Bookish Thoughts

This book was a ton of fun. I loved the couple, especially Lady Penelope and her huge, caring heart. The two leads went from frustration to attraction a tad to quickly to be really believable, and Penelope overcame a metric ton of trauma without any outside help or support. But I don't read these books for the realism. I read them for the happy, in-love couple and the crackling chemistry and the sizzling sex scenes. And there were plenty of those. I actually prefer it when the couple gets together earlier. Slow burns are definitely enjoyable, but I like being able to actually watch the couple be happy together for a while on the page. And this book definitely had that. The issues keeping them apart were almost non-existent and easily dealt with. It was more just a matter of these two finding their way to each other and then letting themselves be happy. Which they both very much wanted to do. I'm excited for the last book in this series now. It's a lot of fun to follow a ...

This is the second book by Tessa Dare that I've read and the second one that I've absolutely loved. It follows Alex, who takes work as a governess for Chase's two young wards. Naturally, sparks fly. What I liked most about this book was Alex's confidence. She knows what she wants, she has a strong sense of what's right and wrong, and she never really wavers from that. While Chase is slowly putting himself together and learning how to be vulnerable again, she just keeps seeing new layers to him that make her fall more in love. Their banter is fantastic, and the two kids are pretty great, too. I also really like Alex's friends - the same core group form The Duchess Deal . I expect they'll each get their own book eventually, and I'm looking forward to reading more about the two remaining women in the group.

The danger of falling in love with a new genre is that it adds so many books to your TBR list. It's easy to do a bit of research and zero in on the authors that seem up your alley. And then suddenly you have to read everything that author has ever written. Romance is particularly dangerous in that most authors are pretty prolific. Which is a long way of saying that I loved my first Tessa Dare book. And now there's another 10+ books I need to read. It also makes me that much more eager to try the other authors I've seen talked about in the same articles: Julia Quinn, Courtney Milan, Lisa Kleypas. At least I'm already most of the way through Sarah MacLean's work. The Duchess Deal  is about an arranged marriage, sort of. The Duke of Ashbury was severely injured in the war (what war? It doesn't really matter). His fiance was horrified by his scars and refused to marry him. But the Duke needs an heir, so he proposes marriage to the first halfway respectable woman...