Review: Uncovering the Governess's Secrets

Here's how old I am. I remember a time when the mere suggestion of first person point of view in a romance novel sent 99% of readers into a fit of apoplexy. I was never one of those readers, mainly because I was a suspense reader long before I was a romance reader, and first person can work very, very well in suspense. For that matter it can work very well in romance. The problem is that for the last decade romance has churned out a ton of terrible first person to the point where it's kind of killed my love for it in this particular genre. 

To be fair, the first person in Uncovering the Governess's Secrets by Marguerite Kaye is not terrible. I even understand it as an authorial choice, given that this latest book is set in Scotland and has overt Gothic undertones. Kaye also avoids the most common pitfall in dueling first person books - she has given both her hero and heroine their own distinct voices. They never read interchangeable, they read like two distinct people. So why didn't I love this?  Well, let's try to explain...

Rory Sutherland is a former policeman turned private investigator and very good at his job. Now living in London he's been hired by a member of the peerage newly come into his title to track down one Marianne Little to right a grave injustice he believes may have been done to her. The beginning of the story opens with Rory finding Marianne, now working as a governess in Edinburgh, a city that Rory is loathe to be back in but work is work. It's the scene of his downfall, back when he was a policeman and got ahold of a case that he couldn't let go of - something that a powerful someone, somewhere wasn't going to let stand. 

Marianne escaped from an asylum three years ago, where she was locked up against her will, thanks to the help of a kindly nurse. That same nurse gave her the connections to start a new life in Edinburgh, but even three years later Marianne still has not stopped looking over her shoulder.  Per his employer's instructions, Rory is to track down Marianne, remain inconspicuous, but maintain her safety.  Unfortunately that gets blown all to hell in the park because these two can't help but notice each other.

As the story unfolds Kaye employs flashbacks to Marianne's time in the various asylums she was locked up in and Rory taking on her missing person's case. Both of them are outsiders, observant to a fault, and share a lot in common. Then there's the world-building and sense of place. Folks, it's a historical that feels like a historical. It feels right that this particular story is set in late 19th century Scotland, between the two cities of Edinburgh and Glasgow. From the weather, the sites, to Rory's background - it all fits beautifully.

So where does it go wrong? While the dueling first person does a good job of digging into the characters' thoughts and feelings, it bogs the pacing down. There's a lot of repetitive internal musing and "We're so attracted to each other but we mustn't!" stuff.  Also while I felt the world-building and setting was great, after a while this starts to read too much like a travelogue of various Scottish sites taking time away from the actual, oh I don't know, plot. For a book that essentially has two mysteries in it (Marianne's traumatic past and the case that tarnished Rory's reputation and chased him out of Edinburgh) there's an appalling lack of urgency.  And while the Marianne situation is set to rights?  Justice is most definitely not served on Rory's white whale cold case. Oh sure, he identifies the murdered woman and "gives her family closure" but does he really? No. The bad guy is never identified, although Rory has undisclosed "suspicions," but he feels he can now move on because he's let the woman's family know she's dead. Well, gold star for you boyo /end sarcasm.

Look, I get it. The reality of the conflict in this story is that Men Are Terrible. That woman lacked agency and were at the mercy of men, some of who were awful. Normally this kind of thing can annoy me (tarring an entire gender, race or ethnicity in fiction does that to me), but Kaye avoids that here because she includes male characters who aren't all greedy and vile. But, and here's the thing, I read genre fiction because I want the universe to be righted. I get enough rich, powerful men getting off scot-free and more often than that, "failing up," in real life. I don't want it in my entertainment reading. Please and thank you.

There's a third-act break-up we can see coming from across an ocean, but the resolution works very well for two characters who are past their first bloom of youth (Rory is 40, Marianne firmly in her 30s). It just lacks urgency. This one did not pass the put-down-pick-back-up test for a long time. I do think the dueling first person may work better for readers more tolerant than I, but I do think the pacing is a real issue with the story overall.  I typically like Kaye's work, and she's written some dynamite books, but this one sat firmly in the middle for me.

Final Grade = C+

Reminder: #TBRChallenge Day is September 18!

Here we are, dancing in September and our next #TBRChallenge Day is Wednesday, September 18.  This month's optional theme is Drama!

This is another suggestion that came out of my Annual Theme Poll and, let's be honest, y'all knew I wasn't going to pass this one up.  

However, remember that the themes are totally optional. Maybe this is a month you want to read a nice book about nice people and there's not a lot of Drama Llama floating around. That's fine! Remember the themes are always optional. The goal is to read something, anything, out of your TBR.

It is certainly not too late to join the Challenge (to be honest it's never too late).  You can get more details and get links to the current list of participants on the #TBRChallenge 2024 Information Page. 

