The Unexpected Duchess by Valerie Bowman

Lucy and her friend Cass are on the verge of being labeled old maids. They are dangerously too close to being put on the shelf. But Cass has a suitor. A very... determined... suitor. A newly minted Duke, a war hero, has set his eyes on her. Derek Hunt, the Duke of Claringdon, has promised his (dying) best friend that he will come back and marry Cass. Ever since he was young, Derek has been taught that the only way to live life is to make a decision and then follow through. So he's going to marry Cass. And, hello, he's a duke so her parents aren't letting him get away.

However, Cass and her friend Jane both think that Derek would be much happier with Lucy and they're going to be working to see if they can't help the two warriors find their HEA.
Okay, issues. Lucy is supposed to have this sharp tongue. We're told that over and over. But it's not really demonstrated in her conversation. And the ploys, would a twenty-three-year-old former deb really stand behind her friend and try to imitate her voice. And I think the author was trying to draw a parallel between Lucy and Derek and Beatrice and Benedick. But the slap-slap-kiss relationship would better describe Lucy's brother and her friend, Jane (can't wait for that story). Great use of Shakespearean themes (butler named Shakespierre?) though; I do see Lucy and Derek as Kate and Petruchio. But in an ending where Petruchio realizes that he doesn't especially want to change the woman with whom he first fell in love.

Followed by Playful Brides #3 (I DNF'd the second book) The Unlikely Lady

Suddenly last Summer by Sarah Morgan

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I'm quite enjoying Sarah Morgan's (SM) books. It's always lovely to find a new contemporary author that you can enjoy. Especially one who hasn't jumped on the BDSM bandwagon. The sex in this one is hot, but not super-explicit.
We are re-introduced to two characters from the first book, Elise and Sean. Elise is a French chef, both by nationality and cuisine She's had a hard life, including losing the only person who was her real family, her mother while they were in the midst of an argument. But she was rescued from a bad situation by Sean's twin, Jackson, and has created a new family for herself at Snow Crystal Resort.
When Walter, the family patriarch (Sean's grandfather), collapses from a heart attack, Sean is called home, to the place he hates most to go. Even with the promise of returning to Elise with whim he had a torrid one night stand last summer, Sean does not want to go back. The place his grandfather loves was a burden to Sean's father and the place Sean only wanted to escape from. Even becoming a well-known surgeon hasn't lessened the disappointment Sean sees in his grandfather ever time he returns to Snow Crystal.
This is a great story where Sean and Elise are going to have to meet halfway in order to find their HEA. And I liked that SM was really able to get them to that point in a believable and fun manner.

Previous Books in the Series: Sleigh Bells in the Snow
Next Book in the Series: Maybe this Christmas

Searching for Perfect by Jennifer Probst

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So now it's Kennedy's turn to find her true love. Do you need to read the first book in the series? Nope. But I think it's the better book. I had to take some time and mull over this book because, once again, I can’t figure out why I enjoyed this book. It had so many of the plots that are usually major irking points. I mean, can we just talk about the fact that Nate's initials spell "nerd?" The author uses Kennedy to point this out, but did it really need to be done? It's like Nate's nerdiness was being slapped in our face over and over. The fake tan, the unibrow, etc., etc. It's just too much.
I won't go on and on because there may be things that others may not notice and I don't want to bring them up.
This is almost as irritating as not being able to put your finger on why you don’t like a book. The scenes, though explicit (which I don’t usually enjoy,) were actually fun to read. And watching Nate’s growth was also fun.

The Escape by Mary Balogh

If you have enjoyed the rest of the Survivor's Club (or, really, any of Balogh's books), you will quite enjoy this book as well. Do you need to have read the first two books in the series? Not at all. 
Major Sir Benedict Harper nearly lost both his legs as well as his life after the Napoleonic wars. After struggling for six years to get healthy enough to live his own life, he is stymied by the fact that his younger brother already runs his estate and the brother's family is quite entrenched there. Benedict really has nothing to do and is at loose ends. Until he visits his sister who is convalescing after an illness. He nearly tramples a haughty widow and her dog when he leaps over a hedge on his horse.
Samantha McKay is escaping her house. Her husband convalesced for a long time after being injured in the war. Since his death, his sister has been keeping Samantha under a tight rein, telling her that she has to behave as befits a lady. See, Samantha has gypsy blood in her veins and her husband's family has always looked down on her as being "not quite." 
But the end comes when Samantha's father-in-law wants to throw her out of the house where she's been living for so long and sends men to take her back to London. She knows that she'll be stifled there for the rest of her life and she just can't do it. So she enlists Benedict to help her get to Wales where she's been left a small cottage. The journey, of course, is a time for them to get to know one another. And when they get to Wales, there's a whole lot of Samantha's history that she is ready to discover.
This is all told in such a gentle voice. It's like floating down a slow-moving stream. You don't really need to think, just look around and enjoy the scenery. Told in alternating points-of-view, each side overlaps the other, picking up just before the last ended. After reading so many hard and fast contemporaries, this is a wonderful read and delightful palate cleanser. Can't wait for the rest of the books in the series (especially the Duke, though I assume he is being saved for last. Le sigh.)
Imagine my delight when I got to the end of the book and there were still dozens of pages left and it turned out to be the story of Julian and Phillipa, the erstwhile fiancee of Vincent from "The Suitor." Normally, I don't like short stories but this was a sweet one of two young lovers who were star-crossed but who have worked hard for two years to find their HEAs.

