Robyn DeHart's Forbidden Love Series Part 1:A LITTLE BIT SINFUL

                A LITTLE BIT WICKED is followed by A LITTLE BIT SINFUL. This story continues Clarissa Kinkaid’s story a few months after she recovered from her scandal from the first book. In this story she is pursuing a man named George Wilbanks simply because her dearly departed sister-in-law, Rebecca told her at some ball that George Wilbanks “is the type of guys she should marry” shortly before her death. Clarissa can’t trust her own judgment because the one guy she tried to pursue on her own proved to be a jerk. Of course George isn’t much better, but Rebecca recommended him. So, no matter how many times George proves he’s a deuce who is only leading her on, she still pursues him.  In the meantime a much nicer guy and family friend named Justin Rodale is also pursuing her. The only problem is, Justin is a bastard so of course he and a high society girl like Clarissa can’t be together. However, they do hang out a lot so Justin can teach her to be a wanton and interesting enough for George to want to marry her.

                Eventually, she tries to trap George into marrying her by compromising herself.  George reacts about as well as can be expected by running off when a society matron named Lady Wooten catches her and George alone in an empty room. Thankfully, Justin sweeps in to marry her and saves the day and then the resolution drags a little bit before they finally get their happy ending.

                Normally, I’d dive in to the hero and heroine here and talk about what I thought about them, but I need to talk about the plot first.  The plot of her pursuing a hopeless suitor was really, really annoying. I liked Clarissa I did, but every important secondary character   told her over and over that George Wilbanks was not a good dude. Heck, Justin took her to an incredibly shading gambling hall where she sees George flirting with a prostitute. Instead of being like Oh, I guess everyone I know is right, he is a jerk. Pursuit over, she concludes that the only reason George pays for sex is that she’s not seductive enough. I mean good God woman!  Not to mentions there’s an incredibly sweet guy right in front of her who thinks she’s the most interesting woman he’s ever met! Ahem, anyways I should probably move on to the characters before this mini rant gets any longer.  

                Despite my annoyance at Clarissa’s hopeless pursuit, I really did like protagonists in this story better than the ones in the first book. I liked Clarissa a little less than Justin, but she was still enjoyable to read about. Basically, she’s a sweet, naïve woman who believes the best in every one around her besides herself.  She’s also a math whiz which I’m sure is someone out there’s favorite trope. Her ingénue-like nature is endearing when it’s not throw-my-tablet-against-the-wall annoying. I love how her and Justin have a very equal relationship and it’s incredibly sweet that Justin discounts any sort of doubt she has about herself.

                Justin Rodale is just sweet in general. Now, he is an alpha, but a gentlemanly one. He’s always there to pick Clarissa back-up (and vice-versa honestly) when she’s feeling down. He is a bastard so he has a serious inferiority complex, but damn it, even though he can’t be with Clarissa he will protect her and defend her honor.  I didn’t think it was necessary for him to be nobility all along towards the end.Something that I love about this books is it’s charming theme to never judge a book by its cover. George may be noble, but his a huge deuce and although Justin is a bastard he’s twice the gentleman George is. Perhaps that theme is why I still loved this story even if the main plot annoyed me half the time.

                The secondary characters are wonderful to read about as well. Vivian and Marcus are hardly in it, but it’s still nice to see that their still doing well. My favorite secondary character though is Clarissa’s friend Ella. She’s spunky and hopeless romantic with dreams of finding her soulmate. I would love if she was the protagonist of the next book, but unfortunately the summery of A LITTLE BI SCANDALOUS proves otherwise. Hopefully, she at least gets to be a beta couple and find love of her own.

                Lastly, there’s the antagonist George Wilbanks. He’s a jerkass and that’s about all there is to his character, but I still cheered when both times Justin punched him out (first, when he finds out he ran when Clarissa was compromised and then when Mr. Deucebanks attempts to rape Clarissa towards the end).  The rest of the characters are mostly window dressing, but colorful enough for me to want to visit where this series takes place.

                All and all I’d give this series a four out of five because Justin and Clarissa were likable enough and sweet enough as a couple for me to enjoy their story and want to pick it up again one day. However, Clarissa hopeless pursuit of George made me want to throw my tablet across the room at times, not to mention the ending dragged a little bit. I’d like to close with the final lines of the last chapter before the epilogue:

                She looked up a him, his intense amber eyes, the handsome chiseled jaw. Her husband.” Did you mean what you said?”

                “About?”

                “Do you truly love me?”

