Check out how gorgeous the cover of Kate Bateman's This Earl of Mine is! The good news is that if you enter the Rafflecopter below, one of you will have the chance to receive your very own hard-copy (giveaway rules outlined below). Read on for a blurb and my review, and then enter that GIVEAWAY!

​Introducing the Bow Street Bachelors—men who work undercover for London’s first official police force—and the women they serve to protect. . .and wed?

Shipping heiress Georgiana Caversteed is done with men who covet her purse more than her person. Even worse than the ton’s lecherous fortune hunters, however, is the cruel cousin determined to force Georgie into marriage. If only she could find a way to be . . . widowed? Georgie hatches a madcap scheme to wed a condemned criminal before he’s set to be executed. All she has to do is find an eligible bachelor in prison to marry her, and she’ll be free. What could possibly go wrong?
 
Benedict William Henry Wylde, scapegrace second son of the late Earl of Morcott and well-known rake, is in Newgate prison undercover, working for Bow Street. Georgie doesn’t realize who he is when she marries him—and she most certainly never expects to bump into her very-much-alive, and very handsome, husband of convenience at a society gathering weeks later. Soon Wylde finds himself courting his own wife, hoping to win her heart since he already has her hand. But how can this seductive rogue convince brazen, beautiful Georgie that he wants to be together…until actual death do they part?

​Not many historical novels I’ve read include a scene in that most notorious of institutions—Newgate Prison—let alone begin with them. I was so excited to see where a book could go when it opens with a heroine propositioning a secret-Bow-Street-Runner (and Earl’s brother!) for marriage, believing him instead to be a convict destined for exile.
 
It turns out that this crafty, entertaining read is willing to go a lot of places, all in the ultimate goal of bringing our heroine and hero together, of course.
 
While I was initially attracted to the premise of This Earl of Mine, it turns out to be something that execution-wise, I just couldn't quite buy. I appreciate adventurous historical romance plots and distinctive stories and voices, but in this case, I wanted more explanation for Benedict’s decision to accept the marriage and the financial agreement thrust upon him. As he notes, he obviously doesn’t have a lot of options, but marriage to a stranger while you’re a fake prison inmate (and about to be free) seems like a pretty big deal.
 
And while Georgie’s motivation to protect herself and her family from her cousin Josiah and like-minded fortune hunters is pretty understandable (even if she is securing marriage through somewhat less than honorable means), I did wonder at her failure to ask why Benedict—the bribed prison guard’s Plan B—had been imprisoned.
 
The arrangement between Georgie and Benedict becomes even more complicated when they decide to publicly court one another (without, of course, revealing that they’re actually already married), but I can forgive that because it seems to be the easiest way for them to be together later and also—chemistry and oh yeah, they’re keeping a secret and that’s fun and sexy.
 
What also works for me? The stirring sensuality between Georgie and Benedict and how it’s part of a relationship that’s based on genuine respect. Thanks to their unique circumstances—that of a shipping and trade heiress who actually works the business and a former rogue turned member of the Rifles willing to go to any lengths for the job—Georgie and Benedict are often overlooked/misunderstood/gossiped about unfairly.
 
Those misconceptions don’t last long between the two of them, and it’s sweet to watch.
 
Equally sweet (and also powerful and cool) is when Georgie issues a fantastic speech to Benedict basically illuminating his (and maybe the reader’s too) double standards when it comes to financial discrepancies between partners, especially when it's the hero living paycheck to paycheck.*
 
In the end, while I didn’t connect to the characters or story in This Earl of Mine quite as much as I would have liked, I did walk away feeling like I’d read something adorable and unique. Kate Bateman’s a bold writer who’s not afraid to take risks, and that comes across from start to finish in this historical.
 
3.5 stars out of 5.


*I've seen this motif pop up a lot in reviews of Angelina M. Lopez's contemporary Lush Money. Pick it up if that interests you!

To enter the giveaway, answer the question below. One winner (US-only, sorry!) will receive a finished copy of Kate Bateman's This Earl of Mine ​directly from the publisher. 

Thanks to St. Martin's Press and Netgalley for my complimentary ARC of this book. All opinions provided are my own. 

​I received a complimentary copy of this book from Netgalley but all opinions provided are my own.
 
Life update: a haunted house company moved in basically across the road from us, and sometimes I think I can hear people screaming from there at night.
 
This is the stuff that Halloween dreams are made of.
 
Also Lecia Cornwall’s book The Lady and the Highlander, a dark, seductive fairy tale with spooky, shivery imagery and a heroine who puts all the letters into “intrepid.”
 
