Tag Archives: Lyrical Press

misleading a duke

Book Review: Misleading a Duke, by A. S. Fenichel

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Through Goodreads, I won an early e-copy of Misleading a Duke, by A. S. Fenichel.

Description:

Betrothed to a man she has barely met, Lady Faith Landon calls upon her three best friends—the self-proclaimed Wallflowers of West Lane—to help uncover the secrets of her mysterious fiancé. Her suspicions are aroused when she learns that he has recently returned from France. Is he a traitor to his country? The truth is quite the opposite. Nicholas Ellsworth, Duke of Breckenridge, is a secret agent for the English Crown who has just completed a risky mission to infiltrate Napoleon’s spy network.

After his adventures, Nicholas craves the peace and quiet of the country and settling into domestic bliss with his bride. Until he discovers Faith’s deceptive investigation. How can he wed a woman who doesn’t trust him? But a powerful spark has ignited between Nicholas and Faith that could bring about a change of heart. Faith seizes her second chance to prove to Nicholas that they are a true love match but his past catches up with them when three French spies come to exact revenge. Surviving rather than wooing has become the order of the day.

Review:

First off, I should not have read this book without reading book one. I don’t think it stood well on its own. But what’s done is done and that’s not the book’s fault.

Outside of that issue, I simply didn’t care for the book. I think I liked what the author was attempting to do (create a group of sassy, self-reliant women going after control of their lives) but not what she actually wrote. I found the whole thing repetitive, contradictory, and overly sappy. I’ll break that down a little more.

I lost track of how many times the characters’ internal thoughts ran the same rail. Nicholas was especially bad about this, but certainly, Faith thought the same things over and over too. Tying into this was what Nicholas actually thought. I hated the way every other paragraph was interrupted for either thoughts of how badly he wanted Faith (how attracted he was to her, etc) or how much he disliked her (or both). I get that the author was trying to show that he was conflicted. But instead, it just felt like waffling. But it also made the first half of the book REALLY choppy. Similarly, as the book and relationship progressed the characters went from obviously wanting each other to thinking about how the other was about to leave them or not want them, etc. Over and over and back and forwards.

The sappiness is on an objective scale, but this tipped over into too sappy for me. There were just too many passages about how amazing one or the other was, how much they loved the other, too many declarations of adoration, etc. In my experience, this is a symptom of a particular sort of blunt romance that I just don’t enjoy very much.

I do love that cover though!

Schooling the Viscount

Book Review of Schooling the Viscount (Cotswold Confidential #1), by Maggie Robinson

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My kindle has died. Or rather, it’s decided charging is no longer a thing it wishes to do, and Google tells me that’s a rather common problem. Apparently, the charging port isn’t well soldered. I’ve ordered a new one, but it’s yet to be delivered. In the mean time, I decided this was a good time to concentrate on clearing a few physical books off my shelf.

By chance, I chose Unmasked by the Marquess as the first one. And since I enjoyed the historical romance, I decided to continue with the aristocratic theme. I read My One and Only Duke and then My Once and Future Duke (the similarity of those titles cracked me up, BTW) and now Maggie Robinson‘s Schooling the Viscount. I won a paperback copy through Goodreads.

Description:

Captain Lord Henry Challoner is a young viscount who’s left his ambition on the plains of South Africa. Wounded in the First Boer War, he’s come home and wishes he were anywhere else, until his desperate father sends him to Puddling-on-the-Wold to rusticate and recalibrate. How can Henry have any fun without any alcohol, or worse yet, any women? Kept under house arrest under the watchful eye of his draconian housekeeper and earnest local vicar, he’s bored enough to begin speaking to sheep until he literally stumbles across schoolteacher Rachel Everett.

Rachel knows she’s not on Henry’s improvement plan, but can’t seem to avoid or repel him no matter what she does to keep him at arm’s length. Could it be that she quite enjoys being in his arms, even if it’s against all the Puddling Rehabilitation Rules? Can Rachel circumvent the town fathers and Henry escape his personal jailors and demons?

Review (with minor spoiler):

My husband asked me, this morning, what my plan for the day was. I responded that I was going to “fold laundry, finish the horrible book I’m reading, and maybe play some Overwatch in the evening.” That should tell you how I feel about Schooling the Viscount. This book was almost everything I dislike in historical romance, romance in general actually. It’s exactly the kind of drivel that caused me to say, for years, that I wouldn’t read romance novels (until I realized it wasn’t the romance I disliked, but the treatment of it and women in them).

Let me start with two examples from early in the book, along with a little context to make them make sense. (This is also the spoiler I mentioned.) When Lord Challoner first comes across Rachel (the first women under 50 he’s seen in a week) he falls down. He then pulls her into his lap and holds her there as she struggles to get up. He then kisses her against her will and when she slaps him, he pretends infirmity to continue to hold her as he rubs his erection against her. When finally they stand up, he goes for her again and she hits him again. Even by modern standards this is assault. She was a perfect stranger to him and he’s just accosted her.

