Weekly Reads: February 26 to March 3, 2024

Mad Duke March by Sadie Bosque (2024)

Historical romance. Regency-era England. Book 3 of the Rake Review series. The Duke of Tyrone has a tragic history of a mother who abandoned him and a father who beat and berated him, so now he’s a reckless drunk with no ambitions or goals or sense of proper behavior. A public street experiment of a steam carriage almost injures a young lady, and in the process of rescuing her, Tyrone drunkenly grabs her in a salacious manner and ruins her reputation. Emily is the young woman ruined by the whole thing with tattered clothes, a lost purse of money, and a lost fiance in the process. And of course she’s also generally impoverished with an ill mother and three younger siblings to care for. Somehow, she convinces Tyrone to marry her to save her skin, but he’s still a general brute and incapable of treating his wife properly. It’s a big huge leap to see them eventually come to an accord, but Emily’s spine of steel has a lot to do with it.

Advance ebook provided by Sadie Bosque.

Not in Love by Ali Hazelwood (2024)

Contemporary romance. Standalone novel. Rue’s a food engineer working with her mentor at a small biotech company that seems to be in the process of a financial takeover. And it turns out one of the guys on the opposing team is a thwarted one night stand she met via an app. They’re both totally shocked to see each other in a new setting, with attraction definitely still simmering in the background, but now they’re workplace enemies so it’s not a good idea. While Eli is supposedly the enemy, he’s also completely gone for Rue and is willing to take whatever scraps of attention or conversation she hands out. He’s the ultimate supportive guy, even if he has his own baggage. These two tell each other these awful truths about themselves (that they’ve never told anyone else) and it comes with no judgment whatsoever. Just acknowledgement and acceptance. And somehow this twisted style of communication brings them closer together. Rue is the epitome of anti-social and basically a ball of social anxiety, but she’s calm and comfortable around Eli. Maybe because he’s so terribly accommodating, but also maybe because he also has a terrible past and can understand her. While Rue thinks that she’s betraying her boss and mentor by spending more time with Eli, the boss has a ton of secrets we get to uncover through the business-drama of the story. I liked seeing Rue ever-so-slowly start to open up with Eli and also see him drown in his affection for her.

Advance print book borrowed from a friend.

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Between the Devil and Ian Eversea by Julie Anne Long (2014)

Historical romance. Regency-era England. Book 9 of the Pennyroyal Green series. Attention-seeking flirtatious Tansy is now the ward of a duke and recently arrived in England to find a suitable husband after the deaths of her parents. While staying with the Eversea family, everyone is very careful to avoid the mention of the rogue-ish Ian, presumably to avoid the corruption of the young and innocent Tansy. Except that Tansy is a relentless flirt with all the other men in the village, watching them fawn all over her, and suddenly awestruck and awkward around Ian. He’s both annoyed and entertained by her antics and sees right through them, avoiding falling prey, or at least pretending to avoid falling prey, to her wiles. Both Ian and Tansy are a little bit shallow and vain and it’s hard to empathize with them, but we slowly find that Ian is troubled by his experiences from the war and Tansy is just alone and lonely in the world. Somehow, in the seeing through the other person, Ian and Tansy are the only people to see each other as they actually are.

Ebook and audiobook borrowed from my local library via Libby.

Lady Charlotte Always Gets Her Man by Violet Marsh (2024)

Historical romance. 18th Century England. Standalone novel. Lady Charlotte is the daughter of a duke being set up to marry the heir to a duke, but he’s got a reputation for being violent and may have actually murdered his previous wives. She’s looking to find proof of his guilt so that she can avoid marrying him. Meanwhile, that man’s younger brother and her own brother’s best friend Matthew is back in town and he’s hiding his own secrets. Charlotte isn’t sure whether or not to trust him, but we know that Matthew is trying his best to find proof of his brother’s crimes too. These two are definitely in each other’s way and skirting all sorts of danger, but they’ll shortly realize that they need to team up in order to accomplish their goals. This was an action-packed mystery type of story with two people who have had pre-existing crushes on each other and kisses only. We get a fun group of crime-fighting friends and cousins and a chatty parrot, if you’re into that sort of humor. The audiobook version was well-narrated and enjoyable.

Advance ebook and audiobook provided by Forever Books via NetGalley.

Kilt Trip by Alexandra Kiley (2024)

Contemporary romance. Standalone novel. Addie is a travel consultant always on the go since she doesn’t really have a place she calls home. She’s working on a job in Scotland, where her late mother had visited long ago and is working through feelings of grief while simultaneously keeping her feelings walled off. Addie has tons of ideas on how to better market and commercialize the family-owned tour company, but Logan is highly resistant to change. He just wants to stick to traditions and roots and not go with any of the touristy gimmicks that other tours offer. Addie and Logan are constantly disagreeing on their direction, even though they’re highly attracted to each other. They’re both got to deal with all their own emotional roadblocks if they want to get together for real and not just as a temporary affair.

Advance ebook provided by Harlequin Books via NetGalley.

A Duke Once Lost by Jane Maguire (2024)

Historical romance. Regency-era England. Book 2 of the Rockliffe Dynasty series. We start with a tragic prologue for Lady Amelia who has been jilted by the man she planned to elope with. Eleven years later, Amelia has never married and still lives with her overbearing mother. However, she soon finds out that the man who left her has recently returned to the country and is now a duke. And she has a separate problem of a gentleman blackmailing her into marriage with the knowledge that she secretly writes an advice column in a ladies’ magazine. Jonathan was the nephew of a debaucherous and irresponsible duke and now trying to take his duties seriously. Except that he still has a bit of a stammer and is trying to avoid the mocking ridicule of the men he went to school with many years ago. Jonathan quickly hightails it out of town in an unmarked carriage and runs into Amelia on the road. He rescues her, despite her protests, and then she convinces him to convey her to her target destination out in the country. We follow them through road trip trials like rain, robbers, crusty old inns, and carriage problems. And they finally talk through some of the issues that broke them apart all those years ago, but mostly they’re just trying to maintain some semblance of self-control around the person they still love.

Advance ebook provided by Jane Maguire.

Silhouette of a Spinster and Other Seductions by Charlie Lane (2024)

Historical romance. Regency-era England. Book 4 of the Art of Love series. Lord Andrew is the straightlaced, icy cold, emotionless workaholic who runs an employment agency for governesses, companions and tutors. And he is seriously disturbed by the fact that his ultra-competent, no-nonsense, straightlaced secretary is wearing a pink dress instead of grey to his brother’s wedding. He’s your typical oblivious male character with no idea that Amelia has been secretly in love with him for all these years. When he tells her that he’s planning to marry for money in order to expand his business, she’s internally heartbroken and leaves on a month-long vacation to her estate in Scotland to get her feelings in order. Well, Andrew is all sorts of confused about his own feelings and why he’s betrayed by her abandonment, so he runs off after her. And he’s still totally incapable of feeling his feelings, even when faced with the attractive woman he finds there. This one is a heartbreaker of a book, in all the best ways.

Advance ebook provided by Charlie Lane.