A Secret in Her Kiss
Author: Anna Randol
Publisher: HarperCollins/Avon
Pub. Date: January 31, 2012
ISBN-13: 978-0062025807
Pages: 384
Digital Price: $4.99
Print Retail Price: $7.99
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SHE WOULD GLADLY RELINQUISH HER LIFE OF INTRIGUE…

A rare beauty, raised in the exotic heart of the mysterious East, Mari Sinclair knows it’s time to end her career as a British spy when she narrowly avoids a brush with death. Unfortunately, there are those who think otherwise – and they are not above using blackmail to keep Mari in the game.

Saddled with a handsome, duty-obsessed “minder” to ensure that she completes – and survives – one last mission, Mari is incensed…for her guardian, Major Bennett Prestwood is simply too dedicated, too unbending, and too disarmingly attractive. But in the face of dark secrets and deadly treacheries, as the true peril to Mari is slowly revealed, loyal soldier Bennett realizes that to save and win this extraordinary woman, he will have to do the unthinkable and break the rules – rules that passion and desire have suddenly, irrevocably changed.

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REVIEW

A Secret in Her Kiss is a unique and wonderful debut historical romance.

A Secret in Her Kiss takes place during the regency period, but instead of the glittering ballrooms of London the hero and heroine find themselves risking their lives and falling in love in Constantinople.

I’m always a little leery about regency romances that aren’t typical. I’ve read some fantastic ones. (It’s a personal preference that there are drawing rooms and balls.) I was wonderfully surprised by A Secret in Her Kiss. The setting plays such an important roll in the story and it is wonderfully written. There is a touch of mystery and intrigue that surrounds the couple.

Mari Sinclair’s only real goal in life is to help the Greek people. Her mother, once a slave, had taught her the importance of helping her people. Mari is willing to do whatever it takes, including spying, to accomplish her task. She doesn’t want to put up with a stodgy English soldier. She knows that he will only get in her way.

Major Bennett Prestwood wants nothing more than to get home to his family. His sister is in an untenable marriage and he knows that he must get home soon to rescue her. Bennett wants nothing to do with the beautiful spy. These two go through so much together and find themselves falling in love around the way.

I love the relationship between Mari and Bennett. It evolves from them merely tolerating each other (and not well) to them being unable to live without the other. Ms. Randol does an excellent job of making their relationship progress naturally and in a realistic manner.

A Secret in Her Kiss is a fantastic debut novel and I can’t wait to see where Ms. Randol takes us next.

Rating: 4 (Very Good)

Heat-Level: 4 (Hot)

Reviewed by Carrie

Comment and enter to win your own copy of A SECRET IN HER KISS

Any Given Christmas
Author: Candis Terry
Publisher: Avon Impulse
Pub. Date: November 22, 2011
ISBN-13: 978-0062133298
Pages: 368
Digital Price: $3.99
Print Retail Price: $7.99
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Dean Silverthorne’s mother may be dead, but she still has matchmaking to do.

When an injury dashes NFL Quarterback Dean Silverthorne’s Super Bowl dreams, he heads back to Deer Lick, Montana, with a chip on his wounded shoulder, more determined than ever to get back in the game. He loves his kooky family, but this trip home is going to be a very brief Christmas visit.

His game plan doesn’t include an instant attraction to Emma Hart, a feisty kindergarten teacher who seems to be the only person in Deer Lick not interested in the hometown hero. Or his dearly departed mom popping up with mistletoe in hand and meddling on the mind. Now Dean can’t help but wonder if there’s more to love than life between the goal posts.

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REVIEW

Any Given Christmas is a contemporary romance set in a small town with interesting characters.

Emma is a small town teacher who dreams of settling down and starting a family. The only problem is that she can’t seem to find the right man. The only man that she has found herself attracted to in a long time is the one man that she knows wouldn’t be in a committed relationship with her.

Dean is dealing with the recent death of his mother and a career ending injury. His whole life has revolved around football and now he has to find some other way to fill the hours of his day. He returns to his hometown for the wedding of his little sister and finds that there may be something and someone for him there.

I loved Dean as much as I disliked Emma. Emma couldn’t get over something from her past and held it against Dean even through it really had nothing to do with him. Plus, she gets upset when he doesn’t focus on how something terrible that happens to him would affect her. Dean does things for her that matter and she just pushes him aside. He even buys her a cat, although he is allergic to them. In the end I couldn’t help but think that there was someone better out in the world for Dean and that their relationship wouldn’t last. The happily ever after just wasn’t very believable.

