Tag: Erin Knightley

Guest Review: The Duke Can Go to the Devil by Erin Knightley

Posted July 13, 2015 by Tracy in Reviews | 1 Comment

Guest Review: The Duke Can Go to the Devil by Erin KnightleyReviewer: Tracy
The Duke Can Go to the Devil by Erin Knightley
Series: Prelude to a Kiss #3
Publisher: Penguin
Publication Date: July 7th 2015
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three-half-stars
Series Rating: four-stars

In the new novel from the bestselling author of The Earl I Adore, May Bradford isn’t afraid to play devil’s advocate when it comes to a duke.…
After her mother’s death, May’s sea captain father sends her halfway around the world to live with his stodgy sister in England. The summer festival in Bath made for a lovely distraction, but now she can’t wait for her father’s return so she can leave this country, its suffocating rules, and one infuriatingly proper nobleman in particular behind.
Because he is the Duke of Radcliffe, William Spencer’s whole life revolves around his duties. He never steps foot outside the bounds of proper behavior, and he expects the same of those around him. With her devil-may-care ways, May vexes him nearly as much as she tempts him, but there’s something about her that he just can’t resist. He knows he’s falling hard for her, but with lives that are worlds apart, will they ever be able to find any common ground?

Tracy’s review of The Duke Can Go to the Devil (Prelude to a Kiss #3) by Erin Knightley

Meli-li Bradford aka May has spent her life on the high seas and travelling from one country to another. She’s love every moment of it. Now, however, she’s stuck in England with her aunt who is not a fan of May’s and she wants nothing more than her father to come home from his voyage and take her away from it all.

May meets some good friends that make the time in England much more bearable. Then she meets the Duke of Radcliffe and she’s disgusted with the man. She feels he is a pompous ass and isn’t afraid to tell him exactly that. William isn’t pleased with May either and feels that she’s an uncouth and improper woman. Of course despite their irritation at each other they seem to become friends. It’s a strange friendship filled with arguments, but laughter as well.

William decides to invite May and her mother to his estate and tells himself that it’s because he doesn’t want her to be bored and he can show her more of the England that he is so proud of. He really just wants to spend more time with her as she lights up his dreary life a little bit. The pair end up falling in love but when May finds out some bad news about her father’s work and William’s part in all of it the two may have to part forever.

TDCGttD was a sweet novel in some instances and not so sweet in others. The not so sweet parts were mostly when I was reading about May. She pretty much spoke her mind no matter what and I really loved that about her. Did she jump to some strong conclusions without having all of the facts? Yeah, she did but she always apologized if she did so.

William was such a stick in the mud. He was so worried about scandal and proper behavior that he’d never allowed himself to live. He started doing that because of May and he found that he couldn’t help but love her. I really enjoyed seeing him loosen up, that’s for sure.

There were some slow parts in the book were not a lot was happening that I found tedious. Unfortunately that happened a couple of times and it almost seemed like filler to make the book longer. I just wanted the story to move along. Luckily those parts weren’t too long and I as saved from the tedium.

Overall it was a good story. The story had no sex in it – only a few heated kisses but that was perfect for the story. I’m happy that the author didn’t try to add that in as it just wouldn’t have fit.

Rating: 3.75 out of 5

This title is available from Signet Eclipse. You can buy it here or here in e-format. This book was provided by the publisher in exchange for an honest review.

three-half-stars

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Guest Review: More Than A Stranger by Erin Knightley

Posted July 5, 2012 by Tracy in Reviews | 2 Comments

Tracy’s review of More Than A Stranger by Erin Knightley.

Some secrets are meant to be shared…

An Uncovered Betrayal

When his family abandoned him at Eton, Benedict Hastings found an unexpected ally in his best friend’s sister. Her letters kept him going— until the day he had to leave everything behind. Years later, Benedict has seen his share of betrayal, but when treachery hits close to home, he turns to his old friend for safe haven…

An Unwanted Attraction

After five torturous years on the marriage circuit, Lady Evelyn Moore is finally free to live her life as she wishes. So when her brother shows up with a dashing stranger, she finds herself torn between her dreams…and newfound desires.

