Saturday Review: Lost in a Royal Kiss

Lost in a Royal Kiss

By Vanessa Kelly

Publisher: Zebra

Release Date: 

November 26, 2013

Linnet St. Clare may look like an angel, but there is nothing angelic about her temper or her determination. She has had to be strong. When her father’s death meant her mother’s accepting a position as sub-governess in the royal household, Linnet assumed responsibility for her younger brother and sister. Linnet’s mother may be gently pushing her towards marriage, but Linnet herself has accepted that she is destined for spinsterhood because she can’t leave her siblings. So fierce has she become in her role as caretaker and protector that she frightens off prospective suitors. What Linnet doesn’t yet know is that one man refuses to be frightened off. Indeed, he has decided Linnet is exactly whom he wants as his wife.

As King George’s liaison to the Home Office, Sir Anthony Tait is a powerful man at Court. He is a man accustomed to seeing his plans reach fruition, and no plan is more important to him than making Linnet his wife. Linnet’s independence and competence that make others look askance just make Sir Anthony all the more certain she is the one for him. If gaining her hand requires subterfuge, he is persuaded that his and Linnet’s happiness will be worth the unusual exercise of his skills.

Linnet is comfortable taking charge, but when Dominic Hunter, the orphaned son of a butcher who has been reared with the royal princes due to the queen’s misguided efforts at a social experiment, attacks Prince Ernest, Linnet knows she must have help to protect young Dominic from the consequences of his folly. She turns to Sir Anthony for help because she trusts his integrity and compassion, she knows he will understand Dominic’s isolation, and she believes he has the power to act.

As Linnet and Sir Anthony work together to solve the problems of Dominic and others, they must balance the call on their consciences with the need for pragmatism and avoiding offense to the royal family. Can they find the time to respond to the call of their own hearts in the midst of their maneuvering for the good of others?

Lost in a Royal Kiss is a prequel to Vanessa Kelly’s new series The Renegade Royals. Set in 1786, a quarter century before the Regency, it introduces fourteen-year-old Dominic Hunter and the events that shaped him into the man readers will encounter in the first two books of the series. It also gives readers a delightful Georgian love story. Linnet is an endearing heroine—strong without becoming a modern miss in costume, caring, and stubborn with a willingness to sacrifice for what she considers the right thing. Anthony is a man at ease with his power but uncorrupted by it. He understands himself, and he understands Linnet. One of the things I liked best about the story is that both Linnet and Anthony understand the other better than anyone realizes.

Because the two are so tied to court life, readers get an unusually close look at the privileges and precariousness of those who are part of court circles. It is a different setting and one I really enjoyed.

A good prequel should give the reader an engaging story on its own merits and whet the reader’s appetite for the larger story. Lost in a Royal Kiss succeeds on both counts. I give the novella high marks, and I eagerly await the Regency-set historicals Secrets of a Royal Bodyguard (January 7, 2014) and Confessions of a Royal Bridegroom (April 1, 2014).

I’ve been a fan of Georgian romances since I read Georgette Heyer’s These Old Shades. I have since read and loved Georgians by Patricia Veryan, Jo Beverley, Eloisa James, and Elizabeth Hoyt among others. What’s your favorite Georgian romance?

Saturday Review: In Love with a Wicked Man

In Love with a Wicked Man

By Liz Carlyle

Publisher: Avon

Release Date: 

October 29, 2013

Ned Quartermaine, a man whose own notoriety exceeds that of the gambling establishment he owns, is visiting Somerset to check out an estate he has claimed from a customer in lieu of the man’s substantial gambling debts. Quartermaine has a specific purpose in mind for the property if it proves suitable, but before he can carry out his inspection, a riding accident renders him unconscious. When he regains consciousness, he not only has forgotten his purpose; he doesn’t even remember his name.

Kate, Lady d'Allenay, a baroness in her own right, is the mainstay of her family. Upon the deaths of her improvident father and brother, in the absence of a direct male heir, she became the one responsible for the family estate. It is important to her that she feels her grandfather would be proud of the steps she is taking to redress the damages inflicted by the poor stewardship of her father and brother. Although her younger sister has a male guardian, the day-to-day supervision of that stubborn, impetuous beauty also rests on Kate, as does meeting the expenses of their volatile mother. All of these concerns are weighing upon Kate when she inadvertently causes a riding accident that leaves her with a new responsibility: an injured man who doesn’t know who he is.

