Nov 12 2012
Daily Deals: A celebration of Loretta Chase backlist titles
The English Witch by Loretta Chase. $ 2.99
From the Jacket Copy:
A Comedy of Manners…
Her father’s prodigal ways have forced the extremely lovely Alexandra Ashmore into an engagement with a strange man in a strange land: a man blind to the effect her unearthly beauty has on other men, and which has earned her the title “the English Witch”! So when she’s kidnapped by another love-struck suitor, Alexandra assumes she’s truly doomed to a loveless marriage with her captor.
A Villain Redeemed…
But her troubles have only begun—for although she’s quickly rescued, her brave ‘hero’ is the notoriously irresistible, unrepentant scoundrel, Basil Trevelyan, who finds himself quite taken with the tart, spirited Alexandra. So taken, in fact, that he’s determined to make her his own. Now, if he can only charm her into agreeing with his plan!
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Isabella by Loretta Chase. $ 2.99
From the Jacket Copy:
At the advanced age of 26, the independent, wealthy and imminently practical Isabella Latham has no expectation of marriage. But, good-hearted and dutiful, Isabella accompanies her two young country cousins to oversee their London debut…only to find that it’s she who is attracting suitors…all of whom do seem to have quite an excess of creditors!
There’s the sinfully sexy Basil Trevelyan, a rake through and through, but so charming that even sensible Isabella is almost tempted. But then there’s his maddeningly handsome—and maddeningly arrogant!—cousin, Edward Trevelyan, seventh Earl of Hartleigh, who has no need of Isabella’s dowry; but whose adorable orphaned ward needs a mama. Could he love Isabella for herself? Isabella is too busy trying to decide whether to kiss him—or kill him!
Poor, poor Isabella. What’s a girl to do? But more importantly…who’s a girl to choose?
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Viscount Vagabond by Loretta Chase. $ 2.99
From the Jacket Copy:
“What’s gotten into you, dashing about to make a man’s poor, tired head spin?… Oh, all right. I’ll chase you if you like.” He started to get up, changed his mind, and slumped back against the pillow. “Only it’s such a bother.”
Catherine Pelliston has just escaped a forced marriage to an obnoxious friend of her unreliable father; and now she’s truly in the soup; kidnapped and helpless in a London brothel! And though she’s been rescued by the very inebriated Max Demowery, Viscount Rand, she may be in even greater danger of falling in love with the shockingly outrageous, scandalously improper Viscount Vagabond!
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Knaves’ Wager by Loretta Chase. $ 2.99.
From the Jacket Copy:
Lilith Davenant, has ample reason to detest Julian Wyndhurst, Marquess of Brandon: he’s exactly the kind of man who hastened the demise of her profligate husband, and the debt he owed to Julian has forced her to an engagement with a wealthy suitor for the sake of supporting her beloved nieces and nephews. Besides that, Lord Julian somehow manages to ignite disturbing… feelings … she’s never felt before!
Lord Julian used his considerable skills and cunning in the war against Napoleon. Now he’s obliged to use the same talents to save his young cousin from a disastrous marriage to a scheming mistress — who makes him a wager: If Julian can seduce the famously icy Lady Lilith Davenant, the lady will release his cousin from the engagement.
But very quickly, Julian discovers Lilith’s hidden warmth, kindness and humor. Will he be able to prove his heart to her before she learns of his recklessly shameless wager?
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Nov 12, 2012 @ 14:02:25
Anyone read any of these?
Nov 12, 2012 @ 14:26:00
I think I have all of these in paper, but it’s been ages since I read them. To buy or not to buy? They’re so tempting.
Nov 12, 2012 @ 14:27:07
Yes – I’ve read the Trevalyans, but not the other two.
I’m not sure I’m the best person to talk about them – Loretta Chase is one of my favorite authors of historical romance, but there are those of her books I like (Lord of Scoundrels, Mr. Impossible, Lord Perfect, Last Night’s Scandal, Your Scandalous Ways) and the others I like somewhat less.
I like these two a lot – they’re basically category historicals, written fairly early on, I think, but the writing is snappy enough to cover any weaknesses in the plotting, pretty much, and the romance is romantic. These are not big angsty books.
