Series: Rokesbys Series

Review: The Other Miss Bridgerton by Julia Quinn

Posted November 19, 2018 by Rowena in Reviews | 4 Comments

Review: The Other Miss Bridgerton by Julia QuinnReviewer: Rowena
The Other Miss Bridgerton (Rokesbys, #3) by Julia Quinn
Series: Rokesbys Series #3
Also in this series: The Girl with the Make Believe Husband
Publisher: Avon
Publication Date: November 20, 2018
Format: eARC
Source: Edelweiss
Point-of-View: Alternating Third
Genres: Historical Romance
Pages: 384
Add It: Goodreads
Amazon | Barnes & Noble | The Ripped Bodice | Google Play Books
four-stars
Series Rating: four-stars

She was in the wrong place...

Fiercely independent and adventurous, Poppy Bridgerton will only wed a suitor whose keen intellect and interests match her own. Sadly, none of the fools from her London season qualify. While visiting a friend on the Dorset coast, Poppy is pleasantly surprised to discover a smugglers' hideaway tucked inside a cave. But her delight turns to dismay when two pirates kidnap her and take her aboard a ship, leaving her bound and gagged on the captain's bed…

He found her at the wrong time...

Known to society as a rascal and reckless privateer, Captain Andrew James Rokesby actually transports essential goods and documents for the British government. Setting sail on a time-sensitive voyage to Portugal, he's stunned to find a woman waiting for him in his cabin. Surely, his imagination is getting the better of him. But no, she is very real—and his duty to the Crown means he's stuck with her.

Can two wrongs make the most perfect right?

When Andrew learns that she is a Bridgerton, he knows he will likely have to wed her to avert a scandal—though Poppy has no idea that he is the son of an earl and neighbor to her aristocratic cousins in Kent. On the high seas, their war of words soon gives way to an intoxicating passion. But when Andrew's secret is revealed, will his declaration of love be enough to capture her heart…?

The Other Miss Bridgerton is the third book in Julia Quinn’s Rokesbys series and we’re finally getting Andrew Rokesbys story. I’ve wanted Andrew’s story since George and Billie’s book and when I found out that we were finally getting it, I was thrilled. I couldn’t request this book fast enough.

So Andrew is the Rokesby brother that has been missing from the other books. He was in the navy but now? Nobody really knows what Andrew does and where Andrew is. Well, he’s the captain of a bunch of ships that delivers goods all over the world and he also happens to be a delivery boy for the government, only nobody knows about that part of his job. If he happens to stash some of his goods in a cave, that’s his business and nobody else’s so when Poppy Bridgerton, Billie Bridgerton’s cousin, happens upon his cave of nobody’s business and goes searching for treasures, Andrew has no choice but to abduct her for the trip that he’s going on and lock her in his cabin until he can figure out what to do with her.

Poppy is visiting her best friend Elizabeth for a spell and while out on her daily walks, comes across a cave of treasure so she investigates and gets caught up in some business that is not hers and has no choice but to let herself be kidnapped or…something else that she doesn’t want to think about. The captain assures her that they’ll only be gone for two weeks so she has to think quickly and make sure that Elizabeth doesn’t come searching for her or she’ll be ruined.

A huge bulk of the book takes place while Poppy and Andrew are out at sea, making their way to Portugal so that Andrew can conduct his business. They slowly but surely fall in love with each other while they spend their hours getting to know each other. Sure, they didn’t plan on things turning out the way that they did but I thought they made the best of the situation before them. I really enjoyed their conversations and seeing them grow closer with each passing day. They were both great characters on their own but I enjoyed their scenes together.

The pacing of the story was a bit on the slow side in the beginning (or actually while they were on the high seas) and then super rushed in the end. I thought it felt like they were out to sea for forever and their relationship progressed super slow and then toward the end of the book, the pacing picked up so quickly that their reunion was a bit of a letdown…not that it was a complete letdown because I enjoyed seeing them come together but I wished there was more time when they returned to England to really come together. I thought that Poppy didn’t spend nearly as much time being pissed off at Andrew like she should have been but in the end, I still enjoyed the heck out of the two of them together that I couldn’t stay mad about that.

