#5starreview

Book Review: Love With A Notorious Rake by Karyn Gerrard

Caitlyn Lynch

Dec 7, 2018
2 min

Book Review: Love With A Notorious Rake by Karyn Gerrard

I’ve never read a historical romance which dealt with addiction as it being anything other than a thing villains had a problem with, so Love With A Notorious Rake is absolutely unique. The hero, Aidan Wollestonecraft, will eventually inherit his grandfather’s title but in the meantime, he’s basically bored senseless. Starting off with women and wine, he eventually falls deep into the grip of opium addiction, and the book begins at the point where his family intervenes, sweepi

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Book Review: A Scandalous Winter Wedding by Marguerite Kaye

Caitlyn Lynch

Dec 5, 2018
2 min

Book Review: A Scandalous Winter Wedding by Marguerite Kaye

The Matches Made In Scandal series have all featured women down on their luck through no fault of their own, offered a second chance by a mysterious woman known only as The Procurer, who specializes in resolving problems beyond the skill of anyone else. In this, the fourth and final of the series, we get the story of the mysterious Procurer herself, Kristin Blair. Approached by a desperate client, Mr Cameron Dunbar, who needs to locate his missing niece, Kristin cannot turn t

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Book Review: The Girl With The Sweetest Secret by Betina Krahn

Caitlyn Lynch

Dec 2, 2018
2 min

Book Review: The Girl With The Sweetest Secret by Betina Krahn

There’s an absolutely amazing scene late in this book where the heroine Frances ‘Frankie’ confronts her social-climbing mother. Accusing her of not listening when Frankie told her about the cruel and violent proclivities of the duke her mother was trying to marry her off to, Frankie fearlessly points out some unpalatable truths; that her mother was so blinded by the idea of her daughter being a duchess, she didn’t care that Frankie would be the one paying the price for her mo

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Caitlyn Lynch

Nov 25, 2018
1 min

Book Review: Past Tense by Lee Child

I have to be honest and say that although Jack Reacher is one of my favourite fictional characters, the last few adventures haven't quite lived up to the earliest ones, and The Midnight Line really fell flat, for me, especially the ending. So it was more in hope than anticipation that I picked up Past Tense... and boy, was I pleasantly surprised. Past Tense is, in my opinion, the best Reacher book since Worth Dying For, which is my favourite Reacher book ever. It's right up t

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Book Review: Wish Upon A Duke by Erica Ridley

Caitlyn Lynch

Nov 22, 2018
1 min

Book Review: Wish Upon A Duke by Erica Ridley

Third in Erica Ridley’s charming The 12 Dukes Of Christmas series of novellas, Wish Upon A Duke follows Christopher Pringle, the younger brother of Nicholas who found his match in Kiss Of A Duke. After a life in his brother’s shadow, Christopher has fairly simple wants and needs, and the one thing he desperately wants is a wife. Honestly, he thinks his requirements are fairly broad - rational, logical, must love travel - so Gloria, the matchmaker whose help he engages, should

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Book Review: A Wedding One Christmas by Therese Beharrie

Caitlyn Lynch

Nov 21, 2018
3 min

Book Review: A Wedding One Christmas by Therese Beharrie

I’m actually going to start this review by talking about reading diversely, and how we all should be doing it. And by that, I mean that you don’t necessarily have to read out of your comfort zone. If you read light and fluffy romance and you get the cold shakes at reading something deep and painful and meaningful, you don’t have to go read The Color Purple or The Hate U Give just to read books by diverse authors. It’s okay. Trust me. You’re still covered. And if contemporary

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Book Review: More Or Less A Temptress by Anna Bradley

Caitlyn Lynch

Nov 21, 2018
2 min

Book Review: More Or Less A Temptress by Anna Bradley

Youngest of the Somerset sisters, Hyacinth is delicate, vulnerable, protected. Smothered. While she was only fifteen when her parents’ death sent her into a state of silent shock, she’s older now and constantly being told she’s weak, frail, vulnerable… it’s taken its toll on a girl who is far stronger than she herself realises. Lachlan Ramsey may be the most intimidating man in London… and that’s even if Hyacinth hadn’t seen him been a man to death and hide the body just a co

