Risk of Rogues

The Risk of Rogues (Sinful Suitors novella)- Sabrina Jeffries
Simon & Schuster
Release Date: July 2, 2018

Rating:
📚📚📚📚

Synopsis: Lady Anne is shocked when Captain Lord Hartley Corry—her former fiancé who left for India after her father forbade their marriage—returns to England and acts as if everything is all water under the bridge. He never fought for her hand or eloped with her as he promised and he thinks she’d still be willing to marry him? Not a chance.

Hartley is equally shocked to literally run into his past love upon arriving at his brother’s house. Though he yearns to take advantage of this second chance to woo his beloved, he can hardly admit that he is secretly a spy—at least not until he can be sure he trusts her. But convincing Lady Anne to let him prove his sincerity by courting her respectably all over again might be his undoing. Because all he wants is to show her how much of a rogue he can be when the right woman is in his arms…

__________________________________________________________

Lady Anne is known for her unique hats, and Captain Hartley "Hart" Corry is known as a gambler, a wastrel, and a rogue.  While Anne knows her reputation for hats is well earned, she's not sure about Hart's reputation.  If true, she should steer clear of the man she once hoped to marry.  If not, she needs to find out why he never eloped with her as promised and if they can still have a future.  Hart has to convince Anne they are still right for each other without telling her any of his past actions of future plans- all of which revolve around spying.  Can he balance both worlds and come out the winner?

Readers to Jeffries' Sinful Suitors series will recognize Hart and Lady Anne as secondary characters from the other books and be thrilled that they get their own story.  And Jeffries works her usual magic, bringing humor, heart, and happy endings to even a quick novella.  While I'm not usually a fan of second chance romance, Rogues is the perfect kind of second chance story- two people who were kept apart because their parents disapproved, but who were both too young to be ready for marriage at the time- even if they didn't realize it.  Both have lived and grown and discovered themselves as people, and now get to meet again for the first time.

Anne is a practical woman trying to look after herself and her mother, and no longer the romantic, lovestruck teen that Hart knew, so he's both surprised and suspicious when she asks practical questions about things like his future plans and money.  I loved how Anne stood up for herself, refusing to be swept along by passion and chemistry (which was instant and electric) and insisting that she was right to try to get to the truth of Hart's life and reputation before agreeing to marry him.  Both of them were smart enough to recognize that they weren't necessarily the same people they had been eleven years ago and they needed to get to known each other again- but Hart especially was also smart enough to know that the kind of chemistry they had was not something that should be ignored.  Readers can look forward to some truly romantic grand gestures as each works to prove their love to the other, and a most satisfying happy ending in true Sabrina Jeffries' style: discovering the true risk of rogues!

Sabrina Jeffries couldn't finish off her Sinful Suitors series (The Secret of Flirting) without giving us Lady Anne and Captain Hartley's story, and here it is! A short novella, The Risk of Rogues gives readers either the final helping of Jeffries' Suitors characters or, if this is your first taste, a delightful sample of what's in store when you read the rest of the series.  

I received an ARC of this book from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review

Mistletoe, Mischief, & the Marquis

Mistletoe, Mischief, & the Marquis- Amelia Grey
Swerve
Release Date: November 29, 2016

Rating (out of 5):
📚📚📚📚

Synopsis:  The Marquis of Wythebury, is expecting an ordinary Christmastide at Hurst—until he is set upon by a beautiful miss who takes him to task for not allowing his young nephews to play outside. In his mind, a five and seven year old needn’t get chilled in the snow; better to plop them in front of the fire with a book. Few people have ever been brave enough to challenge him over anything, much less the rearing of his wards. The cheeky Miss Prim has no such compunction. No matter how fetching he finds her, he can’t give in to his attraction…for she is the sister of his best friend.

Growing up the middle child of five rambunctious girls, Lillian Prim doesn’t understand why two young boys visiting Hurst don’t know how to play until she meets their dashing guardian. The Marquis of Wythebury is commanding and intensely serious-minded. To her surprise, she’s captivated by him. It’s all she can do not to give into her feminine fantasies about her kissing him. Lillian has no intention of falling in love with the Marquis, but she will create Christmastide mischief and teach the boys and the handsome Marquis how to play.

__________________________

Mistletoe, Mischief, and the Marquis  is a fun and quick short story of Regency England, Christmastide, families, and love.  Seth Wythebury, Marquis of Wythebury, has brought his two young nephews with him to a friend's home for the Christmas holidays.  His nephews are recently orphaned and now under his guardianship, but Seth knows nothing about children and isn't quite sure what to do with them.  He believes they'd be better studying all the time indoors.  Miss Lillian Prim, sister-in-law to Seth's best friend (and host) has other ideas.  Snow ball fights, sleigh rides, and not studying all the time are what she recommends.  Can opposites attract in time for a Christmas engagement?

