A Yuletide Kiss -- Anthology

When We Finally Kiss Good Night by Sabrina Jeffries 

Konrad Juncker has been introduced in other books of the "Duke Dynasty" as the person posing as a playwright so that one of the dukes can be anonymous. We've also know that he had a romance with Flora Younger when they were in their teens (at least she was) but something happened and they did not marry. 

 In this story, Konrad and Flora are stuck in the same in the same inn during a snowstorm and truths about their past start to come out. Including that she would have waited for him and that he didn't think he was good enough for her. And both have identities they wouldn't want the rest of the world to know about. But they both are still attracted and have hope for a future together. And even though this is a short story, there is still room for a Big Misunderstanding (sigh). 

Fours stars 

The Unexpected Gift by Madeline Hunter 

Overlapping with the previous story, we see the viewpoint of the inn owner. Jenna Waverly is dealing with a snowstorm and is grateful that she doesn't have many mouths to feed when one of her team, Peter, brings in an unconcious man. One who is probably a lord based on his clothing. And this year is already not turning out as she had planned. Instead of her normal routine where she gets to relax with no people, she is forced to share the inn with a group of unexpected travelers. 

Lucas Avonwood is sick and Jenna feels as though she needs to tend him herself. It is his illness that allows them to be vulnerable with each other. He is searching for a broach to make sure that his cousin isn't caught out by a rogue and her brother mortgaged the inn (which is in both their names) without asking her. It may be that their problems are a shared one. Since it is a short story, we don't really get a sense of how the two will really get an HEA but okay nonetheless. 

Three stars 

When Strangers Meet by Mary Jo Putney 

Again overlapping with the other stories, we get the tale of two of the other people caught in the snowstorm at the White Rose, Kate Macleod and Daniel Faringdon. He is in line for a barony and she... she is his wife. 

It seems that seven years ago they were both in Bombay. Her uncle, an unscrupulous man, swooped in to pick at the coffers after her parents died. Since Kate was of a an age, he auctioned her off and Daniel was the lucky recipient of her hand. He never believed the marriage was legal but here she is, stating just the opposite. So he suggests that they use their time snowbound to determine whether or not they should remain married. Again, for a short story, there is not a lot of room to explore why an HEA would work for them but overall a nice story. 

Four stars

Four stars

This book came out September 28th, 2021

Borrowed as ebook from Libby

Opinions are my own

The Bargain by Mary Jo Putney

Lady Jocelyn Kendal needs a man. Preferably one not long for this earth. Her father's convoluted will left her all of his money but only if she married by the time she turned 25... and that birthday is fast approaching. She needs more time to convince a certain duke that she could be his perfect woman. 

While visiting the local veteran's hospital, she meets Major David Lancaster, a very nice man who is on his deathbed. And it seems that the major has a sister that he is worried about. In exchange for an immediate marriage, Jocelyn will support his sister. It's a win-win situation. At least, it is until David doesn't die. 

I liked that David and Jocelyn were both perfectly decent people, each caught up in circumstances that were not of their own making. Their romance is fine but I REALLY liked the B romance between David's managing sister and the surgeon who saves his life. A little bland in places but overall an enjoyable read. 

