Anabelle Bryant

Enthralling start had me hooked!

Pleasing characters made this an equally pleasing read. Although I felt the end was a trifle rushed, as was the romance. Still two hearts were electrified, two noses discerned the fetching aromas surrounding their equally as interesting counterparts. A few small details that I wondered about, including, did I miss something? Has Sebastian St. Allen, a peer’s by blow, product of the streets like the Seven Dials neighborhood, become a peer whilst my eyes were closed? The ending brings that question up for me. Although to be fair Sebastian always says he’s just St. Allen, never Mister! Hmm!
Anyway we have stolen children, stolen dogs and some very nasty happenings. St. Allen meets his match in the aforementioned surrounds when Lady Delilah Ashbrook investigates the disappearance of her maid’s son, for which she holds herself responsible. An adventurous woman, in more ways than one, sizzling even, who ends up being befriended by the Maispdens. I was sorely disappointed in our heroine when she yelled at exactly the wrong moment. Hours of patient waiting destroyed by an uncontrollable call. This impulsive action at the penultimate moment just didn’t add up with her character, but it did act as a lever for what followed. And throughout her auntaccuses her of being impulsive, but really that incident was just plain out of sync.
St Allen is an agent for the Crown along with a couple of other interesting fellows and the diabolical Eva, who manages to throw a spanner or two into the works.
Of course all is resolved, although there’s a few loose ends hanging about should one care to notice.

A Kensington Books ARC via NetGalley… (plus d'informations)

From the glittering ballrooms of the ton to the city's grittiest corners, London has no shortage of wrongs in need of righting—and the Maidens of Mayhem are prepared for the challenge. United by secrecy and sisterhood, these daring women from all walks of life aim to fight injustice wherever they take—even into the arms of unexpected love... These Regency Robin Hood from USA Today bestselling author Anabelle Bryant will storm into readers' hearts!

Scarlett Wynn's tragic childhood taught her that life can be cruel to women with little power. So when a local seamstress disappears, Scarlett vows to find out why. Armed with a weapon and her courage, Scarlett scours London for clues—and crosses the unlikely path of Ambrose Cross, the Duke of Aylesford, at an unlikely place: an upscale brothel. The Duke is trying to solve a mystery of his own, and Scarlett is sure they can help each other—if she can resist the attraction that draws them together...

As Duke, Ambrose is duty-bound to protect his family name from scandal, no matter the cost. But Scarlett's fearless spirit forces him to look beyond his world of privilege. Scarlett is as intoxicating as she is dangerous, igniting a fire in him like no other. But when the pair learn both mysteries they're trying to solve are tied to a string of missing women, the tangled scheme they uncover may put their lives, and their growing love, in mortal danger—and lead them to search their hearts like never before.

Thank you Kensington Books for sponsoring this Goodreads giveaway giving me the chance to read Duchess if You Dare Anabelle Bryant!

A historical mystery filled with mystery and romance.
I had a little trouble staying interested in this book. The chemistry between the characters is good and the primary reason I could finish the book.
It became frustrating when you thought they would accept their feelings for each other. To have the rug pulled out from under you, and back to square one! But that is the only thing that stands out to me. Besides that it was an ok book. Happy reading everyone!
… (plus d'informations)

Blog Review: https://trishadoeseverythingbutstudy2.wordpress.com/2021/02/28/february-2021-rev...

I received a free e-ARC from Netgalley in exchange for an honest review!

I did not like it.

The sad thing is, I don't even know whether I didn't like it because it was worse than rel="nofollow" target="_top">Outrageous, or because it was actually that bad.

So, where to start. the biggest problem I had was the insta-love. Why, just why. And even worse, self-aware insta-love. It's one thing if you incorporate insta-love and then write it into the story as if it was drawn out, at least having the grace to give the reader the impression that they actually know and get each other.

It's a completely different thing if they fall in love and then proceed to wonder about how they fell in love so fast, and surely this was too fast, and this was probably not the correct thing to be doing with your life; regaling with all the reasons as to why they shouldn't be together, and you're nodding along to it all saying EXACTLY you shouldn't be together. And then putting your head in your hands because now you can't even pretend to yourself that this was slowburn and some pages went missing.

The next biggest problem I had with this was that even though the name of the series is Maidens of Mayhem, we got like three scenes of the Maidens total. I get that this is a romance, but if you're going to write it in a way that shows you'll be focusing on plot, and then give the series the name of these supposed badass feminists, at least tell me more about these feminists!??!

The fact is, I wanted to know more about the Maidens, how they operate, who keeps funding them, what all they do, who tells them to do this, what their relationship is with each other, how they hide from the general public, do they hide from the general public (because this was pretty vague), what skills they have, how did they come about these skills, some insight into how they teach each other these skills; anything about their modus operandi really, but instead I was regaled with their undying love for each other, traumatic pasts, and repetitive thoughts about why they won't work.

The saving grace this had was that I was not regaled with too many sex thoughts, and it wasn't as explicit as Outrageous, and that there was only like one scene. And a half maybe.

On the whole, not a good experience. I would recommend it to people who can handle insta-love, and who went into the book expecting it to focus on romance.… (plus d'informations)