Tag: Jennifer Haymore

Review: One Night with an Earl by Jennifer Haymore

Posted April 11, 2014 by Tracy in Reviews | 2 Comments

Review: One Night with an Earl by Jennifer HaymoreReviewer: Tracy
One Night with an Earl by Jennifer Haymore
Series: House of Trent #2.5
Publisher: Forever Yours
Publication Date: April 1st 2014
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four-stars
Series Rating: four-stars

Beatrice Reece, Lady Fenwick, has retired from polite society. Everyone knows her late husband treated her abominably, and she simply cannot bear the whispers of the ton. But it's the night of London's premier masquerade ball—and Beatrice's one chance to revel in anonymity. She hopes no one will recognize her beneath her mask, not even the sinfully sexy stranger across the room who holds her captive in his gaze.

Andrew Sinclair would know beautiful Beatrice anywhere from the gentle sway of her hips, the richness of her hair and the lushness of her body. When he asks her to dance, the attraction is instant and all-consuming. The only woman he's ever truly wanted is finally in his arms. But when the clock strikes twelve, will this one reckless night fade into the morning light?

After two years in seclusion Beatrice is ready to head out into society. Well, almost head out. She’s heading to a masquerade ball so no one will actually know it’s her. She’s been told by her parents not to show her face and she believes that after two years the scandal will come out once again. Despite that she decides to head to the ball with her friend Jessica and make the most of the time she has out.

Once at the ball she’s having a wonderful time but things improve tremendously when a masked stranger comes up and starts talking to her. They hit it off marvelously and Beatrice is incredibly attracted to the masked man. As time goes by Beatrice decides that this might be her last chance to be daring and when he takes her back to his home she knows she’s made the right choice.

Drew sees Beatrice at the masquerade and knows immediately that it’s her. He was in love with her years ago and planned on asking her to marry him but unfortunately her betrothal was announced before he could get his ducks in a row. He doesn’t like not telling her that he knows who she is but she’s so skittish he decides to go along with it. Once she’s in his bed, however, he can’t hold himself back from swaying her name. Unfortunately a misunderstanding and Beatrice’s horrible parents may ruin the new budding relationship.

I’ve only read one other novella by Haymore and I didn’t love it. Because of past experience I was a bit leery to get into this one but I love stories that involve masquerade balls. I’m so happy that I decided to read this one!

Beatrice, the poor woman had been caught up in a scandal – not of her making. Her parents had taken her in but hadn’t let her forget the scandal for a moment. They were horrible but I’m really glad that Beatrice decided to defy them for one night and head out to the ball. The story of Beatrice meeting the masked man was sweet and I really loved their time together as they just hit it off from moment one.

I really liked Drew a lot and I very much wanted him to tell Beatrice who he was. I understood, however, why he didn’t because she would have taken off and he would have lost time with her. What he did after Beatrice was at his house was awesome. He didn’t hesitate for a moment to go after her and I loved him more for it.

Overall I found the story was charming and I loved the Cinderella-esque feel to it.

Rating: 3.75/4 out of 5

Jennifer Haymore

four-stars

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What I Read Last Week

Posted March 10, 2014 by Tracy in Features | 0 Comments

Happy Monday!

I hope you all are doing well and reading up a storm.

Have you read any books lately that you feel like you need to tell everyone about? Or maybe you’ve read one that you feel everyone should avoid? Let me know!

Life is calm and pretty peaceful in Tracyland so I’ll get on to the books (as I know that’s why you’re here!).

First for the week was Dazed by Kim Karr. This is a story in the Connections series. The previous two books have been about Dahlia and River but this novella veers off and gives us Dahlia’s best friends story. Aerie Daniels is a woman who keeps herself organized. She’s a structured type of person and doesn’t break off from things she knows. Enter Jagger Kennedy, River’s cousin, and soon she’s living life in a completely different way and falling in love. This was a cute story that I really enjoyed reading. Aerie takes some getting used to but it worked in the end. 3.5/3.75 out of 5

Next up was Desperately Seeking Suzanna by Elizabeth Michels. This historical showed us Sue who, along with her sister and cousin, snuck into a masked ball. She meets Holden and they hit it off in a big way but when the masks come off Sue, who was referring to herself as Suzanna as she felt like a different beautiful woman, isn’t recognized by Holden at all. Parts of the story are really good and others frustrating. You can read my full review of the book on Book Binge by clicking here. 3.5/3.75 out of 5 

Reckless by Jessi Gage is a contemporary romance with a paranormal twist in it. Derek has a temper and ends up being the cause of an accident on the freeway (one he’s not actually involved in). He then starts thinking he’s having dreams that involved his dream girl and they fall in love. DG helps him change and he realizes he needs to take responsibility for his actions. DG, however, is actually Cami who was in the accident he caused and when she wakes up and he finds out that Cami is DG he’s not sure how she can forgive him causing it all. This was a good story. I liked how Derek grew throughout the book. I did think that the “I love you’s” came to quickly and I had another issue with Cami’s family but overall I liked the story and the writing. 3.75 out of 5 (read for Book Binge)

