Following my heart, one book at a time...
Let’s see some fun comments from her over the last year, first (including books and authors that didn’t necessarily make her “Best of 2021” list), but that she still highly recommended this year… 🙂. 😉
I’m mostly Scottish, then English, then Germany and Sweden. But same parts of the world. 100% northern Europe and Scandinavia.
Cha needs our book help! Oooooooh drama!! Short and NOT so sweet. 😉 But I bet someone knows this one, and I can’t WAIT to find out!
She asks:
I forgot the title of the book but I remember one scene.
It goes like the heroine went to a party with the hero and the hero’s ex-mistress was there. The mistress slapped the heroine and the heroine slapped her back.
It seemed like an abandoned wife/marriage of convenience troupe. Probably a regency historical romance.
Pls help!
Maryse: I’m going to post something super silly that my boyfriend said when I read this question to him (’cause I loved the description of the scene so I just had to read it to him). So…. this is “the first guess” (albeit obviously wrong). LOL!!
Sahnie needs our book help! Ohhhhh I love the whole “disguised as a boy” trope and we have a category and list for that. I should add this one once we find out what it is. 😀
She asks:
Hi Maryse,
firstly I’d like to say I loove looove love your blogs. I’ve found many amazing books here.
I’d like help finding a book I read many years ago. I’ve been searching using every keyword I could remember with no luck. It’s a historical novel from the little I remember.
Mary Ann is looking for this series! I’m not much of a historical romance buff, but this one sounds pretty great!
She asks:
Good day,
I hope this email finds you well.
I’m looking for a mini-book series like short stories
The series is about a knight/conquerer who marries a handmaiden as a wife instead of a bride chosen for him.
There is a plot against them as they are required to produce an heir but someone poisons her tea that she is unable to get pregnant.
TIA
The author says:
This series is a bit like The Nevers — in fact, a lot. (Which I still haven’t seen but I’ve heard it is.)
…These are typical Regency/Victorians in a way with the paranormal spin. (And they’re steamy.)
P.S. Here’s the entire series on Amazon & each one CAN be read as a standalone, book #3 is free right now and book #4 is super-bargain priced. The new release is wide — the others KU.
About book #4:
#4 in this UNIQUE historical romance series! THE NEVERS + BRIDGERTON mashup!
Time-traveling lovers navigate the sinister streets of London—while denying their enchantment and desire.
Rescued from the slums and molded into a gentleman, Simon Alexander lost the love of his life to a mystical world he’s always spurned. Still searching for the time traveler who stole his heart, he’ll stop at nothing to find her. When he does, he finds he can’t trust her—or his desire. Will he be able to tame his fear, and his hellion, once and for all?
She’s a time-traveling socialite…
Transforming Emma Breslin from a poverty-stricken termagant into an aristocrat is easier than anyone imagined. Nearly overnight, she delights society as a trendsetting sensation. Torn between her obsession with the man who’s never forgiven her for leaving and her fight to safeguard the magical gem she stole from him, Emma battles to survive without the man she loves. But when her life is threatened, Simon Alexander is the only person in any time she can trust.
Come along for a passionate story where passion defies time and love conquers betrayal.
And here’s the book trailer!! 😀
SERIES READING ORDER:
The author says:
Let’s do a giveaway! How about an Amazon gift card ($10) and signed copy of The Hellion is Tamed + book swag. (I have cover magnet and bookmark.)
How to enter for a chance to win it?
Just leave a comment below (and better yet – tell me your favorite historical romance book or series), and by 10pm EST, Sunday June 27th, 2021, I will randomly select one lucky commenter as the winner.
The winner will be contacted and will have 48hrs to respond confirming their mailing address, so if you are picked, do not delay or you will lose your chance. The signed book will be sent to the winner by the author.
OPEN TO US only however everyone is welcome to comment. 🙂
Simon slouched against the doorjamb, crossed his legs at the ankle and took her in, this positively foreign, absolutely fascinating creature who’d beguiled her way into his life.
A woman who’d haunted him more than any ghost in existence.
She was nothing like the society chits who offered themselves to him on a daily basis. Their attraction answerable to his ownership of the Blue Moon and the skills a viscount’s byblow possessed that a high-born man likely wouldn’t. A jaded bunch, the lot of them, himself included, seeking entertainment and deliverance.
Glancing about the room, he came across a tidy pile stacked by the hearth. A pair of silver dancing slippers, a lilac shawl and his gloves. He flexed his fingers and, in a swift move for a man known for them, shoved his clenched fists deep in his trouser pockets. It seemed Emma intended to give the gloves back when he, absurdly, wanted her to keep them.
He took a step into the parlor, aware that a gentleman would have alerted a lady to his presence. But he wasn’t a gentleman, and Emmaline Breslin wasn’t a lady. He shook his head with a soft smile, unsure what to call her. Termagant? Hellion?