Julia Quinn is a pro at writing lighthearted historical romances that has you laughing and sighing at the same time and The Other Miss Bridgerton is proof of that. I laughed and I sighed and I just had a great time with this one so I’m a happy camper.

Grade: 4.25 out of 5

The Rokesbys

four-stars

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What Are You Reading? (+ Historical Giveaway)

Posted February 23, 2018 by Casee in Features, Giveaways | 10 Comments

WAYR-New

Casee: I finished Archangel’s Viper and really enjoyed it. I never really wondered what happened to Holly, which is odd to me. I have no idea how I forgot her. Watch for my review.

Last night I started Storm Gathering by Rebecca Zanetti. It is the fourth book in her Scorpius Syndrome series. I adore dystopian romance. This is one of my favorite dystopian series and I hope she can keep it going. I’m still reading rather slowly, but I’m fine reading at a slow steady pace rather than not reading at all.

Holly: I didn’t have a lot of reading time this week. I did a re-read of One Fell Sweep (Ilona Andrews is currently writing Maud’s novella..it’s going up weekly as a serial on the blog. Y’all. Maud!), mostly because Rowena was reading it and I wanted to catch up. Then I read Rough Ride by Kristen Ashley, a Chaos novella featuring Rosalie (she was Shy’s girl for a minute in Own the Wind) and Snapper. I really liked Snapper, but the novella was just eh IMO.

I’m still reading The Darkling Bride. It isn’t the book, I just haven’t had time. I’m also reading Lake Silence by Anne Bishop (I’m still sad we left Lakeside, but I’m loving it!) and listening to Saving Grace by Julie Garwood.

Rowena: It was a slow reading week for me. I had a lot going on at work and then at home that reading took a back seat. I read Living Out Loud by Staci Hart and that book was…I’m not sure. It took me a lot longer to read what should have been a quick read because the heroine, the very young heroine got on my nerves. After that, I quickly jumped into One Fell Sweep by Ilona Andrews and freaking loved the hell out of that book so now I’m back on my review pile and will be starting On Hart’s Boardwalk by Samantha Young and What a Difference a Duke Makes by Lenora Bell.

Giveaway Alert

We are very fortunate here at Book Binge. We have loads and loads of books to read and we want to share the wealth so each week, we’ll be tacking on a Freebie Friday giveaway to our What Are You Reading posts. This week, we’re giving away…

What Are You Reading? (+ Historical Giveaway)The Girl with the Make-Believe Husband (Rokesbys, #2) by Julia Quinn
Series: Rokesbys Series #2
Also in this series: The Girl with the Make Believe Husband, The Other Miss Bridgerton (Rokesbys, #3)
Publisher: Harper Collins, Avon
Publication Date: May 30th 2017
Genres: Historical Romance
Pages: 384
Add It: Goodreads
Amazon | Barnes & Noble | The Ripped Bodice | Google Play Books
Series Rating: four-stars


While you were sleeping...

With her brother Thomas injured on the battlefront in the Colonies, orphaned Cecilia Harcourt has two unbearable choices: move in with a maiden aunt or marry a scheming cousin. Instead, she chooses option three and travels across the Atlantic, determined to nurse her brother back to health. But after a week of searching, she finds not her brother but his best friend, the handsome officer Edward Rokesby. He's unconscious and in desperate need of her care, and Cecilia vows that she will save this soldier's life, even if staying by his side means telling one little lie...


I told everyone I was your wife

When Edward comes to, he's more than a little confused. The blow to his head knocked out six months of his memory, but surely he would recall getting married. He knows who Cecilia Harcourt is—even if he does not recall her face—and with everyone calling her his wife, he decides it must be true, even though he'd always assumed he'd marry his neighbor back in England.


If only it were true...