                “Yes.” He pulled her to him, squeezing her tight. “I love you Chrissy. Or do you prefer Clarissa?”

                “No, I’ve grown quite fond of Chrissy. But only with you.”

                “Yes, only with me. Forever only with me.”

Most of their lines together are equally as heartwarming. I still fully recommend picking this series up from Amazon, especially  when it only costs $5.99.

Robyn DeHart's Forbidden Love Series Part 1:A LITTLE BIT WICKED

Remember the Robyn DeHart book, TREASURE ME that I absolutely loved? I decided to give another one of her books a read and I found the entirety of her Forbidden Love trilogy for 5.99 on Amazon. The deal was too good to pass up so I bought all three, meaning my next few reviews will all three books from the series. As one might expect each book deals with some sort of Victorian era forbidden love and how the heroes and unconventional heroines reach their happy endings.

                The series starts off with A LITTLE BIT WICKED. In this story our heroine is Vivian March, a fallen woman who made the best of a heartbreak by becoming the Parago
n, a woman who makes sure the scandals of high society disappear, the only thing she asks in return is a favor whenever she needs it. Our hero is pretty generic. He’s the youngest son of an earl who spent most of his adult abroad giving adventure tours and providing protection for his clients that is until his brother suddenly dies, which he doesn’t hear about until months later. Once he gets the letter he returns to England to become the new heir just in time for his sister, Clarissa and Aunt Maureen to need the assistance of the Paragon.

                 While I enjoyed the story well enough, the characters weren’t quite as awesome as they were in TREASURE ME. On the plus side, I love the idea that Vivian is a thirty-four year old, self-made woman. You don’t see middle-aged heroines in many romance novels and especially in historical. I also love that’s she’s the older one in the relationship, in fact the age gap is the same as most historicals , just gender-reversed, which is always refreshing to see. And I like that the reason the hero is chasing her is because  he kissed her ten years ago and it was just so good that he can’t forget it(she thought he was the lover that eventually scorned her).  In fact there are a lot of things Vivian does that the traditional male alpha hero does. For instance she believes that emotions, love and other squishy things are a weakness because she gave her heart to a man named Frederic who scorned her after stealing her virtue. She even has a deep, dark secret(the loss of her virtue) that she fears will ruin everything if it’s revealed.  

                Despite the praise here, I don’t think DeHart took the gender subversions far enough. The hero, Marcus Kinkaid,  is still an alpha despite being younger, not to mention he crosses the line into alphahole a little too often. A lot of his kisses he gives Vivian feel a little bit like forced seduction.

Take this scene for instance; this is one of their earliest kisses:

“I was playing no game. I meant precisely what I said. I’ll admit it was not very gentlemanly to inquire about your age, but I do believe you were not in your first season when we met in that garden, were you?” he didn’t wait for her response. “I  grant you, I was impossibly rude to inquire, but I am at a loss as to deciphering your precise age.”

She opened her mouth then promptly shut it

He knew that by London standards he was behaving outrageously but flirting with Miss Vivian March proved most entertaining. Not to mention a temptation he simply couldn’t resist.

“I prefer women of a certain age,” he said “I find them refreshingly honest. Intelligent, with minds of their own.” He took another step, closing the distance, between them.” And remarkably passionate”. His remark did little more than keep her locked in her current position.

                The situation escalates, they banter a bit more and he forces a kiss on Vivian’s lips. She later explains that she enjoyed it of course, but the situation and the others that follow made me more than a little uncomfortable, especially since Marcus banters far more than Vivian does.  Despite that I don’t exactly hate Marcus, by the end I truly believe he redeemed himself and loved Vivian. Not to mention  every  now and then their verbal sparring puts them on equal ground. One of my favorite scenes is when she trying to teach Marcus to flirt London style(so he can marry someone else and leave her alone) and he  retaliates by asking why London Society  has to make  flirting  so complicated  and explains how lion mating is straight forward to prove his point. In turn Vivian explains that London Society  has to be civil.  The entire scene was hilarious and I wish Marcus and Vivian had more scenes like it.  When they do have sex for the first time Vivian does initiate, but only after several other forced seduction scenes and Marcus requests that she intiate love making  because he knows she’ll eventually give into his charms. Again, he does redeem himself but it takes far too long in my opinion, which is the reason I tend to favor beta heroes over alphas.

                The secondary cast is basically made of sequel bait (Clarissa Kinkaid, Justin Rodale, Aunt Maureen and George Wilbanks), a mostly harmless jerkass named Frederic( Vivian’s former lover) and Vivian’s Aunt Rose. There are likable enough, but not particularly deep. I’m sure that will change as the series continues, but for now I didn’t find any of them particularly engaging.