Rating: 2 (Fatally Flawed)

Heat Level: 3 (Sensual)

Reviewed by Carrie

I love Lorraine Heath. I’ve only recently started reading her and I can definitely say her last series was fabulous. With SHE TEMPTS THE DUKE, she’s starting a new trilogy–The Lost Lords of Pembroke (review is coming soon). I haven’t had a chance to read it yet, but I’m expecting another gripping emotional read from the talented Ms. Heath. Today, I’m giving away an advance copy of SHE TEMPTS THE DUKE to one random commenter. Good luck!

She Tempts the Duke

Author: Lorraine Heath
Publisher: HarperCollins/Avon
Pub. Date: January 31, 2012
ISBN-13: 978-0062022462
Pages: 384
Digital Price: $4.99
Print Retail Price: $7.99
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Three young heirs, imprisoned by an unscrupulous uncle, escaped—to the sea, to the streets, to faraway battle—awaiting the day when they would return to reclaim their birthright.

Sebastian Easton always vowed he would avenge his stolen youth and title. Now back in London, the rightful Duke of Keswick—returning from battle a wounded, hardened, changed man—cannot forget the brave girl who once rescued him and his brothers from certain death.

Lady Mary Wynne-Jones paid dearly for helping the imprisoned young Lords of Pembrook, and she remembers well the promise she made to Sebastian all those years ago: to meet him once more in the abbey ruins where they shared a bold, forbidden kiss. While Mary is now betrothed to another, a friendship forged with dark secrets cannot be ignored. Unexpected passion soon burns dangerously between them, tempting Sebastian to abandon his quest for retribution and fight for a love that could once again set him free.

Cynthia Eden’s ANGEL OF DARKNESS

MISSY

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Elizabeth Essex’s THE DANGER OF DESIRE

BEEBS

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Stephanie Laurens’  VISCOUNT BRECKENRIDGE TO THE RESCUE,

IN PURSUIT OF ELIZA CYNSTER & $10 eGift Certificate 

JEANETTE JUAN

Congratulations, ladies! Please email your snail mail address to me at contests at theseasonforromance dot com and don’t forget to include the title you won. You have one week to collect your prize.

Today, we have a brief Q&A from Stephanie Laurens as we anticipate the release of her final book in her Holding Out For a Hero trilogy, THE CAPTURE OF THE EARL OF GLENCARE, which goes on sale January 31^st.

Comment and enter to win a copy of VISCOUNT BRECKENRIDGE TO THE RESCUE, IN PURSUIT OF ELIZA CYNSTER, and a $10 Gift Certificate to Amazon or BN (to purchase Ms. Laurens’ upcoming release).

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You’ve described this book as: Elizabeth Bennet rescues Errol Flynn in the wilds of Scotland. Why?

Ah…I have to be careful here to avoid spoilers, but suffice it to say that, speaking literally as well as figuratively, that is indeed what happens. I wanted a twist to the customary, expected plot line wherein the hero always rescues the heroine – why couldn’t a heroine rescue a hero? And when it came to the story itself, Angelica was clearly the sort of young lady to carry off such a challenge.

The hero of this book is the head of a highland clan – how does his role differ from the head of a large family?

After writing about the Cynster family for so long, this was an area of research that fascinated me specifically because of the parallels that emerged between, for instance, the role of Devil Cynster, Duke of St. Ives, the head of the Cynster family (whose members have often enough in multiple books referred to themselves as the Cynster clan) and the role filled by Angelica’s hero, the head of a Scottish highland clan. At one point, after examining her hero’s status and responsibilities, Angelica considers the comparison, and, indeed, the highland clans still surviving at that time may well  have been very similar to her conclusion, which was that a highland clan operated on the same familial relationship lines as her extended Cynster family, but that the members of the clan were even more directly interdependent for their welfare and overall survival. Angelica concludes that clan is the equivalent of family taken to the extreme, and that seemed a valid description for a clan tucked away in an isolated glen, one that had managed to survive the earlier highland clearances intact.

You refer to a story involving Sir Walter Scott and George, the Prince Regent. Was that story true?

