Holy Pickled Eggs! It's time for Upcoming Historical Romance!!!

Authors with an asterisk*, I'm picking up! For more Upcoming Releases that aren't historical see HEY DELIA!! November 15, 2018 to December 14, 2018. By the way, it is not my fault if a publisher changes the release dates - just so you know, they do not consult me.
**Book by an author who is either new to me or has fallen off of my list. 

Historical Romance

	Amanda McCabe* http://ammandamccabe.com/ The Governess's Convenient Marriage Debutantes in Paris series November 20 paperback, December 1 ebook
	Betina Krahn* http://www.betinakrahn.com/ The Girl with the Sweetest Secret Sin and Sensibility series November 27
	Cathy Maxwell* http://cathymaxwell.com/ The Duke That I Marry A Spinster Heiresses series November 27
	Christine Merrill http://www.christine-merrill.com How Not to Marry an Earl Scandalous Stricklands series November 20 paperback, December 1 ebook
	Christy Carlyle http://www.christycarlyle.com A Duke Changes Everything The Duke's Den November 27
	Ella Quinn http://www.ellaquinnauthor.com I'll Always Love You Worthington’s series November 27
	Erica Ridley http://www.ericaridley.com Wish Upon a Duke 12 Dukes of Christmas series November 20
	Georgie Lee http://www.georgie-lee.com His Mistletoe Marchioness Matches made in Scandal series November 20 paperback, December 1 Ebook
	Greta Gilbert https://www.fantasticfiction.com/g/greta-gilbert/ Forbidden to the Gladiator November 20
	Janna MacGregor** http://www.JannaMacGregor.com/ The Good, the Bad, and the Duke Cavensham Heiresses series November 27
	Julia Quinn* http://www.juliaquinn.com/ The Other Miss Bridgerton Bridgerton/Rokesby series November 20
	Marguerite Kaye* http://www.margueritekaye.com A Scandalous Winter Wedding Matches Made in Scandal series November 20 paper, December 1 ebook
	Mary Balogh* http://www.marybalogh.com Someone to Trust Westcott series November 27
	Merry Farmer http://merryfarmer.net April Seduction The Silver Foxes of Westminster series December 7
	Tatiana March https://www.harlequin.com/shop/authors/13025_tatiana-march.html The Marshal's Wyoming Bride November 20 paper, December 1 ebook
	Victoria Alexander* http://www.victoriaalexander.com/ The Lady Travelers Guide to Deception with an Unlikely Earl Lady Travelers Guide to Scoundrels and Other Gentlemen series November 20
	Glynnis Campbell Tanya Anne Crosby Barbara Devlin Eliza Knight Erica Ridley Suzan Tisdale Kathryn Le Vegue All Things Merry and Bright

Historical Fiction

	Adriana Trigiani http://www.adrianatrigiani.com/ Tony’s Wife November 20
	Sherry Jones http://www.authorsherryjones.com Josephine Baker’s Last Dance December 4
	Vee Walker https://www.facebook.com/majortomswar/ Major Tom’s War November 19
	Clare Hastings http://www.clarehastings.com/ The House in Little Chelsea December 1

I've Got the Duke to Keep Me Warm by Kelly Bowen - Glom and DNF project

October 23, 2018

And we're off!!
http://www.kellybowen.net/
You know I lose track of things. And, somewhere along the way I lost track of Kelly Bowen, until I found her again. In my TBR pile I had her debut novel I've Got the Duke to Keep Me Warm. It was just sitting there. Having just finished Ms. Bowen's more recent books I decided to go back and glom her first series, The Lords of Worth. As I started to read this book, it began sounding familiar and then it dawned on me. I had attempted to read it before and for some reason couldn't finish it and I sat it aside. Light bulb going off!!! That means that I've Got the Duke to Keep Me Warm is a DNF and I can use it to not only glom an author but to start my DNF project. Yes, I am going to reread some of my DNFs - we will see how long I can keep that up. Anyway, I was a happy camper, glomming and DNFing all in one book.

Well, I started. Then I stopped. Then I started. Then I stopped. I'm not sure what the deal was with the first three chapters of the book, but they gave me some trouble. Maybe it was the heroine in disguise theme, which I will admit is not one of my favorite plotline devices - but then that's me, so I must rise above it. Maybe it was the name Gisele. You know authors have no idea what might be triggered in a reader’s psychic when they chose a name. Gisele, I must rise above it. I pressed forward. And, do you know what happened? All of a sudden I realized I had been captured by the prose.

Gisele Whitby is hiding out from her abusive, psychopath husband. How is she hiding out? Well, she very spectacularly fabricated her death, and adopted a new identity. She is now helping other women who were much like she was, trapped in a marriage with a man who beats them. She and her group of cohort’s help these women disappear into the landscape. But she is having a dilemma when this story begins; she needs another helper because her last one fell in love and is on his honeymoon. Gisele is desperate. It seems that her husband has found another woman to marry. She cannot let history repeat itself. Gisele needs to break up those marriage plans and she is on the lookout for a man who can help her. Enter James Montcrief.

