Recent Release Review-The Duke With The Dragon Tattoo by Kerigan Byrne

Title: The Duke With The Dragon Tattoo (Victorian Rebels)
Genre: Historical Romance
Author: Kerrigan Byrne
Source: Free for review from the publisher
Publisher: St. Martin’s Press, August 28, 2018
Pages: 384
Rating: 5
Sexy rating: 5
Violence rating: 5
Description from Amazon:

He is known only as The Rook. A man with no name, no past, no memories. He awakens in a mass grave, a magnificent dragon tattoo on his muscled forearm the sole clue to his mysterious origins. His only hope for survival—and salvation—lies in the deep, fiery eyes of the beautiful stranger who finds him. Who nurses him back to health. And who calms the restless demons in his soul…
A LEGENDARY LOVE
Lorelai will never forget the night she rescued the broken dark angel in the woods, a devilishly handsome man who haunts her dreams to this day. Crippled as a child, she devoted herself to healing the poor tortured man. And when he left, he took a piece of her heart with him. Now, after all these years, The Rook has returned. Like a phantom, he sweeps back into her life and avenges those who wronged her. But can she trust a man who’s been branded a rebel, a thief, and a killer? And can she trust herself to resist.

**

Once again in this fabulous series we are treated to a deadly, dark protagonist and the woman who is willing to go to the ends of the earth to save him. It must be true love because he has abandoned her for 20 years and has become a pirate who is feared. But she knows the boy she rescued is not this demon that has come for her.

Kerrigan Byrne can make us sympathize with even the most evil of heroes as she has shown in other books in this series and here again we have a hero who is hard to like. But Lorelai remembers him when he was recovering and how she fell in love with him. There is fine characterization here and a some heart stopping moments as well as redemption of a very bad man. The chemistry is well off the charts.

 

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Recent Release Review-The Vixen by Christi Caldwell

Title: The Vixen (Wicked Wallflowers book #2)
Genre: Historical Romance
Author: Christi Caldwell
Source: Free for review from the publisher
Publisher: Montlake, Aug. 7, 2018
Pages: 366
Rating: 4
Sexy rating: 5
Violence rating: 5

**

This is another page turner from Ms. Caldwell dealing with the underbelly of Regency London. Ophelia Killoran is a sister to a gaming hell proprietor who wants her to marry into the aristocracy to further his own agenda. Ophelia comes from an abused childhood and feels her mission is to save  many orphans from the streets. Connor Steele saved Ophelia once when he was younger before he was adopted by an aristocrat. Now years later they are thrown together when Connor investigates a missing heir and Ophelia might have the clues to finding him.

I enjoyed this book and like how the author keeps the same feeling of time and place throughout this series and the previous series. This is a standalone but you will enjoy it even more if you read the first book in the series, The Hellion.  The romance is slow simmering but so satisfying. I eagerly await the next book in this series.

 

Recent Release Review- More or Less A countess by Anna Bradley

Title: More or Less a Countess (The Somerset Sisters)
Genre: Historical Romance
Author: Anna Bradley
Source: Free for review from the publisher
Publisher: Lyrical, August 7, 2018
Pages: 252
Rating: 3
Sexy rating: 5
Violence rating: 3
Description from Amazon:

Finding a worthy husband should be simple for three beautiful debutantes in Regency London. But the Somerset sisters have a way of making it delightfully complicated . . .

Violet Somerset has always preferred a library to a ballroom, but to please her grandmother she agreed to one London season. With nothing to show for it but heartbreak, she’s reconciled to spinsterhood. Until a notorious rogue known as the Devil of Dare requests an introduction to her timid, gentle youngest sister, Hyacinth. Violet will do anything to stop the match—even if it means posing as Hyacinth herself . . .

Nicholas Balfour, the Earl of Dare, is enjoying the life of a rake far too much to take a wife. But he must keep his promise to his grandmother. He’ll simply choose the meekest bride he can find, install her at his estate, then carry on as before. Hyacinth sounds perfect—until he discovers that her sweet demeanor hides the tongue of a viper and the mind of a bluestocking . . .

As Violet’s ruse threatens to unravel, however, she may find the tables turned. Soon she may have no choice but to tolerate her handsome fiancée—or fall in love with him . . .

**
Violet is a bluestocking and Nick is a rake, the combination is ripe for angst and witty repartee, which Ms. Bradley delivers. There are scenes that lead the reader to laugh out loud. Even though I did enjoy much of this book I could not help but think that every scene with Nick and Violet was a bit over-the-top. This is a stand alone book and #2 in the series. Not a badly written book just not my cuppa tea.