When the book opens, Laire MacLeod’s beloved and fierce father is marrying a beautiful and mysterious woman named Bibiana. Soon after, her father, sisters, and clan-members are swept away in a bacchanal that shows no sign of ending, and the only people who seem unaffected are Laire—who doesn’t drink spirits—and Bibiana and her unsettling entourage, including her Sealgair, or hunter.
 
The hunter’s actually Iain Lindsay, a leader of his own clan who’s under self-imposed exile after a tragedy involving his late wife. For the last several years he’s been under obligation to serve Bibiana, a woman whose beauty helps disguise how deadly she is, and every day is a struggle between his lingering vestiges of honor and the guilt that’s poisoning him.
 
But when Laire starts to learn the deadly truth about Bibana and her entourage, she and Iain are forced to decide which parts of themselves they’ll listen to. Will Laire be brave and canny enough to save her family? And will Iain follow his better nature and aid Laire in her quest, or his worst?
 
The Lady and the Highlander’s a rich treat. It’s passionate and vivid, with provocative imagery that made me lost in the story even as I had a very visceral response to what the author describes. The Snow White vibes give the story a timeless feel to savor, but even more impressive is how much agency Laire has and how determined she is to save her family though she’s been sheltered her entire life. And though Iain’s initial lack of sympathy toward Bibiana’s victims made it hard for me to connect with him, his subsequent musings and actions make his good heart and overall integrity apparent.
 
That undeniable pull between Laire and Iain is delectable, especially once Bibiana pits them as enemies of the other. It’s pretty delicious seeing how much they want the other (and how much Iain respects Laire) even as he’s sent to kill her and she must defend herself against him. Ultimately, there’s a thrilling pay-off that gives me all the romance feels.
 
While I was all-in for most of Laire’s quest, the ending of this novel leaves me a bit disappointed. The reservations that both characters had maintained are summarily dismissed, and it lacks the more substantive emotional response that I had anticipated.
 
But for most of the book, from that first critical meeting of Laire and Bibiana throughout Laire’s bruised, stumbling quest from the only home she’s ever known, I was entranced, appreciating Lecia Cornwall’s distinctive voice and story.
 
4.25 stars

You all, I'm so excited about the release of the fabulous Kerrigan Byrne's The Business of Blood. I can't wait to see what the queen of the uber-emotional, holds-your-heart-in-her-hands historical does with a murder mystery...especially one involving Jack the Ripper! Read on for a blurb and info about where to find this beauty (hint, hint: it's even on Kindle Unlimited!). 

​London, 1890. Blood and death are Fiona Mahoney’s trade, and business, as they say, is booming.
 
Dying is the only thing people do with any regularity, and Fiona makes her indecorous living cleaning up after the corpses are carted away. Her childhood best friend, Mary, was the last known victim of Jack the Ripper. It’s been two years since Fiona scrubbed Mary’s blood from the floorboards, and London is no longer buzzing about the Ripper, but Fiona hasn’t forgotten. She hasn’t stopped searching for Jack.
 
When she’s called to a murder in the middle of the night, Fiona finds a victim mutilated in an eerily similar fashion to those of the Ripper, and only a few doors down from Mary’s old home. The relentless and irritatingly handsome Inspector Grayson Croft warns her away from the case. She might have listened, if she hadn’t found a clue in the blood. A clue that will lead her down a path from which there is no return.
 
As a killer cuts a devastating swath through London, a letter written in blood arrives at her door, and it is only then that Fiona realizes just how perilous her endeavor is. For she has drawn the attention of an obsessive evil, and is no longer the hunter, but the prey.
 
Fiona Mahoney is in the business of blood. But she’s not the only one.
 
With intriguing twists, blood-chilling discoveries, and dazzling prose, USA Today Bestselling author Kerrigan Byrne shows that a woman’s work is never done, even when is sleuthing out a serial killer.
 

Download your copy today or read FREE in Kindle Unlimited!
Amazon: https://amzn.to/2W79Brj
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​Kerrigan has done many things to pay the bills, from law enforcement to belly dance instructor. Now she’s finally able to have the career she’d decided upon at thirteen when she announced to her very skeptical family that she was going to “grow up to be a romance novelist.” Whether she’s writing about Celtic Druids, Victorian bad boys, or brash Irish FBI Agents, Kerrigan uses her borderline-obsessive passion for history, her extensive Celtic ancestry, and her love of Shakespeare in almost every story.
 
She lives in a little Victorian coast town on the Olympic Peninsula in Washington State with her wonderful husband. When she’s not writing you can find her sailing, beach combing, kayaking, visiting wineries, breweries, and restaurants with friends, and hiking…okay…wandering aimlessly clenching bear spray in the mountains.