Mini-Reviews: Barely Any Spoons

Hey, so yeah. This blog has fallen into Dead Zone space again and that's largely because I've barely been reading. And what I have been reading? I don't really have the spoons to blog about - but dead space is dead space, so it's time for some patented mini-reviews of meh reads that I don't have a lot to say about. Strap yourselves in kiddies!

The Great British Bump Off by John Allison and Max Sarin was featured on one of our booklists at the Day Job. I'm not a huge graphic novel reader, but I'll pick one up when I stumble across a plot description that tickles my fancy and this one sounded fun.  The publisher is marketing this as "An Agatha Christie-style murder mystery set in the world of English competitive baking..." and what I was hoping for was the charm of the Great British Bake Off mixed with the sinister underbelly of a traditional British mystery. What I got was the story of an insufferable jerk getting poisoned on the eve before filming starts and a quirky, manic butterfly heroine flitting about. Basically she's the first cousin of the Manic Pixie Dream Girl and is annoying beyond measure.  Just because Agatha Christie was British and this riffs on a popular British baking show does not make it a good comparison anywhere on the planet Earth. I finished it, but seriously graphic novel. Those are harder to DNF than category romance.

Final, Not-For-Me, Grade = D

The Michigan Murders by Edward Keyes was on my Kindle because of the Michigan connection (I'm from Michigan...) and the fact that Open Road Media reprinted it 2016.  It was originally published all the way back in 1976, was an Edgar Award Finalist, and it's age is what made it memorable. This true crime book tells the story of several young women, brutally murdered, around Eastern Michigan University in the late 1960s. What makes this interesting is the time in which this book was written - the author changes the names of nearly all the players (including the victims and the murderer) to afford the families some small measure of privacy. In a world where we have amateur cold case detectives digging around in victim's and their family's pain for podcast fame and hopeful fortune this was....quaint is the word I think I want to use.  Also, I found it interesting to read about the murders and how flummoxed the cops were given it was the late 1960s.  These days the case would have been cracked in a speedier fashion thanks to DNA evidence and everybody having a Ring camera installed on their front doors. The methodical first half is where the meat and potatoes were for me and I thought the author did a good job of conveying the tension and difficulties of the investigation.

Of course in the second half, after the cops identify a suspect, they do everything in their power to fumble the ball on the 20 yard line, and it's amazing to me the jury convicts given the sheer brain-melting, confounding hair analysis testimony. The trial part of the book was pure tedium for me, which I suppose means the author did his job since most trials are pure tedium. 

It was interesting and "fine" but what I found supremely perplexing was that there was no updated forward or afterword (yes, the author has since passed but literally throw a stone and you could find another true crime writer to take on that job!). Given that someone else was convicted of murdering one of the victims (who never quite fit the pattern) in 2005 thanks to, you guessed it, DNA evidence, this was particularly glaring.

Final Grade = C

I think I downloaded The Return by Rachel Harrison thanks to a Netgalley promo email and reading the description I think I was thinking it would be suspense.  It's really more horror, which is fine and I do read some horror, but honestly this was the very definition of middle-of-the-road read for me.

It tells the story of four college friends, Julie, Mae, Molly and Elise, with Elise, the least successful of the group, narrating the story. Julie is missing. As in she went for a hike and disappeared. Everyone is in a panic, including Molly, Mae and Julie's husband. But not Elise. Julie and Elise are a lot alike and Elise is convinced that Julie will return. And she does. Two years to the day she disappeared with no memory of what happened to her or where she's been all this time. After the dust settles the girls decide to take a girl's trip to reconnect and head to an exclusive boutique hotel in the Catskills. But the second Elise sees Julie she knows something is very wrong. Julie is not Julie. She's emaciated, with sallow skin, terrible teeth, and odd appetites. As in staunch to the point of insufferable vegan Julie is now eating raw and/or barely cooked meat. But if Julie isn't Julie, than who is she exactly?

This is a story of toxic friendship, with each character being a hot mess in their own way and basically being snide about whichever woman isn't around at that time. Instead of leaning in on each other for support, it's a friendship well practiced in avoidance. There are just things they don't talk about. Ever. It lends itself to not really caring for any of them all that much, so even though the author does a decent job of ratcheting up the creepy tension with Gothic tinged vibes, I spent the whole book kind of wishing everyone would end up dead. By the time I got to the end that tension ends up deflated by an ending that seems to go on forever and a very tell-y recounting of what happened to Julie when she disappeared. The whole thing has an oddly detached feeling and I finished it relieved it was one more book off the pile.

