Hero: Lord Larken
Heroine: Thalia “Tally” Langley
Grade: 4 out of 5
She spied him in the shadows . . .
And in an instant, Thalia Langley knew the man before her was no saint. He might claim to be the Duke of Hollindrake’s unassuming country cousin, but no man that handsome, that arresting, could be anything but . . . well, he simply must be an unrepentant rogue. His cat-like grace and power leave Tally shivering in her slippers at the notion of all the wicked, forbidden things he might be capable of doing . . . to her.
Indeed, Lord Larken is no bumbling vicar, but a master spy there in his majesty’s service to find—and murder—a notorious pirate freed in a daring prison escape. Devoted to the Crown, Larken’s not about to let an interfering (and not entirely innocent) Mayfair miss disrupt his ruthless plans. Yet how can he be anything but tempted by this lady in a little black gown . . . a dress tantalizing enough to lead even Larken astray.
I am officially a pro at starting series after the first book but I was too wrapped up in this book to care that I missed the previous book. For those of you who have read, Love Letters from a Duke then you’ll be happy to know that CONFESSIONS of a BLACK DRESS is Tally’s book. Tally is Felicity’s sister and she’s part of a trio of women who cracked me the heck up. I have grown quite fond of Tally, Felicity and Pippin. The bond between these three had me laughing like a loon, whooping for joy and just flat out loving the hell out of these guys.
Tally’s story begins with the whole lot of them making their way to Felicity’s country home for her lavish house party that she’s throwing in hopes of making a whole lot of matches so that she’ll be the reining Queen of Matchmaking. She thinks it will help her get her “in” with the ton. She’s driving everyone mad with her match making attempts, most especially her sister Tally but I found her to be bubbly and sweet.
The first meeting between Tally and “Mr. Ryder” made me laugh out loud because Tally just bursts into her brother in law’s study and starts blabbing on and on about the state of one of the carriages that pulled up into the driveway and stops cold when she realizes Hollindrake is not the only person in his study. She’s immediately drawn to that voice and then when she sees the face that goes with the voice, she’s shocked because it doesn’t match up and yet she knows that the voice, the dangerous note in that voice doesn’t belong on this man. She begins to wonder about this guy and that wonder doesn’t stop after that meeting.
The man and the face do not match and those eyes, they are not the eyes of a country vicar. They see too much and they have an edge that Tally wonders over.
To make sure that her party is a success, Felicity begs Tally (her twin sister) to help her with the vicar. The Vicar is 1) boring 2) needs help dressing himself and 3) a bumbling idiot. All three things that Tally is beginning to see doesn’t match up from the man that she’s getting to know and though Tally is fast falling for her Mr. Ryder, she’s beginning to wonder if Mr. Ryder is not a nice country vicar at all but a spy.
Mr. Ryder aka Lord Larken is undercover trying to find one of England’s most dangerous enemies who was broken out of prison by two women. All leads are pointing to Lady Phillipa aka Pippin and Pippin is at this house party of Felicity’s. As he tries to follow different leads at the house, Larken keeps getting distracted by Lady Thalia Langley and her damn black gown. The more he tries to find answers to all of the questions he’s got bumbling in his head, the more distracted he gets with Tally until he finally starts thinking that maybe she’s playing him.
Both Larken and Tally struggle to find the answers they’re both searching for with each other and that struggle is what kept me glued to my seat. Larken wanted to find Dashwell and Tally wanted to know who the hell Larken really was and when the shit hits the fan, I could not put this book down to save my life.
It was such a fun historical adventure for me and this book has me so excited to try out more by Elizabeth Boyle. First up is Felicity’s book. I’m itching to get my hands on that one and I hear that Pippin’s book is coming out soon as well. I loved that little twist with Pippin’s storyline. Good gosh, who do you guys think she’s gonna end up with? Dashwell or home dude from this book? Man, I’m mighty excited for that one.
The only downside to this story was Larken falling in love with Tally. The romance between Larken and Tally felt kind of rushed to me. There was so many other things going on in this book that the romance kind of took a back seat and even though I enjoyed this book, I found myself wishing to see more of the romance between the hero and heroine. There were a lot of scenes between the two but they were always trying to figure each other out and find each other’s secrets that I didn’t completely buy how fast Larken came to love Tally. I saw a lot of lust going on that when the love came around, I felt it was too soon for him to actually know for sure.
Regardless of that, this book is definitely a book that I would recommend to all of you historical lovers out there. I enjoyed this book and think that all of you guys will too. The characters leap right off the pages and the story is packed with lots of action and it was fun, quick read. You won’t be disappointed.
This book is available from Avon. You can buy it here or here in e-format.
I was hesitant about this one, but I think I’m going to go and get it 🙂 Thanks Rowena!!
I think you should try Something about Emmaline, also by this author 🙂 It was very fun as well 🙂
Great review Wena. I didn’t even realize there was a book that came before this one. I’m a stickler for reading a series in the right order.
I too am a big stickler for reading in the right order! I do like the way this one sounds though. I’ll definitely add Love Letters From A Duke so I can get to this one.
Nath,
Thanks for the pimp. Who’s book is that? I’m gonna try to see what books I can get by EB. I enjoyed this one enough that I will definitely check some other stuff by her.
Ames,
LOL, I knew it was the second book but I read it anyway. I’m gonna get Felicity’s book and read that one as soon as I can. She was cute and bubbly in this book that I can only imagine the kind of shenanigans she got into in her own book.
Mishel,
I haven’t read LFAD yet so I can’t tell you if it was good or not but if I end up reading it before you do, I’ll let you know. =) Oh and most people are sticklers for reading series in order, matter of fact, I used to be one of those people but these days, I’ll read anything, in order-out of order, I just don’t care anymore. =)