About a Rogue by Caroline Linden

A nice play on “Taming of the Shrew” except the names of the sisters are switched. 

Maximilian St. James hasn’t had the best life but his father’s pronouncement that they were descended from dukes turns out to be true. And he’s in line (maybe) to inherit a dukedom. But the man ahead of him seems to be a lock. Even so, Max decides he needs to get married. He sets his sights on the Tate pottery factory, er, the eldest Tate daughter. Even as demure as Cathy is, she still decides that she’s going to marry her One True Love. That leaves her sister Bianca behind and right in their father’s crosshairs. 

Bianca isn’t excited to marry Max but, the more she gets to know him, the more she realizes he is a diamond in the rough. A diamond that is perfectly willing to be less rough by trying to make the factory even better than it currently is. He’s not going to just take the money and run, instead, he wants to make an even better company.

There was a whole subplot that frankly didn’t need to be in the book. It was a perfectly lovely story before then and the rest felt like it was shoehorned in.

Three stars

Followed by About a Scot

This book came out June 30th, 2020

Hard copy I didn’t keep

Opinions are my own

A Rake's Guide to Seduction by Caroline Linden

I didn't read the first book in this series but I didn't feel like I was missing anything. We learn from the beginning that Anthony Hamilton (he refuses to use his courtesy title) is something of a rake. Well, he's a giant rake. Or so the gossip says. But people have been gossiping about him since his birth (is he really his father's son?) so who knows the truth?
Celia Reece thinks she knows. He's a good man. But can she really tell? She made such a bad marriage the first time, it's hard to tell. But he seems to be different from her first husband in so many important ways. Then, they're caught in a compromising position and (somewhat) forced to pretend to be engaged.
And I didn't think the plot really needed this point. It seemed... out of place in the rest of the book. But it wasn't so jarring that I stopped reading. This was a fast, fun, and fluffy read and I generally enjoyed it.

Three and a half stars
This book came out August 29

Six Degrees of Scandal by Caroline Linden

I have been wondering what the heck was up with Olivia Townsend and we finally get to find out. I definitely preferred this book to the last one in this series though.Olivia Townsend has loved James Weston for most of her life. They grew up together and then fell in love. But after a romantic interlude... James decides that he knows what's best and wanders off rather than immediately asking for her hand. Because Olivia's family is in dire straights, they can't wait to get her married. Especially now that she's "damaged goods." So Olivia marries another. It's been two years since her husband died of the flu and she's not sure what's going on. Not only has all of the money from his inheritance mysteriously disappeared, one of her husband's friends is getting more and more insistent about pressing his intentions. And now she's got this mysterious book that just showed up. It seems to be one of her husband's diaries (according to the back cover, but really it sounds more like a ledger). When she takes it to a lawyer, he not only denies knowing exactly what it is, he claims that it was supposed to be burned. Going to her cold and lonely cottage (where she's hiding to get away from her would-be suitor), Olivia is beset upon by a shadowed man. One with a very familiar voice. It's James. He's been recruited by his sister Penelope to come to Olivia's rescue.As readers, we travel with James and Olivia to find out what her husband was really up to all while watching the two of them fall back in love. Or acknowledging that they still love each other. Parts of the story were a little too smooth and other parts dragged on a bit but overall a fairly good story.

This book comes out March 29, 2016

At the Duke's Wedding-multiple authors

The first three stories were... okay. The last did not interest me at all. I rounded up from the two and a half stars that I would have given it if Goodreads did halves. I saw this listed on the Kobo site and was intrigued by the blurb. I had a little extra time and money and went for it.
I've read novellas around one event before and have enjoyed them. This one wasn't as well done.
The first story is "That Rogue Jack" by Maya Rodale. Henrietta Black is resigned to being a spinster companion for an irascible old lady. But right now she needs to get the Duke's ancestral ring from Jack, Lord Willoughby but he's not only a rake. He's something of a wastrel.
It was a hate-to-love story that felt rushed. I realize that this is a novella but it was still awfully fast.
"P.S. I Love You" by Miranda Neville came next. I like Neville but this one was... not her best. It's a Cyrano story where the man behind the letters takes a lot of liberties with the supposed woman he loves. Luckily, she figures it out pretty fast so that part held up but... meh.
"When I Met my Duchess" by Caroline Linden rounded out the trio that I was able to read. The Duke from the title figures out that he wants to marry his intended's vivacious sister. But he sort of blackmails her into it. Blergh.
I was already falling out of this book when I hit "How Angela Got Her Rogue Back" by Katharine Ashe. It's  a time-travel story. Don't love those to begin with and this one just stretched my suspension of disbelief too far. This was a DNF.

You know, looking back, this really was just a two star book. Novellas tend to be underdeveloped just because of their length but these were especially not good.