Final Grade = C

Review: The Rana Look

The Sandra Brown tear continues, this time with a book recommended by friend of the blog, and TBR Challenge participant, Eurohackie. The Rana Look is another of Brown's category romances, published as Loveswept #136 in 1986. Even with a preposterous plot I was surprised how well this one held up, but let's not get ahead of ourselves. It's still a forty-year-old category romance. While in some ways this was a step forward, there were still plenty of steps taken backwards.

Rana Ramsey is a successful model who chucked aside the glitz and glamor of the lifestyle thanks to a stage mother from hell. When the straw breaks the camel's back, she heads south to Galveston, Texas where she's renting an apartment from an elderly landlady and supporting herself as a textile artist. However thanks to her unique look, to stay truly hidden and away from the prying eyes of the public, she takes to disguising herself with frumpy, oversized clothes, tinted glasses, no make-up, and she's started eating like a normal person, so she's put on about twenty pounds. Life is going well for Rana until her landlady's nephew arrives to upset the apple cart. 

Trent Gamblin (no, I am not making that up...) is an NFL quarterback who has a few weeks until spring training and his injured shoulder just isn't healing properly.  The problem is his lifestyle. Trent is Mr. Good Time, partying and playing it up in Houston, women falling at his feet, the world being his oyster. Now on the wrong side of thirty, he knows his playing days are numbered and he wants to go out on his own terms. Which means getting out of Houston, away from temptation, and nursing that shoulder. His aunt has a vacant apartment in Galveston, that seems like a solid plan - until he meets Rana who he knows as "Miss Ramsey" and then "Ana."

Rana hits the ground running in the prickly department. Frankly she starts out as bit of a over-sensitive bitch, and then you realize why she's like that. She takes one look at Trent and just KNOWS the type of guy he is. The ego on this guy is amazing. He's used to women falling all over themselves and here's dowdy spinster Miss Ramsey who looks like she stepped in something smelly every time she's around him. So, naturally, because he's a jerk and bored he thinks he'll get his jollies by seducing the spinster - that is until Rana calls him out on ALL his bullshit and seriously just read this book if only for that scene (Chapter 3, you're welcome).

Original Cover

After this dressing down our couple settles into a friendship, even though Trent freely admits he has no clue how to be friends with a woman. To that end, our guy is still far from perfect, he throws out the requisite "prude" and "frigid" insults when Rana doesn't fall right into bed with him, but at least he has the good sense to apologize (a couple of times actually) over the course of this book realizing what a jerk he's been. Also there's a fantastic scene at the end where one of his teammates dresses him down for using Rana to prop up his own male ego. The word "fragile" is actually thrown back in Trent's face which was so very delicious.

Of course these two have more in common then they first realize because Rana is hiding her true identity. She's never had any genuine affection in her life, no one being capable of seeing past her looks to get to know the real person. Trent's worth is wrapped up entirely in his ability to throw a football, what happens when he's put out to pasture before he even hits 40?  

Brown says some interesting things about youth and beauty culture in this book that feel downright progressive for 1986, but that doesn't mean there's still not plenty of grossness.  Rana's 5'9" and at the height of her career she was 110 lbs. Then when she starts eating more than just lettuce and water, she puts on 20 lbs. Folks, maybe it's because I'm 5'9" that I spent this entire book wondering how Rana was able to stand upright and be conscious.  At my skinniest I weighed in at about 125 lbs, had the figure of a No. 2 pencil, and was passing out from iron deficiency anemia. I mean, no two bodies are the same and modeling is, well, modeling but c'mon. Also, I'm not gonna lie, I felt some kind of way when a waitress at a Mexican restaurant Trent and Rana go to is described as "fat." 

Trent truly does seem to fall for Rana in her dowdy Ana disguise, but naturally when the truth comes out he gets all up in his man fee-fees, which just leads credence to the idea that it's all about stroking his ego and having a woman at his side who may just possibly outshine him gets him all butt-hurt. 

So, yes, this is very interesting but it was still 1986. However to liven up some of that grossness we are regaled with some fantastic fashion descriptions, right down to Trent wearing cut-off jean shorts and midriff baring T-shirts while working out 😂.

As much as I loved the completely over-the-top bananapants of A Treasure Worth Seeking, I feel like this one works slightly better because while the supermodel living as a spinster trope is equally as absurd, there's not a piling on of the bananapants.  Sometimes less is indeed more.

Final Grade = B 

The Heat Is On: Unusual Historicals for August 2024

As if the August heat wasn't reason enough to stay hydrated, running the marathon that is this month's crop of Unusual Historicals would be another. Folks, we have 15 (count 'em 15!) titles this month. Is it any wonder I'm a little later than usual getting this post up? I had to pace myself! Now for your browsing pleasure, here we go...