Cecilia risks her entire future by giving herself—completely—to the man she loves. But when the truth comes out, Edward may have a few surprises of his own for the new Mrs. Rokesby.

a Rafflecopter giveaway

What are you reading this week? Any new favorites or books that drove you crazy? Share!

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Review: The Girl with the Make Believe Husband by Julia Quinn

Posted June 27, 2017 by Rowena in Reviews | 6 Comments

Review: The Girl with the Make Believe Husband by Julia QuinnReviewer: Rowena
The Girl with the Make Believe Husband by Julia Quinn
Series: Rokesbys Series #2
Also in this series: The Other Miss Bridgerton (Rokesbys, #3)
Publisher: Harper Collins, Avon
Publication Date: May 30th 2017
Pages: 384
Add It: Goodreads
Amazon | Barnes & Noble | The Ripped Bodice | Google Play Books
three-half-stars
Series Rating: four-stars

While you were sleeping...

With her brother Thomas injured on the battlefront in the Colonies, orphaned Cecilia Harcourt has two unbearable choices: move in with a maiden aunt or marry a scheming cousin. Instead, she chooses option three and travels across the Atlantic, determined to nurse her brother back to health. But after a week of searching, she finds not her brother but his best friend, the handsome officer Edward Rokesby. He's unconscious and in desperate need of her care, and Cecilia vows that she will save this soldier's life, even if staying by his side means telling one little lie...

I told everyone I was your wife

When Edward comes to, he's more than a little confused. The blow to his head knocked out six months of his memory, but surely he would recall getting married. He knows who Cecilia Harcourt is—even if he does not recall her face—and with everyone calling her his wife, he decides it must be true, even though he'd always assumed he'd marry his neighbor back in England.

If only it were true...

Cecilia risks her entire future by giving herself—completely—to the man she loves. But when the truth comes out, Edward may have a few surprises of his own for the new Mrs. Rokesby.

We first hear about Edward Rokesby in the first book, Because of Miss Bridgerton. He’s the Rokesby brother that everyone thought was going to marry Billie Bridgerton. He’s the brother that is fighting in the war and though he doesn’t make an appearance in that book, we still got to know him through his family and I was pretty stoked to hear that we were going to finally meet him in this book so I couldn’t wait to get this book for review.

Edward was everything that I hoped he’d be. He was fun, flirty and a little rough around the edges. He was a good man at heart and he protected those close to him and he considered Cecelia close. He’s never met her in real life before but when he wakes up from an injury and finds out that she has been by his side for days now and that they’re…married, he doesn’t question it. He steps up and does what he can for Cecelia. She’s his best friend’s sister and she’s a good person so if she says they’re married then it must be true.

Only it’s not and the only person that knows that is Cecelia. Sure, she has a legit reason for telling everyone that they’re married and that reason is why she ran away from England but I have a hard time with secret plots and this particular secret messed with my enjoyment of the book as a whole because Cecelia took too long to come clean with Edward. I sympathized with her because she’s pretty much all alone in the world now and with a money hungry cousin sniffing around, I get that she felt like she had no choice but to lie but the longer she kept the lie from Edward is where I started having issues with her. I didn’t care about her lying to everyone else. That was necessary but when it became unnecessary for her to lie to Edward, she should have come clean and she didn’t.

I loved Edward’s character. I could totally see him fitting in perfectly with the rest of his family back home. I loved seeing him fall in love with Cecelia and seeing him keep his distance from her until she was comfortable with him made me laugh because he’d gone without female companionship for a long time and then to have Cecelia so close and not being able to touch her, his wife to boot, poor guy.

Cecelia’s love for her family was something I liked about her. She was a good person at heart and I still liked her as a person. I loved seeing her fall in love with Edward and just be there for him when he needed her was great to witness. She thought of the little things to make his life easier and I loved that she handled all of that stuff for him. When she wrote his family to make sure that they knew that he was okay was great and I loved reading her letters to both Thomas and then later, Edward. They were carrying torches for each other long before they met and I liked that Quinn added that to their romance.

