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Tessa Dare

In My Mailbox March 27th

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Welcome to In My Mailbox – March 27th edition.  This weekly meme is hosted by The Story Siren, so if you want to join up – head over there, link your blog and wander from blog to blog find out what people are reading!

I have officially survived March break – Monday school starts up again!  I really didn’t get much reading done – and I don’t think I managed to get any of my outstanding reviews written.  I did receive  5 interesting books this week, however!

To start with, I got an e-book of a book that doesn’t have a cover yet!  I feel like I’m on the cutting edge *grins*. Flat Out Love by Jessica Park sounds pretty interesting!  I’m going to have a copy to give away during next weekend’s “Fool for Books” Giveaway Hop.  Here’s the blurb:

Something is seriously off in the Watkins home.  And Julie Seagle, college freshman, small-town Ohio transplant, and the newest resident of this Boston house, is determined to get to the bottom of it.
When Julie’s off-campus housing falls through, her mother’s old college roommate, Erin Watkins, invites her to move in. The parents, Erin and Roger, are welcoming, but emotionally distant and academically driven to eccentric extremes. The middle child, Matt, is an MIT tech geek with a sweet side … and the social skills of a spool of USB cable. The youngest, Celeste, is a frighteningly bright but freakishly fastidious 13-year-old who hauls around a life-sized cardboard cutout of her oldest brother almost everywhere she goes.

And there’s that oldest brother, Finn: funny, gorgeous, smart, sensitive, almost emotionally available. Geographically? Definitely unavailable. That’s because Finn is traveling the world and surfacing only for random Facebook chats, e-mails, and status updates. Before long, through late-night exchanges of disembodied text, he begins to stir something tender and silly and maybe even a little bit sexy in Julie’s suddenly lonesome soul.
To Julie, the emotionally scrambled members of the Watkins family add up to something that … well … doesn’t quite add up. Not until she forces a buried secret to the surface, eliciting a dramatic confrontation that threatens to tear the fragile Watkins family apart, does she get her answer.

Next, I’m busy reading A Walk in the Snark by Rachel Thompson.  It is the book that is going to be featured in the next Bestseller for a Day promotion.  This is going to happen on April 6th.  Be sure to join in the fun that day.  You will be able to get a copy of this book on April 6th for 99 cents from Amazon as well as deals on other books and also be entered to win some prizes!  It’s going to be a cool day, be sure to participate!  For more details go to Bestseller 4 a Day.

I got one e-book that I need to read for a BLB eBook Tour coming to my blog on April 7th.

Mine by Jill Noelle sound pretty interesting also.  Here’s the blurb:

In a decadent empire of the far distant future, Gabriella is chosen to serve as a sexual companion for the king. However, Brie has no intentions of joining the Select Few. In fact, she has another mission, entirely…one that is destined to alter the future of the kingdom’s poverty-stricken population.

Michel also serves the king. It’s his job to train Brie to suit the king’s sexual preferences. Trouble is, Michel wants Brie for his own.

I’ve been on the waiting list for what seems like forever at Paperback Swap, but I finally got a copy of Three Nights with a Scoundrel by Tessa Dare in the mail this week!

The blurb from Goodreads is:

The bastard son of a nobleman, Julian Bellamy is now polished to perfection, enthralling the ton with wit and charm while clandestinely plotting to ruin the lords, ravish the ladies, and have the last laugh on a society that once spurned him. But after meeting Leo Chatwick, a decent man and founder of an elite gentlemen’s club, and Lily, Leo’s enchanting sister, Julian reconsiders his wild ways. And when Leo’s tragic murder demands that Julian hunt for justice, he vows to see the woman he secretly loves married to a man of her own class.

Lily, however, has a very different husband in mind.  She’s loved Julian forever, adores the man beneath the rakish façade, and wants to savor the delicious attraction they share—as his wife. His insistence on marrying her off only reinforces her intent to prove that he is the only man for her. Obsessed with catching a killer, Julian sinks back to the gutters of his youth, forcing Lily to reach out with a sweet, reckless passion Julian can’t resist. Can her desire for a scoundrel save them both—or will dangerous secrets threaten more than their tender love?

