Showing posts with label Grace Burrowes. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Grace Burrowes. Show all posts
Monday, August 10, 2015
Thursday, May 7, 2015
The Duke's Disaster by Grace Burrowes
Author: Grace BurrowesNumber of pages: 384
Publisher: Sourcebook Casablanca
Date published: 7 April 2015
Rating: 3.5 stars
Buy on: Amazon, Amazon UK
Noah Winters, Duke of Anselm, spent months sorting and courting the year's crop of debutantes in search of an ideal bride. When the sweet, biddable young thing he selected accepts another's proposal, Noah decides to court her companion instead.
Thea Collins, though, is anything but biddable. She has learned the hard way that men are not to be trusted, especially the handsome ones. When she reluctantly accepts, Noah rushes Thea to the altar before she can reveal her deepest secret. Can she finally move on from her past, or will it come back to haunt her?
Review:
This is the story of Noah and Thea. Noah is a duke in need of a wife; Thea is a lady's companion and the daughter of an earl. Her parents died some years ago and hard times and the need to support her family forced Thea out to work.
At the end of the season Noah finds himself with no fiancée and so he decides to offer for Thea, the two marry soon after and this is where something goes mildly wrong.
You see, Thea did not make it to the wedding night virginal. Ooops.
Being married slowly Thea and Noah come to terms, getting other her lack of virginity, her troubled family, his challenging cousins, his family history and one man they both managed to annoy plenty.
Slowly their match that had nothing to do with love and everything to do with mind becomes a match of two friends and even lovers. Like most regency novels the two fall in love in the end.
Thea and Noah were good together and I liked how their relationship developed even though I did not like the fact that some things seemed to drag for far too long. Also, the writing was fairly done but sometimes I felt as if I was reading something and I didn’t understand what the conversation was about. This made me a tiny bit annoyed- sorry but I could care less if the farmers managed to grow their whatever or not.
The passing of time was also not very fluid. But what annoyed me the most was the way Thea's past was handled. You see- quite early you learn of the possibility that Thea lost her virginity unwillingly. However, it is hardly ever addressed. She doesn't seem to have a problem having sex with her husband, her husband is too afraid to know the truth and when the truth comes out in two pages everything is resolved and that's it. Which also means the ending felt too rushed for me.
This was a good regency book, and I liked the characters. I especially liked the development of the relationship between Thea and Noah and how they both grew into their roles- she the one of a duchess, he the one of a husband.
So nice story and well worth the read. It just fell a little short compared to my expectations.
An ARC was kindly provided by Sourcebook Casablanca. Thank You
Wednesday, April 1, 2015
Spotlight: The Duke's Disaster by Grace Burrowes [FYI, Upcoming]
Hi, I wanted to let you know of this book I'm reading and is coming out in a few days-
Book Information
Book Information
Title: The Duke’s Disaster
Author: Grace Burrowes
Release Date: April 7, 2015
Publisher: Sourcebooks Casablanca
Genre: Historical Romance
Summary
Noah Winters, Duke of Anselm, exercises the pragmatism for which he's infamous when his preferred choice of bride cries off, and her companion, Lady Thea Collins, becomes his next choice for his duchess. Lady Thea's mature, sensible and even rather attractive-what could possibly go wrong?
As a lady fallen on hard times, Thea doesn't expect tender sentiments from His Grace, but she does wish Noah had courted her trust, lest her past turn their hastily arranged marriage into a life of shared regrets. Is His Grace courting a convenient wife, or a beautiful disaster?
Excerpt
The Duke and Duchess are having a rocky start to their marriage, also to their day…
“Your tea, Duchess.”
Noah had woken up beside his wife—again, despite all plans to the contrary—creating another first for him. Thea had risen several times during the night to tend to herself. He hadn’t realized that monthly courses caused a woman’s rest to be interrupted.
Crashingly bad planning, for a lady’s sleep to be disturbed when she most needed rest.
“You’re not about to steal my tea?” Thea held out the cup, her gaze shy as she sat propped against the headboard.
“Where’s the fun in stealing what’s freely offered?” Noah settled in beside her and filched a bite of her cinnamon toast. “Would you rather have chocolate this morning?”
“Because?”
“You’re”— Noah waved a hand in the direction of her middle—“indisposed.”
“I am not indisposed.” Thea set her teacup down with a little clink. “The discomfort has passed, as it always does. You needn’t be concerned.”
“I am not concerned, Thea.” Not greatly concerned, now that she’d stopped ordering him to go away and was ready for a proper spat. “I am attempting in my bumbling way to dote. You will allow it.”
Drat. He’d given another order.
“You couldn’t bumble if one gave you written instructions, Anselm,” Thea said, looking a little less peaked for having run up her flags. “That was my toast you appropriated.”
“Appropriation is what happens when one’s wife can’t appreciate a little doting. You’re being stingy with the tea, just as you were stingy with the covers. How long does this indisposition last?”
Her chin came up. “I am the Duchess of Anselm. I am not stingy with anything, but you are a very presuming husband.”
“Doting.” Noah took Thea’s free hand to kiss her knuckles— lest she mistake his point. “Also in need of my duchess’s guidance on this one marital matter.”
“This is so personal.” Thea’s gaze was on their joined hands— for Noah would not have her haring off in a fit of mortification. “I didn’t think you’d be a personal sort of husband. You were supposed to appear in my dressing-room doorway a few nights a month, silently take a few marital liberties, and then leave me in peace. We’d trade sections of the Times over breakfast the next morning.”
“Prosaic.” Boring and exactly what Noah himself had envisioned. “Hard to see any doting going on, though.”
“Husband?” Thea’s tone was hesitant. “Thank you, for keeping me company last night. I would not have known how to ask.”
“I suppose that’s the definition of doting.” Noah lingered at the cart to assemble a plate. “It’s the little things you can’t bring yourself to ask for, that an attentive spouse will enjoy providing to you. Bacon or ham?”
“A little of both, please.”
“Feeling carnivorous?”
“I’m a trifle indisposed. I need the sustenance.”
Noah piled both ham and bacon on Thea’s plate, and stole better than half of it, because he needed the sustenance too.
Goodreads Link: https://www.goodreads.com/
Buy Links
Amazon: http://amzn.to/1FMKux4
Barnes and Noble: http://bit.ly/1xmRtvf
iTunes: http://apple.co/1MVrkoL
Author Biography
New York Times and USA Today bestselling author Grace Burrowes' bestsellers include The Heir, The Soldier, Lady Maggie's Secret Scandal, Lady Sophie's Christmas Wish and Lady Eve's Indiscretion. The Heir was a Publishers Weekly Best Book of 2010, The Soldier was a PW Best Spring Romance of 2011, Lady Sophie's Christmas Wish won Best Historical Romance of the Year in 2011 from RT Reviewers' Choice Awards, Lady Louisa's Christmas Knight was a Library Journal Best Book of 2012, and The Bridegroom Wore Plaid was a PW Best Book of 2012. Her Regency romances have received extensive praise, including starred reviews from Publishers Weekly and Booklist. Grace is branching out into short stories and Scotland-set Victorian romance with Sourcebooks. She is a practicing family law attorney and lives in rural Maryland.
Social Networking Links
Website: http://www.graceburrowes.com/
Twitter: http://www.twitter.com/
A review will follow soon,
~Sharon
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