Dear Author » Caroline-Linden

REVIEW: One Night in London by Caroline Linden

Jane — Thu, 01 Sep 2011 09:00:49 +0000

Dear Ms. Linden:

I picked this one up when I realized I hadn’t read many historicals lately. This is the first in a three book series involving the de Lacey brothers who discover that their recently deceased father may have been a bigamist threatening their standing in society and their inheritances. Edward, the second son, has been managing the estates of the Duke of Durham for some time and thus it falls to him to see to securing the legal claim to their estates while his younger brother searches for the blackmailer. The eldest, and new Duke of Durham, appears to be a dissolute do nothing (I’m sure he’ll have some dark secret to regale us with in his own book).

Edward’s plans however, upset those of Francesca, Lady Gordon who is trying to retain a solicitor to assist her in obtaining guardianship over her dead brother’s daughter. When Francesca’s solicitor abandons her case to help Edward, she flies into a rage and confronts Edward, demanding that he compensate her loss by assisting her obtaining a new solicitor. Her fiery demeanor incites a passion in Edward that has been heretofore undiscovered.

The story starts out with Edward engaged to Louisa, a gently bred woman with whom he is in love. Despite his brothers’ urging to NOT divulge their scandal to Louisa, Edward does.

Edward nodded. “Agreed, except . . . I must tell Louisa.”

“Louisa!” Gerard frowned. “Must you?”

“How can I not?” Edward frowned back. “She deserves to know.”

His brother looked unconvinced. “I know you care for her, but I suggest you reconsider. You’ll have to put the wedding off because of Father’s death, but there’s no need to tell her of . . . this.”

“Gerard, she is my fiancée,” Edward replied, each word coated in ice. “I cannot keep something like this from her.”

Gerard hesitated. “Perhaps you should, if you want to keep her as your fiancée.”

Edward stilled. “I will pretend I didn’t hear that,” he said quietly. “Louisa is a woman of understanding and discretion. Moreover, she is the woman I love, and the woman who loves me. I wouldn’t dream of keeping such a terrible secret from her.”

Of course, Louisa doesn’t keep his secret, breaks their engagement and sells the story to a scandal sheet. From that point on, Edward spends most of his thoughts contemplating Francesca’s beauty:

Now that he was staring at her, he seemed unable to stop. His eyes roamed over her face, beautifully flushed, and her gleaming hair, so glorious against her skin. The other day, when she railed at him for stealing her solicitor, she’d been magnificent, in the manner of an avenging Fury. Francesca Gordon in a passion was quite a sight. The little devil that had invaded his mind tonight couldn’t stop comparing her to Louisa, who went pale and silent in emotional upset. Francesca—he really mustn’t become accustomed to thinking of her as such—reacted with anger and action. She stormed his house, the home of a total stranger, and upbraided him for inadvertently ruining her hopes. She said she would never forgive him, and smiled wickedly when he called her a managing female. By God, one could have a rousing good row with a woman like this, and then. . .

In fact, it isn’t until 43% of the book (mine was a digital arc) that Edward ponders Louisa’s betrayal, this woman that he loved so greatly that he could not countenance keeping such a secret from her. I think Francesca may have spent more time contemplating Edward’s loss than he did. This bothered me a great deal during the first half of the story. So much of the first half is Francesca and Edward thinking lustful thoughts about the other and that just didn’t fit. Shouldn’t Edward have felt a twinge of hurt, after all, he referred to Louisa as his “idealized model of womanhood” and despite this passage in the middle of the book, his broken engagement has little affect on him.

It hurt too much to think of the woman he had loved, honorably and faithfully, betraying his confidence and jilting him without a qualm. He wanted to know why. He wanted to demand she explain herself, even though he had no desire to repair the breach now. He wanted to know how he could have been so deceived in her character; he had thought her loving and loyal, trustworthy enough to hear his darkest secret and keep it so.

On the one hand, I am supposed to believe that Edward was deeply in love with Louisa. On the other, I’m to believe that this emotion can be cast off in a matter of hours and transferred onto Francesca. Once I gave up thinking about this, I appreciated the story once more. In other words, if I, like Edward, totally forgot about his prior love and Louisa altogether, I enjoyed the romance between Francesca and Edward.

I liked that Francesca, a widow, had a prior good marriage. There were definitely surprises that occurred in the second half that I hadn’t anticipated and that added a level of poignancy to the story. The dispute over the dukedom was set up well and read very plausibly. There was one scene in which Edward was yelling at Francesca for acting dangerously when she kissed him to shut him up which I thought was a nice gender reversal. I actually found the agnst free way in which they embarked on their affair was refreshing and I enjoyed how completely they enjoyed each other.

