A Duke But No Gentleman by Alexandra Hawkins

The Duke of Blackbern and the Marquess Norgrave are the best of friends. They spents their days and nights drinking, gambling and making bets against each other. This time the bet is over who can win the affections of Lady Imogen Sunter.
Imogen soon makes her preferences known for Blackbern, which upsets Norgrave. He doesn't like to lose. Will the love of two change the lives of all three of them?

Dare to Love by Alleigh Burrows

Dare to Love by Alleigh Burrows
Nivea Horsham has been in love with Dare Landis, the Marquis of Raynsforth, since she was introduced to him. When Nivea's step-mother arranges for Dare to share a ride with her, she hopes that this will be the time that he notices her.
Dare is not ready to settle down even when all of his friends are. He likes that he is a rake and beholden to no one. But will what happens at the wedding he is attending change all that?
I'm going to be honest. I thought I would really like this story based on the write-up I read.   Unfortunately it just fall flat for me.  The hero was a j@ck@$$ and the heroine didn't think enough about herself to stop chasing said j@ck@$$.
The first thing that irritated me was that Dare was with 2 other women in the story before getting together with Nivea.  The first one being at the very beginning, which I was ok with since the story had not really started yet. But I don't want to read about the hero in a story getting together with someone other than the heroine after their story starts...yuck!
Another thing that bothered me was that the weight of the heroine was brought up constantly.  Yes, I liked that the she wasn't a tiny little thing, but don't keep going on and on about it.  At one point in the story, after Nivea had ridden a horse all day for maybe 3 days straight, her maid says like ...I'll have to take in your dress as you've lost half a stone.  Seriously you would lose 7 pounds (equivalent to 1/2 a stone) in 3 days of riding a horse.  If that could actually happen, I'm going to start riding a horse every day!!
I just couldn't like either of the characters and couldn't get into the story, although I did finish it....
As this is the first book by the author I will probably give her another chance and see what she comes up with next...

You can get this book at the following retailers:

Amazon | Barnes & Noble | Kensington Press 

Thanks go to Kensington Books via NetGalley for a copy of the book in exchange of an honest review.

Noble Destiny by Katie MacAlister

Charlotte Collins has come back to London after a disastrous first marriage. She has set her sights on Alasdair MacGregor as her second husband.  Having landed themselves in a compromising situation, they are quickly married.
Alasdair won't consumate the marriage until Charlotte is in love with him, so she sets her mind to do just that. Between Charlotte constantly getting her meaning of words wrong and Alasdair working on his steam engine there are plenty of antics to liven up this marriage. 
Can this turn into a marriage of love?

The Temptation of Laura by Rachel Brimble

The Temptation of Laura by Rachel Brimble.
Laura Robinson had been a prostitute since the age of 15. She is tired of that life and wants to make something of herself. She has always wanted to be an actress and manages to get a job selling food at the local theatre.
Adam Lacey has the staring role at the theatre, but would really like to be writing the plays instead of acting in them. When he sees Laura for the first time, he knows she would be the perfect person to star in his play.  It was if the part had been written just for her.
Laura don't believe that Adam wants her for his play. She believes that he knows what she use to be and just wants to get her into bed.  Adam soon convinces her of his sincerity and they begin rehearsing.
As they spend more and more time with each other, their attraction grows. Can it lead anywhere? What will each of them do to get the life that they want?
I'll be honest and say that if I had known that the story was about a prostitute, I probably wouldn't have requested it (I'll  remember to read the write up better next time).  Having been approved for the story through NetGalley, I went ahead and kept reading to do the review.  The writing was good, but I just couldn't get into the story. I don't know why the idea of a prostitute turned me away as I've read stories about courtesans and enjoyed them, but it did.  I did like the character of Adam and most of the secondary characters, but the story just didn't do anything for me.  Having said that, I see that the author has another historical novel that I would be willing to read it in the future.

You can find this book at Amazon and Barnes & Noble.

Thanks go out to NetGalley and eKensington for a copy of the book in exchange of an honest review.

The Cheer in Charming an Earl by Emma Locke

The Cheer in Charming an Earl by Emma Locke.

This is book 3.5 in the Naughty Girls series.

Elinor Conley is determined that she will not remain a spinster and has decided that Earl of Chelford is her perfect mate. It doesn't matter that she has only gotten a glimpse of him once in her life. She concocts a plan to get to meet him and have him decide that she would be the perfect wife.

The Earl of Chelford, Grantham Wendell,  is having his annual bacchanalia when a carriage crashes into his kitchen. Innocent Elinor Conley entrances him from the beginning.

How will Grantham feel when he finds out that Elinor set out to catch him as a husband?

I didn't particularly care for this short story. For the lead to just catch sight of the man and decide that he was the man for her is a little far fetched. I know that it is a novella, but there are many authors that do a very good just within the confines of a novella.  I will give this author another chance and read one of her full length novels. I'm hoping that with the longer format, the romance of the characters will be a little more believable.

You can this this story as part of an anthology at Amazon and Barnes & Noble.

Thanks go to NetGalley and Intrepid Reads for a copy of the book in exchange for an honest review.

Mistletoe and Magic by Katie Rose

Mistletoe and Magic by Katie Rose.

This is book 2.5 in the Appleton Sisters series and a novella.

Penelope Appleton knows who the love of her life is suppose to be. She comes from a family that made a living of spiritualism seances, but unknown to her family Penelope really can see into the future. She has seen the man whom she will marry.

Unfortunately, when they finally connect, Penelope has a vision of his death. She gets away as fast as she can. She can't get involved with a man, just to have her heart broken when he dies.

Jared Marton can't believe that he has finally found the woman he wants to settle down with and she doesn't want anything to do with him.  He knows that she felt the same attraction that he did, but she is doing everything in her power to keep them apart.

Fortunately for Jared, Penelope's family is on his side and does everything they can to help him out.

I really wanted to like this story, but the writing was just off to me.  I liked the premise of the story, but found myself not liking Penelope.  Jared was also hard to like as he instantly fell in love with Penelope and claimed that it wasn't her looks that did it.  Maybe it was the length of the story that that made it a little "cheesy" to me. Possibly with a longer story, the author would have been able to add some "meat" to it. Since I liked the theme of the story, I will probably check out the other two books in the series and see if a full length novel is any better.

You can find this book at Amazon and Barnes & Noble.

Thanks go to NetGalley and Loveswept for a copy of the book for an honest review.