Tag: Byrons of Braebourne Series

Guest Review: Tempted by His Kiss by Tracy Anne Warren

Posted August 6, 2013 by Book Binge Guest Blogger in Reviews | 2 Comments

Guest Review: Tempted by His Kiss by Tracy Anne WarrenReviewer: Erica
Tempted by His Kiss by Tracy Anne Warren
Series: The Byrons of Braebourne #1
Also in this series: Seduced by His Touch, At the Duke's Pleasure, Wicked Delights of a Bridal Bed, The Bed and the Bachelor, At the Duke's Pleasure
Publisher: Avon, Harper Collins
Publication Date: February 24, 2009
Genres: Historical Romance
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three-stars
Series Rating: four-stars

London Society knows the Byrons are “mad, bad, and dangerous,” and every bit as fascinating as their poetic non-relation. Join the fun as New York Times bestselling author Tracy Anne Warren presents the first tale of this tempestuous family––famous for scandal and legendary at love…

Orphaned beauty Meg Amberley never planned to pose as Lord Cade Byron’s fiancée. Caught in a snowstorm, she takes refuge at his estate. Stranded together, Meg soon finds herself falling under Cade’s spell. When the roads clear, she intends to leave, but fate intervenes.

Haunted by his past, Cade Byron has buried himself in the country. Then Meg—with her lush curves and soft, blonde hair—invades his house and his life. With her reputation compromised, he proposes a pretend engagement and a London Season where she can find a husband.

But as their charade deepens, Cade can’t let her go . . . vowing to tempt her with a kiss that just may lead to forever.

Erica’s review of Tempted by His Kiss (The Byron’s of Braebourne, Book 1) by Tracy Anne Warren

 

Cade Byron is one of the Byron brood, another one who is “mad, bad, and dangerous to know.” He’s horrifically injured fighting in France, and has PTSD, avoids his family, and drinks too much. Meg Ambersley is heading to north to Scotland to go stay with her last living relative, but a snowstorm prompts her to seek shelter from Cade’s house. She cajoles him into actually being slightly social, and they become friendly, and then one night when Cade is super-doped up and has no idea what’s going on, he puts Meg into a slightly compromising situation. So, they decide to pose as engaged, have a London season, and Meg will meet someone else, “jilt” Cade, and life will go on.Well, obviously, that’s not going to happen. I mean, seriously, you silly people, can’t you see you’re in a romance novel?The problem with this story, was that I never lost sight of the fact that I was in a romance novel. I was never really worried that they were going to screw up so massively that they could miss their happy ending. I was never totally swept away on the journey you take when reading a good love story. You may know intellectually that the happily-ever-after is an assured thing, but you sweat, worrying that that the characters will do something dumb if you put the book down. And I was never, ever once so swept up that I could forget the structure of the romance and worry about the characters and their emotions.

Which really totally sucks, because there was some interesting stuff going on. Cade’s PTSD was something worth talking about, but it was acknowledged that he’s been through some crazy bad stuff in the war, and… that was it. It seemed brushed under the rug. Cade and Meg were so well-matched in the beginning: mocking each other gently, playing each other at chess, matching wits perfectly equally. And then later… Well, I can’t get into the details. But basically Meg could have been shown as this total badass, but the opportunity is dropped and she’s just another girl who does extremely dumb things. And it affects my enjoyment of her relationship with Cade, because they had been so well-matched, and then she’s just a silly girl, and I was disappointed. The Bryon family dynamics seemed like the typical big, slightly crazy family, and I wanted more details about what exactly makes the BYRONS so crazy and awesome. Because they could have been any big family.

I dunno what to tell you. It wasn’t bad. There were some lovely things that I really appreciated. But I felt like everything was framework. Everything was on the surface, and there wasn’t enough behind it for me. There were lovely things that I wanted to see explored, and they were dropped. The relationship started amazingly, and then it got a bit off-kilter. That being said, I may try out another book in the series to see if maybe it was just this hero-heroine combination. I’m giving this one 3 stars — it’s okay to read, there are good times to be had, but I’m not going to gush or tell people that they have to read it immediately or suffer my wrath.

Rating: 3 out of 5

This title is available from Avon Books.  You can buy it here or here in e-format.

three-stars


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Review: The Bed and the Bachelor by Tracy Anne Warren.