 

How the Wallflower Wins a Duke by Lucy Morris

Marina Fletcher’s Rules:

Rule 1: Spend life composing music in peace. Do not worry about finding a husband.

Rule 2: If must worry about finding a husband, marry for love only or commit to becoming a spinster.

Rule 3: Resist urge to spend time with the sinfully sexy Duke of Framlingham, who clearly does not believe in love.

Rule 4: Never ever say yes to said duke’s wicked plan for us to silence society’s expectations with a fake engagement…

But what happens when this wallflower breaks every single rule?

Morris takes a break from the Vikings she's known for for a new Regency era stand-alone featuring a wallflower music composer heroine who finds herself saddled with a fake engagement - as you do. I've enjoyed several of Morris's Viking romances so I'm intrigued by this one.

The Housekeeper's Secret by Iona Grey

Duty, desire, and deception reside under one roof.

Standing in the remote windswept moors of Northern England, Coldwell Hall is the perfect place to hide. For the past five years, Kate Furniss has maintained her professional mask so carefully that she almost believes she is the character she has created: Coldwell’s respectable housekeeper.

It is the summer of 1911 that brings new faces above and below the stairs of Coldwell Hall—including the handsome and mysterious new footman, Jem Arden. Just as the house’s shuttered rooms open, so does Kate’s guarded heart to a love affair that is as intense as it is forbidden. But Kate can feel her control slipping as Jem harbors secrets of his own.

Told in alternating timelines from the last sun-drenched summer of the Edwardian Age to the mud-filled trenches of WWI, The Housekeeper's Secret opens its door to a world of romance, the truths we hold onto, and the past we must let go.

A below-stairs romance set in the early 20th century featuring a heroine and hero both with secrets and a heaping dose of Gothic vibes. Yes please.

How to Fall for a Scoundrel by Kate Bateman

As a founding member of King & Co., London’s most successful private investigation firm, studious Eleanor Law delights in secretly proving that women can solve crimes just as well as men. When a charming con man pretends to be her fictional boss, "Charles King," Ellie knows he’s lying, but accepting the scoundrel’s offer of help might just be the key to cracking her new case and recovering a priceless manuscript.

“Henri Bonheur”—or “Harry” as he asks to be called—claims his criminal past is behind him, but a man who steals and seduces with such consummate ease can never be trusted. As the investigation draws them deeper into danger and desire, Ellie’s infuriated to realize she’s developed feelings for her law-breaking accomplice. How can she love the scoundrel when she doesn’t even know his real name? And what will happen when Harry’s past finally catches up with him?

A heroine who runs a private investigation firm meets her "boss," and despite knowing he's lying through his teeth partners with him to solve her latest case. She just forgot the first rule: do not fall in love with a con man.

Untamed by Lisa Rayne

Proper eastern lady Mary Catherine Templeton is on the verge of being destitute when she inherits a saloon out west. She’s determined to take her bachelor’s degree and make a success of the struggling liquor joint, even after her innocent sensibilities are shocked to discover its other sinful commodity.

All burnt-out bounty hunter Blaaze Lassiter wants is to retire in a quiet, uneventful town, catch up on his reading, and try a little whittling. He thought he'd found the perfect place to abandon his live-by-the-gun ways. But ever since that she-devil changed the rules for the amenities in her establishment, the townsmen have started a ruckus detrimental to his peaceful existence.

When the backlash against Mary Catherine becomes life-threatening, Blaaze feels duty-bound to strap on his guns again to protect the woman who’s got his blood riled in more ways than one. And once he puts down this insurrection, he’s gonna take up a new leisure activity—one that involves giving the prissy college graduate a whole different kind of education.

I'm not going to lie, Blaaze spelled with two a's makes my eyes roll, but IT'S A WESTERN!  In references readers of a certain age will probably only get, the author is tagging this one as The Best Little Whorehouse in Texas meets Shane and honestly this could be a lot of fun.

Uncovering the Governess's Secrets by Marguerite Kaye

She’s running from the past…

Am I the key to her future?

As a private investigator to the rich, it’s my job to be impartial, but returning to moody Edinburgh—the city where I made my name—to locate Marianne Crawford unsettles me. And when I meet the beguiling governess in question, I’m inexplicably drawn to her…

Marianne Crawford is a survivor. She’s lived through experiences designed to destroy her. But I’m here to reveal her true identity, not to fall under her spell. I’ve never been afraid of secrets, but once I uncover this one, I’m afraid I won’t be able to walk away…

Kaye is back with a stand-alone Gothic set in Edinburgh and I am here for it! Our heroine has escaped an asylum and is hiding in plain sight as a governess. Our hero is a former policeman turned private investigator. 

