Since being widowed two years ago, Kitty Cateril has been trapped in her late husband's home, where she is expected to mourn forever. Desperate to escape, Kitty will consider any option—even a hasty marriage to a stranger with no intention of abandoning his bachelor ways.
 
London life suits Beau Braydon, especially his work keeping Britain safe. So when he inherits the title of Viscount Dauntry, he has no intention of resettling on a rural estate. He can’t resist the opportunity to marry a sensible widow who can manage Beauchamp Abbey for him—until he realizes Kitty is more than he bargained for...
 
Before Kitty and Dauntry can adjust to each other, a threat to the royal family takes them to London. Soon someone is determined to prevent Dauntry from exposing the villain, and secrets in Kitty's past threaten their growing love..

 

 

 

 

 

My Review:

The Viscount Needs a Wife felt kinda Cinderella-ish but it worked. Both the h/h grew on me from the beginning and despite a few issues I had at the beginning trying to understand Kitty waiting it out paid off and I wound up really liking the entire cast. A slow paced but worth while read.

 

 

 

 

 

 

My Rating:

 

 

 

 

 

 

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Disclaimer:
Krissys Bookshelf Reviews received a print copy in exchange for an honest review. All thoughts, comments and ratings are my own.

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Received a print copy in exchange for an honest review from Berkley Publishing.

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Ruined through her vile brother's schemes, Eleanor Chivenham is offered rescue by marriage to a rake with an infamous French mistress. Eleanor accepts, determined to treat the arranged marriage with cool dignity. 

Then she meets Nicholas Delaney. Not only does he stir her senses, but the trouble and pain beneath his smooth exterior reaches her heart. 

Nicholas is indeed troubled. While serving his country by seducing secrets out of a French spy, he is persuaded to marry Eleanor to protect his family's honor. But such chivalry runs counter to his carefully wrought rogue image, and extends the life-threatening plots shadowing him to Eleanor. 

To assist, Nicholas reassembles the Company of Rogues, a schoolboy group he started years before. But not even they can dampen Eleanor's fighting wit that is quickly unmasking their enemy and testing Nicholas' formidable will. 

AWARDS: 
Best Regency Novel, Romantic Times 
Bookrak Bestseller 
RITA, finalist 

I know it is hard to like this book because of the unusual plots. It rubs people the wrong way and I can well imagine why it pushes people's boundaries just a tad too much. My problem with the book however, was not with the rape or the infidelity. I think it is a book with good writing but poor plot development and characterization.

As I read on I actually appreciate Jo Beverley's writing. But writing about such explosive plots, the book is shockingly bland. I have read reviewers who talk about this book being to angsty. I wonder, where is the angst? Yes the rape and infidelity are really tough subjects. But they are simply underexplored. It seems an awful waste to incorporate such plots to piss off 90% of the readers and to miss out on capitalizing such heavy-weight plots.

I think her chracterization is off too. This is true for all 3 major charcters, the hero, the heroine and the rapist. As for the "rogues" well, they could all be the same guy. You hardly have a face for them. I think the characters behave strangely in this book. The person who should be angry is not angry, the one who should be disgusting is actually not so disguting, the person who should not get married so easily married someone he hardly knew in a blink of an eye just because his brother said so.

I really did not have any problems with the plots. They are the reason I read the book. I wanted to see how a writer would approach such taboos in a romance novel. But the book is a disappointment in plot development characterization. The intriguing plots are just wasted. So is Beverley's writing.

A few things that I kept wondering about reading this book:

1. The "violent" part is not explicit. The angst is very much downplayed.

2. I keep feeling a bit disconnected. Considering the magnitude of the events, the characters are extremely cool-headed about the entire business. The rapist is not exactly a villain. The hero is taking this "my brother asked me to marry the woman he raped" thingy in strides (should we pat him on the shoulders?). The heroine very quickly made peace with the fact that she had to marry her "rapist" who is actually the rapist's brother. And nobody was screaming or flipping off. The rapist offered to help and saved the heroine from killing herself. The hero tied himself to a woman who has been raped by his brother. And the heroine actually began to like the hero. And all of this happened without anyone even batting an eye. I mean, how is that humanly possible? Then the heroine had problems with her husband having a "mistress"? Wait, she decided to marry in such a circumstance and had problems with extra-marital relationships? Woman, priorities!

3. I am not really appalled by the events, which in itself, is appalling.

4. I like the hero better than the heroine. I know people have problems with his "infidelity" but honestly it was not as if he was in love with heroine. Maybe I am of loose morals, I don't know. Shxt happens. Sometimes it is about how you overcome such things as a couple that makes the love story. It cannot always be picture-perfect.

5. Some reasoning really failed to convince me. Eleanor becoming pregnant after the rape for example, how could they know that she was pregnant after scarely a month? It wasn't as if there was a Durane Reade down the block. And Nicholas sleeping with her the first time because then "there may be a chance that the baby is his". I mean, the rape happened a few weeks ago before the wedding night. It really does not take a genius to figure out whose baby it is. or am I being to scientific here?

