One Good Earl Deserves a Lover by Sarah MacLean

Sorry, I'm going to blame my book club (which does not read romance novels I'm sad to report) for my delay in blogging but really our last book was, while long, not as time consuming as some of our others have been (Luminaries anyone?).

So Sarah MacLean won me over years ago with her ridiculously long titled Ten Ways to be Adored When Landing a Lord.  Since then there have been one or two that weren't quite up to that standard.  This one I enjoyed a lot.  I will admit that almost all of its merit rely on sexual tension. Which really, if you can pull off 374 pages on sexual tension, well, hats off.

Phillipa is a scientist in 1831 and she is to be married to a very nice simple honest gentleman in fifteen days.  She decides that since she doesn't understand sex, she must find a man to explain it all to her so she does not go into her marriage uninformed.

Cross is an erstwhile Earl in his own right who now runs the most successful gaming hell in London. He tragically failed his family seven years ago and is now embroiled in a plot against his sister that he must subvert.

If I have complaints, it would be that the book is just a bit long. That there could have been more sex, even if not consummation which Cross refuses to engage in, of course.  But Pippa is lovely and I always enjoy the evolution of how a hero sees his heroine changes as he falls in love with her.

Historical Romance 2013: 4 out of 5 philtrums.

Why do I even like this show?

Wedding pic from this coming Saturday!

OMG I am so lazy.  But at the risk of repeating myself, I couldn't help it!

What is in the water, I liked this book but I definitely thought it was silly.  And the show is bonny but it's not that good, and I don't seem to be the only one who likes it either.

Ach, lassie.  There's no accounting for taste then, is there?

Douchemaster McChest

The name's Douchemaster McChest And this is my first headshot. You're welcome. #throwbackthursday circa 2000 pic.twitter.com/85B6tl3swn

Hmm, maybe he could have been Jaime?  No offense, Sam.

I know I'm old because instead of being jealous of his wife, I really just want to know her, cause she has got to be totally cool too. :)

Thanks to Jezebel for the link.

Kiss of Steel by Bec McMaster

Kiss of Steel is the first book in the London Steampunk series.  I actually read My Lady Quicksilver first and liked it so much I immediately bought all the other books in the series.  I think I always like the first book I read in any series (interesting topic for empirical study) but the whole series is quite enjoyable.

Honoria's father, a renowned scientist, has died and Honoria must now support herself, her younger sister and her sick younger brother.  She is forced to move into Whitechapel, the only part of London so dangerous the normal forces of societal control have no presence there.  Of course, nature abhors a vacuum so in Whitechapel, Blade, a notorious outlaw fellow, rules.

I have a soft spot for the good-hearted thief, but I think it can be tricky to write given the deeds most powerful thief-lords need to commit to get into power and to stay there.  Blade is bad-ass and an attractive character but this inherent conflict made this my third favorite book in the series (out of four so far).  Also Honoria is not bad-ass which automatically downgrades the book for me.

Good writing, terrific world building! good sexual tension, unpredictable plot resolution, lots of character interaction.  Overall, very enjoyable.

Steampunk Romance 2012: 4 of 5 CV levels.

Lazy Posting

 I just had to.  I had no choice.  The devil made me do it.

This is an awesome picture in so many ways.

The Kraken King by Meljean Brook

I'm a bit of a Meljean Brook fangirl, let's get that out of the way.  I loved her first Demon (insert word) book but eventually burned out on them a bit.  There are eight books and five (?) novella's in the series and I came to the series late so I didn't take breaks in between the books, etc.  Anyway, for whatever reason I was a little worried when she embarked on the steam punk thing.  Jumping on the bandwagon, latest fad, etc.  Oh, I was soooooooooooooo wrong.  Iron Duke was spectacular.  But I digress (as usual).

The Kraken King was released in serial format which was very interesting (and becoming more common).  I will admit when I saw each of them for $1.99 on my Nook, I was annoyed.  Really, eight parts, $16?  But then I started reading and I just didn't care.  I was lucky, again, that they were all pretty much out so I didn't have to wait for each section to be published (hate that, I'm such a baby).  But after reading the book I did go to her website to see whether she had talked about why she did it this way.

It was very interesting, well, it was at that moment.  Basically what I remember is that there was a long delay between writing a whole novel and then getting it out as a print book.  But she could write it in stages, release it electronically as she wrote (I'm sure she was still ahead of us somewhat, cause if that girl is writing 20,000 words each week I am seriously impressed) and we wouldn't have to wait ten years to have the hot little book in our hands. On top of which she broke out word count and pointed out most mass market romances are 300-350 pages and the final page count was over 675, effectively we got two books for our $16.

Bottom line, I loved this book.  I really enjoyed the Kraken King himself as an a-typical character.  If I had any complaints, the plot was maybe drawn out a bit by the serial process.  And it took a while to consummate the relationship, but that fit with the characters and plot and there was very good sexual tension.

I have to say the world that Ms. Brook has built is really standing the test of time.  I have thoroughly enjoyed each and every single book she's crafted in the Iron Seas series.

Paranormal Steampunk Alternative History 2014: 4.95 of 5 letters to your brother.    

I Had Such a Hard Day

I am so exhausted.  I had such a rough day.  I had to get up at 7am.  I went to two classes (1.75hrs) I picked up two kids (1.75hrs) and bought three dinners.  Wiped out.  I tell you.

Why can't I live here?