The Berlin Apartment by Bryn Turnbull

Berlin 1961: When Uli Neumann proposes to Lise Bauer, she has every reason to accept. He offers her love, respect, and a life beyond the strict bounds of the East German society in which she was raised — which she longs to leave more than anything. But only two short days after their engagement, Lise and Uli are torn violently apart when barbed wire is rolled across Berlin, splitting the city into two hostile halves: capitalist West Berlin, an island of western influence isolated far beyond the iron curtain; and the socialist East, a country determined to control its citizens by any means necessary. 

Soon, Uli and his friends in West Berlin hatch a plan to get Lise and her unborn child out of East Germany, but as distance and suspicion bleed into their lives and as weeks turn to months, how long can true love survive in the divided city?

How's this for high stakes conflict? You fall in love, you get engaged and two days later the Soviets are rolling barbed wire across Berlin separating you from your fiancé. After a dearth of World War II era historical fiction with romantic elements, this sounds positively fresh.

A Scandal at Stonecliffe by Candace Camp

After the scandal of his broken engagement, Nathan Dunbridge accepted his fate as a bachelor—so of course that’s when the most ineligible woman of all turns up in disguise at a society event: Verity Cole, former spy and Stonecliffe’s resident troublemaker… a woman Nathan finds equal parts alluring and irritating.

Living in London under an assumed name, Verity runs an investigation agency. So when a stranger shows up claiming to be the rightful Dunbridge heir, Nathan turns to Verity to help him uncover the truth. Verity agrees, always eager to unravel a mystery—especially when it involves the handsome Nathan Dunbridge.

As Nathan’s family secrets threaten everything he’s known, he finds Verity is the only person he wants to confide in. But Verity has secrets too—secrets that make it impossible to be with a proper gentleman like Nathan. And when an enemy from her past appears, will Nathan and Verity be able to hold on to their impossible love, or will they be torn apart?

The final book in Camp's Stonecliffe trilogy features a former spy heroine now running an investigative agency, a hero contending with a man claiming to be his family's rightful heir, and a heaping helping of secrets coming from both sides. Oh, and our heroine and hero share a past, because what's a romance novel without some complications?

Unexpectedly Wed to the Heir by Lydia San Andres

His vow?

To protect her!

After dressmaker Aura Soriana’s father passes away, her home and livelihood are left on the line. With only herself to count on, she’s cautious when she meets handsome Eduardo Martinez, heir to a shipping empire, and has no time for his easygoing attitude and showy gestures!

When Eduardo discovers Aura’s home has been broken into, and the dangerous men pursuing her are linked to his family, the only way to keep her safe is to claim she’s his fiancée! Yet if independent Aura’s to meet him at the altar, Eduardo must face his past and show her she can rely on him…

San Andres' fourth book in her Caribbean Courtships series is set in 1910 Dominican Republic and features a dressmaker heroine in uncertain waters after her father's death, a shipping heir hero and a fake engagement.

 

Good Duke Gone Wild by Bethany Bennett

Dorian Whitaker, Duke of Holland, needs an heir after his so-called “fairytale marriage” ended in disaster. When the intriguing bookseller he’s hired to liquidate his late wife’s library finds love letters revealing an affair, he is drawn into a mystery alongside a lady whose sharp intellect dazzles him and dares him to imagine a new adventure outside the gilded cage of the Ton.

If anyone found out Caroline Danvers writes erotic novels under a pen name, she’d face utter ruin. Except her latest hero inspiration is none other than the Duke of Holland—a man with the power to destroy her family’s bookshop. And yet the real man proves to be so much more than the character she created. Even as they expose the dark secrets of his past, she knows he can never discover her own. But the more time they spend together, the more tempting it is to rewrite their ending and turn fantasy into reality.

Yes, the first book in the Bluestocking Booksellers series does feature a Duke hero but a BLUSTOCKING BOOKSELLER! Ahem. To complicate matters the heroine is the secret writer of erotic novels and oopsie doodle, the hero was her latest "inspiration." 

A Scandalous Match for the Marquess by Christine Merrill

From one scandal

Straight into the arms of another!

Felicity Morgan has written a lurid gothic novel and all of London is clamoring for the sequel! But her mortified family have sent her to the countryside in disgrace! Felicity is relieved to be free of her parents’ relentless matchmaking—until she learns her host has a marquess in mind for her…

Reclusive widower Martin Howell, Marquess of Woodley, has no interest in entertaining rebellious Felicity, but she is bringing lightness to his gloomy estate…and his brooding heart. They bond over their determination to remain unwed…until a kiss brings them to the brink of another scandal!

Another heroine who has secretly written a gothic novel except, well, she gets found out and naturally her family is less than thrilled. Hustled off to the country to lay low, she's more than happy to escape any more attempts at matchmaking. She just didn't exactly plan on meeting our hero, a widower determined to remain unwed.