Posted July 25, 2011 by Rowena in Reviews | 1 Comment

Review: The Bed and the Bachelor by Tracy Anne Warren.Reviewer: Rowena
The Bed and the Bachelor by Tracy Anne Warren
Series: The Byrons of Braebourne #5
Also in this series: Seduced by His Touch, At the Duke's Pleasure, Wicked Delights of a Bridal Bed, Tempted by His Kiss, At the Duke's Pleasure
Publisher: Avon, Harper Collins
Publication Date: June 26, 2011
Genres: Historical Romance
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four-half-stars
Series Rating: four-stars
Everyone knows the Byron brothers are “mad, bad, and dangerous.” But the devilishly desirable fourth son, Drake, is too scholarly to misbehave . . . or is he?
Lord Drake Byron has no time in his busy life to worry about taking a wife. He is more interested in the unbreakable code he has developed to defeat Napoleon’s forces. Little does he know that the irresistibly lovely new housekeeper he’s hired is really a French secret agent.

Sebastianne Dumont is not at all who she seems to be. Forced to spy to save her family, she embarks on a mission that takes an even more dangerous turn when she falls in love with the surprisingly tempting man she must ultimately betray. And if she succeeds in her mission, will she also break Lord Drake’s heart, while leaving her own behind?

Rowena’s review of The Bed and the Bachelor (Byron’s of Braebourne, Book 5) by Tracy Anne Warren.

Hero: Drake Byron
Heroine: Sebastianne Dumont

I was excited for this book to come out because I’m a fan of Drake. I’ve been itching to get his story and finally it came. Tracy Anne Warren has done wonders with this series because this is book 5 and I’m still salivating at the mouth for more. Drake is brother to Cade, Jack, Ned, Mallory and the rest of the mad Byrons. He’s a mathmetician and is known for his distracted nature. He’s usually buried in his codes and work but when his housekeeper up and left for greener pastures, he was stuck filling the spot of his housekeeper and the woman he hired is going to make him sorry, he just knows it.
Only he doesn’t know exactly how sorry he’ll be once she’s done with him.
Sebastianne is a French woman who has found herself in a pickle. Her country is at war with the English and with her brilliant father having pulled into himself, taking care of their small family has fallen on her shoulders. When she finds herself having to turn spy in order to save her younger brothers, she does it without much of a struggle.
Her mission was supposed to be easy, get in, steal the cypher and then get out. Easy peasy, only it wasn’t because of course, Annie couldn’t help but fall for Drake Byron. The intense way that he was about his work and the easy way he had with the servants and her, made it all too easy for her to fall for him and in Byron’s case, he had a crazy bout out of lust for her. He wanted to do her all over the house and try out positions that were only fantasies with her. She got to him on a physical level and when he gets to know her, he likes her more and more.
Watching Anne and Drake get closer and closer was entertaining. I adored seeing Drake fall hard. I loved seeing him find the one woman who could distract him from his work because the Drake from the other books was all about his work. In this book, his work was still important to him but the distraction that he had going with Anne made the book all the more interesting because it was good to see. Warren does a fantastic job of fitting the other Byron’s from the other books into this story without them overtaking the story. While it was good to see everyone (I adore Mallory and Adam), it was good to see that I was still very much invested in Drake and Anne.
I very much enjoyed getting to know Drake’s servants, I enjoyed getting to know Anne’s family and seeing Drake as he was in the end made me grin like a crazy person all throughout the rest of the story. I’m not a big fan of the big ol’ secret plot but Warren did a good job of making me okay with the big secret in this book.
The one thing that had me rolling my eyes around the room was the villain. He wasn’t all that scary to me and more often than not, I found him annoying. I didn’t think he was all that much of a billy bad ass and the way the whole book ended had me laughing because of the way he went out of the story. To me, my sister is more scary that one week a month and she’s not scary at all.
Overall, this book was an enjoyable addition to the Byrons of Braebourne series and I think fans of Drake from the previous books will enjoy this book. Fans of historical romance will enjoy this one as well, it’s a good one.

Grade: 4.5 out of 5

This book is available from Avon. You can buy it here or here in e-format.
four-half-stars


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Review and Giveaway: Wicked Delights of a Bridal Bed by Tracy Anne Warren.

Posted August 31, 2010 by Rowena in Reviews | 33 Comments

Review and Giveaway: Wicked Delights of a Bridal Bed by Tracy Anne Warren.Reviewer: Rowena
Wicked Delights of a Bridal Bed by Tracy Anne Warren
Series: The Byrons of Braebourne #4
Also in this series: Seduced by His Touch, At the Duke's Pleasure, The Bed and the Bachelor, Tempted by His Kiss, At the Duke's Pleasure
Publisher: Avon, Harper Collins
Publication Date: August 31, 2010
Genres: Historical Romance
Add It: Goodreads
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four-half-stars
Series Rating: four-stars

To her surprise, Lady Mallory Byron finds herself walking down the aisle with the last man she ever expected to ask for her hand . . . .

