Weekly Reads: November 20 to 26, 2023

The Governess and the Duke by Lydia Drake (2023)

Historical romance. Regency-era England. Book 2 of the Renegade Dukes series. Viola is the governess to one duke’s rambunctious ward with a long-standing crush on that duke’s best friend. When traveling with her charge, the teenage girl falls and sprains her ankle, forcing the pair to stay at James’ ducal castle. Although James has been hiding away in the country after the embarrassment of a rejected proposal, he finds himself intrigued and attracted to Viola and wondering why he had never noticed her before. Both James and Viola try to fight their attraction to each other at first, being of different social standing, but that doesn’t last for too long. Viola’s charge and James’ sister become fast friends and cause all sorts of trouble, which is humorous to read. When we find out about Viola’s past and the secrets she’s been keeping, she’s pleasantly surprised by James’ reaction. Overall, this was a pretty straightforward social class difference romance, made more interesting by the antics of the teenage ward and sister.

Advance ebook provided by Entangled Publishing via NetGalley.

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Fancy Meeting You Here by Julie Tieu (2023)

Contemporary romance. Standalone novel. Elise is all sorts of stressed running her floral studio, being florist to her best friends’ weddings, while also performing bridesmaid duties. After an awkward first run-in with one of her friends’ younger brother Ben, he hires her florist services for his mother’s political campaign events. We spend a lot of this book surrounded by Elise’s friend group and their respective partners, often throwing Ben into the mix as a frequent groomsman. It takes awhile for Elise and Ben to start to get along, and then finally for romance to develop, but once they give into their attraction, their relationship is sweet and supportive. Ben helps Elise break down some of her barriers and learn to ask for help and eventually stop hiding her dire financial circumstances from her friends. And Elise supports Ben with pursuing his dreams away from the life prescribed by his parents.

Ebook and audiobook borrowed from my local library via Libby.

An Affair with the Viscount by Sadie Bosque (2022)

Historical romance. Regency-era England. Book 5 of the Necessary Arrangements series. Most of this book takes place during the house party hosted at the end of the previous book. Richard is an overbearing viscount who is interested in an affair with actress Josephine, even though he will soon be betrothed to another proper young lady. Josephine rejects his advances at first, but finds herself attracted to him and wanting to give in. With her past experiences with not-so-worthy gentlemen, she’s definitely wary and has a hard time trusting him. She’s proven right when she finds out that Richard is betrothed and he has a lot to overcome to win her back. We get some external drama here with Josephine’s friend and another actor being forceful and vile. Richard comes to the rescue in his overbearing ways, but it’s always at just the right time. I liked seeing Richard soften over time and realize that he cannot live without Josephine and seeing the support of his family.

Ebook accessed from Kindle Unlimited.

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My Once and Future Duke by Caroline Linden (2018)

Historical romance. Regency-era England. Book 1 of the Wagers of Sin series. This book starts with a tragic prologue for Sophie, an orphan who is discarded by her viscount grandfather at a girl’s school. Her mother was an opera singer and her father defied his family’s wishes to marry her, and when they passed away, they left Sophie with very little support. She befriends her two roommates at school and uses cards to teach mathematics to one of the girls until they’re caught. Fast forward to present day and we start with Jack’s point of view where he is bailing his brother out of debt at a gambling hell. He sees a beautiful woman gambling with his brother (who just said he was going to stay away from gambling) and somehow ends up winning a week of her company. Now an adult and without any means of support, Sophie has decided upon gambling as her occupation until she can save enough to invest and live on. While her bet with Jack is terribly scandalous, she’s both angry and intrigued by him. They do end up spending time together at one of his country homes, stuck there with rain and poor road conditions, and quite obviously fall in love. However, Jack is the ever-sensible and dutiful duke who proposes a liaison instead of marriage and bungles the whole thing up. It’ll take a bit of suffering on his part before he gets it right.

Ebook and audiobook borrowed from my local library via Libby.

A Wager with the Gentleman by Sadie Bosque (2023)

Historical romance. Regency-era England. Book 6 of the Necessary Arrangements series. Beatrice is an impoverished young lady from the country who is betrothed to a lecherous old man and seeks to complete her list of London adventures before her marriage. Her former fiance’s brother, Adam, catches her at a notoriously scandalous masquerade and rescues her from unwanted advances. Somehow these two end up in an arrangement where he will help her with a few items from her list of adventures. However, Adam is not enthusiastic about spending time with Beatrice and aims to discourage her from the list by picking out unpleasant experiences that fulfill her items. He’s basically a boorish prig for most of the story, except for the part where he has lustful fantasies about Beatrice. At some point, she changes the game and considers trapping Adam into marriage to rescue her from the unwanted fiance, but she feels guilty and questions her goals when she starts to develop feelings for him. Meanwhile Adam is caught between feeling guilty for not rescuing Beatrice properly, but also wanting to stay away from her so he can pursue his own goals. He’ll need to come to his own revelations about how he feels about Beatrice and what to do about her other fiance.

Ebook accessed from Kindle Unlimited.