Having said that, I never saw Francesca as a lively, passionate woman outside of Edward’s previous experience. Sure, she showed a strong desire to be a mother to her niece, but that just didn’t seem very “fiery” to me. And Edward’s character wavered between kind of uptight in the beginning to completely unfazed about having his affair with this widow be well known amongst society. In short, I never got a good handle on either character. I didn’t feel like I knew them. I felt more like their actions were played out according to what the scene dictated rather than having the scene dictated by their characters. Both characters are perfectly likeable, but not very real. C

Best regards,

Jane

What Jane Has Been Reading, Week of August 29

Jane — Wed, 31 Aug 2011 15:00:15 +0000

Like my previous post, this is actually a retrospective list of what I had read the past couple of weeks:

Mistress Bride by Michelle Reid – A discussion of Reid’s books prompted me to pull out this favorite of mine. I really like how Reid uses societal constraints to keep the protags apart. She did this in the Sheik’s Chosen Bride by having the loved wife of a prince of an Arab principality leave her husband because of infertility. In Mistress Bride, the Arab Sheik is supposed to marry a nearby Arab heiress but has instead carried on a public affair with a wealthy Englishwoman. The question of why the Sheik never asked Evie to marry him before she becomes pregnant is never satisfactorily answered.

The Father of Her Child by Emma Darcy – Michael Timberlane is a famous Australian literary agent whose marriage fell apart when his flighty society wife starts flinging bits of wisdom from some Lauren Magee with whom she works. When Lauren and Michael meet each other Michael has every intention of eeking out some revenge but after one night together, Michael realizes that his conclusions regarding Lauren were wrong and that they are meant to be together. Their HEA is put in jeopardy when Lauren realizes Michael obfuscated his identity and by Lauren’s ex husband. I liked that the two had to confront their own biases conclusions about each other that they formed from other’s hearsay and accusations.

The Demon Lover by Juliet Dark – this was a decently written UF but it’s not got the romance that I like in a cross over book and because of that, I’m not compelled to read the second. Much of the story is setup as well. I’ll write a full review later this month.

Too Proud to be Bought by Sharon Kendrick – very silly story. Zara is a waitress who catches the eye of Russian Billionaire, Nikolai Komarov. She resists his advances and thus places herself in the whore category in Nikolai’s eyes. She would also be in the whore category if she accepted his advances. No winning with Nikolai. His own desire for her is blamed on her whorishness. So Nikolai arranges for Zara to be his personal waitress when he travels. She also eventually falls into his bed, thus confirming her whorishness. Somehow she becomes a whore no longer, but I wasn’t sure at which point she crossed over that line for Nikolai.

I realized I hadn’t read (or purchased) Thread of Fear and Whisper of Warning by Laura Griffin. After reading those two, I went on to re-read Untraceable, Unspeakable, and Unforgivable. I generally agree with Jayne’s reviews here. It was because of Jayne’s reviews that I read these books. She isn’t a regular reader of romantic suspense and when Snapped came to my door, I finally broke down and read her. It was great and I had to buy her backlist titles. Thanks Jayne!

Cover Me by Catherine Mann – I bought this because I wanted to read more romantic suspense. This book had 23 reviews on Amazon with an average of 4 and 1/2 stars. The story features a heroine who lives in an off the grid community in the Aleutian Islands in Alaska and a pararescue Army person. I probably won’t read another Mann story. Her writing style doesn’t appeal to me. She info dumps and overexplains all the time. At one point, late in the book, she has one pararescue guy say to the other while they are searching for explosives: “I think the explosive sniffing dogs have found something.” Plus, she was always violating the rules she had set up. I.e., no one who left the Islands could return yet when the heroine is taken off the Island, she doesn’t question that she’ll return at all. The off the grid community is comprised of about 150 people but they all have their own business and seemingly a lot of ready cash. What does an off the grid community need with cash and how do they get it if they are off the grid? Ironically, the villain in this story does everything for the love of a woman which made me think of last week’s op ed post.

In looking over my list of September book reviews, I realized that my historical reading was way, way down so I read three historicals:

One Night in London by Caroline Linden – The 1st half of the story was bit irritating because so much of the internal monologue was spent on the mental lusting between the characters. What made this so irritating, beyond the obvious, is that the hero had been jilted by a woman that he professed to love. It wasn’t until about the midway point that he began to think about his feelings of loss and betrayal. the 2nd half of the story however picked up quite a bit and I ended up liking the book much more than I thought it would. Full review here.

Whisper of Scandal by Nicola Cornick. I’ve wanted to read Cornick ever since I talked to her editor Tara Parsons at RWA this summer. I choose Whisper of Scandal because it’s an adventure book that takes place, in part, in the North Pole. The book had several three-star reviews at goodreads that read like 4 or 5 star reviews which I found baffling until I read the book. Cornick is a smart writer and she’s got great dialogue. The story was unusual but part of it wasn’t completely satisfying. I know I’ll read her again because her voice is good and her plots feature different types of characters.