The Duke and the Darkness by Anna Harrington 

When Their Deepest Secrets Come to Light…

Devlin Raines, Duke of Dartmoor, has worked hard to put his father’s sins and his life as a former mercenary into the past. He’s saved the family’s reputation, kept his mother and sisters safe, and is on the verge of a respectable—if loveless—marriage. His future seems on track—until a mysterious, beautiful woman inverts his world…a woman who can only be a ghost.

Only the Darkness Can Save Them

Peyton Chandler is dead to the world. When assassins attacked her family’s carriage ten years ago, killing her parents and attacking her, she faked her own death to stay alive. But now she’s returned to London to seek revenge against the man she believes was responsible…Devlin Raines. Only the more time she spends with him, the more everything she thought was true falls apart. And before she knows it, her only safe path to finding answers depends upon her ability to trust the one man she swore to destroy.

A Duke who just so happens to be a former mercenary (because, of course) is ready to settle into a dull life of respectability when a woman, returned from the dead, shows up seeking revenge. I mean, if it's not one thing it's another AMIRITE?!

The Forest Bride by Susan King

He broke her heart years ago. Now she desperately needs his help...

When her escort party is ambushed, Lady Margaret Keith is desperate to rescue her young charge, the Scottish king’s daughter, and find a stolen seeing-stone. An archery contest offers the opportunity she needs. Dressed as a lad, she accidentally wounds a lord, escapes into the forest, and is caught by the local justiciar—the man who left her heartbroken years ago.

After years in English custody, Sir Duncan Campbell is now a Scottish judge. Recognizing Margaret despite her disguise, aware she knows he unlawfully hides the English king’s gyrfalcon, he spirits her away to his Highland castle. There she reveals an unbelievable tale of a missing princess and a faery stone and begs his help. Even as passion rekindles between them, forgiveness is elusive.

Yet when danger erupts, they must trust each other—and gamble that love will mend past hurts and save the future…

This is the second book in King's Highland Secrets series and, from what I can tell, a new release and not a reprint. The heroine's quest for a stolen seeing-stone lands her in hot water and into the arms of our hero, now a Scottish judge with sticky ties to the English.

Rescuing the Runaway Heiress by Sadie King

Will a double masquerade…

Reveal their one true love?

Running away from a forced betrothal, daring actress Hope Sloane is lost and injured when she’s rescued by dashing gentleman Samuel Liddell. As she’s given the best guest chamber at Hayton Hall, it’s clear the baronet thinks she’s a society lady! To avoid being found out, she employs all her acting skills to become a grand heiress…

Only, second son Samuel is not a baronet, either! But to make Hope feel safe, he goes along with her assumption. Hidden away together, the affection between them deepens, until unexpected guests arrive, and his lie threatens to backfire spectacularly!

A runaway actress has to pretend to be a society lady to ensure her safety only to be rescued by a second son pretending to be a baronet. This appears to be, at least, a duet - the first book also taking place at Hayton Hall and featuring a hero who actually IS the baronet.

Passion at the Palais Royal by Delphine Roy

Passion thrives in the midst of vengeance.

The perilous streets of the Palais Royal have hardened Nicolas Lefevre. Orphaned during the Revolution, scarred by years spent in a violent gang, he is now determined to strike his own path training others in savate, the hand-to-hand combat that allowed him to survive. But to open a legitimate gymnasium, he must avoid the escalating conflicts of Paris’s criminal underworld. A beautiful thief who turns to him for help threatens to plunge him back into the life he vowed to leave behind.

The family fortunes squandered by her wastrel brother, Violet de la Roque resorts to picking pockets for the city’s most notorious crime lord. At least until her employer decides she would make him more profit on her back, a fate she is desperate to avoid. She believes Nicolas might give her a fighting chance, but secret savate lessons soon turn into a deeper connection.

The third book in the author's Bleu Blanc Rouge trilogy features a hero who teaches savate (!) a pickpocket heroine under the thumb of a notorious crime lord who the hero only narrowly escaped himself. AztecLady gave this one a qualified recommendation and I really need to dig into this entire trilogy.

Knight of Havoc by Sherry Ewing

Long ago, Reynard Norwood loved deeply, but the lady died, and he vowed never to love again. On a mission for the Empress Matilda, he finds a lady worthy of love. She is barely surviving. How can he leave her? But how can he break his vow to the dead? Torn between loyalty to a ghost and following his heart, he must still make certain that the living lady is safe and secure.

The life of Lady Elysande Thorburn of Blackmore has been in turmoil since King Stephen and his men laid siege to her home. With few resources, she must care for an ailing grandfather and meet her responsibilities to those loyal to the household. Her options for survival are running out. One of Empress Matilda’s knights arrives at her weakest moment. He’s determined she must leave with him, but she’s just as determined to stay.

