Romance Reviews

We have this thing. It's called a blog. I tend to ignore it. I'm going to try to work on that. And as part of working on that I am going to start reviewing the books I read. So this might turn into all romance reviews for a while, but I'm sure we will throw some other stuff in along the way.

For today, I am going to do quick reviews of the last few books I've read.

Lady Rogue by Suzanne Enoch
Kit is a 19 year old English girl who has been masquerading as a French boy since she was 6 in order to help her father with his smuggling; she is usually a spy for him.
Alex is the Earl of Everton, who ends up taking in Kit to pay back a debt his father owed to Kit's father. Kit is supposed to spy on Alex and his friends to determine who is blocking their smuggling operation.

I have read a lot of romance novels and I have to say that Kit is different from every other romance heroine that I've ever come across. Alex is standard alpha-male romance hero, but Kit holds her own and in a lot of cases bests him. She does what she thinks is necessary and does not rely on anyone else. Alex figures out right away that Kit is a girl, but he allows her to continue pretending to be his male cousin. I really enjoyed seeing Kit be genuine friends with Alex's friends. What I liked most was that for the majority of the book I really didn't care too much about the romantic part of their relationship. I cared more about who was involved in stopping the smuggling and if Kit and Alex were ever going to tell each other the truth. Usually, I get annoyed when characters don't tell each other stuff that would make the entire book easier, but in this case I liked that they both kept everything secret. It really worked for the story. I also really enjoyed the epic action sequences and the side characters.

A Dangerous Beauty by Sophia Nash
Rosamunde made a bad decision, ran off to marry a guy who ended up being terrible, became a pariah, and then became a widow.
Luc is the Lord of Fire and Ice (due to his fire in bed and his coldness in the morning).
Luc's father is the one who made Rosamunde an outcast; his grandmother invites her to join her widow's club.

I really enjoyed reading A Dangerous Beauty, but even right after I finished I could not remember how it ended. Even now I'm kinda like...and then some stuff happened and they said I love you. Which isn't the best reaction to have to a book. I found Rosamunde a bit too accepting of her fate. I wanted her to be a fighter, which she had some flashes of. I really enjoyed Luc, though he also seemed to be not quite as strong a character as I would have liked. I really liked Luc's grandmother and I want to read the other books in the series (this is the first of the Widow's Club series). I enjoyed the writing, if not the characters as much.

Suddenly You by Lisa Kleypas
Amanda ordered herself a male prostitute as a 30th birthday present to herself since she didn't want to end up a spinster without having made love to a man.
Jack, a bookseller and publishers, was sent to her house by the slightly interfering brothel owner, without either of them knowing of the "mix-up" at first.

I have read Suddenly You before. I found it as an ebook through the library so reread it just for fun. And it was still fun the second time through. I really love Amanda. She is not the average romance heroine, nor is she the average spinster. She is a well published author and really has no desire to marry. Jack is a bastard son of a nobleman and has worked extremely hard to become the book mogel that he is. He has had a hard life and therefore doesn't really operate within societal bounds. They both have a lot of serious trust issues to work through and really take a long time to get it together. I enjoy most of Kleypas's characters, but I think Amanda is really fun and smart, though she does make a few questionable choices. Jack is mysterious and takes a long time to get it together. Overall, a very fun read. Twice!