The Duplicitous Debutante by Becky Lower

The Duplicitous Debutante
By: Becky Lower
Publisher: Crimson Romance
Published: September 1, 2014
Genre: Historical, Romance
Length: Novel
Heat Level: Spicy
Reviewer: Laura
Date: August 21, 2015

 

In 1859, ladies of New York society are expected to do three things well: find a husband, organize a household, and have children. But despite her mother’s best intentions, making her debut is the last thing on Rosemary Fitzpatrick’s mind.

Writing the popular Harry Hawk dime novels as F.P. Elliott, she’s too busy hiding her female identity from her new publisher, Henry Cooper. To protect her clandestine career, she ends up posing as the enigmatic author's secretary.

Henry is not the typical Boston Brahmin, nor the typical publisher, and Rosemary entrances him from the moment they meet. As they work together and grow closer, he wonders how his traditional-minded father will react when he brings her into the family, because Henry firmly intends to marry the working-class woman.

But when her deception begins to unravel at the cotillion ball, will Henry be able to forgive her or has deceit cost her the man she loves?

The Duplicitous Debutante by Becky Lower is the sixth installment in the Cotillion Ball series. 

This particular installment features Rosemary Fitzpatrick, author of the Harry Hawk dime novels and the new owner of her publishing company, Henry Cooper. Being 1859, Rosemary writes under the pen name of F. P. Elliott, and it is generally assumed she is actually he. 

Henry starts the conflict off by letting his current stable of authors know he expects to meet them in person prior to renewing their contracts. I honestly believe the contracts referenced here are more akin to the author contracts of today than the three styles available in the 1850's, but I readily admit I could be wrong. And with this one action, the Big Lie starts with Rosemary trying to conceal her true identity while still getting that contract renewed. 

I have to be honest here. I had a hard time finishing this novel because Rosemary is not likable at all. Not to me, at least – and I fully understand that I might be in the minority here. It isn't just that she tries so hard to keep her identity secret – that could be brushed aside considering the background of 1859 New York City, but something deeper that just really irked me. 

As an aspiring author myself, I desperately tried to relate to Rosemary, to find even a smidgen of redemption worthy behavior in her. I could not. I also feel like the author could have done better research when it comes to several terms used, although it appears she did some research into the world of Dime Novels. I will add that I am one of those annoying people who has a thing for etymology and word usage. 

Let me state that the sparks between these two was good – believable, even. It was, in fact, a redeeming feature of this read. I think this could be a lighthearted read for many, many other people. Just not me.

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Loves Magic by Killarney Sheffield

Loves Magic
By: Killarney Sheffield
Publisher: Breathless Books
Published: February 26, 2014
Genre: Historical, Romance
Length: Novel
Heat Level: Sweet
Reviewer: Christie
Date: August 26, 2014

 

A female magician, a not so innocent black rabbit, a treasure map, a duke firm in his convictions, a band of pirates, and romance equals mayhem in the making!

Celeste Summers is a self-reliant vegetarian magician, and her sidekick is a mischievous black rabbit named Dexter. It’s the kind of mixture that can get you burned at the stake in 1820.

All Lord Devlin Rutland wants is to see Celeste taken care of as his father instructed, but wedding a girl who may not be dealing a full deck of cards is not easy.

Celeste sees opportunity to foil his plans when she comes across a map to a pirate’s treasure, but Devlin is after the same booty. Foolishly, she bargains with a stranger, finds herself double-crossed, at the mercy of pirates, and in need of Devlin's aid.

Devlin comes to the rescue, but he has an ethical dilemma. He can ensure that Celeste honors her betrothal to him, or set her free with the treasure and his heart. His only other choice is to persuade her that Love’s Magic is enough to bind them together.

Love’s Magic has Pirates, a young miss needing to be rescued. A treasure needing to be found. The high seas. A Duke coming to the rescue.

This book should have something for every reader. Unfortunately, it left me scratching my head and leaving me wanting so much more. Sheffield wrote an unidentifiable heroine who left very little to like. However, she wrote a hero whom the reader can’t help but fall for, Devlin is a heartthrob and certainly didn't deserve all the heartache Celeste put him through.

The book takes you from England to Brazil, and the mechanisms of Celeste’s were just unbelievable to this reader. And therefore turned me off the whole book.

I really wanted to like this book, but Celeste just irritated me and I think Devlin deserved so much more.

The ending has what I like to call a whiplash ending, you know it’s coming and then it’s there and the reader is like what happened? You look around and put the book down and sigh. Unsatisfied and just…whiplash ending. Abrupt and unsatisfying.

Not quite my cup of tea.  Others may enjoy it, but it was not for me.