Three stars

Followed by Petals in the Storm

This book came out October 1st, 1999

Borrowed as an ebook from CloudLibrary

Opinions are my own

Once a Spy by Mary Jo Putney

If you've read previous books in the Rogues Redeemed series, you will remember Simon Duval, the man who has helped our other heroes find love. In "Once a Scoundrel," Susan Duval, widow of Simon's cousin, helps the heroine escape a harem, the same harem where she was held for years. It's sort of understandable that she's not real keen on sex at this point. But when Simon suggests they marry for companionship, Susan is read to do it. Shunned by the other French emigres, Susan is not sure about the marriage at first but then she meets his friends and realizes that not everyone is as close-minded. She decides that, if Simon is not serious about wanting intimacy, she's in. So they marry and Simon soon realizes that his desire is not as lost as he thought.
The two work through her issues even as they also have to deal with going to Brussels, even knowing that Napoleon has escaped and England may once again be on the brink of war. They are looking for Simon's cousin, Lucas, who disappeared from a war camp and now may be wandering the countryside as a Franciscan monk.
This is a typical Putney novel, generally fast, fun, and fluffy. There are some heavy themes in this book that aren't exactly treated lightly but they are sort of skimmed over. Readers will again experience an unusual bent into religion, something that happened at the end of the Lost Lords series. I say unusual because it doesn't happen in every Putney book but shows up unexpectedly here and there and I was surprised there wasn't anything about it in the author's note, why was this book different? This time it was a little less preachy and more in the line of miraculous. I don't mind it if it's used consistently in a series but am sort of bemused that we have several fairly straight-forward novels and then one with overt magical realism. It will be interesting to see if future books in the series continue this trend, especially if Lucas gets his own HEA.

Three stars
This book came out September 24th
Follows Once a Scoundrel

Followed by Once Dishonored
ARC kindly provided by Kensington Books and NetGalley
Opinions are my own

Dearly Beloved by Mary Jo Putney

Oh dear God. I wish I had known this was a reissue before I requested an ARC from . I may have enjoyed this book if I had read it when it came out in 1990 but the romance genre and what readers find romantic has changed a LOT since then. The writing is flowery, the story breaks the bounds of belief suspension, and the book starts off with the "hero" raping the heroine and veers into child abuse. With so many recent good books by Ms. Putney, what editor thought that re-releasing this book was a good idea? It's bound to turn new readers away from ever trying her books again.
Diana Lindsay is still young and very beautiful. She struggles to make ends meet and keep her son in food. When she rescues a courtesan from a blizzard, she realizes that there may be a way to make ends meet and immediately becomes a protege, knowing that giving up her body will lead her son to a better life.
Gervase Brandelin, the Viscount St. Aubyn, knows that he is a monster. That is why he tries to contain his base urges to the members of the demimonde, women who know how to handle the darkness inside him. On the night that Diana makes her "debut," Gervase decides to claim her as his own...
I would have rated this one star if I didn't reserve it for DNFs.

One and a half stars
This book comes out June 25th
ARC kindly provided by Kensington Books and NetGalley
Opinions are my own

Once a Scoundrel by Mary Jo Putney

After his grandfather tosses him out, Gabriel Vance changes his last name to Hawkins and heads out to sea. He is the captain of his own ship (and his own destiny) when he's approached to help rescue Lady Aurora "Roarin' Rory" Lawrence, from Barbary pirates. She's an adventurer in her own right but she might need a little help to get out of this one.
Putney adds a lot of elements to this book, adventure, storms, kidnapping, a B plot love story. But all of that tends to overshadow the main love story. This is a good book but not one of my faves.

Three stars
This book came out September 25
Followed by Once a Spy
ARC kindly provided by NetGalley

Once a Soldier by Mary Jo Putney

We've met Will Masterson on the Lost Lord series.his brother Mac got married in "Nowhere Near Respectable" and we know from these stories that Will was once married and mourned the loss of his wife. In the beginning of this book, he is saving the lives of people who were thrown off a bridge wile trying to flee the French. He was deemed an enemy and sentenced to death. The latter part happened while he was unconscious and he wakes up in a prison cell with (presumably) the rest of the heroes in this series.
Of course, they manage to break out (otherwise that would be a short book) and go their separate ways, but not before creating a plan to stay in touch. This episode is the last in a series that causes Will to realize that he's ready to get out of the army. But just as he's ready to take off, one of the men from the breakout shows up asking him to return a small army unit to the country of San Gabriel. It seems the whole unit is not ready to go and they need an officer-type to be in charge. Will figures, why not?
When he gets to San Gabriel, he meets Athena Markham, an English subject like himself. She's in San Gabriel helping the princess rule the country, keeping it together since the king and prince have been taken by the French. Everyone is very relieved that the war is over but they are suspicious that the calm might not last for long since San Gabriel is a lovely valley country with (apparently) no strong men there to help rule the country.
I generally liked both Will and Athena. The story lumbered a bit in places but was overall fairly enjoyable.