In the Arms of the Marquess by Katherine Ashe. Much of the conflict in the story depends upon the hero’s willful misunderstandings of the actions of the heroine. While the prose is lovely, the hero is one of those who thinks all women are jades and whores. He seduces the heroine when she is purportedly engaged to another to prove to himself and to her that she’s just like every other woman he has bedded and who has wanted to bed him. My enjoyment of the prose wasn’t able to overcome my dislike of the way in which the angst was contrived. Full review here

The Dragon and the Pearl by Jeannie Lin. I liked the world and the characters but the denouement was a let down, much like I felt the denouement disappointed in Butterfly Swords. Full review to come.

Blood of the Demon by Rosalie Lario. This is the first book I’ve read from the new publisher Entangled Press, and I liked it. My biggest problem was that the story felt short for a paranormal. It’s around 74,000 words and there definitely was room for more development of the characters. Full review here.

Goodreads | Amazon | BN | Sony | Kobo

Mark of the Sylph by Rosalie Lario. This October release is the 2nd in the series and while it’s full of interesting and weighty ideas that are never fully explored. Much of the story is spent on the 2 characters coming onto each other and resisting each other’s advances and ultimately falling in bed. I really had to force myself to finish this one as I didn’t feel like it advanced the world that was set up in the 1st book. I’ll probably read one more in the series to see if this author is one to watch. Full review to come.

Goodreads | Amazon | nook | Sony | Kobo

Fighting Fair by Anne Calhoun. This is a self published short story that is under 15,000 words and deals with marriage in trouble. Calhoun has a great voice and her characters feel modern and real. Unfortunately, I felt that the length of the story was too short for the subject matter. The story opens with the characters in couples’ therapy which the husband doesn’t think that they need. One of the impediments to their relationship is the husband’s work and I felt that that was too easily resolved which allows the characters to fall to bed with each other. I wasn’t convinced that their marriage troubles have been resolved and thus found the story unsatisfying. It’s more of a “it’s not you, it’s me” here, I think.

Goodreads | Amazon | nook | Sony | Kobo

REVIEW: For Your Arms Only by Caroline Linden

Jane — Tue, 08 Dec 2009 21:00:21 +0000

Ms. Linden:

I came away from this book thinking that I should have liked the story more than I did and I wasn’t sure why. Your prose is good, as always. You have thoughtful characters. I liked the premise – the story of a man whose honor was totally stripped away by a false accusation and how his life is redeemed.

Alexander Hayes has been dead to his family for the last five years. He was reported to have died on the battlefield and letters were found in his affects containing correspondence with the French. He was denounced as a traitor by Wellington himself. Alex was not a traitor but discovered that he was suspected when he found a friend of his on the French countryside. Alex was given the opportunity to spy for England so he changes his name and remains dead, cut off from his family, his friends, his home. In the meantime, he seeks evidence to clear his name.

Then his brother dies and Alex inherits the title. He must return home. There he finds his beloved sister can’t even sit in the same room with him and tells him that he would have been better off to stay dead. He displaces his cousin, a good man. The entire village, no, the entirety of England, believes him to be a traitor. Only his mother is filled with welcome.

Cressida Turner and her widowed sister, Callie, live in a small home near the Penford estate, the home of Alex. Their father has gone missing and the family funds are perilously low. Alex has been discharged by his superior to look into the matter and while Cressida first views Alex with suspicion she realizes that she has little choice but to allow Alex to assist her.

Both Alex and Cressida are understated characters. Alex, in particular, seemed to have an inexhaustible supply of patience, particularly with his sister Julia. When Alex does have a strong emotional response, it is all the more powerful because of the contrast.

I could see how the two were well matched. Cressida, like Alex, was not particularly flamboyant. She was the plainer of the two sisters and had not been able to make a match. She’s resigned to be a spinster.

The story was not told in a linear fashion with the present time frequently interrupted to move backward to unravel the story about how Alex became known as a traitor. I found that the backstory was interesting but really provided nothing to advance the story. It didn’t provide me with any greater insight into Alex as a character. It had nothing to do with Cressida and there was nothing in the flashbacks that provided keys to unlocking the present day mystery. It fell a bit like filler to me.

There was early mental lusting by both Alex and Cressida which didn’t seem to match the overall tone. Because both Alex and Cressida seemed to be restrained and because their initial meeting put each other at odds with one another, it was jarring to read about the tightening of Alex’s loins just looking at Cressida or Cressida’s thrill of appreciation at Alex’s blue eyes and sinfully handsome face.