An Unstoppable Intrigue

Despite his determination to keep Evie at a distance, Benedict cannot deny the attraction that began with a secret correspondence. Yet as they begin to discover each other, the dangers of Benedict’s world find them, threatening their lives, their love, and everything they thought they could never have…

Evelyn Moore is eleven years old when her brother and best friend, Richard, heads off to Eton. She loves corresponding with him but when his letters start to talk CONSTANTLY of his new friend Hastings Evie gets a little peeved. She finally decides that she’s going to sit down and let Hastings know, in no uncertain terms, that the position of Richard’s best friend has already been filled, by her, and that he should not expect to ever take her place. Hastings is only 13 years old himself but he is thrilled to get a letter from Richard’s sister as he’d never gotten a letter before (his family didn’t care for him) and he immediately writes back. Though their correspondence begins in a somewhat contentious manner the pair soon start to write more about themselves and get to know each other and become friends. They continue to write for the next 5 years until Evie gets a letter from Hastings that breaks her heart and she never hears from him again.

Cut to seven years later and Hastings contacts his friend Richard (who he HAS been in contact with over the years). Hastings would like to head to Richard’s family home for some quiet time to do some serious thinking about an important matter. At this point we know that the thinking that Hastings has to do is something quite serious but as a reader we are not made privy to this information – which I did find a bit frustrating. Unfortunately Hastings believed that Richard’s family had already gone to London for the season when he made the request of Richard but they had not. Hastings meets Evie for the first time and he is blown away by her in every way. He makes a point to introduce himself as James Benedict (his real name being Benedict James Hastings) and therefore hiding his true identity from Evie. But Hastings can’t manage to stay away from Evie, as much as he tells himself he should. Evie, who is now 23 and trying to get her parents to let her bow out of what will be her 6th year on the marriage mart, wants nothing but to stay home and continue working in the family horse business. She honestly does not believe in love and believes that marriage and family is not for her – although she secretly longs for those things.

When Evie meets James Benedict she thinks that maybe she was wrong. She had been in love with Hastings all those years ago and he had broken her heart. She thought she could never find it in her to love again but when she meets Benedict she starts to think that maybe she’s wrong. Unfortunately when she discovers who he really is she’s beyond angry and wants nothing to do with him.

It’s at this point that we discover what Benedict has been doing the past seven years, why he broke Evie’s heart, why he needed to think over an important matter and what that matter is exactly: what he thinks is his brothers betrayal of country and King. He heads to confront his demons, both physical and metaphorical but as mad as Evie is, will she let the one man she’s ever loved get away.

This book started off on an excellent foot. The thought that an 11 year old girl who have to guts to write and confront her brother’s friend made me smile and laugh for quite a while. I loved that Evie had the pluck to stand up for her relationship with Richard. The fact that the correspondence continued warmed my heart. Now we don’t get to see too much of the writing but we do get to see snippets of it before each chapter of the story begins. I loved seeing the fondness and caring that Hastings and Evie had for each other even though they’d never actually met.

Once Hastings meets Evie he is bowled over. He imagined her as strong and beautiful but nothing could compare to the real thing. She was not only what she imagined but so much more – caring, loving, loyal and he couldn’t keep himself away. We kept being taken back to the though that he couldn’t get closer to her because of his dilemma but of course we had no clue what that was – even halfway through the book. I have to say that I’m completely impatient when it comes to things like that. Ok, don’t tell the other characters but tell your readers, darnit! lol The only time I like to be kept in the dark is when I’m reading a mystery. Maybe that’s why I don’t read more mysteries – but I digress. We have no clue what has Benedict so in a quandary and this made it hard for me to sympathize with him. He was a fabulous guy but yet, I didn’t feel like I got to know him all that well because I couldn’t see that side of him.

When Benedict’s problem came to the forefront this brought us to a whole other portion of the book in a way that it almost seemed to be separate in some way. I can’t explain it without giving too much away. I think because of the fact that we’d been in the dark as to the issue that had Benedict upset I didn’t feel like I was as connected to the last part of the books as I felt I should have been. I would have liked to have seen the two parts of the book interwoven more so that the transition from romance to suspense would have been more seamless.

In the end it was still a cute romance with a good HEA. I definitely look forward to reading more from this author in the future.