This book comes out June 28
Three and a half stars

The Last Chance Christmas Ball - Anthology

The Dowager Countess of Holbourne, Lady Holly, is throwing her 50th Christmas Ball (also known as The Last Chance Ball, and is determined that this year's crop of new love will be no different.

A nice Christmas anthology (three stars total), that, at almost 400 pages, will definitely be worth the price of the book.

True Love Hath My Heart by Joanna Bourne
A jewelry designer who doesn't think that she deserves to marry her nobleman lover finds out differently when he helps her carry out revenge against a customer who stiffed her.
Three and a half stars

A Scottish Carol by Susan King
A story of love-lost/love-reunited makes up the second tale. Clary and Henry were once in love when he was the student of her doctor father. But something tore them apart and he left abruptly one day and she ended up marrying her cousin. Now they're back together and exploring what exactly went wrong in their past and if there's some way to correct their future.
A quiet story but mostly enjoyable.
Three stars.

Christmas Larks Patricia Rice
Sarah Jane Langsdale is surprised to discover that Ivo, Lord Harris, has returned to the house his family used to own. At least until his father left it to the local church. But Ivo has sustained a head injury and has no idea that the hose is about to be turned into an orphanage. Luckily, as Sarah Jane nurses him back to health, the two fall in love.
A little too twee for me.
Two and a half stars

In the Bleak Midwinter by Mary Jo Putney
Captain the Honorable Kimball "Kim" Stretton was just a child when he met Roxanne "Roxie" Hayward. Kim has been horribly injured in the war against Napoleon and has been hiding in his room ever since. Roxie is ready for one last ditch effort before she gets engaged to another man.
Three stars

Old Flames Dance by Cara Elliot
Lily Tremaine has lived in India for a long time. But she's returned to England to attend her godmother's Christmas Ball. And to learn if she and her childhood love, Edward, Lord Holborne (Kim's brother and the man  (possibly) about to be betrothed to Roxie) is as handsome as she remembers.
The two have some obstacles to overcome but in the end, love conquers all.
Three and a half stars.

A Season for Marriage by Nicola Cornick
Caroline (sister to Edward and Kim) had always loved her husband Piers. But she felt so guilty about accidentally compromising him into marriage. PIers had never wanted the kind of marriage that his parents had -- where they were so wrapped up in each other that they had no time for their children. Caroline's feelings have scared him into retreating from her. So how can they work their way back to each other?
Three and a half stars

Miss Finch and the Angel by Jo Beverly
As a companion to Lady Holly, Miss Clio Finch has been a complete flop. She knows she'll have to leave soon but she does feel like she's gotten very good at fading into the background. But Gabriel, second son to a duke, notices her. And wonders what he can do to break her out of her shell.
Three stars

Mistletoe Kisses Anne Gracie
Allie is about to leave her family home. Oh, she'd be welcome to stay but she'd be the unpaid help that supervised her cousin's five children. So she's going to have one last Christmas at home, attend Lady Holly'd fiftieth Christmas Ball, and then find work as a teacher. So when an unexpected carriage ride dumps John, Lord Kelsey, and his sister at her door, she's grateful for the Christmas company. And for the chance at something more.
Could have one without the last Big Misunderstanding. Three stars.