She wore another new gown, this one a shade, perhaps two, lighter than her magnificent indigo eyes. Madame Hebert had selected jewel tones that would set her apart in a ballroom, if the vivacity of her personality did not. Simon thought her raw beauty enough to make her shimmer, a diamond amongst dull, grey stone. High cheekbones, a chin that spoke of obstinacy and hasty decisions. A difficult face, sensual and stubborn. One that brought to mind tangled sheets and the pleasurable tremors that ripped through you after coming so hard you almost blacked out.
Any man’s dream aside from the abrasive accent, the rough skin, the disrespectful manner. Things that didn’t matter in the least that mattered mightily to the ton. They’d have to change her, or hide the parts they couldn’t change, before she’d be ready for society introduction.
He knew this because he’d done it himself.
To please him, she needed no alteration. He’d searched for her before he knew. He wondered if she realized that. Or, that’d he given up on her—and now questioned if he should have. Years too late, that decision. He’d lost himself along the way and lost her, too.
With a rousing yawn, Emma pulled Dickens closer and squinted.
Simon held back a chuckle. Why, she needs spectacles. He opened his mouth to tell his hellion that when two small, human projectiles rammed into the back of his legs, forcing him into an awkward stumble into the room.
Emma shoved to an inelegant sit, tugging her skirt over her ankles, color sweeping enticingly down her neck and bleeding into the rounded collar of her gown. Her gaze snapped to the slippers stacked hopelessly by the hearth as she gave her stockinged toes a frantic wiggle. She’d obviously lost herself in—Simon tilted his head to read the title of the book she’d placed by her feet—David Copperfield.
The duke’s youngest children, twins Worth and Winnie, danced in a wild circle around Simon, chanting a charming ditty he didn’t know, their grubby hands tugging on his trousers and leaving what looked like specks of jam behind. He laughed and tried to brush them off. “I know you’re looking for butterscotch. I didn’t bring any today.”
“Bother,” Winnie said, flashing a gap-toothed grin, her amber eyes exact replicas of her father’s. But her face, oh, her lovely face was all Delaney’s. “You never forget sweets. You’re the bestest for sweet giving.”
Worth plopped himself on the sofa and folded his hands in his lap, a flawless embodiment of etiquette. “I shall behave like a gentleman whilst I beg for my treat.”
Winnie giggled and jammed her bottom right next to her brother’s. “Me, too. A perfect lady.” Then she ruined the statement by licking a spot of jam from her thumb.
Simon had to work to contain his amusement at the apprehensive look on Emma’s face. She obviously hadn’t been around children often. “What say you, Miss Breslin?”
Emma popped her head over the back of the sofa and blinked owlishly. “About?” She wobbled precariously, struggling to put on her slippers without anyone noticing they’d been taken off.
Worth tilted his head. “Oh, hello, Miss Emmaline. You need to tell Uncle Si to give us the candies he always carries. He’ll flip them around like a magician, if you ask him nice. Part of his gift. That and the dead ghosties. My gift is that I will someday make fire fly from my fingertips, like my father, the duke. I dream about doing it, so it must be so.” He dropped his voice to a whisper. “A secret, but it means we both have gifts. It means we all have gifts.”
Emma’s gaze shot to Simon’s. Fire, she mouthed?
Later, he said with nothing more than a shake of his head.
The League had worried that the next generation would inherit supernatural abilities and, unfortunately, it appeared to be happening. Julian’s son, Lucien, touched objects and saw the past, as his father did. One of Finn’s daughters seemed to be a blocker, like her mother. And Worth…Worth dreamed of fires. News that had nearly destroyed the Duke of Ashcroft when he’d first realized it. Thrown him into a depression Simon had dreaded he wouldn’t recover from. The League had feared he would return to the opium dens, a place he’d frequented before his marriage, but he had not. His wife, Delaney, would never let that happen.
Consequently, Simon had decided not to have children. He’d been very careful in his relationships, most of those extremely short in nature, to ensure pregnancy did not result.
To parent a beloved child who conversed with the deceased seemed a greater nightmare than conversing with them yourself.
Seemed like a dreadful wager from the start.
Anyway, he’d never feel that blind obsession, reckless need. Overpowering yearning.
Julian and Finn had stressed the imperative often enough. Without love, a successful union was untenable. He supposed it made him a romantic, but he’d seen his brother’s marriages flourish, so he believed love was necessary. Furthermore, he had no title to offer. Nothing to offer except a dubious upbringing, a fictional history, an uncertain future. He was educated, thanks to Julian, and wealthy, thanks to Finn, who’d gifted him half the Blue Moon upon his majority.
His reputation, however, was in tatters. And his soul, in part, broken.
