Today’s Steals and Deals at AAR…..

How to Trap a Tycoon by Elizabeth Bevarly is a DIK at AAR. In our review, we wrote:

How to Trap a Tycoon belongs right up there with the greats of screwball comedy. A comfort read for me since its publication in 2000, it’s a tale of hidden identities, monumental secrets, and big laughs that richly deserves its still-in-print status after five long years. And, despite the fact that some of the holes in the plot are a bit on the wide side, it makes me laugh out loud every time I read it.

So just how wide are those plot holes? Let’s get the biggest out of the way right now: Our heroine successfully disguises herself from our hero (even after they’ve slept together!) with a wig, a sexy wardrobe, and some makeup. But wait there’s more! See, in her sexy alter-ego she’s famous – Harry Potter level famous – for writing a best-selling book taking the country by storm called (you guessed it) How to Trap a Tycoon. Still with me? Let’s move on to the many reasons why I love this book.

It’s smart. The dialogue between heroine Dorsey MacGuinness and hero Adam Darien feels exactly like what it’s supposed to be: Lightning-charged clashes of two formidably smart people hopelessly attracted to each other despite their sharply differing world views. As the publisher and founder of a successful men’s magazine, Adam is the very epitome of the self-satisfied bachelor content with his serial bimbos and expensive toys – well, that is until he starts to realize just how much he looks forward to his daily clashes with bartender Dorsey. During their evening exchanges at his (wouldn’t you know it?) mens’ club, he and the married (or so he thinks) graduate student and passionate feminist he calls “Mack” discuss the merits of Jaguars vs. Porsches (Adam went with the latter), sexual politics, the woeful status of women in our patriarchal society, and why Dorsey despises just about everything about Adam’s “elitist” and “sexist” publication.

Not surprisingly considering Adam’s status as a true tycoon well worth trapping, he’s none too pleased with the runaway success of author Lauren Grable-Monroe’s (Dorsey’s pseudonym is derived from the names of the actresses who starred in How to Marry a Millionaire) handbook offering women step-by-step instructions on how to marry their way to a life of leisure. “Victim” that he is, Adam vows to discover just what credentials Ms. Grable-Monroe has warranting her status as the “self-appointed social guru of today’s women” and then to expose her as the fraud she is in the pages of his magazine. Since keeping her identity secret is crucial to her job as a teaching assistant at a women’s college, not to even mention the damage the truth would do to her credibility as a serious scholar, Dorsey is understandably less than pleased with Adam’s plans.

You can get it at Amazon for 2.99 here.


This is a very sexy historical romance. In our review we wrote:

Lady Fiona Libourg is living at the border of England during a time of turmoil. Tensions are rising between England and Scotland as Robert the Bruce gains supporters, and Fiona knows that the small corner of the world where she rules as the Baroness of Arundel will not long remain peaceful. Still, she doesn’t expect danger to arrive as abruptly as it does in the form of Lord Gavin McLendon. He seeks shelter for himself and his men, many of whom have been wounded in a recent battle, and he knows he can trust her husband, his secret ally, to provide it for him.

A year later it is Fiona seeking shelter from Gavin, as she and her stepson appear in Scotland at his doorstep. Fiona has been widowed, stripped of her lands, and her son has been injured and left with a constant limp. Although Gavin’s presence on her lands was the reason her husband was suspected of treason, she knows he is the only person able and willing to help her now. However, when she goes to ask that he take her and her stepson in, and that he train the injured boy to become a knight, Gavin declares that she must give him something in return.

And thus she becomes his mistress.

The enjoyable thing about this book and its characters is how serious they are. I don’t mean that they’re deadly dull or over-dramatic, just that the gravity of the current political situation is acknowledged. When Fiona arrives in Scotland and the earl falls in love with her, no one tells her she “used to be English.” She still is English, still is Gavin’s mistress, and she is ostracized for it.

Gavin, on the other hand, deals with a different aspect of the Scottish-English tension. He’s asked to marry a girl from a clan that hasn’t yet decided where to stand, so as to help drum up support for Robert the Bruce. Having had two arranged marriages before, Gavin is fairly comfortable with the politics of it, which is why it’s strange to him that he should feel so resistant this time. But still, he knows his duty, so he chooses a girl to marry.

Up until this point the book was fairly realistic, which I liked. Gavin and Fiona fell in love, as people are wont to do, but as soon as she found out about his betrothal Fiona broke it off. They’re both miserable, but well aware of their duties and of how unsuitable a match between them would be. This is fate and they’re stuck with it.

It’s at Amazon for 2.99 here.


This is a DIK for AAR. In our rave review, we wrote:

Christian Severn, the Duke of Mercia is an officer in the British Army when he gets captured by the French while he is taking a bath and out of uniform. Because he is out of uniform, the rules concerning the treatment of officers do not apply and Christian is considered a spy. For the next eight months, he is brutally tortured both mentally and physically. When peace talks ensue, Christian is finally released and makes his way back to his unit where his relative, Colonel Marcus Easterbrook, is stationed. Easterbrook has difficulties in identifying him because of Christian’s severe weight loss, but the fact that Christian’s horse (whom Easterbrook has renamed and kept as his own) recognizes him, is enough for the British to recognize Christian as the lost Duke of Mercia. In the midst of his return, he discovers his wife and son have died in his absence. Christian returns to London to recover, but depression and PTSD make his recovery almost insurmountable. The only thing keeping him alive is the thought of vengeance against Girard, his French captor and chief torturer.

Gillian, the Countess of Greendale has just been widowed from her elderly and extremely abusive husband. She was practically sold into marriage by her family at the same time her cousin Helene married the Duke of Mercia. She visited Mercia’s country estate regularly to visit with her cousin and has been helping her only surviving child Lucy since Helene died. When Gilly learns that the Duke has returned, she goes to his London townhouse to chide him into returning to see about his daughter. Lucy has not spoken a word since her mother and brother died and Gilly is convinced that she needs her father. Christian is so out of it at first that he hardly recalls he has a daughter. Gilly recognizes a fellow sufferer when she sees one and instead of berating him for his neglect, she begins to nurture him along in his recovery. Because Lucy is well acquainted with Gilly and Christian is still uncertain about his health and frame of mind, he convinces Gilly to travel to his country estate with him. Gilly’s agreement to help Christian out with Lucy sets up a scenario for genuine friendship to develop between our hero and heroine and it does. Christian’s flashbacks to his captivity provide the backstory of his torture and clues to questions Christian has about Girard.

Burrowes has a way of writing that allows the reader into the head(s) of her characters in a very personal way. I really loved, loved, loved both the hero and the heroine in this book. The suffering they endured was authentic and never seemed contrived. This reader could feel Christian’s torment both during and after his torture and my empathy that flowed from that was natural (rather than contrived). The hero’s relationship with his daughter was both poignant and uplifting at the same time, and her reaction to her abandonment first by her father and then by her mother was heartbreaking. Many times, child characters in novels are superfluous to the plot of a book, but Lucy was an integral part of Christian and Gilly’s story and I found myself rooting for her HEA as well.

It’s on sale at Amazon for 3.39 here.


 

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