Camera Chemistry by Chelsea Curto (2023)

Contemporary romance. Book 1 of the Love through a Lens series. Quick smutty novella. Maggie and Aiden meet as two strangers during a photoshoot and get to know each other in front of the camera. With their sizzling chemistry, they decide to extend their time together with dinner and an overnight stay at Aiden’s place. We get front row seats to their entire steamy night together with a variety of sexual encounters all over Aiden’s apartment. If you cared about their backstories, Maggie’s a divorced neurosurgeon and Aiden’s a divorced pediatric oncologist with a 16-year-old daughter. And despite the fact that these two don’t have time for relationships and only agreed to a single night together, they both want more and have been worried the other person doesn’t, so they’ll need to actually talk to each other.

Ebook accessed from Kindle Unlimited.

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The Duke Beneath Her Mistletoe by Nicki Pascarella (2023)

Historical romance. Regency-era England. Book 1 of the Eatons of Trent series. This book takes a little while to get into the plot, but once we do, it’s a lot of adventure. William is a new duke tasked by his cousin Prinny to investigate workers rights along with the secret writer of political papers that seem to rally the workers. A factory making lace is the main target of the worker uprising, so William spends Christmas at the local earl’s house to learn more. At the same time, William’s friends gossip about how that earl’s sister Georgiana is a spinster who hates men and somehow William gets drunken goaded into a bet that he’ll bed her within a week. On Georgiana’s side of the story, she is actually the political writer promoting fair labor for her village friends and causing all this ruckus. And she’s uninterested in courtship or marriage. Somehow, when William comes to the castle for the holidays, he’s presented as a serious suitor and she does her best to stay away from him. Since William isn’t used to being rejected, he’s even more intrigued by her. Meanwhile, all this political unrest is happening in the background and William starts to side with the workers more than the overseeing aristocrats. And when he finds out that Georgiana is the secret writer he’s been looking for, he jumps to her rescue. And despite William and Georgiana’s contentious beginnings, it looks like they start to respect and admire the other along the way. Great start to the series and looking forward to reading more about Georgiana’s siblings.

Advance ebook provided by Nicki Pascarella.

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Duke the Halls by Felicity Niven (2023)

Historical romance. Regency-era England. Part of the Bed Me Books series. Franny and Kit are total strangers who make eye contact on the mail coach and part ways at their London destination. Kit is a duke that everyone considers an arsehole with no social tact or social skills whatsoever and he is running away from a Christmas house party where his mother hopes he will meet his future duchess. Franny works as a lady’s companion and is spending the holiday with her cook friend and her younger brother, but she gets to the house where the cook works, the woman has to leave to deal with a sick relative. Franny is all alone in a stranger’s house and is surprised the next day when she learns that the owner is actually the man she met the previous day on the coach. Somehow Kit and Franny make a deal to spend Christmas together while Franny teaches him how to properly talk to a potential bride. It’s easy and early sparks for these two, despite Kit’s awkwardness and overwhelming attraction for Franny. Steamy, low-angst, holiday treat.

Advance ebook provided by Felicity Niven.

A Rogue for Christmas by Suzanna Medeiros (2023)

Historical romance. Regency-era England. Book 3 of the Christmas Scandals series. Quick novella. Lord Wentworth meets Iris in the garden at a ball at the end of the Season and saves her from the unworthy attentions of a scoundrel. After that one encounter, he can’t stop thinking of her, so he crashes a Christmas house party to appease his curiosity about her and then leave. However, when he meets Iris again, he’s instantly smitten and attracted to her and somehow has honorable intentions towards her. Iris is skeptical of Wentworth’s attentions since he’s a known to be a rake, but she indulges her own attraction anyway. This one was super quick and fun to read.

Advance ebook provided by Suzanna Medeiros via BookSprout.

Taming the Savage Duke by Barbara Russell (2023)

Historical romance. Victorian-era England. Book 1 of the Victorian Outcasts series. Chaos and tragedy for everyone involved in this book. Maddie is on the cusp of receiving entry into a prestigious art academy, but an accident involving an overzealous botanist leaves her painting ruined and her hand injured and unable to paint. Hector is the brother of a duke who wants acceptance into his own scientific academy and accidentally injured Maddie in an attempt to collect a rare plant. He feels horribly guilty for her injury and only accepts his place on a South American expedition after Maddie’s encouragement to leave. Unfortunately, his ship goes down before he even reaches his destination and he’s declared dead. Eight years later, Hector is found alive, having survived alone on an island all this time. In this time, his brother and mother had both passed away and his horrible cousin is now the duke. Maddie gets involved to assist Hector in regaining his manners and civility to gain his title back. The romance is slow and sweet and low-angst, while we work through all of the external struggles that Maddie ad Hector have. This was action-packed and kept me enthralled the whole way through.

Advance ebook provided by Oliver Heber via NetGalley.

The Duke Bargain by Eve Pendle (2023)

Historical romance. Regency-era England. Book 3 of the Dukes vs Doctors series. The new Duke of Metford has pulled financial support from the women’s college where Lily is an astronomer. She storms into his house on Christmas Eve to request for funds to be reinstated, but Beckett is a gruff and grumpy man who believes that his father’s spending was frivolous. They somehow end up in a bargain where she stays the next few days with the duke and enter into a physical affair. This was a pretty short and steamy novella where the two people quickly fall in love and work things out.

Advance ebook provided by Eve Pendle.