Ewing wraps up her Knights of Anarchy trilogy with this final book, featuring a "I'll never love again!" hero who does, indeed, fall in love again with our heroine barely surveying after a siege on her home. 

Whew! Another bounty of possibilities this month just in case you feel like you're not buried enough under your TBR. What Unusual Historicals are you looking forward to? 

#TBRChallenge 2024: A Rendezvous to Remember

The Book: A Rendezvous to Remember by Geri Krotow

Particulars: Contemporary romance, Harlequin Everlasting #20, 2007, Out of print, Available digitally

Why Was It In Wendy's TBR?: My print copy is brand new and unsigned but I'm fairly certain I must have picked this up in either a conference goodie room or a local RWA chapter event. That means it was a freebie and a category romance so of course it was in my TBR.

The Review: Everlasting originally started out as a mini-series within the sadly departed and still deeply mourned Harlequin SuperRomance line. Eventually Harlequin spun it off into it's own short-lived (about a year?) line where the marketing was "Every great love has a story to tell." That translated to non-traditional "historical" settings (mid-20th century in some cases) and present-day settings featuring older couples and plots that leaned in on second chance, marriage in trouble etc. I collected a few of these but it was never a line I was actively drawn to or mourned after Harlequin pulled the plug.

Melinda Thompson is a speech writer for a senator, now living in D.C., after her husband, Nick, is deployed for a second tour in Afghanistan, their marriage in the final death throes. She's upset he hasn't left the Army Reserves yet and that they've been unable to get pregnant. He's upset that she wants to chuck her teaching job to move to D.C. and write speeches for the senator. They haven't been speaking, Nick being overseas and Melinda dealing with a demanding job and the recent death of her beloved grandmother, who essentially raised her. Well now Melinda is back home in Buffalo, New York - the senator grudgingly allowing her two weeks off so she can look in on Grandpa Jack. What Melinda didn't expect was to walk into her own house, the one she used to share with Nick, to discover he too is back in town.

When Melinda goes to check on Grandpa Jack he gives her two journals, one belonging to him and one belonging to her grandmother - both written during and immediately after World War II.  Jack implores Melinda to read them right away, it was her grandmother's wish - which Melinda, of course, does. Melinda always knew her grandparents met during the war - what she didn't know was that her beloved grandmother was a member of the Belgian Resistance, that her grandfather worked for British Intelligence, and Jack was not Grammy's first husband....

The story is told in dual timelines, present day Buffalo and through the journal entries of Jack's and Grammy Esmèe's journals. There's a good, compelling story here with what should be high stakes conflict. Unfortunately it's wasted on a present day couple who were generally terrible and the poor execution of the World War II storyline told through journal entries.

Here's the problem with the journal entries: It's tell, tell, tell. A more elegant way to put this is to steal from Miss Bates who recently wrote in a review for a completely different book, that that writer "recounts without telling at the reader." Folks, what we have in A Rendezvous to Remember is the opposite. It's all tell, no show. And because it's all tell and no show I have less than zero investment in either couple or their conflict. I should have been on the edge of my seat reading about Esmèe's work with the Belgian Resistance, her first marriage to a vilely abusive husband, of Jack's dangerous work behind enemy lines and his eventual time served in a horrid POW camp.  I've been more riveted reading dry-as-dust nonfiction treatises.

The present day storyline doesn't help matters. Nick has lost the lower half of his left leg to an IED explosion but is hiding that (somehow?!) from Melinda because he doesn't want her to come back to him out of pity. I realize that there have been amazing advancements in prosthetics but really?! He had served her with divorce papers but she still didn't find out about his injury? Either from his family or the Army? There's not a dashed off mention in the story that she was removed as his next of kin notification so how?!  Granted, I don't know much about prosthetics but this one strained for me. I mean, maybe it's possible but I wasn't buying it - which still makes it a problem. I wasn't convinced that she just wouldn't notice something like that.

Original cover

Before you think Melinda is the bad guy here, not supporting Nick's    military service and just running off to D.C. - Nick is no prize either. He doesn't understand why she'd want to take that job for the senator anyway when she could stay in Buffalo and keep being a teacher, no matter she obviously isn't feeling challenged or fulfilled by this career path.  Then he implies that she's only taking this job because her biological clock is ticking and they haven't been able to get pregnant. The vibe I got from him was that a wife with any ambition that doesn't involve staying where he wants to stay, doing what he wants to do, is an issue for him.

Great, I hate both of them. She's selfish and whiny and he's an ass.