I wanted to see more of how Alex dealt with the fall out of his treason. Was his sister unmarried because of it? We see small glimpses of it in his local church, but other than that, most of the story takes place at either Penford or Cressida’s home and the isolation makes you feel like there is no fall out, other than Alex’s sister’s issue with it.

Again, I liked the tone and I did like the characters but the whole story didn’t mesh well for me. I couldn’t connect emotionally. C

Best regards,

Jane

This book can be purchased at Amazon or in ebook format from Sony or other etailers.

This book was provided to the reviewer by either the author or publisher but I did purchase an ecopy for myself. The Amazon Affiliate link earns us a 6-7% affiliate fee if you purchase a book through the link (or anything for that matter) and the Sony link is in conjunction with the sponsorship deal we made for the year of 2009. We do not earn an affiliate fee from Sony through the book link.

GIVEAWAY: Caroline Linden Offers Free eBook Short

Jane — Wed, 11 Nov 2009 16:00:21 +0000

Caroline Linden and Avon are giving away a free sample of her work in the form of a free short story. Now we know not everyone reads digital books so Caroline Linden is having a few of these printed up to give away for free. If you want a taste of Caroline’s work and would rather read paper, leave a comment. We’ll pick a random five. If you want to read the story for free, right now, you can download the PDF from this link. This short is a companion piece to “For Your Arms Only” which is due out in December.

Winners of the Caroline Linden ARC Giveaway

Jane — Mon, 21 Apr 2008 17:00:46 +0000

Congratulations. You are getting an early peek at Caroline Linden’s lovely June historical, A Rake’s Guide to Seduction. Please send us your snail mail address within the next 48 hours. Thanks!

8 – ames
15 – NHS
19 – Wonald
25 – Liviania
31 – Willa
44 – azetc lady
49 – growlycub
57 – CrystalGB
61 – Dani
63 – Laela

REVIEW: A Rake’s Guide to Seduction by Caroline Linden

Jayne — Wed, 16 Apr 2008 09:00:45 +0000

Want to win an Advanced Readers Copy of this June 2008 book? We are giving away 10 of them. Read the review and then leave a comment if you are interested. Rules are winners are picked at random and you must promise to post something, somewhere about the book prior to June 2008. It can be good, bad or indifferent.

***

Dear Ms. Linden,

We’ve done lots of reviews of the previous books in this series. I had wondered if the younger sister of those heroes would find her true love. I’m happy to see that not only has she found him, but she’s found him again.

I’m coming, more and more, to enjoy a sweet, more gentle character study Regency. Don’t cloud the issue with spies or former spies or endless speculation about dancing at Almacks. Just give me two people who are trying to work out that age old question of “Do you love me?” If you’re going to set it in a certain era, make the details believable and specific for that time frame — or why bother to set it then — then let it happen.

Celia starts as a – let’s be honest – somewhat young and slightly silly heroine who’s got a bit of a crush on her older brother’s friend. But since she’s eighteen, I have no problems with that. She’s dazzled by finally being ‘out,’ falls for flash over substance and makes the kind of mistake that a lot of young girls still do.

I like that Bertram wasn’t turned into some eeevil man in order to further book plot and Celia’s unhappiness. The style of short engagement and how little she and he would know each other before marriage is enough of a real life estrangement for them. As Celia wonders, maybe if they had stayed in London things would have been better as they had enough to distract them from their unhappiness or maybe if they had married different people, things would have worked out. Her diary entries show a believable, slow decline in feelings for each other and I can understand how she’d want to hide her failure of a marriage from her nearest and dearest. After all, who wants to admit to such a disaster after your family has allowed you to choose for love?

While they may have been catty, I think Celia’s friends show the disappointment that must have been more evident in that age with arranged marriages and the quick, short engagement period of society weddings when couples never really had a chance to get to know each other. Instead of everyone finding “twue love” it’s a nice change. It also shows that Celia has matured enough to realize that the gossip she once so readily engaged in could be harmful – as she wonders if people are now gossiping about her.

Anthony is a nice hero. I know that might sound like a bland description but three cheers for a non-ahole guy. Despite what society thinks, he tries to do the right thing especially after he realizes he’s actually in love with Celia. Up to now he’s only thought of her as his friend’s little sister but once he ‘sees the light,’ he heads over to the Duke, states his case and then bucks up under the disappointing news that she’s already engaged. I like that Anthony doesn’t have ‘group hug,’ make up moment with his ‘father’ the Earl. There’s too much bad blood to easily erase so quickly.

