So I’m three reviews behind here in the time of corona. Just couldn’t get around to doing them. Plus, I’m staring my reading challenge in the face as it is passing me by, since it is hard to focus on reading AND I no longer of the long commute (yay) wherein I would plow through audiobooks (blerp). Just me? Yeah. Probably just me…(jk. You are not alone!)
But, I stand (okay, sit) before you, ready to tackle these three and get back on it. Speaking of getting on it, this is my first ever, in my entire life, romance book read! Lifetime reader, first time saucy book caller. I’ll be honest, I was a bit anxious about telling the internet (Goodreads, and this blog) that I read this book. Though brash and bold in word and deed I am a little southern lady, and lapsed Catholic, so admitting to this sort of thing feels like a pearl clutching scandal, but NO MORE. I am here, and I read it, so there.
Big ol’ props to a pal of mine for joining me on this journey, she a big fan of the genre. We live texted our thoughts which made it all the more fun! And will be meeting virtually (of course) for a book club this week.
But I digress THE BOOK. I had to get over the fact this was #2 for some reason (not a sequel, just maybe how these books are categorized) and really very much enjoyed this book. I found it well written and a very fun romp, I really cared about the characters and thought they, and supporting characters, were well flushed out. I’m going to let this description from Goodreads speak for me. “In the shelter of her country cottage, Sara Fielding puts pen to paper to create dreams. But curiosity has enticed the prim, well-bred gentlewoman out of her safe haven and into Derek Craven’s dangerous world.”
Y’ALL. HIS NAME IS LITERALLY CRAVEN. But Derek is not craven OH BUT NO. He is brave and manly and comes from the streets (orphan! chimney sweep childhood!) and runs a highly profitable gambling din. And Sara Fielding flaunts social convention to be a writer AND to want to write about the plight of prostitutes in this house of ill-repute and branch out from small village life. This book has it all: fire, kidnapping, ravishing and one bananapants ex-lover, hellbent on destruction. Oh, and they meet when she SAVES HIS LIFE sooo she is no wilting wallflower people.
As my entry into the genre my friend picked well. I have another romance novel that I liberated from the library pre-corona which I’m excited to tackle. Yay new-to-me books!
Welcome to the club! It was CBR that brought me out of my romance shamehole, although unlike you I was reading them all the time, and just refusing to admit it to anyone because we’re taught to be ashamed of liking books written and marketed to and by almost exclusively women. There are sooo many good romance recs to be found here if you click on the romance tag.
Yay, another romance reader! It took me years of reviewing here to not start every romance review with some sort of apology for reading it, but its seriously just another genre, and one that likes its happy endings.
As to the #2 question, books by an author that are set in the same location or within the same family are numbered, usually in publication order, to help readers find what they are looking for. Generally they don’t have to be read in order as characters from the first may appear as supporting characters in the second, etc. and with an author as good as Kleypas she has got you on making sure each works individually. I will now step down from the soap box I inadvertently found and wish you luck on your further romance adventures.