My only real gripe with this story was how long it took Cecelia to come clean with Edward. Everything else was more of the same that I’ve come to love about reading a Julia Quinn book. She has a talent for writing humorous love stories that hit me in the feels and this book was no different. It wasn’t my favorite book by hers but it was still a quality read that I’m sure fans of her books will enjoy.

Grade: 3.5 out of 5

three-half-stars

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Review: Because of Miss Bridgerton by Julia Quinn

Posted March 29, 2016 by Rowena in Reviews | 10 Comments

Review: Because of Miss Bridgerton by Julia QuinnReviewer: Rowena
Because of Miss Bridgerton by Julia Quinn
Series: Rokesbys #1
Publisher: Avon
Publication Date: March 29, 2016
Pages: 384
Add It: Goodreads
Amazon | Barnes & Noble | The Ripped Bodice | Google Play Books
four-stars

Sometimes you find love in the most unexpected of places...

This is not one of those times.

Everyone expects Billie Bridgerton to marry one of the Rokesby brothers. The two families have been neighbors for centuries, and as a child the tomboyish Billie ran wild with Edward and Andrew. Either one would make a perfect husband... someday.

Sometimes you fall in love with exactly the person you think you should...

Or not.

There is only one Rokesby Billie absolutely cannot tolerate, and that is George. He may be the eldest and heir to the earldom, but he's arrogant, annoying, and she's absolutely certain he detests her. Which is perfectly convenient, as she can't stand the sight of him, either.

But sometimes fate has a wicked sense of humor...

Because when Billie and George are quite literally thrown together, a whole new sort of sparks begins to fly. And when these lifelong adversaries finally kiss, they just might discover that the one person they can't abide is the one person they can't live without...

When I first heard that Quinn was coming out with another Bridgerton book, I was curious and excited but when I found out that this Bridgerton heroine is Aunt to all of the Bridgertons that I know and love, I was…still curious and excited.

The book follows Sybilla “Billie” Bridgerton as she surprisingly falls head over heels for George Rokesby. Her least favorite Rokesby brother. The Bridgertons and the Rokesbys are neighbors and their mothers are best friends so they were one big happy family growing up. Billie was close in age with her best friend Mary Rokesby and Mary’s brothers Andrew and Edward. They were the best of friends who got into trouble together and ran wild over both of their properties.

George was the oldest Rokesby brother and he was older than Billie and his other siblings so he never ran wild with them. He’s the family heir so his time was spent doing more serious things like learning how to run his family estate and how to eventually take over everything. He didn’t have time to mess around.

Billie is reckless and fearless. She’s the opposite of reserved and deep thinker George. They have nothing in common but when Billie gets stuck on the roof with a sprained ankle, it is George that comes to her rescue and their relationship is never the same after their shared time on the roof.

Julia Quinn writes the historical romances that make readers the world over laugh, sigh and swoon all over the place but what I appreciate the most about her writing is that each story is complete with refreshing characters who are distinctly different from her other characters. Sure there are some of her characters that share certain characteristics but they don’t share enough to blend together in my head if that makes any sense. Each of her characters shine on their own and I always end up loving the heck out of them.

Billie was a great heroine who stayed with me even after I finished the book. I liked that she was wild and reckless but she also had a practical side that made her a great mix of everything. She knew what her strengths were but she also knew that there were parts of her personality that wasn’t very popular. I liked seeing her vulnerabilities and seeing her fall in love with George.

I loved seeing these two fall in love with each other. I loved the way that they tried to brush it off, I enjoyed seeing them bicker but I loved how George saw Billie. He loved every part of her, even the parts that he didn’t like. I loved that he respected her but was there to pick her up whenever she needed him and I loved how well they both understood the other. Billie understood George’s desires and his regrets and accepted him. Same with George.

This was another great piece of work from Quinn and fans of the Bridgerton series will definitely like this one.

Grade: 4 out of 5

four-stars

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