Everyone knows the Byron brothers are “mad, bad and dangerous.” Now their sister shockingly discovers she’s the newest talk of the Ton when she marries the scandalous Earl of Gresham. Faced with a tragic loss, she’d sought comfort from him as a family friend. But soon consolation turned to passion, scandal—and a wedding! In the bridal bed, she finds pleasure beyond her wildest dreams. But can nights of wicked delight change friendship into true love?

Charming rakehell Adam, Earl of Gresham, has secretly loved Mallory for years. He lost her once to another man, but now he has a second chance to win her love—and plans to do so by any means necessary. Will Mallory’s heart give him what he so dearly desires? Or is the past too much to overcome?

 

Rowena’s review of Wicked Delights of a Bridal Bed (Byrons of Braebourne Series, Book 4) by Tracy Anne Warren.

I’ve been waiting a long time for this book to come out. Mallory is one of my favorite characters in this series and mostly because I saw her storyline unfolding in the background of the other books and man I couldn’t wait to see what would happen. I had a feeling it would all lead up to this climatic happy ending for her and I was so anxious to get on with the story telling already.

This was one of those friends to lovers to true loves stories and I ate it all up. My favorite thing about this story was that the crush wasn’t the heroines on the hero but the hero’s on the heroine. Oh man that was a juicy little tid bit. I loved seeing Adam show up at Braebourne and do everything he could to bring a smile to Mallory’s face again.

Mallory’s fiance, Michael was killed in action and it’s been a year since he died and she still can’t get over it. She suffers from that survivor’s guilt, the one where she can’t bear the thought of forgetting Michael, of moving on while he lays in some grave somewhere and while it drove me bat shit crazy, I understood it. She was truly in love with Michael when they were together and grieving was only normal.

There were plenty of times while reading this book that I fell a little more in love with Adam and watching the love he had for Mallory only made him more swoon worthy but as much as I loved him, there were times that I wanted to give him a good swift kick to the groin for being such a bonehead.

His idiotic vow that he made Mallory make because of his jealousy? Yeah, I totally wanted to knee him in the ball sack because of that. His insane attitude toward the whole thing that made him jealous? Yeah, he needed to protect his family jewels because I wanted to kick him where it hurt but I got over all of that in the end because I adored Adam. He wasn’t the perfect hero but he was still a great one. I never once doubted his love for Mallory and though Mallory wasn’t the most perfect heroine herself, I still liked her. I thought she was great and the both of them together made for some fantastic reading.

All in all, this was a great addition to the Byrons of Braebourne series and I am so very much looking forward to Drake’s story. Over the course of the series, my love for Drake the scholar has grown by heaps and bounds. So much so that I’m anxiously awaiting his story.

Historical fans will enjoy this story and while I feel you should read the other books in this series to thoroughly enjoy this book, I think the book stands great on its own. The characters were very engaging and the story moved along so well that I got this book read in no time at all. Warren did a great job of showing the friendship between Adam and Mallory and she did a wonderful job of penning their romance in a way that was believable and enjoyable. So would I recommend this book?

Yep, totally.

Grade: 4.25 out of 5

GIVEAWAY ALERT: In an effort to celebrate the release of this book, we’re giving away three copies of this book for three lucky winners. All you have to do is leave a comment here letting us know if you’ve ever had a secret crush on one of your friends growing up. Share your stories with us and we’ll enter your name into the drawing. You’ll have a week to get your stories in, we’ll announce the winners in a week.

Reading Order:

This book is available from Avon. You can buy it here.

four-half-stars


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Review: At the Duke’s Pleasure by Tracy Anne Warren

Posted August 10, 2010 by Holly in Reviews | 3 Comments

Review: At the Duke’s Pleasure by Tracy Anne WarrenReviewer: Holly
At the Duke's PleasureSeries: The Byrons of Braebourne #3
Also in this series: Seduced by His Touch, Wicked Delights of a Bridal Bed, The Bed and the Bachelor, Tempted by His Kiss, At the Duke's Pleasure

Publication Date: January 12, 2010
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three-half-stars
Series Rating: four-stars

All the Byrons are just as "mad, bad, and dangerous to know" as their famous non-relation...but now the time has come for the eldest son to marry...