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Book Review: Fool's Moon by Diane A.S. Stuckart

Caitlyn Lynch

Nov 17, 2018
1 min

Book Review: Fool's Moon by Diane A.S. Stuckart

Brother and sister, Ophelia and Brandon are a pair of black cats who are dumped by the roadside after the tragic death of their owner, a wealthy old lady. Ophelia is rescued by Ruby, a Tarot reader standing in for her sister (a Santeria priestess) at her shop. With the assistance of Ruby’s friendly pitbull Zuki, and a fish named Philomena, Ophelia and Brandon are reunited, but their adventures are only just beginning as it comes to light that their former owner may have been

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Book Review: Kiss Of A Duke by Erica Ridley

Caitlyn Lynch

Nov 12, 2018
2 min

Book Review: Kiss Of A Duke by Erica Ridley

Second in Erica Ridley’s Twelve Dukes of Christmas series set in the small town of Christmas, the hero of this one isn’t actually a duke. It’s a perfume, well technically a cologne for men, called Duke, invented by the heroine. And it’s taken London by storm; even Prinny is wearing the new cologne with the near-magical ability to make women take an interest in even the most unassuming of gentlemen. Our heroine Penelope knows there’s nothing magical about her perfume at all. J

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Book Review: Séances Are For Suckers by Tamara Berry

Caitlyn Lynch

Nov 8, 2018
2 min

Book Review: Séances Are For Suckers by Tamara Berry

Madame Eleanor Wilde is a con artist, and like all the best con artists, she knows the best way to con someone is to show them exactly what they expect to see. She’s a very successful medium and ghost exorcist, and when she’s hired to go to England by an intriguing aristocrat who knows exactly what she is and wants to hire her to con his mother, she can’t quite resist the challenge. Nothing is quite as it seems at the Hartford Estate, though. And when a real dead body turns u

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Book Review: Between A Highlander And A Hard Place by Mary Wine

Caitlyn Lynch

Nov 8, 2018
2 min

Book Review: Between A Highlander And A Hard Place by Mary Wine

I felt really sorry for Athena, the heroine of this story. Fleeing London disguised as a boy because her other options were unpalatable at best (become a wealthy man’s mistress or go to jail for setting fire to his house when he attacked her) she keeps ending up in dreadful situations caused by most of the men around her behaving like complete asshats. It’s no wonder she’s had an absolute gutful of being pushed around and told what to do when she runs across Symon, Laird Gran

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Caitlyn Lynch

Nov 5, 2018
2 min

Book Review: Wolf Rising by Paige Tyler

This is book 8 in the series, and though it would probably be ideal to start at the beginning to pick up on the worldbuilding I suspect was done earlier in the series, it wouldn’t matter too much if you started here. All the minor characters are sketched in well enough for you to get an idea of who they are, and the two protagonists are thoroughly fleshed out with plenty of meaty backstory to get your teeth into. Jayden Brooks is one of Dallas’ all-werewolf SWAT team. Once yo

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Book Review: Barbarous by Minerva Spencer

Caitlyn Lynch

Nov 4, 2018
2 min

Book Review: Barbarous by Minerva Spencer

After reading Barbarous, I feel as though I need a cup of tea and a lie down. It’s an absolutely rollicking adventure of a historical romance, complete with dastardly relatives, pirates, old blood feuds, desperate secrets and more excitement than any gently bred English lady would have been able to cope with in the early 19th century without taking to her bed in a fit of the vapours. Our heroine Daphne is a widow with a secret - her twin sons didn’t belong to her husband, bu

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Book Review: The Duke's Agent by Rebecca Jenkins

