My review contains spoilers and they're mostly my thoughts...

Sooooooooo...I know this one’s going to be a difficult one for me because I was really, really looking forward to this book. But alas! I may have expected too much. :(

I just finished Lisa Kleypas’s much anticipated book 3 of the Ravenels series, Devil in Spring, and I’m rather underwhelmed by it. Don’t get me wrong, the writing was great; the storyline was, again, great as well. Any of LK’s ‘mediocre’ books are wayyyy better than what’s out there in the name of historical romance. But I am not going into that direction. I love LK and I will love her writing no matter what I felt. But the problem with Devil in Spring was that no one can really surpass Sebastian St. Vincent for me. Unfortunately, not even his own son. His reputation, for me, only comes after Derek, the hero of Dreaming of You, my most favorite LK book. Sadly, I had not reviewed this one, neither did I review the Wallflower series, probably LK’s best known and most loved series till today. I read and re-read those in my pre-Goodreads era.

If you haven’t read either Dreaming of You or The Wallflowers series, you really should. Sebastian St. Vincent was the hero of book 3, Devil in Winter. And boy he kept his lovely Evie (and us) so warm during those winter months, and beyond. ;) I, in general, have a great dislike for rakes even when others swoon over them. But LK’s rakes are a league of their own. She just knows how to make me fall in love with them so I always trust in her writing. Both Derek and Sebastian were two of her biggest rakish heroes that many of us still adore like no other.

Unmasking of a Lady by Sophie Dash was "read now" in netgalley. I was looking for a new author to try and this seemed up my alley. I went in completely blank, not knowing the author or reading any review prior to it. In a nutshell, here's what I found:

The heroine, Harriet, is from a good family though her family is now on the verge of financial ruin. I think her father and younger brother, Giddeon, the heir, both had a hand in this. They have a very wealthy, widowed maternal aunt who loves them like her own, yet Harriet won't take any 'charity' from her. So she comes up with the idea that she needs to be a highwayman to save her family from the financial ruin.

Yeah, that.

Now, you may ask, why not marry well and do the same? Harriet is quite attractive and has had proposals in the past, yet she seemed very oddly reluctant to marry. She, plainly put, abhorred the notion of being leg-shackled. She hated the fact that some man would control her life. She loves her independence a bit too much (all that highwayman business couldn't have been concocted without it). After her mother's passing, Harriet has been the head of the family, or so to speak, since her father wasn't up to the task all that much. She took care of everything. Yet, Giddeon went spoiled, piled up more debt and almost ruined the family name in the process. Then Harriet took it onto herself that she must mend the financial ladder of the family. She won't accept any help from anyone, not even Giddeon when he finally came to his senses and wanted to help.

My review contains spoilers and they're mostly my thoughts as I went with the book...

Rachel L. Demeter’s Finding Gabriel promised something dark and bada$$. Even comparison to books like Gaelen Foley’s Lord of Ice and Judith James’s Broken Wing were made. Then there was the $0.99c release sale, so no wonder I grabbed it when it was released!

Both Lord of Ice and Broken Wing are straight 5 stars books, aptly deserved as I absolutely loved both. However, Finding Gabriel, IMO failed to deliver what it promised. Yes there were quite a lot of dark and depressing matters in the story but they never worked out the way I wanted them to. Since this was my first book by the author, I went in totally blind and felt the unadulterated shock of disappointment. I’d go into my full review later but first, here is what happened in a nutshell...

Colonel Gabriel de Laurent has seen it all, done it all in his 30 yrs. life. Born in a noble family, he wasn’t supposed to serve Bonaparte but he went to the army when tragedy struck his family down and there was no one left to mourn him. After his parents had passed, Gabriel married the girl he was betrothed to quite dutifully, being the only heir to their legacy. Both were young (late teens) and totally inexperienced. And they didn’t suit at all. Soon, after the birth of Lisette, their only child, Gabriel and his wife drifted apart. There were numerous affairs on both sides. From what little shown in the story made me feel that both were to blame equally for their failed marriage. When not submerging into the charms of his next mistress, Gabriel was drinking away. His wife was depressed, resentful, always looking for the next lover, never finding the peace that eluded her in her own marriage. And that brought trouble at their home; a jilted lover who wanted revenge. I won’t go into the details but Gabriel lost his whole family on one single night, in a quite gruesome way. He would’ve died himself had he not killed the perpetrators equally brutally and left home, never to return again. His conscience, the urge to be a good husband and father, came a little too late... there was nothing left to do anymore.

NEVER wanted to see Duke and Dove together, so there you have it. No good. Not at all. I'm stumped as the whole thing is ruined for me. -_- ... and God that last chapter! *shudders*

Started out well, light and fluffy... Liked the writing style too, up until the last 2 chapters where this really silly misunderstanding happened and ruined it for me. It seemed that people were listening to what they *wanted to* and assumed things that weren't there. My head hurt from all the eye rolling I did.

I was pretty sympathetic to Henrietta at first. It seemed she had really annoying sisters, not to mention an overbearing mother, who have gone out of their way to make her feel uncomfortable in her own skin. She had little self-confidence and stuttered like no other, all from the stress of various responsibilities as the eldest of 3 daughters; the latest would be about "saving her paternal home" from being transferred to the current Earl of Amhurst. That'd be Simon, the H. Her mother and sisters were just... ugh! They probably didn't mean harm but they went about everything wrong, always reminding Henrietta in one way or the other that she had no attributes to "catch" a man. Henrietta likes to play with herbs and make salves and poultices; a very "unsuitable hobby" as per her family. Seriously???! But up until those last few chapters I didn't even think she was a complete doormat; so easily manipulated, believing people over the man she <i>thought</i> she was in love with. :-s

I liked Simon but not sure why he was called the Black Earl. There was nothing sinister about him at all. And the poor guy was being managed by his so-called "best friend" Setterfield so badly that I had this urge to shake him to see the truth and scream while doing it too! Damned Setterfield was a total creep all through the story, even if the author tried to make him look like a innocent party in the end. Anyone making horny eyes at a 15 yrs. old girl is a creep IMO when I know he must be around Simon's age; somewhere in his early 30s. He stepped in where he had no business of doing so and almost ruined Simon and Henrietta's relationship in the process because he thought it was "for the best" for all. I don't even know how Simon forgave him... just like that!

Setterfied was also the one who wanted to marry Henrietta. It's one of the reasons why I found his interference suspicious until the end when the author decided that's not going to work as one of the h's younger sisters, Albina, had set her eyes on him... which means he'd be the "hero" of one of the later installments? Mmm, no thanks. And Sarah, Henrietta's other sister? I have no interest of reading her story after what she had done in this one. Dumb b!tch!
 
3 stars. Had potentials but disappointed me.

Note: connected to The Duke's Obsession.