I think Rosalind is nicely done – a loving mother who could also be a PITA as she tries to get Celia back into society and matched up – very normal and real life. Also, that Molly would have trouble getting along with her younger half-brothers Thomas and baby Edward. Very nice reality scenes. Thank you for not spending too much time spent with the earlier couples or no more than would be normal for people of the age and station in life. I find it interesting that David’s head groom is his brother-in-law.

It’s surprising that more wasn’t made of finding Celia and Anthony in the library. The place had been filled with gossip mongers from day one and all of a sudden they’re all Celia’s friends and won’t go back to London with this juicy gossip? Even if she is a widow, finding the host’s sister in flagrante delicto with a man not her husband would have made the tea rounds.

I found the subplots at the end with Lady Drummond and the attempt to take Celia hostage somewhat silly. Neither ‘goes’ with rest of the style of the book, they’re both too short and really, what was the point?

The book could have done with a little tightening and paring as things dragged a bit in the middle. I think it was realistic that Celia still needed some time to grow up before truly appreciating Anthony. How much life wisdom does the average 18 year old have? Not much. And this time she got to see her suitor in good light and bad, alone and in company so her choice carries more weight. Anthony also acknowledges that he couldn’t have adequately supported Celia those four years since his investments hadn’t paid off yet.

Overall, this is a nice ending to this series. A Regency with no spies and no PTSD wounded soldier hero is a treat. The scenes of intimacy are delish without being tasteless. I do wish that the title wasn’t so “blah” and generic. If I were looking at the book without having read any of the previous books, I might have been tempted to put it back on the store shelf without even giving it a try. B

~Jayne

This book can be purchased in mass market at Amazon or Powells or ebook format on June 3, 2008.

My First Sale by Caroline Linden, from Unsellable to Sold

Jane — Fri, 21 Sep 2007 09:00:48 +0000

Caroline Linden caught my attention with her second book, What A Gentleman Wants and I rushed out after that book was finished and bought her first book, What A Woman Needs. If I were to label Linden’s books, I would say enigmatic heroes and common sense heroines who show us that the path to love is never straight and easy, just like Caroline Linden’s road to publication.

Her latest novel, What A Rogue Desires is out in stores now and while I haven’t done a formal review of it, I have read it and it’s one that I would recommend.

***

The first book I wrote was utterly unsellable. I didn’t know that at the time; I didn't even care. It was just for practice. The second book was better, but only a little. The third book, though, I knew that book was good.

The opening scene popped into my head one night, while I was making dinner, and wouldn’t go away. I wrote it down thinking, 'maybe some day there will be a book to go with this.' I just didn't know what it was. But the second book was dragging, and I had an appointment to pitch to an agent at an upcoming conference. I knew my first two books weren't really good, and that scene wouldn’t leave me alone. So I let go of the second book, and like a bolt from the blue, the rest of the plot for that lonely, lovely, scene came to me. I was in love with that story. The hero was sexy, daring, and not your ordinary hero. The heroine was sensual, unusual, and no helpless damsel. Two months later the book was done, and I had hope–real hope–that the agent I pitched it to–even before it was done–would like it.

And she did! She loved it. She wanted to represent it, and me. She was sure she could sell it, and that this would be the beginning of a beautiful career. Excitedly, I signed on with her and she began submitting it to Major New York Publishers, while thrilling but vague visions of success danced in my head.

Then the rejections started coming. A few here, a few there. The hero was not noble enough. The romance wasn’t compelling enough. The heroine was too slutty. Some editors liked it, and sent it up the ladder for further approval, but the answers all came back the same: “Not right for our line at this time.”

I have always been a rejection-averse person. I only applied to one college; when I got in, I didn’t bother trying other colleges. I only took job interviews I was reasonably certain would lead to a job offer. It’s not that I can’t handle rejection; I just don’t like it. Having the book I loved be rejected over and over again was not pleasant, and the fact that my husband had sold his business and gone back to school did not help. We needed money, not rejection letters. My agent began to ask, tactfully, what other projects I had. I looked at my other books in progress with newly critical eyes: not this one, the hero is cold and arrogant and he doesn’t even show up for three chapters. Not this one, the heroine is a rabid Red Sox fan and there are witches and demons running amok at the World Series. In desperation, I started a completely new book at the same time I began re-writing my resume because it was clear I was not, in fact, a writer, or at least not one who could write a publishable book.

And then the phone rang, one rainy school vacation day over a year after my agent had started submitting the book. She had an offer. I may have literally jumped up and down in excitement. It wasn’t a lottery-winning offer, but it was enough. I took my resume off Monster.com, enormously relieved not to be reading SQL anymore, and my husband and I drank our last bottle of good wine.