Of course in the end it's all right as rain. Melinda gets through the journals. Her and Nick find their way back to each other and we get an epilogue where she squirts out a kid at age 41.  There's no confirmation (!!!) but presumably she's given up her high-pressured demanding job for the senator and is back in Buffalo playing happy homemaker.  Or maybe she went back to teaching. Whatever. There's several mentions in the book that she wanted "more," wanted to "escape" Buffalo, and it's a big factor on why their marriage hit the skids in the first place but in the final chapter nothing is confirmed. I'm assuming she quit the senator and moved back to Nick and Buffalo because Nick mentions he wants to leave behind accounting and open his own landscaping / garden center business. 

Besides hating both Melinda and Nick (which I guess means they maybe deserve each other? Hey, maybe this book does work?) the World War II storyline isn't half-bad but there's absolutely no juice behind it. It's like a cake you take out of the oven too soon. The edges are close to done but you still have raw batter in the center.  It's a quick read and I got a kick out of the Buffalo setting (having lived there in my late teens / early 20s) but that's really about it. Oh well, one more off the pile.

Final Grade = D+

Review: A Treasure Worth Seeking

I've been on a bit of a Sandra Brown tear lately and, as I'm wont to do with an author who got their start writing category romances, I asked for recommendations.  Steve Ammidown from Romance Fiction Has a History recommended A Treasure Worth Seeking, which was originally published in 1982 as Candlight Ecstasy #59 (Brown's first editor was THE Vivian Stephens!) under her first pen name, Rachel Ryan. If anything, Steve undersold this one. Not only is it a ride featuring all the bananapants you could possibly hope for in a 1982 category romance, it's a really interesting book in a "history of the genre" sort of way.

Spoilers Ahoy! Look, you've had since 1982....

Erin O'Shea is in San Francisco because she has finally found her long lost brother. Erin and her brother were adopted, separately, as children, Ken being a toddler, Erin only an infant. The man who greets her at the door is strikingly handsome and sure he doesn't resemble her all that much, but she's just so excited to finally meet Ken! That is until "Ken" lays the mother of all smoldering kisses on her.

Ken is, of course, not Ken. He's Lance Barrett, Treasury Agent. Millions of dollars were embezzled from the bank where Ken works (his father-in-law is the bank president, talk about awkward!) and Ken, naturally, has vanished. The Treasury Department has set up camp in his home and the conveniently vacant home across the street hoping Ken will be in contact with his wife. Frankly Erin's story stinks to high heaven. A gorgeous, young thing with a preposterous story.  Lance, in true 1982 Romance Hero Fashion, behaves accordingly from the punishing kiss, to patting her down, to telling her she can't leave until they verify her "story."

Erin's story is verified in short order, but she's not about to leave her sweet, frankly naïve, sister-in-law to the sharks, especially since her parents are simply vile. She's about as happy to spend more time in Lance's company as he is hers, and we're soon off to the races with a - not an Enemy to Lovers trope necessarily, more like a Instant Dislike Yet I Still Want to Climb You Like a Jungle Gym trope.

Let's get this out of the way up front - 1982. When you're reading a romance of this age you just need to be prepared for some problematic crap.  Lance has swings of wild jealousy, mostly related to Erin being sort of engaged (it's complicated).  She slaps him. He manhandles her. He doesn't rape her but in the heat of a physical argument she can't help but start swooning 🙄.  Yes, it's problematic. Is it the most egregious example of this kind of nonsense I've read in other romances with a much younger pedigree? Not even close. 

Original Cover

Where it's really interesting, besides the completely bananapants set-up, is with the risks Brown takes with the story.  There's a few scenes told from Lance's point of view, which was BEYOND rare for romances published during this period. It just wasn't done.  It's just a couple of scenes, but baby steps y'all.  Also, per the author's note, this is the first book where Brown slipped in a sort of suspense thread. It isn't a suspense thread in the traditional sense, we never really find out why Ken did what he did and the resolution to that aspect of the story, while a little surprising (in a good way!), isn't much of a brain teaser. 

Finally, abortion is actually mentioned. In case you didn't think the plot set-up was bananapants enough, Erin is, naturally, a virgin widow and after riding Lance like a stallion she ends up pregnant. Of course abortion is dismissed as quickly as it's brought up.  Erin is Catholic and immediately dismisses it as something she just "couldn't do" but there's also not any judgement towards "sluts" who may choose otherwise. Heck, just abortion being mentioned on page was kind of jaw-dropping, not gonna lie.

Would I recommend this book like I would recommend a book with a more current publication date? No - at least not without a list of caveats. That said, if you're interested in the trajectory of Brown's career or just the overall history of the romance genre, this was a really interesting book. Better still? It had enough of the bananapants to be a quick, entertaining read.

Grade = B