Rating: 3.5 out of 5

You can read more from Tracy at Tracy’s Place

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

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What I Read Last Week

Posted June 11, 2012 by Tracy in Features | 3 Comments

Good Afternoon!
How are you? Things here are good. Life has been pretty quiet with my oldest already out of school. She’s bored already and she’s only been out of school for a little over a week – oy. lol My youngest’s last day of school is Wednesday and she’s thrilled about that fact.
DFRAT 2012: Thank you to all the authors who are participating! We’ve had a great response to the Read-A-Thon and there’s definitely more to come with 3 weeks left of June. Lots of guest posts and giveaways!
I don’t have the schedule from other blogs that are participating in DFRAT but the schedule here on Tracy’s Place this week will include the following authors:
June 12th – Jeffe Kennedy
June 13th – Rita Henuber
June 14th – Daisy Harris – while not necessarily participating in DFRAT she is a digital first author – woohoo!
June 16th – Christine D’Abo
June 17th – Julie Korzenko
I’ll post the schedule for all the blogs as soon as I get it
This past week I read 4 digital first book. I actually didn’t pick up a paperback book at all this week as all my reads were ebooks but only the 4 were digital first. 🙂
So on to what I read:
First up for the week was Messenger’s Angel by Heather Killough-Walden. This is a series about the 4 favorite archangels who had mates that were made especially for them. They of course are searching for said mates and in this book Gabriel meets his woman – Juliette. The story had the angst of their relationship as well as the trials and tribulations of them running from the bad archangels. The story was a bit fantastical for me which seems weird to say since I knew there were archangels involved but beside that it was too contrived for my liking. I read this for Book Binge so I’ll let you know when my review posts. 2 out of 5
Next was Jacked Up by Erin McCarthy. Book 6 in the Fast Track series was a cute fun read. Eve Monroe is uptight and can’t relax – she starts dating her brothers jackman, Nolan Ford. The pair are cute together and I really liked their dynamic but I thought that there were a bunch of stuff that wasn’t resolved by the end of the book. Entertaining book, just a little frustrating for me. 3.25 out of 5 Read this one for Book Binge as well.
Next was Portside by Elyan Smith. This was the story of Iwan who lives in Wales and wants nothing more than to hang out down at the docks and get a little action from one of the guys – one guys specifically, Jonah. I’ll be reviewing this book this week so keep your eyes open to read more.
I’m Not Sexy and I Know It by Vic Winter was an adorably cute story about a guy who has no self-confidence when it comes to meeting guys and dancing. At a bar one night a guy comes up behind him and starts to dance with him and kind of direct his moves. This gives him a huge boost and makes him feel oh so sexy. The story is a good one about friends to lovers and well worth the read. 3 out of 5
More Than A Stranger by Erin Knightley is the story of Evelyn who is completely put out when her brother, who is her best friend, heads to Eton and his letters start to be filled with constant talk of a new friend, Benedict Hastings. Evelyn is completely put out that she might be replaced so decides to write to said new friend and let him know in no uncertain terms that he is NOT her brothers BEST friend – that would be her. Pretty big talk from an 11 year old girl. lol The two become correspondents for 5 years until Hastings breaks Evelyn’s heart. Now Benedict is at Evie’s home under an assumed name. The pair start to fall in love but Benedict knows that he can’t get close to Evie cuz he’ll just have to break her heart all over again. This was an interesting book. I loved the correspondence aspect of the book and many other things but the story really was told in almost 2 separate stories and not interwoven well imho. I read this one for Book Binge so I’ll let you know when my review post. 3.5 out of 5
Mind Magic by Poppy Dennison was a good paranormal read about a mage who saves some were cubs from death by a demon. He then meets the alpha of the local werewolf pack, Gray, and sparks fly. The story is about the romance as well as the them trying to find out who took the cubs and why. I’ll post my review for this one this week so keep your eyes peeled.
Last for the week was The Tin Star by JL Langley. The story of a 21 year old who comes out to his father and brother and all hell breaks loose. I read this one for my TBR Challenge read and will post my review for this one on Wednesday.
My Book Binge reviews that posted last week:
Happy Reading!!

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