Lastly, I won a copy of How Sweet it Is by Sophie Gunn from Kathy at I Am A Reader Not a Writer. Thank you so much Kathy!  I’m really looking forward to reading this one!  Here’s the blurb on Goodreads:

Single mom Lizzie Bea Carpenter learned long ago that no white knight was coming to save her. A hardworking waitress at the local diner, she’s raising her daughter to be like the independent women in her “Enemy Club”—high school rivals turned best friends, promising to always tell each other the whole truth and nothing but!

Yet part of Lizzie wishes she did have a man’s help, just for small stuff, like fixing up the house. Her fairy godmother must have been listening, because Dante “Tay” Giovanni soon appears. He’s sexy, kind, and offering assistance—no strings attached.

Slowly, steadily, Lizzie’s heart opens. But the grip of the past is fierce, and nothing in life is ever really free. Tay has his own tragedies to overcome, but if he can, he’ll fix more than Lizzie’s home. He’ll show her just how sweet it is to be loved by him.

Now…..I just have to find the time to read them all!  What did you get in your mailbox this week?

Twice Tempted by a Rogue by Tessa Dare

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ISBN: 978-0-345-51887-3

Release: June 22, 2010
Publisher: Ballantine/DelRay

Source: I purchased this book to read and review

How long could she resist him?

Luck is a double-edged sword for brooding war hero Rhys St. Maur. His death wish went unanswered on the battlefield, while fate allowed the murder of his friend in the elite gentlemen’s society known as the Stud Club. Out of options, Rhys returns to his ancestral home on the moors of Devonshire, expecting anything but a chance at redemption in the arms of a beautiful innkeeper, who dares him to take on the demons of his past — and the sweet temptation of a woman’s love.

Meredith Maddox believes in hard work, not fate, and romance isn’t part of her plan. But when Rhys returns, battle-scarred, world-weary, and more dangerously attractive than ever, the lovely widow is torn between determination and desire. As a deep mystery and dangerous smugglers threaten much more than their passionate reckoning, Meredith discovers that she must trust everything to a wager her heart placed long ago.

Twice Tempted by a Rogue is the second book in new author Tessa Dare’s second trilogy – The Stud Club Trilogy.  The first trilogy was released close together and all books were well received.  I, personally found all books to be delightful and am enjoying her second trilogy.  I find this trilogy darker than the first one.

In Twice Tempted by a Rogue, the story of the “Stud Club” is continued with us finding more out about Rhys St. Maur.  We met him in the first book, One Dance with a Duke, as a big hunk of a man who feels that he can’t be killed.  As the synopsis of the book says, “His death wish went unanswered on the battlefield…”.  He placed himself in the way of death time and again both on the battlefield and in other situations and has come to the conclusion that his destiny is in Fate’s hands.  As his unbelievably abusive father is now dead, and the war is over, he heads home to his burned down wreck of an ancestral home on the moors of Devonshire – a dark and forbidding place.  He doesn’t have a happy welcome – in fact the townspeople try to run him out of town.  Meredith Maddox, the daughter of his father’s groom, is now a widow and the owner of the town’s only inn.  She believes in hard work to get ahead in life – not fate like Rhys does.

Rhys sets himself the task of rebuilding the family home.  He starts out alone, hoping that the townsfolk will come around and agree to some paid work.  His dogged persistence pays off both with the townsfolk and with Meredith.

This book is darker than the rest of the books that Tessa Dare has written.  It seems to match the dark and forbidding countryside.  It’s interesting to see the skill of Tessa Dare come alive as she  writes a compelling romance completely away from the glittering ballrooms typical to many Regency Romance writers.  The people who populate this book are angry, downtrodden and their lives are filled with hard work, suffering and not much hope, yet Ms. Dare has composed an extremely moving story.  Her characters sizzle with passion and their dialogue comes alive on the page!

One passage I bookmarked as it had me on the floor laughing was picked up on by several other reviewers:

“Oh Rhys,” she sighed, tilting her head back.
The way she moaned for him…it made his blood catch fire.
”Oh my God,” she cried, craning her neck a bit more. “Just look at the scrollwork on that ceiling.”
”To hell with the damned ceiling,” he growled…..