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Website: https://www.kerriganbyrne.com/
 

​ I received a complimentary ARC of this book from Edelweiss+ but all opinions provided are my own.
 
There’s a special kind of magic in Julie Anne Long’s Palace of Rogues series. Earlier this year I fell in love with Lady Derring Takes a Lover—honestly one of the best romances I’ve ever read—and I only fell deeper with Long’s upcoming release, Angel in a Devil’s Arms.
 
With this book we’re welcomed back to The Grand Palace on the Thames, only the most wonderful place to stay in the world. Half-proprietor of the TGPotT, Angelique Breedlove wants nothing more than to continue living as she currently is: in safety and comfort, working hard with Delilah Hardy to make their business a success. (Pretty much as far from her previous life—at the mercy of men, including Delilah’s former husband—as possible.)
 
It seems like she might be able to do that until the arrival of Lucien Durand, a scandalous viscount presumed dead ten years ago. When he arrives at TGPotT, hell-bent on attaining the revenge against those who’ve wronged him & looking as gorgeous & dangerous as a snow leopard/Ian Somerhalder in any season of The Vampire Diaries, everything starts falling apart/coming together in the most glorious way.
 
The first thing that really needs to be said is that Julie Anne Long is an exquisite writer. This series has the feel of a classic in terms of how it’s written: the turns of phrase, the deliberation of the words, the precision, and yet, it’s modern, too. It’s beautiful and warm and beautiful in its warmth; Angel in a Devil’s Arms is unapologetically about love and kindness, acceptance, and I loved it. The lack of hypocrisy in the book’s leads, even at the lowest moment in the plot, is something to stand up and cheer about.
 
Then there’s the witty repartee, which is done so well that it comes across as aspirational and approachable. Angelique & Lucien's maneuvering with each other—by turns challenging and kind—takes place in the environs of TGPotT, one of the loveliest renderings of a place and community that I’ve read. Julie Anne Long writes fantastic romance, but she writes a fantastic ensemble, too. I think that I want boarder Delacorte to find someone as much as he does, and the sword scene in this romance is so sublime that I had to restrain my smile to less awkward proportions.
 
Lady Derring’s still my favorite (why do I feel the need to be so loyal to my favorite books by unnecessarily claiming them over and over again??) but this one only cements the initial impressions of the series for me. I could end with a string of adjectives that help describe my response to Angel in a Devil’s Arms, or I could just say: pick up this book, it will move you and you’ll be better all around for it.
 
5 stars

I received a complimentary copy of the ARC--as well as these promotional materials--from Give Me Books Promotions, but all thoughts provided in my review below are my own. Thanks to Give Me Books Promotions for including me in the Release Day Blitz!

​I received a complimentary ARC of this book from Netgalley but all opinions provided are my own.
 
Alice Hoffman’s The World That We Knew is unforgettable. Set during the years 1941-1944 and featuring several different perspectives, The World answers the question of what we have to live for in a time of terrible loss and sorrow: love.
 
The book opens in Berlin, where Hanni’s husband has recently been murdered and her pre-teen daughter, Lea, attacked. As a Jewish woman, Hanni knows that her daughter will be safer somewhere else, but she also feels that she can’t leave her elderly mother behind to travel with her. In her desperation, Hanni pays someone to create a golem—made of clay, able to speak and to protect but bound by her master’s wishes—to travel with her daughter Lea. After the war, Lea must kill the golem, whom they’ve named Ava.
 
The juxtaposition of someone—Ava—being born into a world where so many are killed and dying is stunning. Devastating. Because Ava’s so very happy to be alive, even as horrific things are happening and even as she fears for her Jewish charge, Lea. Hoffman heartbreakingly complicates this, too; because Ava knows that her greatest responsibility, her obligation, her desire, as she comes to know Lea, is to keep Lea safe no matter what, an act which will eventually necessitate Ava’s own death.
 
Tangled in this story of Lea and Ava are other stories too: of Lea and Julien, a young man she meets in Paris who becomes a lodestar; Ettie, the golem’s creator; and Marianne, a former servant who worked in Julien’s home. Each story is beautifully told; each one tells a version of war where no one is unaffected, where everyone pays a great price but there is some redemption to be found, too.
 
The World that We Knew had my heart in its hands. It’s a big story—one that includes folklore and the concrete details of a people suffering and surviving, one that feels very much rooted within a particular time period and also part of a larger story about how humanity at its worst, and best, treats others. And it’s ultimately a celebration of love, of the sacrifice that love sometimes demands and the bravery that it can engender.
 