This was one of those serendipitious quirks. I sometimes wonder who it is who whispers in my head when I’m spinning a story! I needed a, for want of a better word, maguffin – an object of worth, a treasure of great meaning, something of the sort that could mean a great deal to my hero, and be important and valuable or powerful enough for others to want to possess it. I was typing away on the outline, and paused – then simply typed on because to me it was obvious, for reasons I had no clue about, that the object was XXX. (Again, I’m trying to avoid spoilers!)  I finished the outline, then went back to research and check that there really had been, or at least might have been, an XXX. And lo and behold, I all but immediately stumbled across the story of Sir Walter Scott, novelist and patriotic Scotsman, and his great obsession, and how that tied in with the Prince Regent, a close friend of Scott’s, and…I  swear I had never heard even a whisper of the story before, but there it was, with all the history, pomp, ceremony, and mystery I could possibly want, the perfect, true life basis for my maguffin! I am still seriously tickled that I could use such a fantastic yet true story – and yes, the story of Sir Walter Scott’s obsession is told, albeit in condensed fashion, in the book – to underpin my entirely fictitious tale. For a novelist, this was a dream find.

The Duke is Mine
Author: Eloisa James
Publisher: HarperCollins/Avon
Pub. Date: December 27, 2011
ISBN-13: 978-0062021281
Digital Price: $6.99
Print Price: $7.99
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Destiny will be decided between the sheets in this all-new tale of “The Princess and the Pea.”

For Olivia Lytton, betrothal to the Duke of Canterwick—hardly a Prince Charming—feels more like a curse than a happily-ever-after. At least his noble status will help her sister, Georgiana, secure an engagement with the brooding, handsome Tarquin, Duke of Sconce, a perfect match for her in every way . . . every way but one. Tarquin has fallen in love with Olivia.

Quin never puts passion before reason. And reason says that Georgiana is his ideal bride. But the sensual, fiery, strong-willed Olivia ignites an unknown longing in him—a desire they are both powerless to resist. When a scandalous affair begins, they risk losing everything—Olivia’s engagement, her sister’s friendship, and their own fragile love. Only one thing can save them—and it awaits in the bedroom, where a magnificent mattress holds life-changing answers to the greatest romantic riddle of all.

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REVIEW

The Duke is Mine is a wonderfully written historical romance full of unusual characters and a very happily ever after.

Olivia and Georgiana Lytton have been raised with one goal in mind – to become a duchess. Well, really Olivia has been raised with that goal and as her twin Georgiana was lumped in. Olivia has been engaged to Rupert, Marquess of Montsurrey, since childhood. She doesn’t want to marry the Marquess, who because of a traumatic birth suffers from brain damage. Even though Olivia doesn’t want to marry Rupert she is willing to do what her parents expect of her.  With Olivia settled her mother sets her sights on Georgiana and agrees to send her to a house party of sorts at the country estate of Tarquin, Duke of Sconce.

Quin suffers from Asperger’s and has trouble with emotions. He had a terrible first marriage that ended in the death of his wife and small son.  Quin has promised himself that he would never allow lust to rule him again and agreed to allow his mother to find a second wife for him.

All of Quin and Olivia’s plans are thrown out the window when they meet each other, though they both try to fight it.

I loved the characters in this book. Rupert, who is very sweet but also very damaged, steals the reader’s heart even though no one wants him and Olivia to end up together in the end. Olivia, who has been told her whole life that her appearance is unbecoming (she is plump) and that she needs to refrain from being vulgar (one of the things she takes joy in). Tarquin, who is unsure how to feel or express emotions and Georgiana, who has lived in her sister’s shadow and wishes for nothing more than to learn more about the world around her. These characters are what made this book so great. There are places that the plot is silly and even unbelievable, but it didn’t matter because I needed to know what happened to these four characters.

The writing is fantastic and definitely has a fairy tale feel. The Princess and the Pea is the basis for the story, but is really a very small influence on the story. There are a few references, such as:

“A test?” Georgiania asked, her tone rather dubious. Olivia nodded. “Do you remember that old story of the lady who was decreed to be a REAL princess because a pea had been hidden under her mattress? Well, this is my version. No prince is REAL if he obeys his mother.” 

And at one point Olivia is given a stack of mattresses to sleep on. That’s the extent of the influence the fairy tale had on the story.

I found The Duke is Mine to be incredibly romantic and sexy. There were places where Quin’s dialogue made me swoon. For example:

“I’m fat,” she blurted out.

