep-seated feelings of unworthiness. He vowed young that nothing will pierce his elegant exterior to affect the man beneath, because the man beneath is capable of hurt and suffering. Safety lies in superficiality.

When Lord Packham rejects Richard as a suitor for his daughter, it’s the straw that breaks the camel’s back. After a lifetime of defying the world’s contempt, enough is enough. Richard vows to challenge his scandalous birth head on. There is a family legend that possession of a medieval relic, the Harmsworth Jewel, confirms the rightful heir. He will locate the jewel and brandish it under the noses of anyone reckless enough to question his right to the Harmsworth name.

Genevieve is a brilliant scholar who has led a secluded life, translating manuscripts, writing about medieval architecture and researching the authenticity of artifacts like the Harmsworth Jewel.

Against his better judgment, Richard falls under Genevieve’s spell. He’s never met a woman like her, clever, perceptive, kind, ardent, confident in her own opinions, uncaring of society’s shallow judgments. But can he reveal the real man under the façade he wears?

Coming August 27, 2013

Amazon / B&N /

Looking forward to….

BOOK BLURB: True Love…

Joan Bennet has endured four Seasons without a single suitor or serious flirtation, let alone a marriage proposal. She’s had just about enough of being a respectable wildflower and is giving serious thought to embarking on a life of sin, or at least lascivious adventure like the ones described in a popular scandalous book. When she meets her brother’s favorite drinking mate, Viscount Burke, it seems her hopes of adventure might be answered…

Is worth a little scandal…

Tristan Burke doesn’t want a wife, and one can’t trifle with a friend’s sister without risking marriage. Even more, Joan’s the last sort of woman he would ever choose: droll, sharp-wited, and always unfashionably dressed. If only he could stop thinking about her mouth. Or what she might look like without those horrid clothes. Or the way he can only win an argument with her by kissing her senseless… even though that just makes him want her more. But more could lead to a betrothal, which he fears—or does he?

EXCERPT here.

Coming July 30, 2013 

 Amazon | Barnes & Noble | Books-A-Million | IndieBound

How I Became an Author by Carla Kelly

I suspect many of us slide into what we do in life, because the circumstances were right. I’ve always liked to write. Why? Who knows?

Purely for my own entertainment, I am certain, I wrote my first book at age 6. It was called The Old Mill, and contained two sentences. Most of my efforts were expended on the construction paper cover, with the drawing of an old mill. Here’s the crazy part: those two sentences had a plot.

From six through 12, I wrote short stories and some poetry, the usual route of young writers, I suppose. In junior high, Mrs. Berstein let me build my spelling sentences into a short story, rather than just unrelated sentences. Thank you, Mrs. B, for that exercise in bending words to my will.

In high school, I fell into the clutches of Jean Dugat, who taught English and journalism at A.C. Jones High School in Beeville, Texas. What a teacher. She was exacting, demanding and difficult. For a few years I wavered between hating her and fearing her. When I was a junior, I caught the vision that if I listened to her, and did what she demanded, I could become a professional writer.

So it proved. My senior year, I was associate editor of our high school newspaper. My specialty was feature writing, which is a nice mix of creativity with journalism. Some state awards came my way, but the best part was the confidence that came from knowing how to treat a sentence to make folks sit up and pay attention. Thank you, Miss D.

College followed and degrees in history. Papers were a breeze (refer to above paragraph). Marriage and children followed. Busy times. We lived in Wyoming, where Martin taught theatre at a community college. I spent my summers as a seasonal ranger/historian in the National Park Service, working at Fort Laramie.

It was there that I started writing short stories about the frontier army, and found an outlet for them in magazines. A couple of Spur Awards from Western Writers of America came my way. I kept writing and selling longer and longer short stories.

A novel came next, Daughter of Fortune, which tells the story of the Pueblo Indian uprising in 1680 in colonial New Mexico. I acquired an agent along the way, and she suggested I write Regency Romances, which I am still doing. Thank you, Eileen.

I’ve become a specialist in Regencies focusing on the Napoleonic Wars, the Royal Navy in particular. I credit my dad for that, a career officer in the U.S. Navy. Thank you, Dad.

Also along the way, I acquired some loyal readers, so there is always a market for my Regencies. I switched from Signet (two Rita Awards there from Romance Writers of America), to Harlequin in 2004, and continue to write Regencies. Harlequin also kindly let me write a novel based at Fort Laramie in 1876. It will be out in April, and has been tagged as part of a Harlequin promotional sent to 320,000 potential readers. And now there are ebooks of my earlier Signets available. Thank you, technology.

Through the years, I’ve become acquainted with helpful editors, one of whom invited me to write for CamelPress in Seattle. I’m writing a historical mystery/romance series for them, set in 1780s colonial New Mexico. I like borderlands history. I’m also taking a look at my own Mormon background with LDS-themed novels. I’ve written four of those so far.