Edward Byron, Duke of Clybourne, has everything a man in Society needs...except a wife. Duty requires he wed, so he decides that a long-standing arranged marriage will do nicely. He knows his bride is beautiful, biddable and bright enough to run his household and nursery. He expects his betrothed, Lady Claire Marsden, will be thrilled with his decision—unfortunately, she's not!

Claire has longed for Edward since she was sixteen, but how can he expect her to agree to his proposal when he barely knows her and doesn't love her? Nothing will convince her to accept a loveless marriage. And so she begins a battle of outrageous resistance, forcing Edward to learn that he must lose his heart in order to win his bride.

This is my first book by Tracy Anne Warren. I’ve been on a historical kick and grabbed this at random from my TBR shelf. Having read it, I’m anxious to go back and read the first two in the series.

Edward Byron, Duke of Clybourne, has decided it’s time to marry. When he was just a child of 11, his father set up a betrothal for him with Lady Claire Marsden, the eldest daughter of the Earl of Edgewater, who was only an infant at the time. Though he rebelled against the idea of being forced into a marriage not of his choosing, he’s come to realize it’s his duty to go ahead with it. Claire will make him a good wife, he’s sure. She’s been bred for it, after all.

Lady Claire has been in love with her betrothed for most of her life. She realized years the futility of it years ago, however, and can’t imagine marrying a man she loves who will never love her in return. She lives in hope that he’s forgotten about her, until the day his letter arrives.

Claire pleads with Edward to let her out of the betrothal. When he refuses, she decides she’ll force him into ending it by acting as scandalously as possible. She’s sure if she just pushes hard enough, Edward will finally break and walk away.

But Edward is used to scandalous behavior. His siblings are notorious for it. He knows if he’s patient enough, Claire will come around. He starts to question that when her behavior moves past scandalous and borders on ruinous. Is the idea of marrying him really that repulsive to her?

Edward was an excellent character. He’s strong, responsible and just a tad domineering, but he’s also kind, sensitive and extremely sexy. He takes his responsibilities serious, but he unwinds and relaxes around his family. I think the amount of responsibility a Duke carries is often downplayed in romance novels, but not here. Warren really did an excellent job of showing the weight of responsibility, without weighing the novel down or making Edward boring.

I really loved how he opened himself up to Claire. He may have started out thinking only of duty, but it wasn’t long before Claire the woman became the object of his desires – psychical and otherwise.

Claire was harder to pin down. I enjoyed certain things about her. Her zest for life was unparalleled, and her sense of humor and charm made her a likable character. The longer her antics went on, and the more outrageous they became, however, the more frustrated with her I became.

I might have been able to look past her behavior if I understood why she felt herself in love with him. As it was, I had a hard time with it. She saw him twice before he came to confirm the betrothal. Once when she was a small child, and once when she was sixteen. They barely had any contact either time, yet Claire was totally head-over-heels in love with him? In love enough that she couldn’t stand the thought of marrying him knowing he’d never return her feelings?

That seems so contrived to me. So as the novel wore on, I found myself becoming more and more angry with her. She was acting in a completely irresponsible way, naively expecting that all would turn out for the best, no matter how wild she became.

Her saving grace was the fact that was was naive. She’d been a sheltered girl, barely leaving her father’s estate until Edward brought her to London. So she wasn’t aware of some of the danger she was putting herself and her reputation in. She also wasn’t malicious. Though she didn’t always think before she acted, she didn’t wish for anyone to be harmed because of her.

I really liked Edward and Claire together. They had great chemistry. The scenes with them together, learning about each other, were my favorites. I also liked the secondary characters. Edward’s family and Claire’s sisters especially.

Though Claire’s actions bothered me, I enjoyed this novel for the most part. I’m anxious to read Mallory’s book (Edward’s sister, the next entry in the series) and also to read about Cade and Jack (the first two books in the series).

3.75 out of 5

The series:

Tempted by His Kiss
Seduced by His Touch
At the Duke’s Pleasure
Wicked Delights of a Bridal Bed
The Bed and the Bachelor

This book is available from Avon. You can buy it here or here in e-format.

three-half-stars


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Review: Seduced By His Touch by Tracy Anne Warren.

Posted September 9, 2009 by Rowena in Reviews | 6 Comments

Review: Seduced By His Touch by Tracy Anne Warren.Reviewer: Rowena
Seduced by His Touch by Tracy Anne Warren
Series: The Byrons of Braebourne #2
Also in this series: At the Duke's Pleasure, Wicked Delights of a Bridal Bed, The Bed and the Bachelor, Tempted by His Kiss, At the Duke's Pleasure
Publisher: Avon, Harper Collins
Publication Date: August 25, 2009
Genres: Historical Romance
Add It: Goodreads
Amazon | Barnes & Noble | The Ripped Bodice | Google Play Books
four-half-stars
Series Rating: four-stars

He had to marry her…

Everyone in London agrees the Byrons are just as “mad, bad, and dangerous to know” as their poetic non-relation. But Lord Jack Byron is facing a predicament that is scandalous…even for him!