Not Quite a Wife by Mary Jo Putney

Image linked from Goodreads

Oh, man. I love Mary Jo Putney. I love the Lost Lords series. And this book... was just not up to the standard set by the previous five. It was really, really not at the same level. This was an ARC, and while the technical (proofreading) editing was fine, the story-line (line and substantive editing) really needed some work. Maybe some of this will be cleaned up before the book is put into print.
A lot of Putney's books start with some action, but this one starts with our hero falling ill, getting mugged and beaten, ending up on the heroine's door, and then a passionate encounter after eleven years of separation. What the what? The story then slows considerably before continuing in odd fits and starts, culminating in a realization that would be fine in a Christian/Inspirational romance novel but seemed odd in a more mainstream book that had heretofore only infrequently (though with heavy, heavy hand) referred to the heroine's religion.
Anyway, the story - Lauren and James married young and then separated when James did something So Horrible that Lauren just couldn't stand to be with him anymore. So she left and went to Bristol with her brother (a doctor) to help him with his work. They also opened a home for abused women. When Lauren... encounters... James, she comes up pregnant. Which can happen. And they decide to reconcile. Okay. But it all seems so... forced. And somewhat boring. The middle of the book reads more like a regular Putney novel. More exploring the characters than a ton of action which is good. But...
There is exposition. Dear God. The exposition. It's like some newbie editor said, "We need to know everything about the other couples in this series, can you do a mini-recap for each and every one of them? Yeah, that's what readers want." This is not the way to entice people to read other books in the series at it cuts each character down to two dimensions from the wonderful pictures that were painted in their own stories.
And while we do get to learn more about Laurel in this middle part of the book, none of it seems to fit very well. It's like her personality traits were plucked at random from some jar and had to be wedged into the story. At least for Laurel. She's supposedly this rigid, almost Methodist, person but she is also incredibly wild in the bedroom for someone who left her husband eleven years earlier and only after their honeymoon (deciding to fall into bed with him after their absence.) She left her husband but is ready to forgive. Even when he repeats his actions, which she finds out were justified, but she still can't get over it.
And what was the point of meeting Laurel's parents? We're already hammered over the head with the fact that she wants their approval. Again, it seems that someone decided that every... single... thing... had to be explained.
If the book had started out with the scene that caused Laurel to leave her husband, then jumped to the start and proceeded chronologically from there, had excluded the rather tedious exposition, this could have been a very good book. This is still a very high 2 for me, but I just couldn't give it a three miler, especially since the rest of the books in the series were so good.
Previous book: Sometimes a Rogue

Sometimes a Rogue by Mary Jo Putney

Image from Goodreads

Oh. I liked this book. I've been waiting to read Sarah's story since her twin got married in Loving a Lost Lord. And Sarah starts out the book as a heroine.
She's walking with her sister, Mariah, a duchess about to give birth. They hear some men planning to kidnap Mariah and Sarah bravely takes her place. She's a spinster with nothing to lose while Mariah is living a very happy life.
It's a good thing that Rob Carmichael is just arriving on the estate. He's a Bow Street Runner (though noble born) and is still recovering from his some-time bedmate falling in love with, and marrying, a man that Rob doesn't particularly like (another good book, No Longer a Gentleman.) He thought they were in a committed relationship but the same wasn't true for the woman with whom he was involved.
But now he gets his HEA. If only they can escape the men who have kidnapped Sarah.

I loved that Sarah could ride horses so well but really disliked that Putney kept calling her a "tomboy who ran wild." It's great for the first description of Sarah as a girl, but after about the third time... eh. It was also interesting to me that Adam's aunt came back into the picture, though it was plain she was the villain but I am very happy that they killed her off.
I also enjoyed Rob's grandmother. She is cruel to him at first but then realizes that she is backing the wrong team by continuing to believe the lies of his dead half-brother and quickly starts to help Rob start cleaning up the mess left by the last two earls.
A major relief was that Rob's first love didn't turn out to be alive. The bastard daughter was an interesting spoke but I was so afraid that her mother was going come back and I just didn't see how Sarah could compete or how Rob could turn her away without being a complete jerk, even if she had "changed."

I loved the character development of the major characters and the minor characters were also fun. The villain was... maybe an unnecessary wrinkle but it was minor in an otherwise highly enjoyable book.