Maya Rodale’s A Tale of Two Lovers is an enjoyable read. (Our B review is here.)

Juliana, Lady Somerset, writes a gossip column for a variety of reasons. The first is that her bounder husband left more of his fortune to his mistresses and by-blows than he did to his wife – so she needs the money. But she also truly enjoys the thrill of being the first to spread the latest on dits. One night at the theater she spots something she knows will cause a huge stir: The infamous Lord Roxbury entwined in an embrace with a mysterious figure. And both of them are wearing boots and breeches. Juliana writes about her discovery in her column, Fashionable Intelligence, with little thought to the effect on Roxbury’s reputation>

Roxbury isn’t gay; his fellow dally-er was an actress wearing breeches. But he soon finds his reputation in question. People stop acknowledging him and his invitations dwindle. And it couldn’t come at a worse time. His father has just demanded that he marry – within a month – or risk losing his inheritance. He feels pressured to find a bride at a time when no decent woman will have him. Roxbury marches down to the paper’s office to confront the publisher, and meets Juliana there. He attempts to bribe her into a an apology and ends up dueling with the publisher. Juliana meets Roxbury again at a ball that night, where they dance – and begin a very unconventional courtship.

Now, it doesn’t look like a courtship exactly. Most of the time, they don’t even appear to like each other. Both are headstrong, and neither has any actual desire to get married. Juliana was badly burned by her first marriage to a man she loved deeply – until he completely humiliated her with his very public infidelities. Roxbury likes women. In fact, he loves women. But who would want to marry just one woman when you can enjoy them all? So the two spar and try to one-up each other, and both of them search for a rival gossip columnist called the “Man About Town.”

I’d hate to give away more than that, because one of the delights of this book is seeing two very different, headstrong people fall in love with each other. When you initially meet them both, all you can think is, “How will that work out?” It works out beautifully, and it’s a lot of fun watching it happen. The dialogue is well-written, and the happily ever after is believable. Both main characters are more than they initially seem, and they become better, more selfless people because they fall in love.

You can purchase it at Amazon here for 1.99.

We gave Diary of an Accidental Wallflower a B+. (Our review is here.)

Beautiful coronet-digger Claire Westmore, one of the Mean Girls of the 1848 season, seems to have caught the eye of the future Duke of Harrington – but a sprained ankle derails her social plans. Now, Claire finds her own eye wandering to Daniel Merial – not a duke, but a doctor, and an impoverished one at that. This book is a great Victorian version of the ever-popular ton regency, and I enjoyed it.

Claire’s injury leads to regular visits by Daniel, who struggles to fight the attraction he feels to this new patient. He bonds with her unconventional siblings, who become his allies in the quest not just to heal Claire’s ankle, but to repair her personality. Claire’s family is aristocratic but disreputable. Her parents have a disastrous marriage, her younger sister Lucy wants to dress like a boy and take up social crusades, and her brother Geoffrey has just been expelled from Eton. Claire therefore hopes that a marriage will secure her respectability, and is willing to change herself to be as much the “ideal candidate” as she can become. She diets to keep her weight down, abandons old interests and adventuring with her siblings, and is quite careful not to speak her mind. Even this, however, may not save Claire when an old scandal comes to the surface.

I liked that McQuiston took on an unusual heroine type. Claire wouldn’t have even been a villainess in another book; she’s too deliberately bland. Some authors are bold enough to write about a mean girl, but it was very interesting for McQuiston to take on their flunky. She does a good job demonstrating to us that Claire’s public character is a facade, and showing that Daniel is the man who brings out the good person underneath. That being said, neither of them is tremendously complex. Claire rejects things that are not socially acceptable and has to learn to accept or reject them on their own merits; Daniel wants to heal and take care of people, including Claire, and grows very little.

 

It’s for sale at Amazon for 1.99 here.

Wishes on the Wind also got a B+ from us (here).

Wishes on the Wind is for readers who like weight to their stories. Elaine Barbieri tackles the tough scene of the Pennsylvania coal fields of the 1870s, and does a creditable job of portraying the volatile and tragic circumstances of the miners of that era. Class distinction, social injustice, ethnic prejudice, and violence born of desperation form the backdrop to a romance doomed from the start, yet too true to die….