So Right With You by Maggie Kaye is the story of a woman who finds her fiancé cheating with her best friend and ends up staying with her boss who she then falls in love with. I didn’t care for this book. I thought that it was completely contrived and as the book was supposedly centered around Chloe and her best friends (it’s called The Girlfriend Series) then why did she not feel she could impose on them when she needed somewhere to stay. I found the story bland and nothing really happened. Not my cup of tea. 1 out of 5 (read for Book Binge)

Next was The Devil’s Pearl by Jennifer Haymore. Devlin and Julia were once lovers. He thought she knew he loved her but he treated her like a mistress and even tried to set her up in a house. She eventually leaves and moves to France but when she rejects another man’s advances he heads back to London and spreads rumors that she’s a courtesan. Now Dev is pissed that she cut him and took up with other men. When she heads back to England he kidnaps her and plans on keeping her forever. Ok, talk about anger issues. This guy was creepy and I think he’d actually lost it when he wanted to possess Julia. She needed to be with someone else entirely, imho. This is my first read by Haymore, and I liked the writing just not the character she wrote. I’ll definitely give her another chance but this one I found to just be ok. 2.5 out of 5 

Last was I Found You by Jane Lark. This is a new adult story about Jason who moved from small town Oregon to New York City. It’s not what he thought it would be at all and he’s pretty disillusioned. One night on his nightly run he finds Rachel on the Manhattan bridge about to jump off. He talks her down, takes her home and helps her out despite warnings from his mother, fiancé back home, and co-workers. The pair end up falling in love but the road is not easy and the issues they have to deal with are many. I just finished this one last night and I’m still formulating my thoughts on it. For the most part it was good but I did have some issues with it. 3.5 out of 5

My Book Binge reviews that posted last week:
For His Eyes Only by Liz Fielding

Happy Reading!

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Guest Review: Secrets of an Accidental Duchess by Jennifer Haymore

Posted February 1, 2012 by Ames in Reviews | 1 Comment


Ames’ review of Secrets of an Accidental Duchess by Jennifer Haymore.

With her pale hair and slim figure, Olivia Donovan looks as fragile as fine china, and has been treated as such by her sisters ever since a childhood bout with malaria. But beneath her delicate facade, Olivia guards a bold, independent spirit and the kind of passionate desires proper young ladies must never confess…

It was a reckless wager, and one Max couldn’t resist: seduce the alluring Olivia or forfeit part of his fortune. Yet the wild, soon-to-be Duke never imagined he’d fall in love with this innocent beauty. Nor could he have guessed that a dangerously unpredictable rival would set out to destroy them both. Now, Max must beat a madman at his own twisted game-or forever lose the only woman to have ever won his heart.

I’m coming right out and saying it, I wanted to like this book more than I did. I’ve never read this author before and although I didn’t care for this book overall, I found the romance-y aspects of it enjoyable and I will be reading her again.

Secrets of An Accidental Duchess is the second book in the Donovan sisters series. The first book deals with Olivia’s elder sister, Meg (actually named Serena but she had to change her name, which isn’t explained in this book). Olivia and her sister, based on what was mentioned, grew up in Antigua. Olivia had malaria as a child and now as an adult, she is plagued by fevers. Her family believes physical exertion brings the fevers on but Olivia knows it’s not that. The result however is that her family is overprotective of her.

From the minute Max sees Olivia across a crowded ballroom, everything inside him said ‘mine.’ Without even being introduced to her, he immediately became jealous over the men talking to her and he became possessive. Max’s acquaintance, a horrible man, sees where Max’ interest lies and since he had propositioned Olivia himself and she had said no, he bets Max that he can’t seduce her. Max can’t stand the man he made a bet with but some inner-demon of his can’t resist a challenge from him. In an effort to get close to Olivia, Max accepts an invitation from her brother-in-law to visit him on his country estate.

Max gets to know Olivia over the next few weeks and the bet is the last thing on his mind. He is attracted to Olivia and she to him. Both of them are clear though on the fact that neither want to marry. Olivia will be the cherished spinster aunt and Max refuses to ever hurt a woman the way his father did. However, Olivia wants to know passion before she resigns herself to her fate and her and Max start an affair.

It’s no surprise that Olivia and Max fall in love. I really enjoyed this aspect of SoaAD. They became friends before they became lovers. They could be real with each other. Max saw a side of Olivia that she didn’t and couldn’t show her overprotective family. Max opened up to her in a way that he couldn’t with anyone else. I thought their romance was very sweet.

But a few things niggled me. Max, when he first sees Olivia, feels possessive and jealous without ever having met her. You know who else felt possessive and jealous? The villain. Their reactions were a bit too similar for my taste. Like what makes it ok for the hero to feel that before even meeting the heroine? It made me uncomfortable. I also felt like Max and Olivia’s reasons for not getting married were a bit…silly. Especially with Max. I mean how many times have we come across a hero who refuses to marry? It’s predictable and the only that saved me here was that he actually explained to Olivia why he didn’t want to get married and then later on in the book he realizes how silly he’s being, that he could never treat Olivia the way his father treated his mother and he made up his mind to marry her.

Despite these few issues, I thought it was refreshing that Olivia decided to embark on a physical relationship with Max without wanting to marry him. She wasn’t too worried about what society would think of her.

2.75 out of 5

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

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