Leila Beaumont is a beautiful and very talented portrait artist, as celebrated throughout Europe as her husband, Francis, is becoming reviled. While Leila is aware of Francis adultery, his tendency to drink and take drugs to excess, she is unaware that he also ran a brothel in Paris and tended to make money through the blackmail of prominent members of society. While she hasn’t allowed him in her bed for years, Leila is nonetheless grateful to Francis for rescuing her when she was orphaned in […]
“We’re of one mind, Grenville and I, and the mind is hers, on account of my being a man and not having one.”
Another re-read of one of my all-time favourites, once again narrated by the excellent Kate Reading. Vere Mallory becomes the Duke of Ainswood after pretty much every other male in his family line dies, including several family members he cared deeply for, and he’s quite happy to drink and debauch himself into an early grave so the accursed title can’t take anyone else, thank you very much. An endless existence of carousing gets tedious after a while, though, and once he crosses paths with Miss […]
Don’t trust generous relatives living in creepy houses
Kate is broke and too young and pretty to work (that was thing). She is an orphan with no siblings and only her old nurse Sarah to turn to. Kate starts to think her only hope is to become a dresser or a seamstress. Sarah decides to write to Kate’s aunt (her father’s estranged half-sister Kate has never met). The aunt instantly appears and declares Kate the daughter she never had. Kate’s problems are over, right? She is whisked away to an old mansion and […]
A historical romance with hieroglyphs, adventure and a mongoose named Marigold
Rupert Carsington is the fourth son of the Earl of Hargate and has been sent to Egypt to get out of the way of all the calamities he’s been able to get tangled in at home in England and on the continent. He finds himself locked up in a dungeon jail after seeing a bunch of soldiers beat up a beggar in the street and deciding to defend the man, beating up a horde of soldiers as a result. His bail is paid by Mrs […]
“You also have a reputation as an assassin.” she said. “Mmmm. It’a a wonder I have time to eat breakfast with all I do.”
3.5 stars Lady Angelique Archer is desperate for money and needs to make sure that no one in polite society is aware of it. Lucky for her, she is mathematical genius who can do huge amounts of sums in her head and count cards from more than one deck at a time. She’s been using her brilliant mind to win substantial amounts of money at vingt-et-un-table in the gaming club of Alexander Lavoie, doing her very best to stay unnoticed to everyone. She needs the […]
A historical romance with a reluctant duke and a sharp-shooter
4.5 stars Miss Elise DeVries is a sometime stage actress, sometime scandal fixer, working as one of the chief agents in the company of Chagarre and Associates, an exclusive firm working clandestinely for the upper classes. They can fix or bury pretty much any scandal there is, provided a high enough payment is offered. Elise is a master of disguise, used to wearing a multitude of faces, nearly always playing a part. Only with her fellow associates, Miss Ivory Moore, also known as the Duchess […]
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