I didn't like "Wicked Under the Covers" by Barbara Pierce.

I'm really surprised this book has so many 4 and 5 star reviews on Amazon. I was tempted to give it 2 stars but the writing is decent even if I didn't like the plot or the hero and didn't believe the way the heroine acted.

Fayre, the heroine, starts the book by sleeping with Lord Standish because she loves him and believes he loves her. Soon she discovers she is merely a pawn in a revenge plot by her father's ex-mistress. She is "ruined" but there seem to be few consequences other than not being invited some places and putting up with snide innuendo. What seems more unbelievable is that Lord Standish was free to go about trashing her reputation without any social consequences. Fayre asked her father and brother not to challenge Standish but it's hard to believe a duke wouldn't have some pressure to bear on Standish (directly or through his father) to get him to stop talking about her.

I really disliked the hero, Maccus. He has some characteristics of a good romantic hero -- rising from humble beginnings to become wealthy -- but he acts like a bully and a manipulator and I cannot tolerate that in a romantic hero. Knowing what happened to Fayre, he badgers her and treats her rather badly to get her to help him gain entry into society. If he had simply gotten an introduction and explained how his plan could benefit them both, it would have made sense. But he grabs her out of her carriage at the park and basically acts like a jerk around her. Despite this, Fayre agrees to his plan and then proceeds to act in a way that makes no sense for someone trying to overcome social ruin. She starts meeting Maccus regularly at his house for lessons on how to fit into society. (One would think a family with a ruined daughter would keep closer watch on her so this wouldn't happen.) Meanwhile, Maccus is all over Fayre physically with no consideration for her reputation. Some readers might consider him a handsome rogue but it wasn 't romantic or heroic to me. He came off as a jerk and bully. And with no thought to how badly sleeping with Standish turned out for her, Fayre gets physically involved with Maccus. She is supposed to be a smart and spunky heroine but she came across to me as careless and foolish, which didn't make sense considering the social position she was in. And that's even given the romance genre where young innocent women are overcome with passion and sleep with men to whom they are not married or betrothed.

I see there are other books in the series about the Carlisle family: "Sinful Between the Sheets (Carlisle Family, Book 2)" and "Naughty by Nature (Carlisle Family, Book 3)." I won't be reading them.

I bought this book at a library book sale.  At least I didn't pay full price for it.

"Daring a Duke" by Claudia Dain

I had read one of the earlier installments in the author's Courtesan series ("How to Dazzle a Duke (The Courtesan Series)") and thought it was OK. Had I read this book first, I don't think I'd have picked up another. It wasn't very romantic and generally disappointed me.


The first point about this book will be a plus for some readers and a complete turn-off for others: there are no sex scenes. The most the couple does is one make-out session. So if you hate sex scenes, you'll like that and if you want your romances steamy, it's another reason to avoid this one.

This book follows shortly after "How to Dazzle a Duke" and most of the action takes place at the wedding of the hero and heroine of that book. The time frame is one of the biggest flaws of the book for me. A one-day romance doesn't feel romantic to me. I want my hero and heroine to get to know each other and to feel love build over the course of the book. By the end of the book, I wasn't convinced the couple even liked each other much less were in love.

Not only did I not think the couple liked each other, I didn't really like them. The heroine Jane Elliott was immature and often thoughtless or rude. The hero didn't seem to have much personality at all and decided he had "fallen in love" just by looking at the heroine.

And finally, there was too much other distraction going on with minor characters flirting with and trying to set up seductions with other minor characters. They may turn into the main characters of future books but their scenes took up pages that should have been used to create a hero and heroine the reader would cheer for and a relationship between the hero and heroine that feels romantic.

There are many better romances out there, even if you want one without steamy sex scenes. Mary Balogh's most recent Huxtable romance ("A Secret Affair") is a much better romance and also not very steamy.

I got this book from the library.  Support your local library!

"Ten Things I Love About You" by Julia Quinn

I really enjoyed reading this book because the author made it more about the romance than the sex. A caution for those readers who want their romances steamy hot -- the hero and heroine don't have sex until almost the end of the book.

Annabel and Sebastian are fun and quirky characters and the author did a great job of building the story. Annabel feels pressured (by family financial circumstances) to marry an aging but wealthy earl who wants an heir to keep his nephew from inheriting the title. Sebastian is the nephew and doesn't know his uncle is interested in Annabel the first few times they meet. Without a sex scene every 10 pages or so, she uses the time to develop the characters and make their budding romance feel believable. This book is related to "What Happens in London" because Sebastian is related to Harry from that book and spends a lot of time with Harry and Olivia. The purple prose gothic novel from the earlier book also factors into the plot of this book.

This romance is sweet, fun and romantic but not very steamy. I liked it.

I borrowed this book from my local library.

"How to Dazzle a Duke" by Claudia Dain

I have not read any of Claudia Dain’s other romance but after reading this one, I am going to find and read the earlier books in the series.

This is a historical romance with a slightly different twist. Penelope has a much more 21st century sensibility than one might expect in a young lady of the period. She knows what she wants in a husband ( a duke or the heir apparent to a duke) and sets out a plan to get what she wants. In particular, Penelope wants to marry the Duke of Edenham. To achieve her goal, Penelope requests assistance from Lady Dalby who has managed several marriages in the current social season.

Not content to let Lady Dalby handle matters, Penelope charges ahead with her own plans to get Edenham to notice her. Part of those plans involve the Marquis of Iveston. Penelope has no interest in Iveston beyond her plans and Iveston’s interest in Penelope is based on her being the only young woman to not chase after him. After Lady Dalby and Penelope set their own plans in motion, things happen quickly and no one knows if Penelope will end up with Edenham or Iveston.

For me the romance happened too quickly to feel much connection with the characters. I would have preferred the action to have taken place over a longer period of time. But it was an enjoyable read and I intend to read other of the author’s novels. Readers who don’t care for a lot of graphic sex scenes will like this books. There are several “heavy petting” type scenes but the couple doesn’t have sex until after they have decided to marry and even then it is “off camera” rather than played out in detail in the book.

I got this book from the library.

"Days of Gold" by Jude Devereaux is entertaining but not her best: 4 stars

I have been a fan of Jude Devereaux for many years and if this book had been written by another author, I might have given it only 3.5 stars but the 4th star is probably a very generous rounding up. Judged against Deveraux's best books (A Knight in Sning Armor for one), this is a 2 to 3 stars. Even thought it had some flaws, I enjoyed it.

This book is the second in the Edilean Series that started with Lavender Morning (Edilean). That wasn't my favorite of her books either but I always hope her new books will move me as much as her older ones. It starts in Scotland in 1770 and features the source of the name Edilean.

The beginning of the romance is really delightful. But right at the time the romance should kick it up a notch, a really unbelievable plot obstacle comes in and the rest of the book swerves past the limits of believability (even for a romance!). This interruption takes away from the depth of feeling the reader gets for the hero and heroine and as a result, it is a zero hankie ending. (This in contrast to some of the author's earlier books that had major tear-fest endings.)

I checked out this book from the library.  Support your local library!