Ms. Barbieri has masterfully drawn three-dimensional characters who breathe life into this story. Rock-solid Megan and quicksilver David complement one another in their strengths and their weaknesses. Both have deep prejudices to overcome, and both are stubborn to a fault, yet Megan’s loyalty and David’s passion endear them to the reader. The secondary characters are nearly as complex and engaging. The contrasts and the similarities between the Langs and the miners, love, familial loyalty, pride, and passion are timeless, and add to the tragedy of good people bound by impossible circumstances…..

Readers who desire realism will find Wishes on the Wind a wonderful choice for those days when a good cry is better than a laugh.

The novel is on sale at Amazon for 1.49 here.

We gave a DIK to Total Creative Control. (Caz’s rave review is here.)

Two of my favourite authors teaming up to write a grumpy/sunshine “angsty rom-com” ?  YES, PLEASE – sign me up!  Total Creative Control is a captivating read and I blew through it two sittings. Featuring two complex, superbly characterised protagonists, and a small but equally well-written supporting cast, it’s full of humour, witty banter, delicious sexual tension and a multitude of feels – and I loved it.

The ”grumpy” part of the pairing is Lewis Hunter, creator and writer of the hit TV show, Leeches (an urban fantasy-type show with vampires!) which, when the book opens, has been on air for three years.  He’s dynamic, hugely talented and very charismatic… but he’s also brusque, demanding, doesn’t seem to have a verbal filter, and is hell to work for.  Which is why he goes through assistants like a knife through butter – until the morning his most recent one quits, and he’s assigned a temp named Aaron Page for the rest of the week.  Aaron is a big fan of Leeches – which Lewis is both surprised and pleased at – and very quickly shows his aptitude for the job.  He’s just finished teacher training and has a job lined up for September; Lewis has never had a PA who actually loved Leeches before, and is already thinking of ways to keep him on for longer. He suggests that if things go well that week, he’d like Aaron to stay until September.  Aaron agrees.

The story then skips ahead three years – and finds Aaron still working for Lewis.  In the intervening time, he’s made himself pretty much indispensable – not just because he knows Lewis likes brown sauce in his bacon rolls or how many sugars he takes in his tea, but because his knowledge of and love for the show is second only to Lewis’ and he’s provided a lot of valuable feedback and insight into the scripting process during that time.  He’s far more than a PA now, and Lewis is a decent enough boss that he’s made sure Aaron is properly compensated for his expanded role.  But, as one of Aaron’s colleagues points out, although Aaron well paid for what he does, shouldn’t he be looking to move into a job that would stretch him creatively and make greater use of his talents?  But Aaron is happy where he is – and refuses to let himself dwell on the real reason for it.  That moving on to a different job would mean leaving Lewis – because that way madness lies.  Lewis made it clear on Aaron’s very first day that he doesn’t get involved with colleagues, EVER, and despite the stirrings of attraction they felt for each other when they met, they’ve kept things perfectly professional between them ever since.  They’ve both worked hard to maintain that fine line between colleagues and friends, not allowing themselves to be too curious about each other’s personal lives, never attending work functions together, carefully steering their way around anything too intimate –  and it’s worked, for the most part, enabling them to carry on with their working relationship as though that’s all that lies between them.

But when Lewis is persuaded to ask Aaron to accompany him on a working weekend at the country home of the television exec who is keen to develop Leeches for the US market  – a complete and utter wanker Lewis can’t stand – those lines between the personal and the professional start to blur.  Under pressure to make changes to the very fabric of Leeches to satisfy the demands of the US production company, then forced into a number of difficult and uncomfortable situations courtesy of his host, Lewis – already on edge – starts to unravel.  A group therapy session unexpectedly unlocks un-dealt-with trauma Lewis has done his best to ignore – but through it all, Aaron is there,  unequivocally on his side and keeping him grounded.  And this time together, just the two of them against the world, or so it seems, forces them both to confront some long-buried truths they’ve managed to keep locked away so far.  And for Aaron, it’s the wake-up call he needs to start putting himself and his career first for a change.

 

It’s on sale for 0.99 here.

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