I hope I'm getting better at writing fiction; it's much more fun than writing code (my previous profession). The book with the cold, arrogant hero who didn't show up until chapter three turned into WHAT A GENTLEMAN WANTS, and from that book came my next, WHAT A ROGUE DESIRES. Every new book is a challenge, beginning with only the slightest idea for a plot or a character and somehow developing into a 400 page manuscript. Some days it's fun to write, and I can hardly type fast enough to keep up with the story going on in my mind; some days each word must be pulled out one painful letter at a time; but man, I love this job.

REVIEW: What a Gentleman Wants by Caroline Linden

Janine — Fri, 27 Apr 2007 18:00:32 +0000

Dear Ms. Linden,

A while back, Jane reviewed your second novel, What a Gentleman Wants, and gave it a B. After enjoying your debut, What a Woman Needs (a B- for me), I thought I'd give your second book a try. I wish I liked it as much as Jane did, but for me, What a Gentleman Wants wasn't quite as enjoyable as your debut.

The first scene in What a Gentleman Wants introduces twin brothers David and Marcus Reece. Marcus is the Duke of Exeter, while David is merely his heir and scapegrace, ne'er do well brother. When Marcus catches David with a married woman, he sends him to Brighton. It's on his way there that David has a carriage accident in the Hamlet of Middleborough. Because he can't be moved, Hannah Preston, the vicar's widow, takes him into her cottage until his recovery.

During his convalescence, David realizes what an admirable woman Hannah is, hardworking and responsible. Although she is not a member of the nobility, he realizes she is a better person than he, and decides that he can too become a better man, with Hannah as his inspiration and his role model. So David asks Hannah to marry him.

Hannah isn't in love with David, or even attracted to him, but economic constraints are about to force her to move into her father's house, and she does not want her four year old daughter Molly to grow up under his roof. So Hannah agrees to marry David, little realizing that soon afterward he changes his mind.

Under the influence of his friend Percy, David has a brainstorm and decides to do something he hasn't done in years: forge his brother's signature, this time on a marriage license. In this way, Hannah will end up with money when Marcus inevitably pays her off, and David will have a chance to tweak his annoyingly perfect and autocratic brother.

After the marriage ceremony, David brings the unsuspecting Hannah and her daughter to the house of Marcus's mistress and leaves them there. He sends Marcus a letter, a marriage announcement to the Times, and another missive to his stepmother and sister, filled with a tall tale of Marcus and Hannah's whirlwind courtship.

When Marcus discovers what his brother has done he is furious, but he can't bear to break his stepmother and sister's hearts by revealing David's deception, so he makes a deal with the equally infuriated Hannah. If Hannah, who wants no part of Marcus, will remain in London for a month pretending to be his wife and then retire to the country, Marcus will settle a dowry on her daughter, and give Hannah a cottage of her own. Although Hannah has misgivings, she agrees.

It takes over a hundred pages for the book to come to this point, and over forty pages go by before Hannah and Marcus even meet. While I liked the premise, I felt that this was too long for the book to come to this point, and I did not become engaged in the story until a good sixty pages into it.

Part of that was because I was impatient for Hannah and Marcus to begin interacting, and part of it was because I felt that there were some unnecessary explanations of David and Hannah's characters and their feelings in that section of the book. I would have preferred to see these aspects of the characters revealed through actions and gestures, so that I could then infer my own conclusions about the characters. Subtlety engages my imagination in a deeper way, and I wanted more of that in this book, and especially in its early sections. I nearly gave up and stopped reading during that beginning portion of the book.

You have a pleasant voice that I enjoy reading, so I persisted, and once Hannah and Marcus began their masquerade as husband and wife, you did a wonderful job of evoking the unwanted attraction that developed between them. There are some terrific scenes in which Marcus and Hannah are thrust into one another's company, and later, other ones in which they begin to seek reasons to be in each other's sphere. You have a genuine gift for depicting romantic longing, and here I had all the subtlety I could want –" a look here, a touch there, a near kiss, all had me melting.

Unfortunately, this section of the book does not last as long as I wanted it to. While I'm glad that no immature misunderstandings or contrivances got in Hannah and Marcus's way, I'm also disappointed that the question of their love for one another was settled rather quickly, and the book soon detoured into a suspense plot about counterfeiting that didn't feel well-integrated into the story. This then goes on for well over fifty pages.

In the end, I feel that the book is like a sandwich, with its slow beginning and suspense plot ending comprising two rather stale pieces of bread and the middle a delicious and very appetizing gourmet filling that I want a lot more of.

I'm also left with questions about Marcus's stepmother Rosalind's eagerness to welcome a nobody like Hannah into the family and the role of duchess. The reason given is that Marcus refused to ever marry, but that too, doesn't quite ring true to the times, and to his position, without a deeper look into his character than just the mentions of his annoyance at women's pursuit of him. I kept expecting a deft psychological exploration of his motives, like the ones you provided for the main characters in What a Woman Needs, but in this case, there wasn't one.