5 stars

I received a complimentary copy of this anthology from Netgalley but all opinions provided are my own.
 
My biggest snow story experience? When I was 11 or 12, two of my cousins, my siblings, and I got snowed in at my divorced dad and his then girlfriend’s house for several days. By the end of it, my dad was threatening to rent a helicopter to get us returned home.
 
Because of this (despite this?), I can really respect a snowed-in story, especially of the let’s-fall-in-love-while-the-snow-falls variety. It just seems to work on an elemental level: the vibrancy of the colors, the isolation, the cocoon effect. Everything’s reduced to the people you’re with really, whether it’s the family starting to grate on your nerves or a potential love interest, like in the A Snowy Little Christmas anthology.
 
I was so excited to get a copy of this anthology, mainly because Kate Clayborn’s included and I could happily read her books all the time. They’re lovely. In the end, I loved Clayborn’s novella—as I had expected I would—I really enjoyed the one written by Tara Sheets, and found the first novella in the collection, written by Fern Michaels, to be not quite my preference.
 
I’ve never read a book by Fern Michaels before, and I didn’t have an idea of what to expect. Starry Night, her anthology contribution, follows Jessie, an advertising exec & secret relationship-advice radio host, as she repeatedly travels to the Croton-on-Hudson bookstore her uncle gave her to schedule renovations, relocate the books, etc. There, she finds the close-knit community she’s never had before and meets single dad and contractor Evan.
 
I had some trouble relating to the characters in this one. On one hand, the leads are mature and sophisticated; on the other, they come across as not very approachable and often old-fashioned to me. I also had difficulty with the story itself: it seems to use more telling vs. showing, and the romance is subdued and pretty vague, even in its conclusion.
 
Tara Sheets’s Mistletoe and Mimosas, the second novella in the collection, adorably pairs Layla, the heroine, with the long-remorseful man who was complicit in the bullying she experienced at high school. Both leads are admirable: Layla’s made a successful life for herself and is aware of her worth; Sebastian is very sorry for how he treated Layla in high school and determined to meet the challenge of showing her that.
 
This snowed-in story is sweet and gentle, and Sheets features enough intriguing characters from her other works that I'm planning on reading more.
 
My favorite story in the collection, Kate Clayborn’s Missing Christmas, picks up with characters introduced in her debut novel, Beginner’s Luck. Kristen and Jasper are co-workers and very close friends, and while both have secret feelings for the other, neither wants to destroy what they have on the slim chance that they could have something more. But luckily for us, Kristen and Jasper get snowed in at a one-bed cabin.
 
Clayborn’s a master at subtlety; I love the little touches and observations her characters make. Everything feels so important, so critical, because Clayborn makes the reader feel the leads’s yearning. Missing Christmas is the steamiest story in the anthology and the relationship between Kristen and Jasper has the most depth. Their HEA feels totally believable to me given how thoughtfully Clayborn portrays the history of their close relationship. This novella gives me major feels.
 
All things considered, A Snowy Little Christmas is a delightful holiday offering comprised of three novellas with vastly different styles and steam levels. There’s good romance representation here, but the flip side is that like me, you might find yourself adoring one story, liking one, and struggling with another.
 
3.5 stars out of 5.

​I received a complimentary copy of this book from Edelweiss+ but all opinions provided are my own.
 
There’s an unorthodox path to HEA in Sophie Jordan’s The Duke’s Stolen Bride. Every chapter’s exciting, unpredictable, & entertaining, probably a natural state of affairs given the book’s fantastic author and the book’s premise, which brings together two leads with totally opposite personalities & values into a temporary sexual arrangement that’s so consuming/delicious/seductive it takes over their lives.
 
Marian, whom we met in the previous Rogue Files book as Clara’s companion, is beautiful & well-mannered, a former woman of privilege who’s now poor and responsible for herself & her siblings. When she’s offered marriage by a wealthy but reprehensible man, she decides that her “freedom” is more important & the best way she can find that & provide for her family is to embrace a life as a great courtesan instead.
 
Only, she’s innocent & inexperienced. As part of her overarching courtesan strategy, she approaches the Duke, aka The Depraved Duke, aka Nate, to train her in seduction.
 
Jordan writes an asshole hero well. She shares the circumstances that help explain how Nate got to this place, and those are the potential seeds for redemption that make it possible to connect with a hero who, at the beginning of the book, is condescending & rude, & frequently levels cutting remarks at an admirable woman doing what she can to keep her family afloat.
 
Fortunately, Marian's up to the challenge, and the ways that she jars him throughout the book—with her sharp wit & spirit and later, her passion, kindness, & beauty, give the book a sweetness, as well as a sexiness (that first seduction scene!) that captivates.
 
