Prom & Prejudice by Elizabeth Eulberg

(Hub Reading Challenge: Popular Paperbacks)

After The Diviners it was a treat to pick up a fluffy book I could read in a day. The inspiration for this story is Pride and  Prejudice by Jane Austen and the characters share the names of the characters in the original.  The story is modernized and set in an exclusive snobby wealthy private school where Lizzie Bennett is a scholarship student and looked down on by everyone else. Enter Will Darcy (who looked like a teenage Colin Firth in my head.) I liked the new details Eulberg gave the story-Lizzie is such an accomplished pianist that she’s destined for Carnegie Hall, the prom at the academy is covered by the New York Times Style section. I enjoyed how much this followed the original, even to the extent that sometimes these über-rich kids spoke like English people in the 1800s.

A fun, quick, prom season read.

Twelfth Night Secrets by Jane Feather

I do so love a Christmas Regency romance and every year I try to read one in December. This one had an interesting spy plot to it, though in all honesty it wasn’t that compelling. Still, I enjoyed the historical details and no historical Christmas romance would be complete without a lovely snowfall and scenes of traditional celebrations. Lady Harriet is spending Christmas with her stern grandfather and two younger siblings. Ever since her brother died things have been tough-they were so close and acted as parents to the younger siblings.  Harriet has been approached by the gentlemen her brother worked for (as a government spy) and asked to keep an eye on the gentleman who will be spending the Christmas holiday at her grandfather’s estate. Apparently he was close to her brother, but they fear he may have been the cause of her brother’s death, acting as a double agent.  Harriet is at once intrigued, but also ready to hate this man because she can’t bear to think he may have caused her brother’s death. And of course, they are attracted to each other.

The American Heiress by Daisy Goodwin

Due to a terrible oversight I apparently never wrote about this book when I read it last May.  That’s over a year ago, but I’ve got to get an entry in for it, not only for accuracy, but also because I loved it. Gave it 5 stars even on Goodreads! Hmmm…it’s been so long and I seem to remember writing about it somewhere, so let me check my email for some quotes that occurred at the time:

“I’m one page in to The American Heiress and I love it already.”
“I’m that way right now with An American Heiress. I’m tired of playing “now you say goo goo ga ga.  in a baby voice.   now you say achoo” when all I want to do is finish my book!!”

huh. that’s all I had? well, as you can see I did really enjoy it and it had me sucked right in.  What I loved about this was that it was historical, and a romance, but it was a different time period and different perspective than I usually read.  Typically I read romances that are set in the Regency in England.  It’s always historical and British.  But this begins over here in American with the insanely wealthy families that originally populated 5th Avenue and summered at their “cottages” in Newport, Rhode Island.  One of the young women who belongs to these families goes abroad, as many women did, to land a titled husband.  She is successful and so the story is mostly set in England, but the point of view is a rich American woman, who is totally different that a rich British woman.  I loved it when she pointed out that the big old castles were freezing cold and it seemed some weird point of pride for them to not have central heating.

This was a wonderfully engrossing story and I highly recommend it!

Lola and the Boy Next Door by Stephanie Perkins

 Funny and romantic, with nice appearances by Anna and St. Claire (from Anna and the French Kiss), which provides some nice epilogue-y updates to their story.
Sometimes I feel like every character in a YA novel is just too clever/talented/unique. Isn’t there anyone dull and boring? I guess they would be too dull to read about.

In this instance Lola is raised by her two gay dads in a fabulous house in San Francisco. Lola is an amazing and talented and quirky fashion designer.  She used to be friends with the kids next door and then fell for the boy, thought her feelings were returned, but he abruptly left. Now he’s back and it looks like the feelings are still there.

Absolutely, Positively (Lucy Valentine #3) by Heather Webber

This was every bit as delightful as the previous two Lucy Valentine books (Truly, Madly and Deeply, Desperately).  In this one Lucy’s gift for finding lost objects (which is used to assist the police in finding missing/dead persons) has been revealed by the media and she’s been completely besieged by requests for help.  She still lives in a charming cottage, has a saucy grandmother, good friends and strange pets, and a sexy boyfriend.  I forget what the central “lost” mystery is, but this one includes the mystery of a strange do-gooder who showers Boston Common with money occasionally. Funny, romantic, and touching.

The Duke is Mine by Eloisa James

This is #3 in her fairy tales, this one is very very faintly reminiscent of the Princess and the Pea, in terms of a “true” duchess.

This has a little bit of adventure, nice historical detail about the war with France, and is very funny in typical James fashion.

