How to Marry a Marquess (Wedded by Scandal #3) by Stacy Reid

  

  How to Marry a Marquess by Stacy Reid

Blurb:

Lady Evie Chesterfield is a darling of the ton who refuses to become engaged. She’s been desperately in love with her brother’s friend, Richard Maitland, Marquess of Westfall, since forever. But the dark, dangerous marquess only sees her as a friend and refuses to marry any woman. When circumstances change and Evie has no choice but to take a husband, she decides to convince London’s most notorious gentleman to marry her by seducing the scoundrel.

Richard Maitland decided long ago that he wanted nothing to do with love. So when the gorgeous, off-limits Evie asks him for lessons in seduction, Richard knows he’s playing with fire. Despite Richard’s determination to protect her from his dastardly reputation, he is tested at every turn by his need for the infuriating, but enticing, Lady Evie. Before too long he is faced with making an impossible choice…


This book took me some time to read and even though on the whole, it was well written, I couldn't really get into it as I didn't like the hero, not at all.

He is judgemental, arrogant and convinced that he is the only one who cares for those less fortunate than him and the only one who is brave enough to weather the ton's censure in order to help others. Even though he has been good friends with our heroine for years, he can't consider her as a possible wife because, well, he knows that she couldn't live like that, she wouldn't care as much as he does and she wouldn't be able to live defying the rules of society. Soooo, no matter what happens, she can't be considered for the position as his marchioness and when things get a bit out of hand and feelings threaten to take over, well, there is nothing better than lining up another potential wife and flaunt her in front of the one you care for, right? NO. Definitely NOT.

Evie has been in love with Richard forever and she would gladly ignore all the stupid rules of society if Richard would finally see her as a woman and would care to have her at his side. Unfortunately, he is far too convinced of his own importance and his own superiority to see that. And of course, he doesn't want a wife for whom he has feelings because that would leave him vulnerable.
Why exactly that should give him the right to trample all over someone else's feelings and why he doesn't even realize that people can't change or care for things they don't know anything about and that you have to talk about those things in order to make them see and change things, well, he might feel less superior if he would see that they care indeed as much as he does, right?

The book is well written and it has a nice story and some nice characters but Evie remained somewhat flat whereas Richard was a bit more complex but very unlikable. I've read other books by the author that I really enjoyed reading but this one - not so much. When I first finished the book I thought that it was nice and fine, even though a bit predictable but the more I thought about it the more I realized why it took me several weeks to finish it. As it is still well written, I decided to give it three very weak stars.

★★★

It was my birthday....

...and somehow my books have multiplied 😉:

Some of them are the books by Ednah Walters, that I love most and that I just had to have as printbooks as well (the reason why I got so very many books this year):

Her beautiful (and amazing) Storm-Trilogy, that won an award for the

Best Cover at the Penned Con 2017.

Indulge und Intrigue, two books that are part of her Infinitus Billionaire series,

Witches und Goddess, the books from her Runes series that I love best, as well as the 

Eirik-books from this series:

and of course Fated, the book by Ednah, that will forever remind me, how much it meant to Ednah, that not only this was the forst of her covers that had a person of color on on it but that 

her heroine, Lana Longhorn was one as well.

Another book that found its way to me yesterday, is Tula by Jurgis Kunčinas, 

that was given to me by a Lithuanian friend of ours:

And just because you can never have too many books, I also got  Before I go to sleep   by S.J.Watson, that sounds very very interesting

(isn't this bookmark cute!?)

My family surprised me with the

Meetings with Remarkable Manuscripts by Christopher De Hamel

and the guide for our next trip to Great Britain:

Another new book on my shelf is this beauty, 

that I'm reading with a group of people on LovelyBooks :

 

 Winter may come, I am prepared! 😊

Wenn man Geburtstag hat....

...kann es zu einer spontanenVermehrung der Bücher kommen,

weil der eine oder andere mitbekommen hat, dass der Trend zum Zweitbuch

 (ok, ein paar mehr sind es schon.... 😊) da ist:

Allen voran meine liebsten Bücher von Ednah Walters, 

die ich unbedingt auch als Printbuch haben musste, weswegen es dieses Jahr auch so sehr viele Bücher sind, die ich bekommen habe:

Die wunderschöne Storm-Trilogie, für die Ednah posthum auf der 

Penned Con 2017 einen Preis für das Beste Cover gewonnen hat.

Indulge und Intrigue, zwei Bücher aus ihrer Infinitus Billionaire Serie,

Witches und Goddess, meine liebsten Bücher aus ihrer Runes Reihe, sowie die 

drei Eirik - Bücher der Reihe:

außerdem noch Fated, das Buch von Ednah, mit dem ich immer verbinden werde, wie bedeutsam es für Ednah, war, dass hier nicht nur das erste Mal auf einem ihrer Bücher eine schwarze Frau auf dem (wunderschönen) Cover erscheint, sondern auch die Protagonistin Lana Longhorn schwarz ist.