Nestled into this story of who’s-seducing-whom is also a consideration of how poverty limits options for Marian & other women. While that’s not a new observation, Jordan writes Marian as someone who’s really self-aware of her previous privilege (in a manner that I loved), what the current stakes are, why she’s doing what she's doing, & what could possibly go wrong for herself & her family at every step. 
 
The Duke also shows (necessary) growth, though he’ll likely always be rough around the edges when it comes to warmth & approachability with those who aren’t Marian & their family.
 
Very sexy and peppered with surprises, The Duke’s Stolen Bride is a delight. But where the book falls a bit short for me is in terms of the development of their relationship. Marian & Nate are intimate with each other in some big ways, but I missed conversations about both the basic things and the deeper. Their HEA rang true for me but I wanted more.
 
4 stars.

​I received a complimentary copy of this book from Edelweiss+ & Netgalley but all opinions provided are my own.

Don’t get it twisted: I’m determined to soak up every moment of this fall (even with the 90-degree temps--unbelievable!), but that doesn’t stop me from occasionally dipping my toes into the holiday season with my reading material. Jill Shalvis’s Wrapped Up in You is adorable and heart-warming and had me feeling those let’s-get-together-and-appreciate-what-we-have vibes that I love the most about the holidays.

Ivy Snow is prickly and sassy with a heart of gold; she’s also a hard worker who’s very practically built her food truck business up and a dreamer who envisions how she can use her hard-won success to buy her own condo and have a real home for once. She wants to embrace her new pretty life in San Francisco, and part of that is learning what it means to have friends and be a friend (which also, to her, means lying to said friends about what her childhood was like & what kind of person her good-natured but trouble-making brother actually is).

Cop Kel O’Donnell’s in town visiting his cousin Caleb after a police-related betrayal and injury sidelines him. Ivy’s tacos and personality set him on fire, but he doesn’t like lies or liars, and as much as he likes Ivy, he can tell that she’s lying. Still, he can see her beautiful heart and the intention behind her lies, and despite the fact that he’s only visiting, he’s tempted by Ivy and what's blazing between them…

This book is an absolute delight. It’s funny, and in thoughtful ways, too, from the characters’s interactions to the chapter epigraphs. Shalvis peoples Wrapped in You with diverse representation, and in general, all of her characters—with their distinctive personalities—shine. It’s a world that’s really lovely to step into.

Lovely even if the “falling apart” of Ivy and Kel’s romance is so well done that I was kinda steamed at one of the leads in my first read-through…at least until I made it to the brava-worthy grovel and Epilogue. The bottom line is that both leads in this book have to learn to trust and that’s something that Shalvis lays out beautifully and skillfully in Wrapped Up in You.

My last bit of good news: the follow-up skim I did of this book indicates that it’s going to age really well. I loved it even more.

5 stars.

It might be 90+ degrees in Eastern Tennessee today but it's October 2nd and I'm determined to live my best fall life. What better way to start the best of all months than with a delightfully twisted gothic tale/mystery/romance like Hester Fox's The Widow of Pale Harbor? Check out the blurb, my review, and info about where to find Hester and her book below!

​There’s no other way to put it: Hester Fox’s books are majorly creepy.
 
She excels at crafting an atmosphere-driven story: a gloomy setting and terrifying imagery, peppered with stops/starts/and misdirections. While reading the opening I got goosebumps because I was anticipating some upcoming terror, only to soon realize that I had been fooled. I love how Fox isn’t afraid to mess with reader’s expectations; that’s part of the unpredictability of the book and the potential scare factor, really.
 
As you might expect given the above, then, The Widow of Pale Harbor’s very dramatic and also pretty gory at times. It’s not a light and easy read even if the relationship between Sophronia and Gabriel—fraught as it sometimes is—offers a lovely respite from the terrors of everything else.
 
Those terrors? Abuse. Dead animals. Dead people.
 
Even other relationships in the book are scary: they’re often judgmental, suffocating, violent, or guilt-producing, all of which increase the tension in the book and lead to more questions. After all, how can Sophronia or Gabriel discover the murderer when each person in their village has her/his own motivations, fears, and secrets? The closest friend you have—or the man you’re lusting after—might be the one causing such terror in Pale Harbor.
 
The yikes factor’s pretty high with this one, and that might be just what you’re looking for in your October read. It’s also written by someone who obviously cares about a good scary story, who’s adept at pacing and pulling the reader from one fright to another until the book explodes like a jack in the box and the secrets come lunging out.
 
4 out of 5 stars.