                Some other problems I had with the book was the pace. While the story flowed find a lot of the big deciding  moments basically hinged on a simple conversation the characters could have had a lot sooner than they did. I wanted more to come out of Frederic blackmailing and following Vivian around, but the blackmail issues was resolved really quickly when Vivian reveals her “big secret”  to all of London society in order to stop a girl in a similar situation from jumping to her death. The girl realizes it was dumb idea to jump to her death over a heartbreak , Marcus punches out Frederic and the story ends with  babies ever after.  

                All in all I’d give A LITTLE BIT WICKED  a 3 out of 5. It was an enjoyable enough romp that I want to read the rest of the series, but the pace was a little slow for me and the characters were less enjoyable to read about  than I hoped. If you want a quick escape go buy the series on Amazon, it’s still only 5.99 and worth at least one read through.  

A Review of TREASURE ME by Robyn DeHart

The other day I was at my local Halfprice Books with a serious craving for an adventure romance. What I found was TREASURE ME by Robyn DeHart. This book was everything I could hope for and more; it has it all: secret passageways, lost treasure, despicable villains and a couple whose chemistry seers through the pages in the most adorable way possible. It’s the third book in DeHart’s Legend Hunters, which follows the escapades of a secret society of Victorian treasure hunters known as the Men of Solomon. While I fully intend to read the rest of the series, TREASURES ME works just fine as a standalone.

            This story is about a man named Graeme Langford, He’s of both Scottish and English decent and the current Duke of Rothmore. Despite spending most of his life in England for daddy issues reasons, he’s always felt more comfortable in his mother’s home, the Scottish Highlands and absolutely obsessed with a long lost treasure known as The Stone of Destiny found near Loch Ness. Our heroine is and adorable amateur Paleontologist  named Vanessa Pembroke. When she catches her fiancé and younger sister getting it on the day before her wedding she flees to Scotland to do some investigation of her own into the Loch Ness monster. Her and Graeme meet when he rescues her from  attempted gang rape by marrying  her due to peer pressure and the fact that he believes the ceromony is so ancient that no one takes it seriously anymore. Of course he’s wrong and they end up working together to find the Stone of Destiny. Unbeknownst to them (at first) a dangerous foe seeks the stone as well to rebuild an ancient artifact of doom that could dethrone Queen Victoria.

            Interested in this Indiana Jones-esque adventure yet? If not let me tell about the characters. As I mentioned earlier Vanessa is adorable. She’s a scientist heroine who is smart and clever, but so incredibly awkward. She’s isn’t afraid to be blunt and considers romance and other emotions a distractions and I love that about her. As with most Romance heroines she’s also a virgin with no experience besides general knowledge that her mother taught her.  Her inexperience leads to one of the most hilarious first time scenes I’ve ever read. When Graeme first finds out that he and Vanessa are truly married, his first decision is to annul the marriage, send Vanessa back to London and move on with his life because  like Vanessa, he believes love is a distraction(and he’s an alpha hero). Vanessa decides screw that, she wants to find some Nessie fossils and decides that she’ll seduce him so the marriage can be consummated which means the marriage can’t be annulled. First she has to logically figure out how seduction work based solely on what she witnessed her sister and ex-fiancé doing . Eventually she concludes that “Perhaps all that was required to produce passion was a lack of clothing”. After she figures that out she “merely removed her clothing and pressed herself against him”. Of course Graeme reacts positively and they have their first time. Her reaction during the deed is this:

                        “Lust, she was experiencing lust.Her whole body felt alive and full of energy and

                        Sensations. She wished she could simultaneously experience this and watch her

                        Facial expressions, record her every sensation. This was science in the making”.

The entire scene is both hilarious and charming at the same time, not to mention establishes the characters well.   In fact, all the dialogue and inner monologues throughout the book are just as enjoyable to read, which is part of the reason I loved this book so much. Vanessa also can hold her own, at one point she saves both herself and Graeme’s younger brother, Dougal from the villain, among other badass moments due to her smarts and quick-thinking.

            Graeme is fun to read about as well, but I like him a little less than Vanessa just because he’s basically an alpha hero note-for-note, but a lovable one who has his reasons for being the way he is due to how he was raised. I wish I could say more, but there isn’t anything new to his character, although he isn’t, to quote the ladies at  another blog, Smart Bitches, Trashy books, an alpha hole and I like him well enough to root for he and Vanessa the entire time I’m reading the book.