Four stars

This book came out July 1, 2014

Survivors' Club #3

Follows The Arrangement
Followed by Only Enchanting

Borrowed as ebook from the library

Opinions are my own

Reread as audiobook from Audible Plus May 2024

Before We Kiss by Susan Mallery

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I quite enjoy Susan Mallery books, especially when she doesn't try to shoehorn in every other couple that she ever wrote about in the Fool's Gold series. Now, she's even starting to introduce new people. That meant that Sam and Dellina's story, while very good, was a little bit more on the novella side than a full story. But a surprisingly well-developed one.
We learned how Sam and Dellina met in "When We Met". He went over to her house on Valentine's Day eve, had some super hot sex, and then accidentally wandered into her spare bedroom which not only housed her friend's wedding dresses while the store was being redone, but also has a wipey board with "10 Ways to Make Him Propose" written on it. Sam ran in fear. See, his track record with women isn't very good. His past includes, among others, a stalker who slashed his tires, a woman who slept with his two best friends (and then suggested a foursome), and an ex-wife who wrote a book about how to marry a sports star. Sam just wants a quiet life. But he's been put in charge of planning a retreat for his companies clients and the only event planner in town? Dellina. Now it's crunch time and these two will have to work together to make sure that the event goes off without a hitch.
We also see quite a bit of one of Dellina's sisters, Fayrene. In her story, she had told sweetie Ryan that she didn't want to get married for three more years. Now, she's changed her mind but doesn't want to tell him because she wants him to realize that she wants to get married now and magically propose. Every single character in the book tells her not to be stupid and to just tell him (yay every other character!) And while this is a nice side story, it really just feels like a forced way to bring in Pia and Raoul, Simon and Montana, and any number of other characters so that we can see updates in their lives
Five stars for Sam and Dellina's story, three stars overall.

Taken with You by Shannon Stacey

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Reading the Kowalski stories made me an instant Shannon Stacey fan. She does not disappoint with a book about Hailey (who's been introduced in other bookds), the Whitford librarian and Matt, the new game warden.
Matt's a scarred hero (because, what else?). One of his exes not only objected to his erratic hours and coming home muddy and smelling of animal urine, she absolutely tried to change him. I didn't really get where the deep scars were coming from just based on these descriptions, but then again, I live in Montana where stuff like this is the norm, so... It seemed more like he was being super-rigid about women having to appreciate him and his lifestyle and even went out of his way to try and scare subsequent girlfriends.
Hailey is looking for a man who will appreciate opera and five-star restaurants. When she meets a bewhiskered man who hasn't showered in several days while lost in the woods, she's not immediately attracted to him. But when he cleans up so nice and seems like a rational human being... he might actually might make a good companion. For awhile.
Mild spoilers ahead:

I did not like that Matt was being such a baby about the outdoors thing and I very much liked that Hailey was willing to be more compromising about how they spent their time. She was right to be pissed when he acted like a child in the French restaurant. I had to appreciate the end of the book when it looked like they were going to create a better balance of what they both loved. Just because they didn't have the exact same tastes didn't mean they couldn't be together.

I absolutely loved that there was a five year age gap (she's 40, he's 35) and there were no mentions of cougars, no argument over "she's too old", or any of the things that you might expect from an older female-younger male-type relationship. Instead, it's simply Matt and Hailey falling in love.

This book goes on sale tomorrow and I definitely would recommend picking it up.

Noble Intentions by Katie MacAlister

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Huh. When I got this book from NetGalley, I had no idea it had originally been published over ten years ago. 
When the book opened, I was scared. "Oh, great. Another clumsy heroine" because, you see, our heroine, Gillian Leigh, has set the curtains of a duchess on fire. Not an auspicious start to her season, especially for someone who already has a black mark by being half-American.
But that's okay for someone who's on the fringes of society himself, the Black Earl, also known as Lord Wessex. Semi-accused (only in whispers, don't ya know) of murdering his first wife, it's also known by most of the ton (though not Charlotte) that he has a bastard son that he openly acknowledges. However, he needs to find a wife to preserve the line and he figures Charlotte will do just as well as any other, assuming that she really is the timid spinster that she appears on first sight.
So Charlotte and the earl marry, very, very quickly. She immediately becomes the bright spot in his life... and his son's. And she sticks by him even when it becomes preposterous to do so. There is, of course, a requisite bad guy who is causing the trouble and he's fairly easy to spot but it doesn't take away from enjoyment of the book.
Yes, there are a lot of things that could be annoying in this book but I quite enjoyed the romp and MacAlister's writing. My first thought on turning of my Nook with a sigh, "I can't wait to read the next book in the series."