The English Witch follows Isabella, but they are not dependent on each other. If you didn’t like Lord Perfect and Mr. Impossible, I think it’s unlikely these will work for you.
Nov 12, 2012 @ 14:41:21
I have, they are all good, if very different from her more recently published works. They are more sweet/sensual than explicit and tend toward category length. Isabella and The English Witch are related and Viscount Vagabond has a related novel, The Devil’s Delilah, which is also available digitally. Knaves’ Wager is the strongest and feels similar in tone to LoS, IMO.
Nov 12, 2012 @ 14:59:14
I’ve read all of them. My favorite is Knave’s Wager, which is one of my all-time favorite trad Regencies. But you can’t really go wrong, assuming you like the trad style.
Nov 12, 2012 @ 15:08:58
They were all Avon Regency Romances akin, I think, to the Signet Regencies. They’re part of the extinct sub-genre Traditional Regency, category Regency historicals without much sex.
Nov 12, 2012 @ 15:19:00
SOLD.
By which I mean, I’m off to check if they’re available in the UK. These sound perfect to me.
Nov 12, 2012 @ 15:27:21
Basil!! One of the few romance heroes whom I love outside of loving the book! The other is Jack from The Devil’s Delilah and The Falcon in The Sandalwood Princess. ;)
Nov 12, 2012 @ 15:31:10
It’s been a while, so I can’t say how I’d feel if I read these books today, but I absolutely adored Knave’s Wager and really enjoyed Isabella.
Nov 12, 2012 @ 16:06:41
After lurking forever on Dear Author, I am de-cloaking because Knave’s Wager is one of my favorite books. The last “scene change” is a little abrupt, but other than that I think the book is perfect.
Nov 12, 2012 @ 16:09:31
@MaryK: Actually, maybe no longer published by NY, but there are a number of indie authors writing sweet traditional Regencies, and finding an audience. So I wouldn’t say ‘extinct’ by any means. :)
Nov 12, 2012 @ 17:13:46
@Sunita: *raises hand* Knave’s Wager is my favourite Loretta Chase book. I *heart* the heroine (who worked within the constraints of the period brilliantly) and IMHO the hero is perfectly described by one of the character’s as a ‘bad, beautiful angel’. I remember being involved in a online chat with the author and she commented that Knave’s Wager was her sister’s favourite too :)
@Jane – thank you! I’m going to purchase it tonight (she says hoping that geographical restrictions don’t come into play), because although I have a print copy having it as an eBook means I have all my bases covered!
Nov 12, 2012 @ 17:46:55
These books are how I discovered Loretta Chase, before she ever started the LoS style (you know, the ones with sex in them!). I always loved them. Although…I thought I had read all of them, but I’m really starting to wonder if I missed Knaves’ Wager, because it doesn’t sound familiar and it’s the one everyone else remembers the best! It would be lovely to discover I have a new one to read. :)
Nov 12, 2012 @ 17:56:55
@orannia: Yes, you’re so right. The hero and heroine each break my heart on the way to their HEA.
I loved this book when I first read it, which was probably a decade ago. I read it again a couple of years ago, even though I was hesitant; what if it didn’t hold up? But it totally did. There is a Mary Balogh with a similar wager plot and a similar H/h dynamic, which I like very much. But this is still my favorite of the type.
Nov 12, 2012 @ 17:59:10
I’m sorry to say that they seem to be georestricted. I clicked the links for both Amazon and ARe and in both cases it defaulted to search pages instead of taking me to the book in question.
Bad news for the non-US folks among us.
Nov 12, 2012 @ 18:13:34
Oh, excellent! When I first discovered Loretta Chase I went on a tear buying up all her backlist, and these Regencies were so hard to find — I think I ended up ebaying some. Isabella I have, and enjoyed very much — it’s a lot like a Georgette Heyer imo, with a sweet storyline and lots of witty banter, and no explicit sex scenes. I’ll be grabbing Knave’s Wager since I haven’t read it yet, and sounds like it’s the best one!
Nov 12, 2012 @ 18:53:42
Can’t find Knaves Wager on amazon.