James is a great hero. He is also down in the dumps. While his father, the duke did actually marry James' mother, he was a tad bit late and didn't marry her until after James was born. That makes James a bastard. It also makes James' brother, the second son the Duke, the heir. But that isn't why James is blue, no he's accepted that - sort of. He's down in the dumps because of the things he saw on the battlefield, including the death of another one of his brothers at Waterloo. Now he is drowning his sorrow in alcohol and doing odd jobs just to pay for it. This was not a story about his drinking problem; in fact that sort of disappeared once James joined Gisele in her endeavor. We do get to see him come to grips with his brother's death and all the demons floating around in his head.

Gisele has a number of plans to break up the upcoming nuptials of her husband and his fiancée. I do acknowledge when I was reading these plans my eyes kept rolling. The funny part was, Jamie and Gisele were doing the same thing - discarding ideas because they were just outrageously bad. Now, if you think this story sounds like a boo-hoo downer, it's not. One of the patterns I found while reading so many of Ms. Bowen's books in a roll is that she balances them with just the right amount of humor and just the right amount of drama. We are never overwhelmed with either one. The characters of Jamie and Gisele played off of each other marvelously.

Secondary characters. There were a number of well-written supporting cast introduced in this story. Sebastian, Eleanor, Duchess of Worth, Eleanor's companion and Eleanor's son, and a few others. All of these characters managed to pique my interest and at the same time they didn’t take over the book. I believe most of them will have their own stories. Eleanor, Duchess of Worth was actually quite funny, as was her son's reaction to her antics.

Villain. This book has an absolutely menacing villain in the character of Adam Levire, the Marquess of Valence. His abusive actions in this tale are written realistically. There is a wonderful tension which permeates the narrative after Gisele and Jamie put their plan into action. Quibble. I would have liked for Gisele to have escaped out of the story without being snatched by her husband again. However, this is not a perfect world and I knew beforehand that probably the author wasn't going to let that happen. I guess the hero had to ride to the rescue one last time. But that was just a minor quibble.

Overall, I liked this book even though I had a hard time starting it. In the end it was full of wonderful moments, great dialogue, and chock full of fascinating characters. It would have received a higher rating from me if I hadn't stumbled at the beginning and the kidnapping at the end hadn't troubled me. I didn't think it was necessary to add that piece of drama. I do recommend this book! I'm having a lot of fun with my short glom.

Time/Place: Regency England
Sensuality: Hot!

The Lady in Red by Kelly Bowen - short glom project

October 19, 2018

Short and Sweet
http://www.kellybowen.net/
Have you ever wondered why we read short stories? Especially when there are so many dreadful ones out there. I have a number of reasons. Sometimes I'm just lazy. Reading a short story just seems to be relaxing. They are also something I don't feel guilty DNFing. Sometimes, I'm in the mood for something I can zip through in a matter of hours. Of course, occasionally one discovers a new exciting author hiding in an anthology. Through years of reading romance, I’ve read my fair share of short stories/novellas/anthologies, and I’m always delighted when I find an author who can make the short story format shine. I've always thought it was probably harder to write a short story than a longer narrative. It seems to me it would be tough to do any kind of character development when working with fewer pages. I'm always impressed with an author who can conquer the short story format. Much to my delight Kelly Bowen seems to be one of those authors who can make a few pages come to life.  She's also not too bad with the longer version.

The Lady in Red appears to be the connecting thread between two series': Season for Scandal and the Devils of Dover. It ends the one and begins the other. This story is also not about lords and ladies, but dreamers and creative people. Both the male and female leads have aspirations to become great artists.

King. Let me expound on one of my more recent favorite supporting characters, King. King was introduced in the Season for Scandal series. I could tell that Ms. Bowen had trouble subduing him. Yes, he's one of those characters who steals scenes. When he's in a scene, he is the one we are focused on. Well, he makes a brief appearance in this one, and I do believe Ms. Bowen has created a monster. And, I mean that in a good way. Every time he shows up in one of her books, I want to see more of him. I can hardly wait for him to have his own story. Ms. Bowen, King may just be your Derek Craven, Sebastian Ballister, Rothgar. He's going to need a really strong woman to cope with him. But back to The Lady in Red.

Our heroine, Charlotte, wants to be an artist, but being a female artist in a male dominated world is pretty hopeless. Which is why, with the help of King, she becomes Charlie and is soon an associate of Flynn Rutledge. Flynn isn’t all that thrilled with having another artist forced on him. He wants to be left alone in his grumpy world and whine about losing his muse. His creative juices have dried up. However, he still has a bit of an artist ego going on. Once he overcomes his resentment of Charlie being shoved down his throat, he discovers that he/she is a pretty good artist and he finds himself once again excited about his work. Flynn and Charlie become friends and they start working together as a team to create twin murals for a church. Then he discovers she is a woman.