A fast paced novella that still manages to include high jinks, humor, challenges, and chemistry is a rare thing, but Mistletoe manages all of that and more.  Lillian and Seth battle back and forth, matching wits and stubbornness while enjoying themselves enough to fall in love.  I'm not fond of books including small children, so I was glad that the nephews acted more as a way for Seth and Lillian to discover their differences in approaching life, while also being what draws them together, than being main characters themselves.  Both characters know themselves, but also begin to discover where they can compromise to make the other happy.  I enjoyed Seth's big declaration at the end, where he proves himself above the average suitor in imagination and memory.  Perhaps one of the most touching, and memorable, moments for me was at the very end, when Lillian worries that eventually they will become unhappy because of their differences- how can they be sure their love will last?  Not a question that often comes up- and Seth's answer is one that applies to couples today as well as it applies to him and Lillian: that's part of the challenge of love, and when differences start to push you apart, remind each other of the love and special memories that brought you together in the first place.

A lovely and fun story for the holidays- and all the year through!

I received an ARC of this book through NetGalley for an honest review.

Wild Embrace

Wild Embrace- Nalini Singh
Berkley Publisher
Release Date: August 23, 2016

Rating (Out of 5):
📚📚📚📚📚

Warning: Spoilers Ahead!

Synopsis: The “alpha author of paranormal romance”* presents a stunningly sensual collection of four all-new Psy-Changeling novellas, in which taboos are broken, boundaries are crossed, and instincts prove irresistible...
Echo of Silence
In a deep-sea station, Tazia Nerif has found her life’s work as an engineer, keeping things running smoothly. But she wants nothing more than to break down the barrier of silence between her and her telekinetic Psy station commander...
Dorian
A changeling who can never shift lives a life of quiet frustration—until he learns how to let his leopard come out and play...
Partners in Persuasion
Still raw from being burned by a dominant female, wolf changeling Felix will never again risk being a plaything. But for dominant leopard Dezi, he’s the most fascinating man she’s ever met. She just has to convince this gun-shy wolf that he can trust the dangerous cat who wants to take a slow, sexy bite out of him…
Flirtation of Fate
Seven years ago, Kenji broke Garnet’s heart. Now the wolf packmates have to investigate the shocking murder of one of their own. And the more Kenji sees of the woman Garnet has become, the deeper he begins to fall once more. But even his primal instincts are no match for the dark secret he carries...
               ___________________________________________________________________
Wild Embrace is a collection of 4 all-new novellas in Nalini Singh's Psy-Changeling world, and was well worth the wait!  I freely admit that I was dragging at work today because I stayed up late to finish the book- I just couldn't put it down, even between stories.

Each story takes place at different times in the timeline fans know: Echo of Silence closer to the beginning of the series while Partners in Persuasion takes place nearer the "present". Each can be read by readers just beginning to enter the Psy/Changeling world while longtime fans will enjoy cameos by old friends like Hawke, Mercy, Drew, and others. We return to familiar places and discover new ones, each so well written you feel like you are there with the characters.

I loved getting to "check in" on SnowDancer and DarkRiver, filling in some of the action behind the main stories we already know.  And Dorian was a great way to delve deeper into Dorian's psyche, and learn more about what makes him tick and what it was like for him to be a latent both as an adult who had accepted it, but also as a child still learning his place in the pack.

My absolute favorite story though, was Echo of Silence. As much as I love the changelings, I have a special love for Psy-human romance.  And this story had all the struggles: it was after Faith and Vaughn's story when Silence was still fully accepted by the Psy; the Psy, Stefan, couldn't blame his "faulty" Silence on being an Empath- he's a telekinetic.  Tazia wasn't a changeling whose animal was sure of her mate, she was a human with some heavy emotional baggage of her own.  But the two of them figured out how to know each other at a time when humans rarely bothered to look below the surface of a Silent Psy.  They fought cultural taboos on both sides to not only fall in love, but then to make it work.  They saw obstacles, but never saw impossible.  I'm hoping that we'll see these two in future books- as the third Psy-human couple in the PsyNet (briefly mentioned in Allegiance of Honor) I'm hoping that they will become advisors to future potential couples, in the same way that Lucas and Sascha or Ivy and Vasic advise others.

Beautifully written, complex and sensual, Wild Embrace proves that Singh is as excellent at writing novellas as she is the full length novel- in case anyone hasn't read her earlier stories and still needed convincing!