Initial thought:

Good writing, but too silly characters (especially the h who went from a prudish spinster to a sexy siren the moment she met the H, her transformation was the most hilarious of all -_-) and situations made it difficult for me to take anything seriously in this book. In fact it started out quite intriguingly and I thought I'd found a new author I'll be checking out often. Unfortunately, it also went downhill soon. I only kept going to see how the author resolved a particular twist regarding the H. There was no big surprises there in the end either. Sigh.

Thought I won't do a full review. Then I decided to add a bit more... :-<

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

I picked up Once a Pirate pretty much on a whimsy. I liked the cover and was quite intrigued by the blurb. I thought it was going to be a darker-toned historical romance and I wanted to find out more. Even though this didn’t quite turn out to be what I was expecting for, I’m not disappointed at all. On the contrary, I enjoyed the story a lot.

As the blurb mentions, the current Earl of Sutcliffe was going nuts to have an heir. His own son, the heir to earldom, Daniel, isn’t up to the task. He’s not interested in women. Even though the Earl had married him rather forcefully to a pretty, young and well-bred girl, his worthless son has not shown one ounce of interest in her. And it was pretty much killing the Earl that he couldn’t get his much coveted heir to the earldom, to extend the Sutcliffe name to another generation. But that can really go on forever! To get what he wanted, the Earl makes a plan and promptly puts the wheel of this into motion. This is where our actual story begins...

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

I simply love it when I discover a debut author gifted with enough wit and charm to make me fall in love with everything in a novel, be it the storyline or the characters. Victoria Hanlen’s The Trouble with Misbehaving falls right into that category. I’ll admit that I wanted to read this book for that gorgeous purple gown on the cover (LOL), however so glad I did since now I know the significance of that color in the story.

The Trouble with Misbehaving was everything I love in a romance novel; A strong, intelligent and independent minded h and a sexy, charming rogue of a H. An intriguing storyline with action and adventures alongside great chemistry between the H and the h, who were as wonderful together as they were on their own. Victoria Hanlen is not only an excellent storyteller, I also loved her writing style.

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

I have to admit first that Amber Lin’s Falling for the Pirate, book 2 of Men of Fortune, had much potential to be superb. I really liked book 1, which is why I wanted to continue with the series. Sadly, all those potentials weren’t met to my liking. Instead, I had quite a confusing time trying to figure out the buildup of the H and h’s relationship.

In book 1, the company run by the Duke of Sinclair, Adrian with Nate, Hale and another buddy of theirs was mentioned, even if only a snippet of it. Letters at Christmas was Hale’s story, a ship’s captain, who returned home after a long time to win his childhood sweetheart, Sidony, back. It was very short yet sweet. There weren’t much about his friends in that installment, except that they attend Hale and Sidony’s marriage.