When Flynn found out that Charlie was actually Charlotte, I expected him to throw a fit – but he didn’t. After the initial shock wore off, he accepted her and her ability to create something beautiful. Eventually they become lovers, and then grow into a great couple.

This was a charming story, without too many aristocrat showing up and a couple who respected each other and brought out the best in each other. It didn't have the feel of a short story, but was fully-developed narrative. I do recommend it.

Ms. Bowen, a hint: we want King! we want King! we want King! we want King! we want King! we want King! we want King! 

Time/Place: Regency England
Sensuality: Warm/Hot

Last Night with the Earl by Kelly Bowen

October 17, 2018

"He that lieth down with dogs shall rise up with fleas"
http://www.kellybowen.net/
You know, for some reason I purchased Kelly Bowen’s debut book, I’ve Got a Duke to Keep Me Warm, but never finished reading it. It also appears I didn’t buy any of her books until her Season for Scandal series. So, you know what that means. It means that not only can I pick a book from my DNF pile to read, I can also do a short author glom. (The author isn't short, the glom is.)  Sounds like a great idea to me. We will see, we will see. Oh joy! Oh Rapture! And, now we turn to Last Night with the Earl.

Last Night with the Earl is the second in the Devils of Dover series and while I didn’t like it as much as I did A Duke in the Night, I still liked it quite a bit, and I do recommend it. I especially liked the hero Eli, I thought he made for a wonderful angst-filled hero-with-a- scar character. In this case a biiiigggggg scar. The heroine on the other hand was a little bit harder to like – she could be quite an aggressive, unforgiving, virago at times. And, that’s ok, except, she was also blind to her own faults.

If you read the first book in the series you will know that Rose is the artist sister with a chip on her shoulders. We never really found out in the previous story just why Rose was so surly. All we know is that the chip on her shoulder somehow involves her ex-fiancé/boyfriend/grand love, Anthony Gibson. We find out in this book Anthony was pretty much a horses-baaa-tooty; however he can no longer be reproached about his actions because he's dead. Which is one of the reasons she so angry with the world. That rotten-to-the-core Anthony Gibson left a number of scarred people behind, including Rose, and his best friend Eli, the Earl of Rivers.

Eli has scars on the inside as will as on the outside.  The description in the book indicates that his physical scars are not just itsy-bitsy, but his face is actually pretty mutilated. He scares little kids, which is why he doesn’t return to London but journeys to his country estate Avondale. Ah, Avondale, a place to hide. But wait! Unbeknownst to him, Avondale is now a school for gifted young women and it is run by Clara (A Duke in the Night) and her I-have-a-grunge sister Rose. Well, it seems that at one time Eli loved Rose, but he stepped aside for his best friend Anthony – he still luved Rose silently from afar. Spoilers. Now, Anthony was a big stinking cad. Even though Anthony courted Rose, he also had some pretty salacious caricatures of her which he passed around to his buddies and then made public. When this happened, society being society ridiculed Rose. While Eli didn’t know the extent of what Anthony was doing, he was aware of how Anthony treated women. The things Anthony did made Eli uncomfortable and he disapproved of Anthony’s antics. But the problem was, he didn’t say anything to Anthony, he didn’t denounce him, he didn't drop him from his friend list. And by his silence, he became an enabler. He gave his silent consent.

Rose thinks Eli is made of the same cloth as Anthony – he would be the flea to Anthony’s dog. Maybe she couldn’t do anything to Anthony –' cause he’s dead – but Eli is a different matter. Rose is not gentle with Eli, she is filled with animosity and she blasts him, blames him for what happened with Anthony. Rose pulls no punches, she feels no sympathy for his injuries. In fact, she berates him for feeling sorry for himself. He’s a mopey-gus and she’s a hornet. So, as a couple in a romance novel, they are not off to a very good start.

Ms. Bowen takes Eli and Rose on a nice, slow journey as they learn truths about each other and themselves. They learn to trust each other and eventually become friends, then lovers. Through Rose's strong encouragement, Eli confronts his fears. He is able to see things through her eyes and becomes a better person for it.

And, now I have to ask: couldn’t we have just one romance book where there was only one person with a problem? Through most of the book, our focus is on Eli’s problem. Oh sure, Rose is antagonistic but we (the reader) think she’s hostile because of Anthony. And, that’s partially true. However, it isn’t until Eli has confronted his problems that Rose’s big impediment is introduced into the story line. Because of her big issue we have a misunderstanding. I would have been happier if Rose’s problem had cropped up earlier in the book or not been there at all. As it was, it was presented in the last few chapters of the book and seemed to be there to add a word count. But this is a minor quibble.

Overall, this was a great read. I liked it very much and I’m really glad that Kelly Bowen decided to join the world of Romanceland in 2014. I do recommend this book, even if there was one to many issues to conquer.

Time/Place: Regency England
Sensuality: Hot