Guest Review: The Geek Girl and the Scandalous Earl by Gina Lamm

Posted March 14, 2013 by Tracy in Reviews | 0 Comments

Tracy’s review of The Geek Girl and the Scandalous Earl by Gina Lamm

An avid gamer, Jamie Marten loves to escape into online adventure. But when she falls through an antique mirror into a lavish bedchamber—200 years in the past!—she realizes she may have escaped a little too far.

Micah Axelby, Earl of Dunnington, has just kicked one mistress out of his bed, and isn’t looking to fill it with another—least of all this sassy, nearly naked girl who claims to be from the future. Yet something about her is undeniably enticing…

Jamie and Micah are worlds apart. He’s a peer of the realm. She can barely make rent. She’s wi-fi. He’s horse-drawn. But soon the pair will do anything to avoid a Game Over.

Jamie Marten is helping a friend with antiques in a storage unit when she touches the glass of an armoire and gets sucked into it and into 1816. There she meets Micah Axelby, the Earl of Dunnington. He wants to ship her off to somewhere besides his home but is talked into letting her stay. As the days go by Jamie gets more and more chances to get Mike (as she calls him) to believe her story.

Jamie stays in 1816 (I’m not sure exactly how long it was) and is taught how to be a countess by Mike’s housekeeper, Mrs. Knightsbridge. Mrs. K. tells Jamie that it was her sister Wilhelmina who is a witch and is the one who had brought Jamie to her time as she saw that Jamie was the one for Mike while doing her scrying. Days pass with Jamie having to deal with no running water, baths instead of showers, heavy clothing and all the other changes from 2012 to 1816. On top of that the more time she spends with Mike the more she likes him and sooner rather than later she’s in love. We find out that Mike is in love with Jamie as well but there’s someone who is out to harm Jamie and when they almost succeed Mike pulls back from Jamie as he can’t deal with his failure of not keeping her safe. It all comes down to trusting each other and then figuring out how they can make it all work.

This story was pretty funny – not slapstick but at times laugh out loud funny. It was also incredibly sad at times and my heart ached for the characters in so many different ways. I liked how the author gave us a myriad of of emotions in the story and didn’t try to make it ALL funny or ALL heart wrenching.

Jamie’s reaction to being thrust 200 years in the past was…well, what I would think of as accurate. While she got used to some things while she was there I loved that the author didn’t try to make her become someone she wasn’t. Mike was pretty much a stick in the mud for the most part but I could see his impish side come out a bit at times.

I thought that the pair fell in love way too fast but then the author gave us a chance to see the couple in action, so to speak, and it went a long way to having me believe their love was true. While I think I was left with a ton of questions at the end of the book I was still happy they got their HEA and was satisfied with the ending.

Rating: 3.75 out of 5

You can read more from Tracy at Tracy’s Place

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

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Tagged: 3.75 Reviews, Gina Lamm, Guest Reviews, Historical, Reviews, Romance, Sourcebooks Casablanca, Time Travel, Tracy's Reviews

What I Read Last Week

Posted March 4, 2013 by Tracy in Features | 3 Comments

Well it’s another day in the neighborhood! I don’t know about you but I do not look forward to Monday mornings. lol They are a pain in my ass in many ways and of course it’s always hard to get back to work after having a couple of days off.

My week was pretty boring until Saturday when my oldest daughter and I drove out and spent the day with Holly and Princess Bowie. We had a great time talking books and of course my daughter loved playing with Bowie (who is just incredibly stinking adorable!!). The day went too fast and it just never seems like enough whenever I visit, but it was a ton of fun.

Anyway, on to what I read:

I started off the week with Blacque/Bleu by Belinda McBride. The story is about a werewolf and vampire who fall in love but can’t be together. Both men know that they can’t stay together but they long for each other. It was really good and I very much liked the story. You can read my review here. 4.25 out of 5

Next up was the second story in the Arcada series, Silver/Steel by Belinda McBride. This one was completely different but just as good as book 1. In this story there’s Travis who is a were and he has his self-esteem issues and then there’s a Fae, Dylan, who at first uses Travis but then falls in love. You can read my full review here. 4.25 out of 5

My next book was The Geek Girl and The Scandalous Earl by Gina Lamm. This story is about Jamie who is from 2012 but gets sucked into a time portal and ends up in 1816. She is in an Earl’s house and was deliberately brought there by a witch who saw that she was the Earl’s soul mate. The story is about Jamie trying to adjust to 1816, deciding if she wants to head to her time and the Earl dealing with not only his feelings for Jamie but also his duty and a vindictive ex-mistress. The book was pretty darned funny I enjoyed reading it. I did think the Earl went a little nutty near the end but it all turned out well. 3.75 out of 5 (read for The Book Binge)

Take What You Want by Jeanette Grey was a complete surprise for me. The story is about a pre-med student who is in town on Spring Break because she couldn’t afford to go with her friends to the Caribbean. She decides she’ll make her own fun, which is completely not something she would normally do, and ends up picking up a guy in a bar and taking him home. Josh knows Ellen because he’s pre-med as well but Ellen doesn’t recognize him. She thinks that he’s from out of town visiting during break and he doesn’t correct her. Ellen and Josh both do some growing during their week-long relationship and their lives change when they both go for what they want. It was really good and definitely worth the read. 4 out of 5 (read for The Book Binge)

Down To You by M. Leighton is a story of a girl, Olivia, who finds herself falling for two men who happen to be twins – Nash and Cash. She loves Cash’s bad boy persona and attitude but she loves the gentler and more stable man Nash is. Nash is dating Olivia’s cousin though so that puts a damper on things, but not completely. The story was told in alternating 1st person pov’s and that was a bit much at first but once I got into the story it was good. It had a twist at the end that, while I had figured it out several chapters prior, was still a bit of a surprise. Not completely believable but it worked for this story and I enjoyed it a lot. 4 out of 5 (read for The Book Binge)

Last for the week was The Song Remains the Same by Allison Winn Scotch. This is the story of Nell who is one of two survivors of a plane crash that killed over 150 people. When she wakes she doesn’t remember a thing and has to rely on her family and friends to tell her who she is and what he life is like. Unfortunately her family is completely dysfunctional and Nell ends up finding out that things she’s been told just aren’t true. The book is about Nell’s journey but the journey wasn’t exactly a riveting one. The book dragged for most of the middle of the story and in the end wasn’t all that great in the end. A great premise that just wasn’t completely realized, imho, and ended up as a just ok read. 2 out of 5 (read for The Book Binge)

My Book Binge reviews that posted last week:
The Autumn Bride by Anne Gracie

Happy Reading!