            The villain is a man simply called The Raven. He gives every James Bond and Indiana Jones a run for their money is sheer mustache-twirling evil-doing. He’s a despicable, but terribly smart, manipulative bad guy. At one point basically every character looking for the Stone of Destiny and Dougal are all caught in The Raven’s web.I love smart villains, especially in adventure stories.  Eventually, he’s defeated by his own impatience (not before created a huge body count though), which was fitting end.

            The secondary cast is made up of Graeme’s cousin Niall( whose role in the story is very spoilery, so I won’t speak much about him here), Graeme’s stubborn, but lovable mother, Moira, various Solomon members from the previous books , some treasure hunters for hire and naïve Dougal (whose role in the story is also very spoilery). All of them are well-rounded and I really want to read the other Men of Solomon’s stories.

The plot is gripping, fast paced and  if you haven’t noticed all my comparisons yet, very similar to an Indian Jones movie, so if you like those movies and any others like them you will love this story. I love the adventure genre and this book is filled with all of my favorite things from that genre as well as the Romance genre, so I’m gonna have to give it a five out of five. All I can say is read it!  all of Robyn Dehart’s books can be found on Amazon for 6.99 or less. I for one will have an empty wallet very soon.

A review of HISPANIA By: Letitia Coyne

                Picture for a moment, Ancient Rome and the media that’s  depicted it. Did the romance genre come to mind? For a few of you it may have, but for most I highly doubt the romance novel was the first form of media imagined. I’d like to change that by introducing you to a little know eBook  author named Letitia Coyne.  I discovered her through a romance reader app called ever after and became hooked on her work immediately

                The book I’m going to review is called Hispania.  Technically it’s the second book in the series, but the first, Britannia suffers from traps associated with first books, so it isn’t quite as good. Hispania, on the other hand, is excellent and stands on its own.  The story is about a young noblewoman named Marella who joined the priestesses in the temple of Diana to avoid an arranged marriage. Shortly after she joins the temple she’s raped by a corrupt, Druidic priest and becomes pregnant, but refuses to abort the baby. To cover up his crime, the priest accuses her of what is essentially fornication and having a baby out of wedlock. This dishonors her brother, Sarnicio who hires people to execute her for her crimes. She’s saved by a kindhearted man named Marc with a dark and troubled past of his own. Together they go on the run so both of them can survive. The problem is a slew of people are chasing after them including her bother, the priest and people from Marc’s past.

                What I love most about this book is not only the unusual setting, but the characters. Both Marc and Marella are damaged characters with plenty of angst to go around. However, it never feels melodramatic.  It’s handled in a truly realistic manner, especially the post-traumatic stress and physical damage Marella experiences  after being raped and brutalized. That being said, this is not a light-hearted romance and contains many potential trigger warnings, so it isn’t for everyone. For instance, Marella is terrified of men, especially High Priest Leucitius because of her trauma. Marc suffers from war PTSD himself and is still grieving the loss of his first wife. This makes reaching her and Marc’s happy ending difficult. However, as the conflict builds (in a really well-paced manner, by the way) they realize that the only people they can trust in the world are each other. Because they depend on each other so much, their relationship is believable and I rooted for the two of them the entire story, even when I wanted to scream at them to communicate and talk about their traumas and issues at times.

                As for the other characters, Marella’s sister in law, Suelta is the most developed. She’s not quite as strong as Marella, but tries to help her to best of her ability.  Without spoiling anything she plays a huge part in the climax of the story that leads to Marx and Marella’s happily ever after. She comes with her own trigger warning, as she endures a lot of physical and emotional abuse from Sarnicio.

                The two main antagonists are Sarnicio and Leucitius and honestly they aren’t really developed at all beyond horribly, vile, irredeemable men who exist purely to antagonize and abuse women. Their lack of development doesn’t take too much away from the story though, since I couldn’t help but enjoy hating them and wishing them to suffer a horrible, painful death, so Marc and Marella could earn their happy ending.

                The other secondary characters include Marc’s son and some old war buddies of Marc’s who appear to add to the rising action, but don't receive  too developement since they’re returning from the first book.  Marc’s son disappears early on and doesn’t reappear until the end. He’s defiantly the precocious child type, but isn’t in the story enough to be annoying.

 

All and all I’d give this story a 4 out  5 purely based on the fact that it isn’t for everyone, but an excellent story overall with two great leads. 

Hispania can be found  for free  almost anywhere you can purchase eBooks.