Today’s Steals and Deals at AAR…..

We didn’t review this one, but Amazon readers give it 4.3 stars.

 

A handsome and reclusive horse breeder, Spencer Dumarque, the fourth Duke of Morland, is a member of the exclusive Stud Club, an organization so select it has only ten members—yet membership is attainable to anyone with luck. And Spencer has plenty of it, along with an obsession with a prize horse, a dark secret, and, now, a reputation as the dashing “Duke of Midnight.” Each evening he selects one lady for a breathtaking midnight waltz. But none of the women catch his interest, and nobody ever bests the duke—until Lady Amelia d’Orsay triesher luck.

In a moment of desperation, the unconventional beauty claims the duke’s dance and unwittingly steals his heart. When Amelia demands that Spencer forgive her scapegrace brother’s debts, she never imagines that her game of wits and words will lead to breathless passion and a steamy proposal. Still, Spencer is a man of mystery, perhaps connected to the shocking murder of the Stud Club’s founder. Will Amelia lose her heart in this reckless wager or win everlasting love?

 

It’s on sale at Amazon for 1.99 here.

 


This one got a B+ from us. 

 

Years ago, Sebastian Grant, Earl of Avermore, burst on the literary scene and was hailed as one of England’s finest authors. His novels pleased the critics and public alike and he was considered a literary giant. Then he moved to the continent and things changed. Sebastian still wrote, but his novels and plays were not as good. They lacked what made his early work so wonderfully readable and compelling and sales slumped. Sebastian has a contract for a new novel from his publisher the Viscount Marlowe (And Then He Kissed Her ), but years have passed, he has not delivered the manuscript, and is about to be in breach of contract.

As the book begins, Sebastian has come back to London with a new play The Girl with the Red Handbag, which he hopes will be a hit (he badly needs the money). Alas – the reviewers are severe and none more so than George Lindsay, the critic for Marlowe’s journal who calls the play “second rate Oscar Wilde.” Incensed, Sebastian goes round to Marlowe who introduces him to George Lindsay aka Daisy Merrick.

Daisy is a girl bachelor who works as a typist. Daisy’s outspokenness cost her her latest job when she objected to her employer’s roving hands. Needing another job Daisy, who has always wanted to be a writer, takes one of her stories to Marlowe in the hopes that he will buy it. Marlowe did not get where he was as a publisher without knowing quite a bit about writers and their hangups. He knows that Sebastian is suffering from writer’s block, and sees that Daisy is an unpolished writer but a good storyteller, so he arranges for Daisy to work with Sebastian to get that long delayed novel ready to be published. Daisy and Sebastian work at his country house (with his aunt as chaperone) and the sparring (and writing) begin.

I love how Guhrke gives us interesting aspects of life in late Victorian England. At the time this book is set, women were able to get white-collar jobs, mostly as typists. This is what Daisy does and she and Sebastian begin to bond when she sees his Crandall typewriter. Daisy is a very independent young woman who is not afraid to speak her mind. She has had to work hard all her life and she is not a sheltered young miss.

 

It’s at Amazon for 1.99 here.


This is the first of an excellent series and is a DIK at AAR.

 

And Only to Deceive is the first entry in Tasha Alexander’s Victorian era suspense/mystery series featuring Lady Emily Ashton. Since it came out in 2005, I have read it at least once a year. I absolutely adore this book.

Lady Emily Ashton’s husband Philip died one year earlier. Emily never had any desire to marry, as she thought married women lived boring lives. Nevertheless, to escape her mother, she accepted Phillip’s proposal. As far as Emily was concerned, Phillip’s one redeeming feature was that he left almost immediately after their honeymoon to go big game hunting in Africa. When he died there, Emily felt not grief, but relief; after all, she barely knew the man. Emily has no desire to marry again and instead begins to revel in the freedom her widowed state allows.

Emily gradually discovers more about her dead husband. She’s surprised to learn that he loved Greece, had a villa on Santorini, and donated numerous Greek artifacts to the British Museum. She begins to fall a little in love with him, but she is far more in love with some of his interests. Emily begins studying the classics and making frequent visits to the British Museum, where she stumbles upon a scheme involving forged artifacts.

As Emily attempts to learn more about her husband and the forgeries, two attractive friends of her husband pursue her. The men provide her with conflicting information about her husband and she’s not sure who to trust.

This is primarily an exploration of Emily and how she wants to live her life. I loved watching her realize that as a widow, she has more freedom than she had living with her parents or during her brief marriage. I truly enjoyed watching Emily stretch and grow and, at times, shock her friends and family. We learn about Phillip right along with Emily through short entries from his journal interspersed between chapters.

 

It’s at Amazon for 1.99 here.


This sweet historical romance got a B+ from us. 

 

Andrea Pickens has hit a trifecta with this one.

Max Sloane is 16 years old and a gifted student. He has taken it on himself to engage a tutor, much to the surprise of his father Leo, the Earl of Wrexham. Wrexham is even more surprised when the applicant of Max’s choice turns out to be Mrs. Allegra Proctor, the widow of a curate. Wrexham had in mind a tutor, not a governess, but Allegra proves to be a gifted and intelligent woman and Max is soon wild about her. And so is Wrexham, although he will not admit it.

Allegra has come to the Wrexham estate for reasons of her own. The neighboring estate is owned by Lord Sandhill, a man whom Wrexham dislikes. Sandhill has a bully of a son who months before had attempted to rape Allegra. When her brother (who was only 16) tried to come to her aid, Sandhill’s son beat him so badly he died. Then Sandhill robbed Allegra’s father of a valuable manuscript. Allegra wants revenge. Eventually, Allegra, Wrexham, and Max hatch a plot to force Sandhill (who has been stealing from members of the ton as well) to show his true colors….

I know it is early, but Second Chances is already on my list for the best Regency Romance of the year. While Andrea Pickens’ handling of characters reminds me of Mary Balogh, her voice and style are uniquely her own. If you like Regency Romances with unusual characters – not just the belles and beaux at play – try Andrea Pickens, you will find her refreshingly different.

 

 

It’s on sale at Amazon for 2.99 here.


 

Our reviewer couldn’t put this thriller down. (She gave it a B+.)

 

It can be hard to find an author who writes the perfect blend of danger, suspense, and romance, but Lisa Jackson has managed to do just that with her latest release Paranoid. I haven’t read many of her books, but after reading this one I’m ready to hunt down some of her backlist.

Rachel Gaston did an unspeakable thing when she was seventeen. She killed her older brother. It was an accident – a bunch of teenagers got together to play paintball in an abandoned warehouse –  but no one knew one gun was loaded with real bullets instead of paint. Both Rachel and her brother Luke’s lives ended that night. Once Luke was gone, Rachel was changed; the carefree girl she’d been is gone and has been replaced by a woman consumed with guilt in the aftermath of his death. It doesn’t help that there have always been those who didn’t quite believe what happened was truly accidental and have created their own narratives for what occurred.

Even decades later, Rachel still can’t escape the legacy of that night. Her life has moved on – in theory. She got married, had two kids, got divorced; but on the twentieth anniversary of Luke’s death the local paper runs a story about it, and the usual circus of gossip starts up again. Rachel is used to getting sideways glances, but this time it seems like something more sinister is afoot. She constantly has the sense that she’s being watched, and when an old classmate (who was at the warehouse that night) is murdered, the whole town is abruptly on edge along with her….

All in all, I would definitely suggest Paranoid to anyone looking for a suspense/thriller with a hint of romance. It certainly kept me on the edge of my seat.

 

It’s on sale at Amazon for 0.99 here.


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