RT Book Reviews names Twice Tempted by a Rogue as a Top Pick, giving it 4 and 1/2 stars, saying: “In keeping with the previous book, Dare has written an extremely moving story, replete with deep-seated passions, adventure and characters that are not easily forgotten. It is rare to encounter characters with as much angst, but whose depth of emotions and love is so strong it enables them to overcome any obstacle. This is a great book that deserves a place on your keeper shelf.”

Romance Junkies only gives Twice Tempted by a Rogue 3.5 stars but the review is quite favorable.  They say among other things, “I enjoyed the sizzling chemistry between the main characters too, even as I longed for the action between them to be sped up a bit. Tessa Dare is great at transporting readers into another time and place and that talent shines in this book. Additionally, details of the murder of the founder of the Stud Club are slowly revealed in this second book.”

Smexy Books gave this book a 3.5 rating also and said some very complimentary things about Tessa Dare as an author: “Although Meredith and I didn’t see eye to eye, Tessa Dare still writes wonderful romance. There is a scene with the simple act of Rhys taking off Meredith’s apron that becomes anything but simple. She just adds something special to her romance scenes that make them so rich.”

I agree wholeheartedly.  There is something about Tessa Dare’s writing that just seems to come alive from the paper.  The book is like a movie you are watching as your are reading.  I don’t think that I can describe how she does that, you just have to read her books and see if you feel the same way I and many others do!  This book is destined for my keeper shelf!

One Dance With a Duke by Tessa Dare

By

ISBN: 978-0-345-51885-9
Publisher: Ballentine/Del Ray

One Dance with a Duke is the first novel in Tessa Dare’s second trilogy. This new trilogy – called the Stud Club Trilogy – center around a group of 10 men who own rights to the stud services of a retired champion race horse. One Dance with a Duke is about the story of Spencer Dumarque, the 4th Duke of Morland – one of the members of the Stud Club. Spencer is trying to find a wife, but is not comfortable in social situations. In his male mind, he has decided that he will show up at ton entertainments at midnight and select one lady to dance with and then leave before he becomes uncomfortable. Because of his actions, he is dubbed the “Duke of Midnight” by other members of the ton. There seems to be a great deal of speculation about him, and all the single ladies hope to be chosen to dance his one dance of the evening. The particular evening at the start of the book, Lady Amelia d’Orsay finds herself giving her brother the last of her money to pay a gambling debt and finding out he has lost a fortune to Spencer. She decides that she will be the “Duke of Midnight’s” one dance for the evening and makes it happen in a humorous scene. The conversation during the dance had me laughing out loud! At the end of the dance Spencer had panic attack – we find out later that he has claustrophobia- and he tucked Amelia under his arm and headed outside. This is the first in a series of unrealistic occurrences that create problems with the believability of this book.

Tessa Dare is a wonderful author. The dialogue leaps off the pages and the story flows along in a seamless fashion. Makes it difficult to imagine that she is a new writer!  I didn’t become as attached to the characters in this book as I did in the previous set of books. Amelia seemed to be overly supportive of her family members. It takes her a long time to see through her brother’s lies and cons. She seems to spend most of the book putting her family first.

Spencer is a troubled hero. He seems way too infatuated with horses and the stud club horse in particular! It isn’t until almost the end of the book when we are offered a logical explanation for his obsession with the stud club horse. Because of this, he comes off as a bit batty! He is, however, more willing to share his life and love with Amelia than she is. I don’t have to like the characters to appreciate the writing, and this is the case for this book! I look forward to the next book so that I can enjoy Tessa Dare’s wonderful flowing writing style!

Tessa Dare continues to receive glowing reviews. Comments are made about how many wonderful books this new author has produced, and that all of them are of a high quality!  Mandi from Smexy Books points out an interesting fact about Tessa Dare’s writing by saying: “Tessa Dare can write foreplay like no one’s business. She spends and entire page on just the act of Spencer removing his gloves so he can kiss Amelia properly. And then – the kiss.”  I couldn’t say that any better.  When you read one of Ms. Dare’s books you are so engrossed in the words that you forget the passage of time or how well she draws the reader in!

Romance Junkies gave One Dance With a Duke 4.5 out of 5 and said: “ONE DANCE WITH A DUKE starts off with just the right amount of shock and awe and grows into an utterly irresistible love story. Tessa Dare writes a truly energetic and refreshing love story. Amelia and Spencer will steal your heart!”



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