An unusual antiterrorism plot for a Regency historical, this book challenges the reader's thinking and gives us another captivating hero to look forward to in the next book of this series.

 

BOOK REVIEW: Too Dangerous For a Lady by Jo Beverley
Series: Company of Rogues, Book 16
Category: Historical
Publisher: Signet (April 7, 2015)
ISBN: 978-0451471895
Rated: 3.5 out of 5

 

Lady Hermione Merryhew lives with her sister and her family, now that their parents are gone. She knows she must marry to help their financial status but a long-lost relative may give her a reprieve from marrying the cousin she despises. They all travel to visit their sick uncle who may be on his deathbed. They stop for the night on the way and a man sneaks into her room to hide from his pursuers. Hermione is even more surprised when this thief turns out to be the man she fell for six years ago at her first ball.

 

Lieutenant Mark Thayne joins a band of revolutionaries as Ned Granger in hope of thwarting their plans of destruction before they put them into play. But now that he has endangered Hermione by involving her in his undercover activities, he has to think of more than himself. Will he be able to save his country and get the girl he never forgot?

 

TOO DANGEROUS FOR A LADY is book sixteen of the COMPANY OF ROGUES series but it can be read as a standalone. This is my first book by Jo Beverly and although I sensed that this book may be related to others, I didn't feel as if I had missed anything until I read the author's note about the series at the back of the book.

 

At just over 400 pages, TOO DANGEROUS FOR A LADY is a complicated story that engages the reader with its unusual antiterrorism plot. I thought the scheme was rather ingenious because I couldn't figure out how something like that could possibly happen in this time period, but it was all sewn up neatly by the end. I really enjoyed Lady Hermione's interactions with her uncle. He is a grumpy old man and she isn't afraid to voice her opinion, which in the end makes him respect her and listen to her advice. I didn't feel as convinced with the relationship between Hermione and Mark. Their dialog seemed stilted then too chatty in several places, so I didn't get a real feel for their emotional connection. By the end I grew more attached to them as a couple, but for the majority of the book, I was more enamored with the other Rogues, the Curious Creatures and Mark's friend Brayden who will be the hero of the next book.

 

Interestingly, I connected with several male secondary characters which makes me think I will enjoy more books in this series because of Jo Beverly's talent at writing men of intrigue who are charmingly arrogant, mischievous and aloof when faced with danger. Their repartee with one another made me laugh and I can't wait to find out what trouble they get themselves into next. They're very charismatic bad boys with titles and Braydon seems like the sort to fall really hard when he finds the woman meant for him.

 

An uncommon Regency plot that will surely enthrall readers of the genre, TOO DANGEROUS FOR A LADY has many attributes historical lovers will appreciate.

 

Reviewed by Dorine, courtesy of Romance Junkies and TBR Mountain Range. Print ARC provided by the publisher.

Well, isn't this a depressing topic? I don't know why it is more disheartening than Alcoholism in Romance Novels which was my last post but it is.

 

Both are awful but both issues when explored in romance novels allow fiction to do what it does best inquire, confront, heal. 

 

I found out some interesting things about Romanceland during my oh so sad research into drug addiction and the Romance Novel with a side trip into drug based films. We don't really like recovering drug addicts (or active drug addicts) as heroes and heroines in our Contemporary Romances much. They are thin on the ground. Alcoholics are much more abundant. 

 

In my wandering, I found this amazing web publication, The Fix: addiction and recovery, straight up. In a wonderful article, they explode the distance between drug and alcohol addiction and think about how this construct works in the general culture and in recovery culture as well.  Alcoholism vs Addiction. Check it out. 

 

I also discovered, we love it when our heroes or heroines get forcibly addicted. 

 

In addition, we are much more welcoming of the recovering historical hero or heroine. Opium, poppy seed, laudanum, ether... Seems romantic? Sweaty and bugged eyed to me. 

 

However, addiction as tool to cope with trauma, numb, feel good, and/or as a physical disability in a cultural that encourages casual consumption or risk taking creates great (real) characters for me and it is why some times I leave the frothier side of Romance for these darker depths. 

 

Here is my list of good Romance Novels that deal with drug addiction in its varying states-actively using, dry, withdrawing, drying out, sober, and recovery. 

 

We have the Rock Stars and the Famous:

 

What the Librarian Did by Karina Bliss  

Hard Rock Remix  by Ava Lore 

After Midnight by Sarah Grimm

Heartthrob by Suzanne Brockmann 

 

The Young

 

Yellowstone Redemption by Peggy L Henderson

Takedown by Julie Miller 

 

Dens of Opium

 

Reclaiming Lord Rockleigh by Nancy Butler

The Sins of Lord Easterbrook by Madeline Hunter

Scoundrel's Kiss by Carrie Lofty 

 

Even in Paranormal Worlds (maybe especially), you need to numb..

 

Lover Enshrined  by J.R. Ward 

Unholy Ghosts by Stacia Kane 

Eternal Seduction by Jennifer Turner 

 

 

Regular Folk

 

Rachel's Holiday by Marian Keyes