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Dorian’s Mate by YL Stokes

Title: Dorian’s Mate

Author: YL Stokes

Publisher: Red Rose Publishing

Publication Date:

ISBN:978-7-4543-0065-6

Genre: Romance

Length: 87 pages

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Rating: 2 Diamonds

Heat : 4

Reviewer: Katherine

Date 7/12/11

Smut reading: 4 outta 5

This book begins with the very sexy Dorian waking up in his bedroom downstairs and noticing an unknown presence on the main floor of his house. Upon arriving upstairs he meets the beautiful Cerita who is upstairs preparing the food for a party being held that evening. While falling in love with her cheese puffs he finds himself falling for her. What follows is a sexy look at two supernatural beings falling in love and facing all the obstacles thrown at them together. The couple work is to very different fields Cerita is a caterer and Dorian buys and sells off companies. But they share a love for food which brings them together and the talk of food and sex made me want more! The sex is steamy and you don’t have to wait long for it to happen. The couple has a good dialogue together and I found myself smiling right along with them as they fall in love. The couple has very strong family ties, which is made obvious from when Dorian allows his cousins girlfriend to throw a party in his house. As Dorian and Cerita fall in love the relationships they have with their families become more important as you turn each page …

I liked the steaminess of this book there was plenty of smut and the conversations between Dorian and Cerita were enjoyable. I have a few issues however, first is there are some typos which when I noticed them they drew me away from the story and I had to look at them and make sure I was reading correctly. I also did not like that there was not a lot of back story. I felt like the characters (especially the family members) were very flat, you never find anything out about their histories or about what kind of supernatural powers they have. That goes for Dorian and Cerita also. They both have a lot of powers (including being able to talk to each other in their mind, which is sweet) but you never find out what theyreally are. Is Dorian a vampire, shape shifter, what? He eats but he takes blood. It didn’t make any sense.

At the end of the day I recommend this book as long as you aren’t looking for a lot of back story. Generally when I’m reading a book in this genre I’m looking for the couple to fall for each other quickly and the sexy smut to begin (I hate waiting till the end of the book for the love making) and this book gives me that.

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I'll Be Home for Christmas by Missy Lyons

Title:   I’ll Be Home for Christmas

Author:  Missy Lyons

Publisher:   Hot Tropica Books

Publication Date:   2008 and 2010

Genre:   Erotic Romance

Length:   12 pages

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Heat Level:  Sensual

Reviewer:  Suki

Date:   November 18, 2010

Alex is a military man who has been away from home for six months serving active duty in Iraq. Julie is waiting patiently for her husband to come home and gets a surprise when he calls up and says he will be home for Christmas.

Nothing makes me crazier then reading a short story that doesn’t give credit to the story it has. This book is one of those, I feel I was given snippets of chapters but never the full story. This is a love story about a deployed military man who gets to come home for Christmas. We go from the welcome home kiss to the next morning in no time flat. Leaving me feeling both deprived of a wonderful love story and gypped. If this author wanted to write a short she needed to write something else. This story screams for more then 12 pages…

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Passion's Embrace by Cia Leah

Title: Passion’s Embrace

Author: Cia Leah

Publisher: Red Rose Publishing

Publication Date: 2010

ISBN: 978-1-60435-792-9

Genre: Western, Historical

Length: 258 pages

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Rating:  2 Diamonds      

Heat Level: Sweet

Reviewer: Cassandra Parker

Date: November 24, 2010

“Callie Knight moves to Texas after her parent’s deaths and buys a ranch bordering rancher Colt Trevor’s. When his bull, Old Red Eye breeds her cow, she gets upset and rides to his ranch demanding he stop his bull or she’s going to shoot him and serve him up for supper. What she doesn’t count on is falling in love with Colt at first sight. She wants him from the start and is determined to have him and she’s not going to let anyone stand in her way.

 Colt Trevor has never seen a woman as beautiful and wild as Callie. When he slips behind her in the saddle, he can’t control the passion she ignites in him. Caught in a compromising position with her on the first day they meet, Colt is tempted to spank her or take her to his bed. Marriage is out. He likes being his own man and wants to stay a bachelor.

 When Callie is shot, he realizes his feelings for her run deeper than just an urge to quench his passion. He’s determined to find the man who wants her dead, but before he can catch the culprit behind it, Callie is abducted and whisked away to an outlaw’s hideout in Mexico.”

First of all do not be fooled by the label on the publisher’s website this is a historical story, not a contemporary one. Once I made that transition in my head it was a better reading for me. I really enjoyed the main character in this story. She is strong willed and goes after what she wants but in an utterly charming way. Callie and her horse Devil are the high points of this story for me. The hero did not wow me in this story. I found him to be a more wishy washy forty year old man compared to these twenty year old girls who are after him. I would have loved to see more of Callie’s background and perhaps had competition for her affections rather than Colt’s. The plot devices in this story were also overused. The hero spends most of the book rescuing his heroine from very similar situations, and from villains whose dialogue is at times rather silly. This story also did a lot of head hopping which can sometimes add to the story and give insight to different characters, but I don’t feel that the villainous characters had enough depth that their thoughts were worth looking at. Overall this story had potential and a very lovable heroine, but was executed poorly and is not worth your time.