Caitlyn Lynch

Oct 29, 2018
2 min

Book Review: The Duke's Agent by Rebecca Jenkins

First in a new series of Regency-era mysteries, The Duke’s Agent is a fascinating whodunnit set in the northern county of Durham, featuring Frederick “Raif” Jarrett, a distant relative of the Duke of Penrith (the nature of their relationship isn’t precisely defined, but there are definite hints Raif was born illegitimate) and now acting as an agent for said Duke. Sent to investigate the duke’s affairs following the death of a steward, Raif soon discovers something foul simmer

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Non-Fiction Fridays Book Review: Rock Your Plot by Cathy Yardley

Caitlyn Lynch

Oct 19, 2018
2 min

Non-Fiction Fridays Book Review: Rock Your Plot by Cathy Yardley

Where Rock Your Plot differs from other plotting books is that it is unashamedly aimed at genre (read; popular) fiction. Which means it works great for THE most popular genre of all, romance, and that’s what I’m going to focus on in this review because I am recommending this book SPECIFICALLY for romance authors who want to improve their plotting skills. Cathy Yardley knows exactly what she’s talking about. She’s written category romance for Harlequin, among many other things

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Book Review: It Only Takes A Kiss by Wilma Counts

Caitlyn Lynch

Oct 16, 2018
2 min

Book Review: It Only Takes A Kiss by Wilma Counts

There are some pretty deep themes underlying this excellently written Regency romance; the hero is a soldier returned from war, and though he’s the wealthy third son of a duke with the world at his feet, some fairly major PTSD has him lost and floundering, like so many who came back both in those days and the current time, he finds it difficult to fit back into the world he once knew. Given a ‘mission’ to look over discrepancies in the accounts of a Cornish estate he inherite

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Book Review: The Fifth Knight by Claire Luana and Jesikah Sundin

Caitlyn Lynch

Oct 15, 2018
2 min

Book Review: The Fifth Knight by Claire Luana and Jesikah Sundin

At its core, this is a Mary-Sue self-insert King Arthur fanfic where Arthur, Lancelot, Galahad and Percival all fall for the heroine. And you know what? I thoroughly enjoyed it. Yes, Fionna is a bit too perfect to be true. She’s otherworldly beautiful (even though she compares herself unfavourably to her sister), a super-fighter who can go toe to toe with Arthur or any of his knights despite her small size, and apparently is also destined to be a great enchantress, according

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Book Review: The Lady In The Cellar by Sinclair McKay

Caitlyn Lynch

Oct 13, 2018
2 min

Book Review: The Lady In The Cellar by Sinclair McKay

This might be one of the most incredible true-crime books I’ve ever read - and I’ve read plenty. If you wrote this case as fiction, it would be derided as too ridiculous to be believed. However, it all really happened in the late 1870s, and reading it is an absolutely fascinating insight into both the lives of everyday Londoners and the methods of police investigations at the time. (I also found out about the Illustrated Police News, which was basically the first printed sens

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Book Review: Once Upon A Duke by Erica Ridley

Caitlyn Lynch

Oct 9, 2018
1 min

Book Review: Once Upon A Duke by Erica Ridley

First in Erica Ridley’s 12 Dukes of Christmas series (no, there aren’t 12 books - only 3, I believe) Once Upon A Duke introduces the village of Cressmouth, where a benevolent (but slightly bonkers) landowner has transformed a dying community into the embodiment of Christmas, year-round. Into this charming, if twee, Christmas paradise erupts Benjamin, Duke of Silkwood, a man who (actually with justification) hates Christmas and everything it stands for. All he wants is a famil

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Book Review: A Lady's Escape by A.S. Fenichel

Caitlyn Lynch

Oct 4, 2018
2 min

Book Review: A Lady's Escape by A.S. Fenichel

The Everton Domestic Society provides assistance to discerning employers seeking unusual solutions. The Everton Ladies are carefully selected for their abilities to solve the most tangled of problems. Finding a young, handsome, wealthy duke a wife? Honestly, it should be a simple assignment for skilled matchmaker Millicent Edgebrook. Having given up on ever finding a match for herself, Millie is sure she can help Preston, Duke of Middleton. Of course, things don’t go to plan.

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