Nov 12, 2012 @ 19:03:56
@leslie: Here: http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00A5OH1JY/ref=as_li_ss_tl?ie=UTF8&camp=1789&creative=390957&creativeASIN=B00A5OH1JY&linkCode=as2&tag=dearauthorcom-20
Nov 12, 2012 @ 19:17:18
@Jane: You’re a star. Thanks!
Nov 12, 2012 @ 19:40:21
Okay, I now own all of Loretta Chase’s books, the backlist ones as ebooks. I would prefer to have them all as paper (real) books, but given a choice between $2.99 and $134.95, it isn’t really much of a choice, is it?
Nov 12, 2012 @ 20:00:11
@Kerry D.: They’re on Amazon UK, if that’s any good for you. I just bought Isabella.
Nov 12, 2012 @ 20:17:32
I bought an e-version of Isabella awhile ago – maybe a year ago? It had a different (uglier) cover. It had some distracting typos and formatting oddities. It was only .99 when I bought it, so I was willing to live with the errors, but it’s made me wary of buying the rest of her backlist. I’d love to hear about the quality of the other titles from those who’ve purchased them recently.
Nov 12, 2012 @ 20:42:49
@Jane: I take back what I said. I followed the link you (Jane) gave Leslie and Amazon is happy to let me buy. (I don’t actually want the book myself but a friend does.) So I shall see if I can track it down at ARe for her.
Nov 12, 2012 @ 21:26:54
Read all those when they first came out, and now buying in e format. All were $2.99 for a Canadian Kindle user. Knaves’ Wager is brilliant, and doesn’t need sex. Devil’s Deliliah is wonderful too. The female MCs are equally interesting to the males. That’s the rarity!
Nov 12, 2012 @ 21:41:39
Knave’s wager is one of my favorite, too. One of the few Regencies I read in my teens that doesn’t bore me now. I’m not sure i managed to finish English Witch. It was okay, but not so compelling hat when I put it down, I picked it up again.
Nov 13, 2012 @ 00:21:14
@Kerry D.: I can get them on Amazon, but they each cost 4.99. I don’t think so. ARe always geoblocks me, I have never been able to buy any book there – even if that book is available to me from every e-book vendor on the planet, they will claim they can’t sell it to my location. So Amazon, ARe and Ms. Chase have all lost my money in this case.
The frustrations of being an international romance reader… I’m quite envious of US readers!
Nov 13, 2012 @ 01:31:42
@Meri:
They’re $5.74 for me :(
And on ARE I can only see The English Witch, with a different cover than the one above, hmm.
Nov 13, 2012 @ 01:56:20
@Meri: Sometimes it all just gets too hard, doesn’t it? That’s the point where I give up. Lost sales all round.
Nov 13, 2012 @ 07:09:16
I bought ISABELLA a year ago (it had the uglier cover, and I think it was a promo so I didn’t pay full price) and have been checking on THE ENGLISH WITCH ever since to see if the price has budged from $5.74. Not even a little bit. :( They’re all $5.74 for me. So…still waiting to buy. (Though I have to say, I’m more likely to pay the $5.74 with the prettier cover than I was with the ugly I-totally-self-pubbed-this cover. So yes, covers matter.)
ETA: I loved ISABELLA, but then I totally luuurve trad regencies.
Nov 13, 2012 @ 08:34:08
@cleo: I can only speak to Devil’s Delilah, Knave’s Wager and Viscount Vagabond (yes, I read them last night). The formatting is fine, there are some weird typos – the kind of stuff you get from scans, where Th sometimes becomes U and sometimes Fi – but they’re pretty sparse. FWIW, I noticed them most in Knave’s Wager.
Nov 13, 2012 @ 10:27:37
I have old, worn copies of these in my TBR pile. I probably should pick up the e-versions just for the sake of my eyes.
Nov 13, 2012 @ 22:01:15
I’m looking at B&N.com and there are a few more than just these four. It might be, the others will be highlighted in an upcoming column. :)
Nov 14, 2012 @ 11:37:39
I love LC. I’ve even ordered copies of some of these directly from her when I couldn’t find them other places. So glad she’s getting these out in digital format.