Kate has the stranger taken to Bellecombe Castle where she can oversee his care. Since the initials NED engraved on his personal effects provide the only clue to his identity, Kate calls him Edward. In the absence of conventions that would limit their time together in ordinary situations, the two become friends. Before long, both are aware that feelings stronger than friendship are drawing them together, but Edward’s amnesia is an effective barrier to a more serious relationship. While they struggle with temptation, the twists and tangles of the past are drawing closer to complicate and endanger the present and all its promise.

One of the things that keep me reading romance fiction is the joy of seeing a skilled author take even the most overworked plots and tropes and produce something that is different and captivating. Liz Carlyle does exactly that in this story. Amnesia can be an intrusively obvious device, but Carlyle makes it work here. She gives her readers a real sense of the panic that hits Edward when he realizes he has lost his memory, a panic magnified by his particular nature and experience which make control essential to him and by the sense of something important that taunts him just beyond the edges of memory. She balances this with the unexpected peace and feeling of home that he finds at Bellecombe with Kate.

The bad boy-good girl pairing is surely one of the oldest tropes in romance fiction, but Carlyle makes it fresh because Edward and Kate are never merely types. They are always fully and particularly themselves with unique histories and personalities. I adored Kate, a woman of intelligence, humor, and grace who knows her strengths and has confidence in her competency, yet is aware of her vulnerabilities. And she is not anachronistic! She truly is a strong heroine, in the best sense of that carelessly tossed about description. And while she is ever aware of her responsibilities to her heritage and to her family, she is never a martyr immolating herself on the altar of duty.

Carlyle also excels in weaving new stories into her fictional world. She sometimes does this with clear connections and sometimes with subtle subtext. Carlyle fans familiar with her recent Fraternitas Aureae Crucis series will recognize Ned Quartermaine as the owner of the Quartermaine Club, the gambling salon located across the street from the St. James Society. I always enjoy visiting the world Liz Carlyle creates for her readers.  In Love with a Wicked Man was a special treat since it is less fraught than Carlyle’s books often are. If you are a fan of historical romance that is true to the period and peopled with characters who will engage your interest and affection, I highly recommend this book.

I cherish historical romance authors whose world building skills rival those of authors in other genres. Liz Carlyle and Jo Beverley top my list of such authors. What romance authors demonstrate world-building skills that you especially appreciate?

Saturday Review: Blue by You

Blue by You (enovella)

By Rachel Gibson

Publisher: Avon Impulse

Release Date: 

September 3, 2013

Blue Louretha Dare Toussaint Butler’s ancestors in the female line might have been scandalized to see her living in the overseer’s cottage, wearing jean shorts, and drinking Purple Jesus (a combination of grape juice, ginger ale, and vodka) on the Lord’s Day, but Blue thinks she’s done well to hang on to Dahlia Hall, the home that has been in her family for nearly two hundred years by turning the big house into a tourist attraction. Blue used her divorce settlement to do the renovations that made Dahlia Hall self-supporting. The only other River Road plantation still in the hands of the original owners is nearby Esterbrook, the ancestral home of the Penningtons, Toussaint enemies for generations.

Kasper Pennington returned to New Orleans five years ago. After a successful career in the Marines and two unsuccessful marriages, he’s back where he started. A construction business that’s has expanded rapidly in post-Katrina New Orleans, renovations on Esterbrook, and keeping an eye on his idiosyncratic grandmother are enough to fill a man’s time. A busy man doesn’t have time to think about his past and the choices he made more than two decades ago.

Once long ago, Blue ignored her mama’s advice to “stay away from those morally corrupt, sugar-mouthed Pennington boys.” Fresh out of high school and eager to show she was a woman, Blue allowed Kasper Pennington to charm her. Twenty-two years later she still hasn’t forgotten exactly how charming he proved to be, but she’s wiser now. Too bad that Kasper Pennington is as tempting as ever, and this time he’s not leaving.

I loved these characters. Blue and Kasper are both funny and smart-mouthed and believably Southern, and the chemistry between them sizzles. I loved that they are both over forty and that, although they have lived full lives, they have not forgotten their brief time together. In fact, I love Blue and Kasper and their story so much that I think they deserve more than five chapters. I want them to have their HEA, but this HEA happens too quickly for me to believe in it.

For readers who have never read Rachel Gibson, “Blue by You” is a quick, inexpensive introduction to her style. My guess is that many such readers will be delighted with her characterization skills and her ability to craft a sizzling love scene and will be ready to check out her upcoming novel Run to You. But I suspect most Gibson fans will share my longing for Blue and Kasper’s story to be more.

I’m finding the current trend for authors to offer shorts between novels or as preludes to a new series a mixed blessing. I can’t resist those by my favorite authors, but, while I’ve found some to be wonderful, others leave me singing “Is that all there is?” Are you a fan of novellas? What about shorter-than-usual-novellas?