Where from here? Who knows? I like to write.

GIVEAWAY!

What about you What’s your passion and who made an impact on it? One commenter will get a signed copy of ‘My Loving Vigil Keeping’. [*US ONLY]

Author Bio: Award-winning author Carla Kelly is a veteran of the New York and international publishing world. The author of more than thirty novels and novellas for Donald I. Fine Co., Signet, and Harlequin, Carla is the recipient of two Rita Awards (think Oscars for romance writing) from Romance Writers of America and two Spur Awards (think Oscars for western fiction) from Western Writers of America.

Recently, she’s been writing Regency romances (think Pride and Prejudice) set in the Royal Navy’s Channel Fleet during the Napoleonic Wars between England and France. She comes by her love of the ocean from her childhood as a Navy brat.

Carla’s history background makes her no stranger to footnote work, either. During her National Park Service days at the Fort Union Trading Post National Historic Site, Carla edited Friedrich Kurz’s fur trade journal. She recently completed a short history of Fort Buford, where Sitting Bull surrendered in 1881.

Following the “dumb luck” principle that has guided their lives, the Kellys recently moved to Wellington, Utah, from North Dakota and couldn’t be happier in their new location. In her spare time, Carla volunteers at the Railroad and Mining Museum in Helper, Utah. She likes to visit her five children, who live here and there around the United States. Her favorite place in Utah is Manti, located after a drive on the scenic byway through Huntington Canyon.

And why is she so happy these days? Carla is enjoying writing for an LDS audience now, where she feels most at home.

Find Carla at: Her Blog

‘My Loving Vigil Keeping’ by Carla Kelly

BOOK BLURB: To Della Ander’s relatives, it seems like an absurd whim when the young educator accepts a contract to teach in Winter Quarters, a coal mining camp near Scofield, Utah. After all, she lives with a socially prominent family in Salt Lake City. Why teach in a place as hard as a coal mining camp, even if the Winter Quarters mines have an enviable reputation for safety?

It’s no whim to Della. She yearns to reconnect with the life she knew as a child, before tragedy yanked her from a home equal parts ramshackle and loving. But when disaster strikes, what the teacher learns in Winter Quarters will change her life forever, and her heart.

Based around the true events of the Scofield Mine Disaster of 1900, this suspenseful new romance from award-winning and bestselling author Carla Kelly is sure to please longtime fans and new readers alike. Thrilling and heartfelt, it’s a must-read.

REVIEW: Carla Kelly is an undisputed champion in storytelling, be it Regency or Inspirational. I don’t get this ‘hate-on’ of the LDS based and inspired romance that she’s been giving us from time to time. For me, a romance is a romance, hot or mild. It’s the characters and their getting to their happy ever after I love reading about, and if that is well written, plotted and passionately told, I’m there!

And that’s exactly what I got reading this story. Not to mention a piece of history I was never aware of happening in the part of our country I’ll probably never physically see, yet now I can safely say, I saw through this authors wonderful and vivid retelling of it.

Della’s journey, her attitude, strong character and conviction to persevere despite the obstacles thrown her way, was an inspiring, heartwarming and heartbreaking story to follow.

Carla Kelly manages to tell this story in such a way that it never, ever sounds preachy despite references to the Mormon religion.

While every character was well-developed with real depth to them, the history behind the mining disaster made this story more real and very emotional.

At first I wished the romance and pace of the book would have  unfolded a bit faster, but then I changed my mind. It’s the pace that allowed me to appreciate the romance and the plot more because it made the story real and had me ‘see’ history, places and people I would otherwise never ‘meet’.

This truly is an inspirational, sweet and touching romance I was glad to read.

*Book provided by Cedar Fort publisher

‘She Tempts the Duke’ by Loraine Heath

STORY: Three young heirs, imprisoned by an unscrupulous uncle, escaped—to the sea, to the streets, to faraway battle—awaiting the day when they would return to reclaim their birthright.

Sebastian Easton always vowed he would avenge his stolen youth and title. Now back in London, the rightful Duke of Keswick—returning from battle a wounded, hardened, changed man—cannot forget the brave girl who once rescued him and his brothers from certain death.

Lady Mary Wynne-Jones paid dearly for helping the imprisoned young Lords of Pembrook, and she remembers well the promise she made to Sebastian all those years ago: to meet him once more in the abbey ruins where they shared a bold, forbidden kiss. While Mary is now betrothed to another, a friendship forged with dark secrets cannot be ignored. Unexpected passion soon burns dangerously between them, tempting Sebastian to abandon his quest for retribution and fight for a love that could once again set him free.

REVIEW: It is a given that the genre I read most, which is romance, requires me to suspend my belief to a certain extent, and I am very happy to do so.

