Author: Jade Lee

Guest Review: One Rogue at a Time and Rich as a Rogue by Jade Lee

Posted August 25, 2016 by Whitley B in Reviews | 1 Comment

Reviewer: Whitley
One Rogue at a Time by Jade Lee
Series: Rakes and Rogues #2
Publisher: Sourcebooks Casablanca
Publication Date: December 1, 2015
Pages: 384
Add It: Goodreads
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two-stars
Series Rating: two-stars

USA Today bestselling author Jade Lee continues her saucy, vibrant Rakes and Rogues Regency romance series with a high-society outsider who may have met his match…

A brown-eyed bastard with nothing to lose

As the illegitimate son of a duke, Bramwell Wesley Hallowsby grew up tough, on the fringes of society, learning to hide his hurt and cynicism with charm and Town polish. He’s carved out a place for himself as a mercenary, serving as bodyguard and general strong arm for the peerage. Bram has nothing to lose… and he’s exactly what Maybelle “Bluebell” Ballenger needs.

Meets his match in a blue-eyed beauty with everything to hide

Maybelle needs a mentor to teach her to speak and act like a lady, so she can claim the place in society she was denied. As they team up to take on the ton, Bram knows she’s hiding something even from him. Despite the deception he sees behind those sparkling blue eyes, Bram wants to believe that Maybelle’s love is no lie. But it seems fate has served him up his just desserts in the likes of this determined damsel.

One Rogue at a Time started off cute enough. I really loved Bluebell’s wit and her ability to turn a situation in her own favor, the relationship she had with the others in her village, and the portrayal of village life in general. They had a nice mix of supportive and “gotta do to survive,” and everyone was very practical about it, and just I loved that place, I wish we’d seen more of it. It was a nuanced attitude that I’m not relaying very well, sorry.

I even liked Bluebell and Bram together at the start. They had some nice banter and cute moments. But then Bram got…well, rapey. He literally straight-up says “I’m going to sex that girl until she’s ruined and her intended husband will have nothing to do with her and then leave.” It was just a really, really disturbing line that gave me so many creeps and the book never quite recovered from that. He went on to force her into kisses and intentionally manipulate and seduce her, and all the while his thoughts on what constitutes a “lie” were…well, extreme is probably too mild a word for it. This guy had issues, and not the fun kind that you can at least pretend will be cured by love. For most of the book he was unacknowledged villain material, and I didn’t like it.

But I kept on with the series and read As Rich as a Rogue, because I was in a Regency mood and it was handy. It had a similar heroine, but Peter was a much better hero, and all around I’m very glad I kept reading. Like Bluebell, Mari is sharp and witty and able to turn things in her favor, and she has ambitions that are period appropriate. I think I liked that most about her character; her logical approach to finding a husband wasn’t demonized. It was recognized that being a wife in that period was a job, or could be if done right, and she wanted to work. So she had to find a husband whose life and career would give her the challenge she needed, and that was a good thing within the book. I love that; it’s an aspect of the time period that doesn’t get appreciated enough.

This book was also practically meta with one theme that’s common in Regency romance: a woman’s passions being suppressed by society but when she lets them out (with the help of the hero) she becomes a more complete person. Which is fine, and I totally get why that’s a popular theme (coughcoughdamnpatriarchy) and I’m not even complaining about it here. Just I was very aware of it on a meta level because it was very, very frankly discussed. So, for me, that was a smidge distracting. Not sure if it would be for anyone else.

Rating: 2 out of 5 and 4 out of 5

two-stars


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Guest Review: What the Groom Wants by Jade Lee

Posted April 2, 2014 by Tracy in Reviews | 0 Comments

Guest Review: What the Groom Wants by Jade LeeReviewer: Tracy
What the Groom Wants by Jade Lee
Series: Bridal Favors Series #4
Publisher: Sourcebooks Casablanca
Publication Date: February 4, 2014
Format: Print ARC
Genres: Historical Romance
Add It: Goodreads
Amazon | Barnes & Noble | The Ripped Bodice | Google Play Books
three-stars
Series Rating: three-stars

 

An honest love…

Radley Lyncott has been in love with Wendy Drew as long as he can remember. When he went to sea, she was too young to court. Now that he’s returned to take up his Welsh title, he is appalled to find that debt has ruined the Drew family, and—even worse—Wendy is being courted by another man.

Or a dangerous attraction?

Family comes first for seamstress Wendy Drew, who is forced to settle her brother’s debt by working nights at a notorious gambling den. But her double-life hasn’t gone unnoticed—she has captivated none other than Demon Damon, a nefarious rake who understands Wendy’s darkest desires and is hell bent on luring her into his arms.

Radley Lyncott has been at sea for years. Now he’s back in London and wants nothing more than to court and marry Wendy Drew. Unfortunately that doesn’t happen like he thinks it will. When he gets home he finds that due to a small pox outbreak he is now a duke. Growing up with a mother who gave him dreams of one day being duke he’s not quite as “street” as he could be but he’s in no way prepared to be a duke. He just wants to live his life and marry Wendy!

Wendy is a seamstress who has a brother who got in deep from gambling. He went to Wendy and now she’s working off her brothers debt by dealing in the “slum lord’s” gambling hell. She thinks she’s now free of Demon Damon – but what she comes to realize is that she may never be done with the man as he’s obsessed with her.

Radley does his best to deal with his new responsibilities and still try to court Wendy but she’s not being completely truthful with him and she knows that she can never marry him because of Radley’s new station in life. She’s also well aware that once Radley finds out Demon Damon is the man who’s controlling her life he’ll get himself killed.

What the Groom Wants was an entertaining read. Parts of the book were good and others not so much at all.

The story itself was a bit all over the place, I have to say. Usually stories go along and though different things happen there seems to be one main focus. This book didn’t have that and unfortunately it made me wonder what I should be focusing on. Was I supposed to focus on Wendy’s issues – of which there were many? Should I focus on Radley’s issues? Demon Damon? IDK, it was just a very odd historical romance.

That said there were parts of it that I liked. I liked Radley in general. I loved the way he stood up to his mother, and everyone else for that matter when they wanted to not only change how he dressed but how he lived. He knew he had to do things differently but he wasn’t the type of person to now ignore all of his friends from the poorer part of town. I highly admired the man for being who he was.

Wendy was a good person too but she was just a confused woman. She didn’t seem to know what she really wanted and then when I thought she did it would change in a minute. I did like her but wanted her to get her head on straight.

Overall a bit of a disconnected story but entertaining.

Rating: 3 out of 5

three-stars


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