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The Viscount Who Loved Me by Julia Quinn

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ISBN: 0380815575

Publisher: Avon

Book 2 in the Bridgerton Series (see Book 1 here) tells the story of Anthony Bridgerton and Kate Sheffield.  We find Anthony at the beginning of the book deciding it is time that he, at the ripe old age of 29, marry and sire some heirs.  Since he has decided that he has no intention of falling in love with his wife he is rather methodical about his choice of a wife.  Anthony  became Viscount after his father died at the age of 38 from a bee sting. Anthony feels that he will probably die the same way, and at about the same age as his father and he doesn’t want to leave a wife desperately grieving his death.  His choice of a wife, Edwina Sheffield, is someone he feels he will never fall in love with and therefore some one who will not be too devastated when he dies.  When Katherine (Edwina’s older half-sister) learns of Anthony’s pursuit she is determined to interfere.  Anthony has a reputatation as a rake and she doesn’t want her younger, more innocent sister to become a victim of Anthony’s rakish ways.  Anthony decides to seduce Kate to scare her off, but to his dismay, finds that Katherine may be the one to bring him to his knees when it comes to love!  Although Anthony is becoming more attracted to Kate as each day passes, he holds true to his decision to marry Edwina.  That is until he and Kate are caught in a compromising position by the biggest gossip in London.  He was trying to suck out the venom after Kate was stung by a bee.  If the scene wasn’t so heart wrenching, it would have been hysterical!  Kate and Anthony help each other resolve their outstanding fears and love conquers all in traditional Regency romance fashion.

This is a beautifully written book that deals with the character’s traumatic issues in a very sensitive fashion.  Certainly one of the better ones of this series.

Publisher’s Weekly describes this story by saying: “Her prose is spry and assured, and she excels at creating indelible characters.” I have to agree with this sentiment! Her characters feel real to me.  I find myself speeding though the pages cheering for certain characters.

The Romance Reader says “…whenever I dive into one of her romances, I’m usually rewarded with dialogue that sparkles, heroines who are sassy and intelligent, and heroes who are genuinely heroic, not to mention kind-hearted. So I’m happy to report that on these counts The Viscount Who Loved Me succeeds beautifully.”

Smart Bitches, Trashy Books says:  “Quinn novels for me are like comforting stories I’ve read a million times and liked, but I go in knowing that the comforting elements will be redealt into original patterns that I haven’t seen before.”

Although I know that one of the things I like about romance novels is that they always have a happy ending, I certainly enjoy the at time raucous ride through the story!  I laugh out loud, I shed tears, and I treasure every minute!

One More Time by Celia May Hart

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ISBN : 0758219229
Publisher : Aphrodisia/Kensington Books

This erotic time travel (and sort of paranormal novel) is the first novel by Celia May Hart – an author for Aphrodisia Kensington.  This book is mainly set in 1807 in Regency England.  Abby Dean flies her small plane to the hotel that she has recently been hired to manage, but when she attempts to land, the runway disappears and she makes an emergency landing in a field.  She meets Myles Hardy when she knocks on the door of what is supposed to be the hotel.  At this point, she discovers that she has gone back in time, she realizes that she will have to depend on Myles to help her in this unfamiliar century! Myles finds that idea of her coming from the future far fetched, but is intrigued by the selection of sex toys in her luggage. For some reason, Abby has the blueprints of the mansion/hotel and offers to work with Myles to discover a statue he is seeking that has supposedly been hidden somewhere in the mansion.