When I run into a story that has me in a permanent state of disbelief, I tend to be a bit disappointed because of it. I was hoping for an element of surprise at the least, but none was had and that’s what made this story only good and not extraordinary, which I’ve always gotten reading Ms. Heath.

Here it is in a nutshell: well written, decently paced but too predictable. Will I read the other two books in the series? YOU BET! As Ms. Heaths fan I can’t pass it up, but I do hope that the upcoming books will have more of Ms. Heath’s ‘passion’ in them.

*Book provided by Avon through Edelweiss.

‘How to Deceive a Duke’ by Lecia Cornwell

STORY: When deception leads to desire . . .

When her stubborn sister runs off the night before her arranged marriage, Meg Lynton hardly hesitates before donning the wedding veil and walking down the aisle herself. It’s the only way to save her family from sure destitution. By the time her wealthy groom discovers he has married the wrong sister, it will be too late to annul their vows. And too late for Meg to escape her wifely duty to a man reputed to be a devil in battle and the bedroom . . .

A bride is the last thing Nicholas Hartley, Duke of Temberlay, wants. Then he sees Meg and realizes that his wedding night will be a great pleasure indeed. But aside from the agreeable business of begetting an heir, Temberlay will never change his wicked ways for a wedding vow—until he discovers Meg’s deception, and decides to teach the scheming beauty how to be a proper duchess, kiss by devastating kiss . . .

REVIEW: ‘How to Deceive a Duke’ lived up to its full potential, and then some!

In Marguerite Lynton, we have a heroine whose dedication to her family goes beyond love and sacrifice is nothing new to her when it comes to protecting them all from scandal.

In Nicholas Hartley we have a hero that holds his honor close to his heart and only a few know him well to vouch for it, as the rest of the world around him and especially his Grandmother, think him a womanizer, scoundrel and a man lacking in honor.

In the Dowager Duchess of Temberlay we have an old, bitter woman thinking both Nick and Meg are her private marionettes by pulling their strings and making them dance to her tune.

These are only three characters that will have you tied in knots while a multiple plot twists will show villains in places you hadn’t expected to find. From the moment these two meet, chemistry ignites and doesn’t let go. I adored Marguerite strength, practicality and no nonsense attitude and my heart went out to Nicholas as he struggled with who he was and who he wanted people to see when looking at him.

And while we root for our couple, Ms. Cornwell sneaks in a little surprise by letting us watch history in making and giving this story its epic feel.

Loved it; highly recommend it and looking forward to her next one in this series, ‘The Secret Life of Lady Julia’.

*Book provided by Avon through Edelweiss.

‘Never Deny Your Heart’ by Maureen Driscoll

STORY: William (Liam) Kellington, the Duke of Lynwood, loves Rosalind Carson, the sister of an impoverished viscount. But while Lynwood was still coming to terms with his feelings — dukes can be particularly dim-witted when it comes to love — Rosalind’s brother sold her into a lucrative betrothal to another nobleman. Liam vows to save Rosalind from a marriage she does not want, while also convincing her to become the Duchess of Lynwood.

The lady, however, is not one to wait to be rescued.

Rosalind has been in love with William Kellington much of her life. And it has been a rather one-sided romance. When her brother promises her to a man five decades her senior, Rosalind must find a way to live the life she wants and not the one that has been forced upon her.

REVIEW: Has it been almost two years since I read ‘Never A Mistress, No Longer A Maid’, the first in Kellington romance series? Well it must be, but the time has passed quickly as Ms. Driscoll kept giving me ‘Never Miss A Chance’, ‘Never Wager Against Love’ and ‘Never Run From Love’ and here comes much anticipated ‘Never Deny Your Heart’ the fifth book and Liam’s story. Oh and how sweet it is! Ms. Driscoll made Liam work hard for his happily ever after and had him sweat [and by default me as well!].

It was such a pure, unadulterated pleasure to finally find out what makes this man tick and find out what some of his deepest desires are! Throughout the series I kept an eye on this man who spent his early years of adulthood raising his siblings, making sure they are taken care of and safe, and I just knew that his story would be special, and it was.

Miss Rosalind Carson could not have been more perfect as his better half! She was a female to reckon with and as much as she tried to do the right thing, which was to submit and follow her families orders and do her duty, when faced with the brutal reality, this woman decides to take her life into her own hands and not depend on no one but herself. I appreciated her ‘chutzpah’ and squirmed as His Grace did while she made him jump through some hoops.

By the time their story ended, we had caught up with all the Kellington brood and it was so good to see them all one more time. I can’t tell you how much I loved each book in this series and highly recommend you read them in order because what this author does best is the characterization of them, of their deep love for each other, and you can’t help but feel one of them.

*Book provided by the author.