However, this is her later thought on the matter: “…in fact, she was beginning to wonder whether the man was as bad as he was supposed to be.” (The inference being that he isn’t.) He’d been sent to the Cotswald rehabilitation center because his father caught him in bed with two women (prostitutes). So, Rachel’s decision that he wasn’t so bad as his reputation is flat out bull shit. He’s worse.

Not too long later, he comes across her again. Her dog is worrying his walking stick. So he sneaks a knife out, cuts his own leg and pretends her dog bit him. Thereby tricking her into taking him into her home in the middle of the night for treatment. Her thoughts on this matter: “Even though he’d tried to trick her, Rachel couldn’t fault the man. He’d been lonely and wanted a few more minutes of her company.”

Keep in mind that this is supposed to be 1881, England. The irreparable harm he could do to her reputation and future prospects with either of these tricks boggle the mind. But somehow I’m supposed to believe he’s a good man and she’s just kind-hearted, not just flat out stupid. And he’s attracted to her specifically, not just the only woman he interacts with. The whole book continues in this vein, him being horrible and her falling in love with it. It makes no sense, doesn’t fit the time period at all, and irritated me like god damned dermatitis.

In fact, nothing about the book felt like 1881. The language, the viewpoints, the general tone of the book all felt anachronistic. I will grant that the descriptions of PTSD were well handled, even if it seemed to miraculously disappear with the love of a good women. (Yes, that’s an eye-roll you sense in my tone.) And the writing is passable. My only big complaint being how often Rachel said, “Dad,” in her conversations with her father. It was too many to feel natural. But all in all, I finished this book by force of will alone and hated almost every page of it.

Silver Wolf Clan

Book Review of Silver Wolf Clan, by Tera Shanley

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I picked up a copy of Silver Wolf Clan, by Tera Shanley, when it was free on Amazon…in 2015.

Loving him will be legendary…if she can survive it.

What happens when monsters turn out to be real? One summer night while camping in the woods, Morgan Carter finds out in a big way. A tall mysterious stranger, Greyson Crawford, risks his life to try and save her sister from the vicious wolf attacking their camp. When he’s bitten and disappears into the night, Morgan can only assume the worst.

Greyson shows up a year later, and he’s a different animal altogether. His eye color shifts constantly and the rumble in his throat sounds more animal than human. She hasn’t any idea where he’s been all this time, but a good guess as to what he’s become.

Grey is determined not to let the darkness of his new existence affect Morgan and the little girl in her care. He hasn’t been able to stop thinking about Morgan but knows he should stay away and let her live a normal life. That’s easier said than done, though. A new danger pulls him from the shadows to keep her safe, and he’s no wolf in sheep’s clothing.

Can she accept what lurks just below his surface? More importantly, can she survive him?

This review contains spoilers.
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This was SUPER cliched. Every aspect of it has been done and done better. What’s more, a lot of it irritates the living daylights out of me.

Let’s start with the fact that there are 4 women in it. 3 of them have been subject to violent male attacks. (And all we know is that no attack is mentioned for the fourth.) So, women are all victims. The hero is forced to rescue the heroine from a random rape. Because of course heroes always have to save their loves from random rapists. That’s what happens if a woman goes out alone, you know? (Can this particular plot point die already?)

The single adult, non-mated woman is evil. Because of course single women can’t be trusted, especially if they’re sexy. They’re obviously all jealous, evil bitches who will kill because they can’t get the man they want. (As if there are no other motivations for women than men.)

Then, when the heroine is turned into a wolf she is special, because of course she is. But not just normal, cliched special. But extra cliched special. She’s special because she’s the only female wolf who can have breed children. (Nope, I’ve neverread that plot before and it’s not just the unexplored norm of a female character. *sigh*) So, of course male werewolves will forever be trying to forcibly claim her (a euphemism for rape). And of course so far, no one has bothered to tell her, because this is her mate’s problem, not hers apparently, since it’s his responsibility to protect her, not hers.

And those are just my issues around gender. How about how little sense it made to let the evil, untrustworthy person walk out with the biggest secret in werewolfdom? Nope, I can’t see that coming back to bite them in the ass…nope, not like that’s just a totally stupid and unbelievable act that is setting up a totally predictable rest of the plot. *sigh*

It needs some editing assistance too, to catch things like terms being dropped into use and never defined. We’re told, for example, that Grey let his wolf go and became a “Ripper” (capitalized). Then someone else says, “thank goodness you’re a Ripper.” So, apparently this is something Grey and other wolves knew about, a known characterization, but it is never defined for the reader. I had no idea what a Ripper was supposed to be.

While I’ll grant that Grey was a sweetheart and I liked the addition of a child, I have NO interest in any more of this series. It hit just about every I-hate-these-PNR-tropes button I have. And honestly, to have so many too-often used tropes in one book is just a sign of bad writing.