The cover of this book is what attracted me to read it!  Nothing like a mostly naked, well-buffed man to convince me that this book was worth reading.  Like many of the Aphrodisia books, this one has  a warning on the back about how sexually explicit it was.  There certainly was alot of sex in this book!  It isn’t for the faint of heart!  Abby and Myles have sex almost immediately and continue having sex at the drop of a hat throughout the book.  It was particularly steamy once the Greek Gods came alive and started getting busy with everyone!  This book is what I would classify as a Romantica – a cross between a romance novel and an erotic novel.  As a romance novel it was a bit thin in the story line.  As an erotic novel, it was extremely steamy.  It had paranormal aspects as the statue that Abby and Myles are looking for comes alive along with the associated Greek Gods and their bacchantes.  Group sex abounds once the various gods and their hangers-on come alive and join the group of interesting people now living at the mansion.  This book gets a super-hot rating from me for the erotic aspect but only average for the romance aspect.  It did, however, get 5 stars from Romance Times and was a nominee in Romance Times 2007 Reviewer’s Choice Award in the Erotic Romance Category.

Romance Times says: “This scorching roller-coaster of a read is an erotic page-turner. It has romance, intrigue, licentious nobility, a Greek god come to life and an unexpected ending. Feisty Abby and sensual Myles are the perfect couple to surmount the obstacles in their way. This may have been the first book I’ve read by Hart, but it certainly won’t be the last!”
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The Duke & I by Julia Quinn

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ISBN: 0380800829

Publisher: Avon Books

I am a fan, not only of series of books, but also of Regency Romances.  There is something beautiful about a romance written amongst the sparkle and glitter of balls, dashing gentlemen in formal dress and beautiful women in stunning gowns.  Add to that, the pleasure of following a group of characters through a number of books and my day is complete!

The Duke and I is our introduction the the Bridgerton family – a family of 8 children all named in alphabetical order from oldest to youngest.  The matriarch of the family is a widow who lost her husband relatively early to a bee sting – a subject the plays a role in many of the books.  Instead of starting this series with the eldest of the family (Anthony), Julia Quinn has started the series with Daphne who is the fourth born, but the eldest daughter of the family.  One common theme to this series of books is that Lady Bridgerton (the mother) seems to live to marry off her brood of children and deals with crisis after crisis with humor and good sense.  The other common theme to all these books are periodic excerpts from “Lady Whistledown’s Society Pages”.  As we find out in this book, Lady Whistledown publishes a news sheet that many members of the ton read regularly and it frequently features the activities of the Bridgertons.  At this point we don’t know who Lady Whistledown is, but much time is spent speculating who she is and commenting on the contents of her new sheet.

Our story begins with Daphne and Simon Bassett, the Duke of Hastings, forming an attachment – a tendre as it were – to protect Simon from all the match-making mothers and to make Daphne appear more attractive to to potential suitors.  The thought is that Daphne will appear more attractive to other men if she the consort of a Duke.  Soon their pretend tendre becomes all too real with both of them forming feelings for one another.  Simon has a history with his father and is determined not to marry and have his family line die with him.  Simon soon finds his heart warming up and finds himself jealous of the men surrounding Daphne.  Daphne discovers herself spending more and more time with Simon regardless of the flocks of other men around her.  While all of this is happening we are continually entertained with the shenanigans of Daphne’s siblings and mother as well as commentary by Lady Whistledown.  In true Regency romance fashion our story has a happy ending with a few tears shed along the way.

Julia Quinn is described  as “A Consummate Storyteller” by Publishers Weekly.  Author Lisa Kleypas describes The Duke and I as “The most refreshing and radiant love story you’ll read this year.”  The Romance Reader says: “The Duke and I is a refreshingly witty tale with a hero and heroine whose emotions are fueled by intelligence rather than by ungovernable body parts, although there’s plenty of that, too. Add in an interesting array of meddlesome family members and The Duke and I definitely ranks as a keeper.”

I thoroughly enjoyed reading The Duke and I.  Although it is an older book, it provides a strong start to a series that I love!  The Bridgerton series had me enjoying my reading time; frequently losing track of time and reading far into the night.  Although I come from a larger family, I don’t think that my siblings and I interact in quite so humorous and demonstrative a fashion.  I look forward to reading the next installment and seeing if I can guess who Lady Whistledown is!