Showing posts with label The Mad Morelands. Show all posts
Showing posts with label The Mad Morelands. Show all posts

Saturday, June 26, 2021

His Improper Lady by Candace Camp

We've seen Tom Quick grow up from a street urchin rescued by one of the Morelands to a man who is running a detective agency. When he sees an intruder one night, he's immediately intrigued. She's a woman! But why has she invaded his agency?
Desiree Sullivan and her brothers have worked hard for every penny that they have. Granted, a lot of their pennies came from thievery but they've had a hard life. At least until her oldest brother came back from Australia with a fortune. Now he owns a casino and Desiree uses her talent (an inner eye for lack of a better word) to determine when to hold 'em and when to fold 'em. But she and Tom decide to join forces to figure out how her past intersects his. 
As long as most of the other books in this series, this definitely follows the same path and regular readers will enjoy it. I don't think you need to have read the rest of the books in the series but it certainly does help to know who everyone is. 

Three and a half stars
This book comes out June 29th, 2021 
ARC kindly provided by HarperCollins and Edelweiss
Opinions are my own

Monday, April 12, 2021

His Wicked Charm by Candace Camp

Constantine "Con" Moreland is a little sad. His twin is getting married. Of course, he is happy for Alex but he wants the same kind of bond. All he has is a slightly antagonistic relationship with his twin's new wife's best friend, Lilah Holcutt. 
Lilah is also sad. She has been raised by an aunt who is sort of old-fashioned and she really has enjoyed the connection to the Morelands she had through her friend Sabrina. But with Sabrina on her honeymoon, she has no reason to see the family. Racking her brain, she remembers that she promised to drop off a book for one of the sisters-in-law, Olivia. While there, sister Anna has a vision that the rest of the family have been kidnapped. This sets off a series of events that lead Con and Lilah heading to her ancestral home where strange doings are happening.
A little bit better than the previous book but not much (both were good). I definitely connected more with Lilah who was smart and sharp and, generally, knew her own mind. Con was a little irreverent but generally about himself and his teasing Lilah never crossed into mean or creepy.

Three stars
Followed by His Improper Lady
This book came out March 27th, 2018 
Hard copy I didn't keep
Opinions are my own


His Sinful Touch by Candace Camp

Alexander "Alex" Moreland is wondering whether his life is too staid (especially when compared to his investigator brother's) when a strange-looking gentleman arrives on the doorstep of his brother's offices. Except it's not a gentleman, she's a lady. But she can't tell him anything because she's completely lost her memory. She has a few things in her pockets which help because one has the name "Sabrina" (apparently her name) and Alex is actually psychometric, he can tell the history of inanimate object just by his touch.
Alex can tell that she is a lady and he immediately takes her home to his parents. Their family is known as the "Mad Morelands" and one more person who is not quite normal isn't going to make a difference.  He also feels drawn to this woman, not unlike the "twin feeling" that he has with his brother.
Sabrina is bewildered that this man is so willing to take her in. Even without her memory she's pretty sure this is not what she's used to. But Alex's family is warm and welcoming and their open-arms are a reason that I'm enjoying the series so much. I didn't love the insta-bond between Sabrina and Alex but it was still an okay story.

Three stars
Followed by His Wicked Charm
This book came out January 20th, 2018
Hard copy I didn't keep
Opinions are my own


Friday, January 15, 2021

An Unexpected Pleasure by Candace Camp

American Megan Mulcahey is convinced that English nobleman Theo Moreland killed her brother ten years ago. And now her sister is having dreams that her family believes that they should take revenge. Megan gets taken on as a tutor for the two youngest of the Moreland children, twin boys who get into mischief in every book of this series. She doesn't actually know as much as them in some subjects but she only needs to hang on long enough to find proof that Theo murdered Dennis. Unfortunately, she finds herself charmed by the family and falling in love with Theo.
The Moreland family is unusual and that means that Theo doesn't necessarily think that finding the tutor in his father's study means anything malicious. He is more amused than alarmed. It doesn't hurt that said tutor is beautiful. 
It took me a little bit to get into this book because the beginning was just a little slow. I was pretty much considering a DNF at around the 80 page mark but read the last 30 pages and decided to wade through. And it was worth it. Most of the real story action starts about three-quarters of the way in but you need a lot of the slog to really understand what is going on. Like all of the books in the Mad Moreland series, there is a lot of mystical-type stuff going on but bringing that in is when the book really started to get good.

Three stars
This book came out August 29th, 2006
Follows Winterset
Followed by His Sinful Touch
Hard copy I didn't keep
Opinions are my own



Wednesday, November 18, 2020

Beyond Compare by Candace Camp

 I loved listening to the first book in this series and immediately ordered the rest of the series through PaperBackSwap.com. I'm not sure if it was the fact that I didn't like it as much because it wasn't audio or if this book was just harder to connect to but it took me a LONG time to finish this book. 
Kyria Moreland is incredibly beautiful but still unmarried. Rafe McIntyre is a friend of her sister's husband. American and incredibly attractive, Kyria is intrigued. She gets to spend more time with him when a mysterious box is sent to her family's house and the courier dies practically on the doorstep. His last words? Kyrie.
Bullets, knife fights, and kidnapping ensue. But it does go on a little bit long with not as much movement in the romance as there is in the mystery. 

Three stars
Follows Mesmerized
Followed by Winterset
This book came out April 4th, 2004
Hard copy I didn't keep
Opinions are my own


Thursday, September 24, 2020

Her Scandalous Pursuit by Candace Camp

Thisbe Moreland is a scientist even if she is a woman in a time when women are not considered to be intelligent. HarrisoBut she still attends lectures. And that's where she meets Desmond Harrison.  Most duke's daughters wouldn't be interested in a shopkeeper's assistant, especially one who works for a scientist trying to prove that ghosts exist, but one of the Mad Morelands would definitely be willing to defy convention.
Thisbe hates the name but she can't deny that she is having odd dreams. Dreams that are connected to the artifact that Desmond is looking for, one that might prove the existence of ghosts. Something her grandmother, the feared Dowager of Broughton owns.
This book was written after the rest of the series, even though it is a prequel. It is a nice, quick story though sort of surface, even though it tops four hundred pages.

Three stars
This book came out January 8th, 2020
Hard copy I didn’t keep
Opinions are my own



Saturday, July 18, 2020

Winterset by Candace Camp

Winterset (The Mad Morelands, #3)
Anna Holcombe and her brother have a family secret which means that, even though she loved Reed Moreland, she turned down his marriage proposal. The reason Reed even met her, living out in the country, is that he bough her uncle's estate. Now, knowing that Anna rejected him. He wants to sell. Except that he keeps having dreams that she is in trouble. And he just wants to make sure that she is okay.
For now she is, but someone is killing the local townspeople. And an old legend is resurrected. One that could bring the Holcombe family's secret out into the open.
A fun book with interesting characters.

Four stars
Followed by An Unexpected Pleasure
This book came out January 8th, 2018
Hard copy I didn't keep
Opinions are my own