Außerdem hat Tula von Jurgis Kunčinas, 

das ich von einem litauischen Freund geschenkt bekam, den Weg zu mir gefunden:

Und weil man nie genug Bücher haben kann, bekam ich auch noch den seeeeeehr interessant klingenden Thriller Before I go to sleep  von S.J.Watson

(ist das Lesezeichen mit der Teeteasse nicht auch absolut schön!?)

Meine Familie beschenkte mich noch mit den 

Meetings with Remarkable Manuscripts von Christopher De Hamel

und dem Reiseführer für unsere nächste Großbritannien-Reise:

Ein weiterer Neuzugang ist übrigens dieses ausgesprochen schöne Buch, 

das ich im Rahmen einer LovelyBooks-Leserunde lesen darf:

 

 Wie man sieht, der Winter kann kommen, ich bin gut vorbereitet! 😊

Hold Your Breath (Search and Rescue #1) by Katie Ruggle

  Hold Your Breath by Katie Ruggle

Blurb: 

In the remote Rocky Mountains, lives depend on the Search & Rescue brotherhood. But in a place this far off the map, trust is hard to come by and secrets can be murder...

As the captain of Field County's ice rescue dive team, Callum Cook is driven to perfection. But when he meets new diver Louise "Lou" Sparks, all that hard-won order is obliterated in an instant. Lou is a hurricane. A walking disaster. And with her, he's never felt more alive...even if keeping her safe may just kill him.

Lou's new to the Rockies, intent on escaping her controlling ex, and she's determined to make it on her own terms...no matter how tempting Callum may be. But when a routine training exercise unearths a body, Lou and Callum find themselves thrust into a deadly game of cat and mouse with a killer who will stop at nothing to silence Lou-and prove that not even her new Search and Rescue family can keep her safe forever.


I loved this book, like- opening it-reading it-and-not putting down-loving it. You might want to think hard about starting to read the books by Katie Ruggle because you might end up like me: Reading one book and having to read all other books by her.

Fast-paced, charming, outright funny, nail-bitingly thrilling, tear-evoking and foolish-grin-producing, this book is amazing. Whereas our hero remains a bit distant even though you get a rather good idea of his character and his past and know that he is honorable and trustworthy, you get a very vivid image of our heroine.

Callum remains something of a mystery, this dark and brooding guy whose life is changed by a sweet and charming (and sarcastic) woman, you know, but Lou, well, it isn't easy to describe Lou. Lou is a bit like a ray of sunshine, touching the lives of those around her without even realizing it. She is strong, resilient, warm and lively, absolutely ignorant of the way other people see her and react to her without ever being naive. It's a fine balance that the author has mastered perfectly. For some time I was afraid that due to her upbringing and her innocence she might end up being too naive but that never happened.

Those two were not the only characters that I loved, I also loved all those interesting, very different minor characters, most of them part of the search-and-rescue family. I loved the way they interacted with the heroine and were looking out for her and I'm really looking forward to getting to know them even better in the next books in this series.
The amazing characters are not the only thing that I loved about this book. The story was also amazing, captivating me from the first page on, reducing me to sobs and hick-ups somewhere in between alternating with giggles and shocked gasps  - and on the whole keeping me glued to my reader with its many unexpected twists and turns.

This book is the first one in the "Search and Rescue" series and I can promise you, if you read it, you won't stop there but like me, you'll have to read the other books as well. Like - yesterday.

★★★★★

No Regrets by Ann Lethbridge

  No Regrets by Ann Lethbridge

Blurb:

Carolyn Torrington’s romantic dreams of her childhood friend Lucas Rivers are shattered when the wily lord offers her a marriage of convenience to gain his inheritance. While it breaks her heart to say yes to the arrangement with a man she’s always loved, it’s the only way to secure her sisters’ futures.

To the world, Lucas, Lord Foxhaven, is an irrepressible rogue, and wedded bliss is the furthest thing from his mind. But he’s been forced up to the mark by his father, and he’s certain the demure Carolyn won’t give him an iota of trouble—if only her voluptuous body weren’t driving him to distraction.

As Carolyn struggles to keep her true feelings hidden, Lucas is drawn ever more powerfully by thoughts of unbridled passion, and he’s stunned by his burgeoning feelings for a woman he’s always seen as a friend. When a scheming Parisian relative threatens to take her from him for good, Lucas realizes he must stand up and be the man Carolyn always knew he could be—even as he suddenly comes to know he wants their marriage in name only to become quite real . . .
 
On the whole, I really liked this book but very often I felt like kicking the hero and the heroine just a teeny tiny bit because they drove me crazy with the way they kept thinking that they didn't love and didn't care for each other. Every time I felt as if they should finally, FINALLY realize that there was a bit more to their marriage than just a bargain they dodged that realization quite successfully. Unfortunately.
Somewhere in between, there were things happening that simply were a bit too much: Too much drama, too much angst and too many obstacles to break through.