I enjoyed parts of What a Gentleman Wants very much; others, not so much, and I'm left with a difficult decision as to what grade to give the book. The writing is clearly better than average, but I know I won't reread it, and so, looking once again at our review grade explanation I settle on C+.

Sincerely,

Janine

REVIEW: What a Gentleman Wants by Caroline Linden

Jayne — Wed, 31 Jan 2007 10:00:26 +0000

Dear Ms. Linden,

Jane has already written a letter explaining the plot of your second book so I’m gonna just skip to my thoughts on it. Yeah, I love being lazy.

I loved watching the stuffy, ultra-in-control hero Marcus lose his cool and get his Ducal feathers ruffled. I enjoyed seeing him be charmed by heroine. BUT neither Hannah nor her child go overboard to do this. Thank you for not including the seemingly obligatory cutesy scenes of them being goofy which are meant to “charm” him and us. Blech- I hate those kind of scenes. I thought the “sexy bits” were well done and, huzzah!, we have a widow who enjoyed sex with her first husband and isn’t “awakened” to good luvin’ by the hero.

The whole plot set up is far fetched but I’m willing to go with it because of characters and the way it spins out is logical. I like that Marcus is aristocratic and overbearing….he’s a Duke for God’s sake when being a Duke really meant something. He’s not chummy with his servants because they’re the bloody servants and meant to serve him! And he’s not a secret spy!!! Yes, he was doing some investigative work but the way it was set up (to help David and keep the family name clean) makes sense and in the end, he’s not the one who really cracks the case. I do agree with Jane that the action sequences didn’t really fit the feel of the book up til that point and could have been left out.

I like how Hannah starts to get used to being a Duchess (ie with servants and beautiful clothes and a lovely home to live in) very quickly and gets over being uncomfortable giving orders. I also actually like how she goes postal on Lily , since after all Hannah’s child is in danger. But I can appreciate how Hannah’s personality causes her to have some compassion for how Lily was sucked into the plot but…maybe Hannah and Marcus went overboard in not handing out punishment.

I have to admit that I think Celia acted a bit goofy for a 17 year old of this era. After all, she’s nearly ready for her come out and is the daughter and sister of Dukes. I can’t help but think this kind of behavior would have been governessed out of her by that age. But I like Rosalind and loved to see how much she and Celia care that Marcus is happy at last. It was fun to watch them cleverly maneuver him into doing what they wanted.

My major niggle is the villain. He has reasons for his villainy and you did offer a few vague hints at his identity but he was kind of sprung on us at the end, IMO. And as I said, the whole denouement felt tacked on.

But considering that I’m still tired of Regency Historicals and would prefer almost any other setting for a historical book, the fact that I’m giving this a B is quite a good grade from me at this time.

~Jayne

REVIEW: What a Gentleman Wants by Caroline Linden

Jane — Tue, 05 Dec 2006 22:00:24 +0000

Dear Ms. Linden:

Marcus Reese, Duke of Exeter, is a pragmatic man. When confronted with the angry husband of his brother’s latest paramour, Reese sets off to find his brother, save his life and his sister’s season from Scandal. It matters not that he has to interrupt a bout of tupping between brother and paramour. He’s also not a fast man. Said paramour murmurs to him that it was a little exciting to her to have him watch them. Exeter is quick to set her down:

“You are sadly mistaken if you think the sight of you riding my brother like a common strumpet was remotely exciting to me,” he said. “I suggest you purge the thought from your head.”

Here was my first clue that this book would not be like all the other historicals I have read. It would not feature a dissolute rake who needs to be redeemed by love. I started getting excited and I was barely a few pages in. Exeter sends David out of town to wait out the scandal that is bound to develop.

David heads off to Middleborough but is injured in an accident. Hannah Preston, the vicar’s widow, takes him into her home and nurses him back to health. David grows to like Hannah and offers her a marriage of convenience. He needs some respectability and Hannah needs the money because with her husband gone, she has little funds to care for herself and her daughter. If she doesn’t accept David’s offer, Hannah will have to go and live with her father who had since remarried and has no need for Hannah. It seems that marriage is her best recourse. But David isn’t really quite ready to be shackled and unbeknowst to Hannah he signs his brother’s name on the marriage license.

Exeter and Hannah’s attempt to extricate themselves from the sham marriage is complicated by Celia, Exeter’ sister, and Rosalind, his mother. Both are incurable romantics and delighted that Exeter has finally married. Even if the marriage doesn’t seem all that appropriate, Celia and Rosalind are determined that this will work. Their clever machinations are misread completely by Exeter which was kind of a treat. He thinks he knows it all, but really doesn’t.

