Day: September 4, 2014

Review: Highland Groom by Hannah Howell

Posted September 4, 2014 by Holly in Reviews | 0 Comments

Review: Highland Groom by Hannah HowellReviewer: Holly
Highland Groom by Hannah Howell
Series: Murray Family #8, McEnroy Family #2
Also in this series: Highland Devil (Murray Family #22), Highland Wolf, Highland Guard
Publisher: Open Road Media
Publication Date: April 29th 2014
Genres: Fiction
Pages: 276
Add It: Goodreads
Amazon | Barnes & Noble | The Ripped Bodice | Google Play Books
three-half-stars

Sir Diarmot MacEnroy, deciding his illegitimate children need a mother and his keep needs a proper lady, now stands before the altar with a gentle bride he hopes is too shy to disrupt his life or break his heart. The nuptials, however, are interrupted by the appearance of a flame-haired beauty carrying two babies, boldly claiming that she is his wife and mother of his twin infant sons. Armed with her seven large brothers, she has come to demand her dues. Having waited one year for the return of the handsome laird who wed her, bedded her, then disappeared, Ilsa Campbell MacEnroy takes matters into her own hands and sets out to reclaim the man she briefly and passionately loved. Stunned by his denial, her heart softens when she learns of the injury that has ravaged his memory. Now she faces the nearly impossible task of conquering his past—and his fierce reluctance to share his heart. Though desire flares hot and wild between them, it will take more to win his trust. It will take the magic touch of a woman in love.

Howell follows pretty much the same formula for all her novels: tiny heroine with big personality falls for giant hero who is mistrustful because of a past girlfriend/mistress/wife who screwed him over. She decides to fight for his love by being herself and he falls for her in spite of his vow to hate all women, but must hilarity/angst is had first. This one deviates in that the heroine has 14 large brothers and the hero has 6 bastard children he sort of-kind of forgot to mention to the heroine.

Ilsa thought she’d found the man of her dreams in the dashing Dairmot. He isn’t intimidated by her many brothers, professes to care for her and is quick to handfast with her when they’re discovered trysting. He says he has matters to take care of at home and will collect her shortly, then never returns. She’s devastated, but does her best to hide it. Until she turns up pregnant. When Dairmot still hasn’t shown up almost a year later, when the terms of the handfast are about to be annulled, her brothers force her to set out to find him. The last thing she expected was to find him kneeling before the alter with another woman.

Knowing she doesn’t have a choice about her future since she has twin sons with the man, she resigns herself to marriage to the man she gave her heart to. The one, it turns out, she knew not at all.

Dairmot was attacked almost a year ago and lost his memory. When a tiny redhead with 7 hulking brothers interrupts his wedding, he’s skeptical about their claims. He wants to deny them outright, but he can’t since they have papers saying he did, indeed, handfast with Ilsa. But their timeline puts them in the right frame to have had him attacked, so he vows to beware them all. Until his memory returns or he learns who his enemies are, he’s determined to keep Ilsa and her babies at arms length.

Dairmot was a complete ass, which isn’t new for Howell either. I didn’t mind so much, though, because I read her books for the heroines. Ilsa was  pretty awesome. She took a lot of crap from Dairmot, but she had her limits.  She had a redheaded temper, which made for some fun reading (especially when she punched him and knocked him on his butt). Her brothers are hilarious and added a lot of comic relief.

“So, ye decided upon a handfasting.”

“Aye. Got the lovers to tidy themselves up and took them off to the alehouse to find our cousin Liam. Set the groom in a barrel and had my brother Gilbert there,” he nodded toward a very sturdily built young man with flame red hair and blue eyes, “to sit on it whilst we discussed the matter with Liam.”

Diarmot slouched in his chair and drank his ale, wondering if it was possible for this tale to be any more humiliating.

The mystery plot isn’t anything too exciting. The kids were adorable, though, as were Ilsa’s brothers and cousins. They added so much color to the story.

While much of the story is predictable, I was still entertained. There are some truly hilarious scenes and Ilsa is awesome.

3.75 out of 5

three-half-stars


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Review: Once More, My Darling Rogue by Lorraine Heath

Posted September 4, 2014 by Rowena in Reviews | 0 Comments

Publisher: Avon, Harper Collins

Rowena’s review of Once More, My Darling Rogue (Scandalous Gentlemen of St. James #2) by Lorraine Heath.

They are England’s most eligible bachelors, with the most scandalous reputations. But for the right woman, even an unrepentant rogue may mend his ways…

Born to the street but raised within the aristocracy, Drake Darling can’t escape his sordid beginnings. Not when Lady Ophelia Lyttleton snubs him at every turn, a constant reminder he’s not truly one of them. But after rescuing her from a mysterious drowning he realizes she doesn’t remember who she is. With plans to bring her to heel, he insists she’s his housekeeper—never expecting to fall for the charming beauty.

While Ophelia might not recall her life before Drake, she has little doubt she belongs with him. The desire she feels for her dark, brooding employer can’t be denied, regardless of consequences. So when her memory returns, she is devastated by the depth of his betrayal. Now Drake must risk everything to prove she can trust this rogue with her heart once more.

This is the second book in the Scandalous Gentlemen of St. James series by Lorraine Heath. It follows Drake Darling and Lady Ophelia Lyttleton on their road to happiness.  What I thought was interesting about this book was that there were times when I hated both the hero and the heroine of this book.

When we first meet Lady Ophelia, she is giving Drake Darling (a guy who wasn’t born into the aristocracy but who was raised by them) the cut direct. She is the biggest snob and completely ridiculous that I wanted to punch her in her throat. But over the course of the book, you see her slowly start to change but you question everything about her at first because while you’re seeing her change, she’s got amnesia and has no memory of being a Lady…and this is where I started to hate Drake.

When we first meet Drake, he’s a sexy man getting his party on at a ball for the girl that grew up like a sister to him and one of his friends engagement balls. He’s tall and strikingly handsome so he’s getting a lot of attention from the ladies but not Lady Ophelia. Lady Ophelia tries to shun him in front of a Duke, who just so happens to be an acquaintance of Drake’s and when Drake gets her alone and tries to teach her a lesson, he gets a slap to the face for his efforts.

Right from the jump, you can tell that something happened to Lady Ophelia but you don’t know what because she covers her tracks by being such a bitch. So when Drake is out on a walk, late at night and comes across Lady Ophelia in the river, he fishes her out and tries to get some answers. What happened to her? Why was she in the river? Why doesn’t she remember anything? And then he does the dumbest thing I could think of…he takes her to his house and tells her that she’s his servant.

Now, he was only supposed to teach her a short lesson but after a few days of her thinking she’s his servant, acting like his servant and him treating her like his servant, I wanted to punch him in his throat. Lessons may have been needed but not like that.

So after all of that, you’d think that I hated the book but that’s not the case at all. I think it’s a testament to how much I enjoy Lorraine Heath’s writing that she pulled this one out for me because a shift came over both Lady Ophelia and Drake over the course of the story and it was that shift that kept me coming back for more. I liked seeing them change into the people they were in the end. I loved seeing them fall in love with each other before the inevitable fallout came forth. My heart went out to the both of them time and time again and when I finished the book, I sighed a happy sigh and thought, “This is why I read romances.” That happy sigh at the end means the book was good.  I really enjoyed this one. Heath did a great job entertaining the socks off of me at the same time she was pulling out every other emotion out of me. I recommend this book.

Grade: 4 out of 5

This book is available from Avon. You can purchase it here and here in e-format. This book was provided by the publisher in exchange for an honest review.


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