It was entertaining and despite my frustration concerning their relationship and the way they always failed to understand what they meant to each other (speaking, you know, this simple act of speaking to each other, might have been a big help - if they had ever bothered to try it), I seldom put the book down. I just had to know what happened next but that didn't prevent me from getting frustrated all over again when "it" happened again and again and they just didn't get it.

Consequently, there wasn't that much chemistry between our hero and our heroine, you knew that they were in love, it was obvious but it was a bit lacking in the "sparks-compartment". The hero and the heroine, as well as the other characters, remained somewhat flat.

Nevertheless, it kept me well entertained and I enjoyed reading it despite all those things that I mentioned above.

This book was originally published under the author name Michele Ann Young.

★★★

 

Sweet Dreams Baby (Love at the Chocolate Shop #12) by C.J. Carmichael

 Sweet Dreams Baby by C.J. Carmichael 

Blurb: 

Three weeks ago, Portia Bishop mailed a letter to the father of her baby, Saddle Bronc rider Austin Bradshaw. It’s a letter she should have written a long time ago—like when she first found out she was pregnant, shortly after she ended things with Austin, dropped out of college, and went running to her family in Marietta, Montana.

Austin has loved Portia since he first laid his eyes on her in college. A year ago, he convinced her to do something impulsive and very romantic. Now, as he opens her letter, Austin has two reasons to return to Marietta–win back the heart of the woman he still loves and convince her he’s a good bet for a forever man and father.

This book was a very nice and sweet read, I really enjoyed reading it. 

When Portia left Austin a year ago, she didn't just take his heart with her but also - well, there was a sweet little surprise on the way as she found right after she had left him.
It shouldn't have been a problem of course, as the two of them were married and in love but having grown up as the daughter of a rodeo legend, Portia has experienced first hand what that lifestyle does to a relationship, what a toll it takes on a family's life. With Austin still competing in the ring, she is determined to end their marriage as soon as possible.
When Austin comes to Marietta to find his runaway wife and to meet his son for the first time, he is equally determined to stay in their lives, no matter how.
They have to set aside their differences and work together for the sake of their child and their town and maybe, maybe they'll find love along the way again?

I loved all these very lovable, very authentic characters with all their flaws and their nosiness and I loved this closeness that comes from living in a small town when they were interacting. And of course, it is all about chocolate, right? At least, some parts are, the others are about love and rodeo - who could find fault with that?

It was a great story with nice and interesting characters, well written and overall a nice read. I'll definitely check out other books by the author as well because I really enjoyed reading this book.

★★★★

 

 

The Broken Duke (The 1797 Club #3) by Jess Michaels

  The Broken Duke by Jess Michaels

Blurb: 




I've read and loved many books by Jess Michaels up to now and "The Broken Duke", the third book in the "The 1797 Club" series, is no exception there.

Okay, I must admit that I was a bit miffed as it wasn't that Graham was really in love with his former fiancée, so all his pouting (yes, that's what I call it!) and his feelings of betrayal are a bit over the top, right? I mean, alright, he had to find out the hard way that she preferred someone else and he had trusted him but....if anybody had paid attention and if he had really been interested in her, he might have noticed that she was in love with someone else. Alright, rant over.

Sooo, I might have been a bit irritated by his behavior no matter how human and natural it was but I really loved this book and I also loved his character. And I loved Adelaide, our heroine. Adelaide or Lydia, depending on where we meet her, is a wonderful character.
A wallflower by day, she lives for the moments when she can turn into Lydia and take the stage as one of the most celebrated actresses. When Graham enters her life, that is - Lydia's life - the two of them slowly but irrevocably fall for each other.
Enters Adelaide, the wallflower, best friend of his best friend's new wife and the woman in whose company he suddenly finds himself very often only to realize that she is occupying his thoughts as well. A lot. The more he falls for Lydia, the more he feels for Adelaide as well. While he is still trying to figure out a way to deal with the fact that he is attracted to two such different women, danger strikes and he'll have to find a way to protect those he loves....if it is not too late already!

I loved how Lydia and Adelaide were described. You could feel the difference in their personas while knowing and feeling that essentially they are the same. You know why Graham is attracted to both of them and you really get that he is not just a little pervert or an idiot who can't decide who he loves but that the two of them, Lydia and Adelaide, are indeed two halves, two parts of her and that they complete each other, they complete her. And in the end, you realize that those two aren't that different from each other, they never were. Lydia was always a part of Adelaide.
No matter which of the two he meets, though, you can feel the chemistry, you can see the sparks and you just want them to get their HEA because they have earned it, especially Adelaide who has already suffered so much.
I also loved to meet the other dukes and their wives again and find out how they fare and, well, I am definitely looking forward to the next book because I really love Ewan and I am very much looking forward to reading his and Charlotte's story.

★★★★★