Exeter is a bit removed from his family even though he loves them. He wants everyone including his new and temporary wife to call him Exeter. He doesn’t know the names of his servants. Why should he? He’s Exeter. The vicar’s daughter doesn’t really know anything about the peerage. She never intended to live amongst them. But she begins to the like the trappings of wealth and would miss the silk sheets and garments once the farce of the marriage is over. It’s great to see a haughty man fall and fall he does for the warmth and good heart of Hannah.

The romance is a bit complicated by the fact that Exeter is investigating a counterfeit situation. He’s been drug into it because some of the fake bills have been passed by his brother, either knowingly or unknowingly. This did provide a bit of a suspense to the book to move the story along (although I enjoyed the romance more than the suspense part). However, the action sequence toward the end seemed tacked on and not in keeping with the character development. If the suspense had been better integrated into the story, I would have given it an A. As it is, I enjoyed this story the first time and then the second when I wrote up this letter. B

Best regards,

Jane

REVIEW: What a Woman Needs by Caroline Linden

Janine — Thu, 16 Nov 2006 09:00:46 +0000

Dear Ms. Linden,
I was intrigued by the premise of your first novel, What a Woman Needs.

Stuart Drake has to get his hands on some money, and he has to do it fast. After becoming embroiled in not one but two scandals, neither of his own making, Stuart was cut off from his allowance by his angry father. Now Stuart, the subject of London gossip, is living on meager funds, and worse yet, if he doesn’t find another source of income quickly, he may have to sell Oakwood Park, the beloved estate he recently purchased.

In order to avoid that fate, Stuart has put his future title, his handsome looks and his charming manners up for sale, so to speak, and moved to Tunbridge Wells ahead of the gossip. There Stuart has found a young heiress who wants nothing more than to marry him. But standing in the way of Stuart’s marriage to Miss Susan Tratter is her aunt and guardian.

Charlotte Griffolino is the surly old widow of an Italian count, according to Susan. So when Stuart finds himself halfway seduced by a lushly-curved, golden-skinned woman of thirty, he doesn’t realize who she is until the rug, or rather her tempting body, is abruptly pulled out from under him.

Charlotte has heard the gossip about Stuart in London and she is displeased, to say the least, to find her niece and ward in love with a man Charlotte believes to be a cad. When Charlotte was young, a fortune hunter took advantage of her and she suffered considerably as a result. As a result, she is determined to keep Stuart away from Susan and prevent him from preying on other young women.

Stuart is willing to forget about marriage to Susan (truth to tell, a big part of him is relieved that he won’t be marrying her), but when Charlotte ensures that the rumors from London follow Stuart to Tunbridge Wells and that no mother allows him near her daughter, it’s as good as a declaration of war. From then on, Stuart and Charlotte spar, break into one another’s homes to retrieve their possessions, and fall into delicious lust.

Then Susan disappears, leaving Charlotte a note in which she says she has followed her love. Certain that Stuart plans to abduct her niece, Charlotte threatens him with her gun, and Stuart agrees to take her with him to London, on one condition: if he’s proven innocent of her charges, she must spend one night in his bed.

What a Woman Needs was slow to involve me at first, perhaps because for all the enjoyable sparring, in the first half or so Stuart and Charlotte’s characters were not as clearly defined as I would have preferred.

In the first half of this book, I saw mostly the outward facades that Stuart and Charlotte presented to the world, and not the people they were inside, whom I really wanted to get to know sooner. Stuart seemed to hover somewhere between cad and a desperate man, Charlotte between seductive siren and strict guardian.

In the second half of What a Woman Needs, the masks dropped and I finally felt I was seeing the real Stuart and Charlotte. Stuart began to see and allay Charlotte’s fear for her niece, while Charlotte realized that Stuart was a better man than she’d thought. As the two began to trust each other more, they also saw each other’s fears and scars, and each helped the other find strength.

I enjoyed this portion of the book very much, especially the way you explored and resolved the main characters’ relationship with their parents. Stuart grew into a hero I wanted to see succeed, and Charlotte was refreshingly sophisticated. I also thought your writing style was solid, though occasionally a speech tag here or there seemed superfluous. Here’s an example of what I mean:

“Let’s find out, shall we?” proposed Whitley, puffing at a cigar he’d found.

I can see from Whitley’s words that he is proposing something, so the word “proposed” seems like an unnecessary explanation to me.

But that’s a minor nitpick. On the whole, I thought that What a Woman Needs was an accomplished first novel. I feel that you are a new writer with much potential, and that at just $3.99 for the cover price, courtesy of someone smart in Kensington/Zebra’s marketing department, readers can afford to give this book a try. I hope they do, and that they like it as well as I did. This one gets a B- from me.

Sincerely,

Janine