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Seduction of the Fae by Raquel Taylor

 Title: Seduction of the Fae

Author: Raquel Taylor

Publisher: Red Rose Publishing

Publication Date: 2010

ISBN: 978-1-60435-735-6

Genre: Erotic, Fantasy

Length: 246 pages

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Heat Level: Erotic

Other:  Oral, Anal, BDSM, Multiple Partners, M/M, F/F, Voyeurism

Reviewer: Cassandra Parker

Date: October 15, 2010

Ever since her husband purchased Rousseau Manor Saphira Morgan has spent her days observing the paintings of the faeries in the house and crafting her own versions. The faeries have provided Saphira the escape she needed after her husband’s affair. Even though he is trying to reconnect Saphira can’t separate herself from the faeries and doesn’t know if she wants to try. One night in the manor Saphira is attacked and the faeries help her escape into their realm, but what will become of her there?

Ransom Morgan has noticed the increase in the distance between him and Saphira but doesn’t know how to mend the damage. When Saphira doesn’t come home one night Ransom goes looking for her and is terrified when he sees the signs of struggle in the manor. Ransom also encounters the faeries but his greeting is not a welcome one like Saphira’s, he’s a prisoner. Surrounded by an unfamiliar world and separate from each other will Ransom and Saphira survive what the faeries have planned for them or succumb to their spell.

This story is all over the place and although the main characters are confused and lost, I didn’t really want to be while reading this story. Nothing is really known about any of the characters and only very small background pieces on the main characters are revealed. Also the author used multiple perspectives in this story, shifting from character to character but there is no real connection to any of them. The relationship(s) in this story are not really romantic and the story is mostly a sex fest between all the characters. The setting is very unique but not explained very well. I liked the concepts that this story started with but the follow through was disappointing. I don’t recommend this one.

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Can't Bear It by Celia Kyle

Title: Can’t Bear It

Author: Celia Kyle

Publisher: Liquid Silver Books

Publication Date: 2010

ISBN: 978-1-59578-666-1

Genre: Paranormal

Length: 35 pages

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Author Email: celia.kyle@gmail.com

Heat Level: Erotic

Other: Anal, GLBT

Reviewer: Cassandra Parker

Date: September 22, 2010

As a member of the pride Meg, a lioness, has been expected to submit for breeding twice a month since she turned 18. Tired of the cold, indifferent nature of her pride, Meg longs to strike out on her own, creating a home and family that would love her rather than tolerate her. Meg manages to escape to Strange Hollow, home to many different outcasts, and meets Jacob. 

Jacob is a bear who lives up to the name man-slut. He’s on the prowl every night for someone new whether it be a woman or a man. As a bear Jacob is at the top of the heap and enjoying his life until he meets Meg—his mate? 

This story had a lot of potential to be very interesting and sweet. I love any story with a former bad boy, but it did not live up to its potential. “Can’t Bear It” has an incredibly rushed plot, all of which takes place within 24-48 hrs. I really felt for Meg in the beginning of the story and cheered for her making a change in her life, but then I lost touch with her as a character. Jacob was completely unlikeable to me and perhaps that’s because he doesn’t even meet with his heroine until halfway through the story, and doesn’t have time to truly change. The overall setup of this world would have been interesting, to learn the dynamics of the pride, the different shifter races, and more about Strange Hollow, but all of that information was glossed over and the story moved on with a rapid pace. If this story was longer and time had been taken to establish these factors I would have enjoyed it, but with what was there, I’m not impressed.

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Another Place and Time by Cara Preston

Title: Another Place and Time

Author: Cara Preston

Publisher: Red Rose Publishing

Publication Date: 01/24/10

ISBN: 978-1-60435-610-6

Genre: Paranormal

Length: 67 pgs

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Rating: 1.5 Diamonds

Heat Level: sweet

Reviewer: Sasha Evins

Date: 05/12/10

Is there such thing as a soul mate? Trina's divorce has left her shaken and wondering. Then someone comes along who totally blows her away. Ben is different. It's as though he's from another era, but is he? Paranormal events lead her to believe that he is from another time zone. Will she take a chance on him and find love again?

The idea behind this story was wonderful, but I just didn’t care for how it was written. I felt that it was being geared toward a much younger audience (like 6^th graders.)From time to time there was head hopping (not sure how editing didn’t catch that) despite the fact that it was purely from the heroine’s perspective.

Again it was a really creative idea, and obviously the author has the writing muse within her. Perhaps this just isn’t her best work, and I have faith that her next work will be much better.

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