Marry a young woman because he lost a bet? Unreformed rake Lord Jack Byron would do anything to get out of it. But the rich merchant who holds his debt insists Jack lead his on-the-shelf daughter to the altar…and make her believe it’s a love match. With no options, Jack agrees, thinking he’ll be shackled to a closed in spinster.

But Grace Danvers is no milk-and-water miss. When he first encounters her in a London bookstore, Jack is struck by her tempting sensuality and soon becomes determined to bed-and wed-her (in that order!) Yet though he plans to seduce her with his touch, he never dreams he’ll also want to win her with his love.

Rowena‘s review of Seduced By His Touch by Tracy Anne Warren.

Hero: Lord John Byron
Heroine: Miss Grace Danvers
This is the third book (or story, I should say) by Tracy Anne Warren that I have read and by far, it is my favorite. I first read Tempted By His Kiss last year and while I did end up enjoying Cade and Meg’s story, there was still quite a bit about the story that irked my frickin’ nerves. That wasn’t the case with this story. I adored it!

This book starts off at Cade and Meg’s wedding with an uncomfortable Jack Byron feeling the noose of marriage sneaking in to choke the snot out of him. He’s happy for his brother but he’s just learned that he’s soon to be married himself….only difference between him and his brother is that he’s being forced into his marriage where Cade went willingly into his. Moreover, Jack has to woo his intended and she must agree to take him in order for him to get married and he needed to get married to pay off a debt he owes while gambling…to his intended’s father.

The whole storyline isn’t one that we haven’t read before but I enjoyed reading Warren’s take on this storyline. I must admit that I had forgotten if I’d met Jack in Cade’s book and I’m kicking myself in the shin for it because I absolutely LOVED Jack. I don’t know what it is about the name Jack. I absolutely love the name and so far, I’ve loved a whole lot of Jack’s. This Jack is no exception.

Throughout the entire book, Jack is seducing Grace into his corner. He needs her to fall in love with him so that he can pay off his debt and when he firsts meets her, he’s glad that she’s not this gorgon (his words). The entire time that Jack is courting Grace and seducing her, I’m being seduced my damn self. I fell right into everything that Jack did and said to Grace, loving every minute of it. I thought it was super cute to see him falling for Grace and even though he wasn’t completely honest with her, I still loved him. He had ample time to come clean with her but I understood his reasons for withholding. I couldn’t be mad at him because I knew that he loved her.

When the shit hit the fan (and it kept hitting the fan in this book), everything that happened afterward felt real. I could totally feel Grace’s pain at the betrayal and I totally understood the way she reacted, the way that she guarded herself against falling for Jack again and even though I wanted to kick Jack in his balls for letting her go on thinking the stuff that she did, when they came together at the end of the book, I was so frickin’ happy.

Jack and Grace’s happy ending was easy to come but after all was said and done, there was no mistaking the fact that these two loved each other intensely and passionately. Toward the end when they finally realized how much they loved each other, in the last couple of chapters (plus the epilogue) the cheese was laid on pretty thick but I didn’t care. I ate all of it up. I thought they were cute and I was so frickin’ glad that they were together and in love.

There were times when I wanted to throttle Jack but as a whole, he was a solid hero. One that I fell in love with. Grace was a great heroine, one who was perfectly normal and such a good match for Jack. I enjoyed the storyline, I enjoyed the characters and I’m so looking forward to more in this series. Next is Edward’s story and man am I mighty curious to see how his story is going to pan out. I’m also VERY interested in reading Mallory’s story. I cannot wait to see how her story will play out. I’ve got my theories and I’m looking forward to reading it. I certainly hope that we won’t have much of a wait.

I would definitely recommend this book to anyone who enjoys historical romance that has that old school feel to it without being totally angsty. This book entertains and with charming characters that make it easier to follow along with the story, you won’t be sorry for picking this one up. I also enjoyed seeing India and Weybridge in this book and hope to see them in other books as well. The Byron series is turning out to be a great series, one that I can’t wait to continue.

Great job, Tracy Anne Warren.

Rating: 4.5 out of 5

This book is available from Avon. You can buy it here or here in e-format.

four-half-stars


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