Justin Fiebvre, is totally a take on Justin Bieber, who her daughter has a big crush on according to FB, so I assume that that was for her. Complete with describing his dreaminess and lock of hair sweeping across his face. A hoot.

Can’t wait to see her at a local bookstore signing at the end of the month!!!

When Beauty Tamed the Beast by Eloisa James

This is the second in a new series of fairy tale related stories that one of my very favorite romance authors, Eloisa James, is doing.  I thought this was wonderful and just loved it. The fairy tale connection is quite slim-basically a lovely young woman gets sent by her father to this cantankerous Duke’s castle. He has a reputation as a difficult beastly man, but due to some hilariously convoluted circumstances involving a gown that made her look enceinte, he is the only choice she has for marriage.  Then of course they fall in love, despite their own protestations.  The whole novel has James’s signature wit-the opening is particularly clever, frank, and funny.  It was a bit steamier than I recall her other novels being–not for the prudish (but always in good taste.)  The Duke is an interesting character-he’s a doctor and surgeon and has turned his castle into a hospital.  He has no bedside manner whatsoever.  I was reading and thought, “good grief, he’s just like House” and then when I read the afterward I saw that, in fact, the author had deliberately modeled him after House! Witty and beautiful Linnet is the perfect foil for him.

Delightful historical romance

The Lost Duke of Wyndham by Julia Quinn

[Caveat: I'm trying to make good on my New Year's Resolution and get caught up to speed on this blog. That means I'm writing about books I read months ago, my memory might be spotty, and I'm just going to jot down a few sentences.]

Wow, it’s been quite a while since I read this, but I do recall loving it, thinking Julia Quinn is quite witty and I must read more of her, and eager to see what’s next in the series.  The premise is that a highwayman is recognized as the long lost duke of Wyndham and is forced to go back to his castle and deal with the insanely nasty dowager duchess and sort things out.  The nasty dowager is a spectacular character and it is her long suffering witty beautiful companion who is the romantic match to the Duke. Delightful historical romance-a must read if you like these or are a fan of, say, Eloisa James.

A Kiss in Time by Alex Flinn

[Caveat: I'm trying to make good on my New Year's Resolution and get caught up to speed on this blog. That means I'm writing about books I read months ago, my memory might be spotty, and I'm just going to jot down a few sentences.]

I’m a sucker for fairy tale retellings so when I found out that Alex Flinn (a YA author I like and am amazed she can go between emotional reality and these retellings) had written more than just Beastly in that category, I had to give this a try.  In this one a teenage boy(who, I’ll be honest, I wasn’t crazy about) comes across Sleeping Beauty’s hidden castle and awakens her.  When she (and her whole castleful of people) awake they are in now in modern times.  She is at odds with him, no one believes anyone about the fairy’s curse or what happened, and there is much bickering.  I liked this approach to the fairy tale-what does happen when she wakes up 200 years later? And all the other people who had to fall asleep as well just because she pricked her finger? It has a great ending too-a nice way to wrap it all up.

Swept Off Her Feet by Hester Browne

I loved the Little Lady Agency books and was delighted when I saw this on the picked over shelves at Borders in its final days.  The premise is that Evie Nicholson works for an antiques buyer and heads off to her sister Louise’s boyfriend’s Scottish estate to appraise the contents of the neighbor’s house (they need to sell some stuff to pay for upkeep, don’t you know.)  Handsome men ensue. There were two interesting things about this book that I loved and gave it a lot interest and appeal.

The first is that Scottish dancing is a central part of the story.  Evie and her sister are terrible dancers, but Evie is pressed into subbing for her sister at a big fancy annual gala where she will need to correctly dance some crazy Highland dances.  After reading all about them I went straight to YouTube to view videos of these dances.  And I dearly wished that I was part of something so steeped in tradition.  <sigh>

The other is that Evie’s quirky character trait is that she is kind of a crappy antiques buyer because she looooooooves the past.  Is simply in love with daydreams and stories of what role an inanimate object might have played in someone’s life.  Getting to stay in the old castle practically makes her swoon. I loved every one of her little daydreams because I am the same way and it all seemed totally reasonable to me. How could you not descend the staircase in a castle without imagining yourself in the splendor candlelight with handsome Duke waiting for you? How could you not look at an old writing desk without imagining what letters might have been written on it?

The romance angle of this actually kept me guessing a bit. I felt like I knew who she was meant to end up with, but kept doubting it. So good for you, Hester Browne!