Posts Tagged: Historical Romance

Tuesday, October 09, 2018

Extremely Soft: The Governess Game by Tessa Dare

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I received this book for free from Avon in exchange for an honest review. This does not affect my opinion of the book or the content of my review.

Extremely Soft: The Governess Game by Tessa DareThe Governess Game by Tessa Dare
Series: Girl Meets Duke #2
Published by Avon on August 28th, 2018
Source: Avon
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four-stars

He’s been a bad, bad rake—and it takes a governess to teach him a lesson

The accidental governess.

After her livelihood slips through her fingers, Alexandra Mountbatten takes on an impossible post: transforming a pair of wild orphans into proper young ladies. However, the girls don’t need discipline. They need a loving home. Try telling that to their guardian, Chase Reynaud: duke’s heir in the streets and devil in the sheets. The ladies of London have tried—and failed—to make him settle down. Somehow, Alexandra must reach his heart... without risking her own.

The infamous rake.

Like any self-respecting libertine, Chase lives by one rule: no attachments. When a stubborn little governess tries to reform him, he decides to give her an education—in pleasure. That should prove he can’t be tamed. But Alexandra is more than he bargained for: clever, perceptive, passionate. She refuses to see him as a lost cause. Soon the walls around Chase’s heart are crumbling... and he’s in danger of falling, hard.

Tessa Dare is one of those romance authors who slowly wormed her way into my heart. When I first read her back in 2013? 14? I wasn’t really a fan but the Castles Ever After series completely endeared her work to me. The Governess Game follows Alexandra Mountbatten. Alexandra shows up at the Duke of Belvoir’s residence to offer her services as a timekeeper. Somehow she wounds up being the governess to Reynaud’s two wards instead. 

TBH, I feel like a broken record because I say this about a lot of heroines in a lot of books but THERE IS NO AVOIDING IT. Alexandra Mountbatten is a great MC. I adore her. She is bookish, extremely smart and has peculiar interests (such as CLOCKS.) She is also extremely patient, kind and all around wonderful. I had to flip through a couple pages of the book to jog my memory and I was tempted to just re-read the book because she has such a great, distinct voice. So yeah, Alexandra Mountbatten is awesome. 

Chase (aka Duke of Belvoir aka Reynaud aka seducer of women) on the other hand is a little rough around the edges. Certain happenings in his past have made him into a jaded person when it comes to love (and not just romantic love.) His hobbies include being sarcastic, witty and pushing people away. YAYA. But also, unsurprisingly, he is a little softie and has a heart of gold. Plus his wit really is the best, tbh.

This is usually the part of the review where I blather on about the romance but tbh, while the romance was great, what really sold me on this book were the family dynamics. I LOVED Daisy and Rosamund and I loved their character arcs. I loved their weirdness, how Rosamund was extremely defensive of her little sister and I loved watching Alexandra work HARD to take down the walls they had built. I mean really, Alexandra is a hero. She is dealing with three people who don’t have a lot of emotional skills and has to slowly draw them out of their shells. 

Overall, The Governess Game is an extremely soft book. Which makes not much sense but there you have it. It is funny, sweet and swoony. I assume if you’re a Tessa Dare fan, you already have this on your tbr but for the rest of you who read romance but haven’t read her yet, WHAT ARE YOU WAITING FOR? The Governess Game is a perfect place to start!

four-stars

4 Hot Espressos

When Will Book 7 Be Out: After the Wedding by Courtney Milan

Posted by on 04/24/2018 • 0 Comments

It is no secret that I have been in a pretty big reading slump this month. I’ve mentioned it in a post or two and if you’re a frequent visitor, you’ve probably noticed that I haven’t posted a review in a while. It isn’t that a bad book or a really good one put me in a slump, it is that I haven’t really wanted to pick up a book and just keep on reading it until I finish. When After the Wedding landed in my inbox, I messaged my pal Lisa asking if she wanted to buddy-read since we had both been waiting for this book for what felt like a millenium. We got off to a rough start but soon, I literally couldn’t stop reading and maybe jumped…

Not Linden’s Best: My Once and Future Duke by Caroline Linden

Posted by on 02/16/2018 • 0 Comments

I might have waited too long to write this review because I am really scrambling to gather those thoughts. I’ve read several books by Caroline Linden and have really enjoyed her HRs. When I heard about her upcoming release and heard there was gambling involved, I was 110% in.

Here was my main problem though, I enjoyed the romance, I loved the story, I just didn’t love the Duke of Ware. He is completely insufferable and too pig-headed for my liking. He is intense and not in a good way. I warmed up a little bit to him, but for the most part, his pushiness and self-centeredness was not endearing in the list.

But if I hated the love interest, why did I enjoy the romance? Well, Caroline…

The Hamilton-Insipired Romances You Didn’t Know You Wanted: Hamilton’s Battalion

Posted by on 11/30/2017 • 1 Comment

Hamilton’s Battalion is one of the most unique romance anthologies I’ve had the pleasure of reading, ever. You’ve probably heard of Hamilton unless you live under the rock. The musical has really brought a lot of attention to Alexander Hamilton and given way to a lot of other media that adapts and retells historical events. This trio of romances is not only perfect for fans of historical romance but also for any Hamilton fans who just want ~more~.

This anthology is not only unique because it is one of the first ones that are inspired by Hamilton but also because even though it is three different stories by three different authors, the stories have a common overarching story.

Eliza Hamilton is collecting stories about her late husband and has reached…

Romance Mini-Reviews #2: The good and the okay

Posted by on 10/06/2017 • 0 Comments

A Taste of Honey Rose Lerner

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Fire and ice cream…

Robert Moon risked everything, including his father’s hardwon legacy, to open his beloved Honey Moon Confectionery on the busiest street in Lively St. Lemeston. Now he’s facing bankruptcy and debtor’s prison.

When a huge catering order comes in, he agrees to close the sweet-shop for a week to fill it. There’s only one problem: his apprentice is out of town, so his beautiful shop-girl Betsy Piper must help Robert in the kitchen.

Betsy’s spent the last year trying to make her single-minded boss look up from his pastries and notice that she would be the perfect wife. Now the two of them are alone in a kitchen full of sweet things. With just…

Romance Mini-Reviews: Two Mysteries + A Blast from the Past

Posted by on 12/14/2016 • 2 Comments

 

Hard Rules Lisa Renee Jones

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Wall Street meets the Sons of Anarchy in the smoldering, scorching first novel in the explosively sexy new Dirty Money series from New York Times bestselling author Lisa Renee Jones.

How bad do you want it?

The only man within the Brandon empire with a moral compass, Shane Brandon is ready to take his family’s business dealings legitimate. His reckless and ruthless brother, Derek wants to keep Brandon Enterprises cemented in lies, deceit, and corruption. But the harder Shane fights to pull the company back into the light, the darker he has to become. Then he meets Emily Stevens, a woman who not only stirs a voracious sexual need in him, but becomes the only thing anchoring…