“You are not fat. You’re the most beautiful, voluptuous woman I know.” His eyes moved down her body, deliberately, slowly, then back to her face. What she saw in them sent fire squirming through her stomach and lower. “I want every inch of you,” he said, growling it. “I want to fall on my knees and worship at your hips.” He reached out, shaped her curves from breast to hips with a burning sweep of his hand that a man was allowed to give only his wife.

The Duke is Mine is a very fun read and sure to delight fans of historical romance and Eloisa James.

Rating: 4.5 (Excellent)
Heat-Level: 3.5 (Sensual/Hot)

Reviewed by Carrie

Comment and enter to win an advance copy of your own!

Eloisa James’s novella WINNING THE WALLFLOWER is FREE from now thru the Christmas weekend. Grab your copy today!

It could only happen in a fairy tale.

Lady Lucy Towerton:
Plain and tall. (According to the lady herself.)
Titled and irreproachably proper. (According to her fiancé.)

Until, overnight, she becomes

Lady Lucy Towerton:
Heiress. (Thanks to an aged aunt’s bequest.)
Belle of the ball. (So say the fortune hunters of the ton.)

In charge of her own destiny (finally!), Lucy breaks her engagement and makes up her mind never to be proper again…

Buy Links:  Amazon  ~ B&N ~ iBookstore

ONE PERFECT NIGHT & THIS TIME NEXT YEAR 

Rhiannon Rowland

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TROUBLE AT THE WEDDING

Molly

Congratulations, ladies. Please contact at contests at theseasonforromance dot com to collect your books. You have one week to claim your prize.

Trouble at the Wedding
Author: Laura Lee Guhrke
Publisher: HarperCollins/Avon
Pub. Date: December 27, 2011
ISBN-13: 978-0061963179
Digital Price: $4.99
Print Price: $7.99

Annabel is about to marry the perfect man . . .

The last thing Miss Annabel Wheaton desires is true love. She learned the hard way that love makes a woman foolish and leads only to heartache. That’s why she agreed to marry an earl who needs her money. He’s got a pedigree and a country estate, and he won’t ever break her heart. There’s only one problem . . .

Christian isn’t about to let her marry that pompous prig . . .

Christian Du Quesne, Duke of Scarborough, thinks the stubborn heiress is about to make the biggest mistake of her life, and he’s determined to stop her. Tempting beautiful women is Christian’s forte, after all. When her family offers him a nice sum of money to stop the wedding, he’s happy to accept.

Falling in love with Annabel was never supposed to be part of the bargain . . .

Buy Links: Amazon Kindle  -  Barnes & Noble -  iBookstore

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REVIEW

What would you think of a historical romance that takes place in 1904 (not the Regency or even the Victorian period), starts out in New York City not England, and features a Southern Belle heroine?  Oh, there is a duke as a hero—but he’s penniless!

You’d think fresh, fresh, fresh, that’s what you’d think!

Laura Lee Guhrke has really created a charming read, the third in her Abandoned at the Altar series.  This book hooked me from page one and didn’t let go.

Our Southern belle, Annabelle Wheaton, is from Gooseneck Bend, Mississippi, her daddy having struck it rich from gold mining.  But she’ll never be good enough for the knickerbocker crowd of New York City.  She plans to marry the Earl of Rumsford, whom she doesn’t love but with whom she believes she has a relationship of mutual respect.  She will infuse his bankrupt estate with rejuvenating funds, and he will give her and her family the respectability and status she craves. Annabelle vows her little sister will have a proper coming out ball, unlike her humiliating one, where no one showed up.

Ah, but Rummy’s a true scoundrel, and Christian DuQuesne, the Duke of Scarborough, knows it well.  He’s in New York to scope out new investment opportunities to save his own floundering estate.  He knows Rummy agreed to marry Annabelle on board an ocean liner (think Titanic in size and scope) because he’s embarrassed of her and her backwater family.  Christian even sees Rumsford gleefully visit a courtesan in a gaming club right before the wedding.

But Christian has his own ghosts to fight.  He married an American heiress years ago to save his own estate.  She was desperately unhappy and he was irresponsible.  While he was using her money to gamble, she miscarried their baby and died.  And he cannot forgive himself.  He vows never to marry again, and is even content to let his ducal title pass to a cousin.

Then Annabelle’s Uncle Arthur makes him an offer he can’t refuse.   If Christian stops Annabelle’s wedding, Arthur will give him half a million dollars.  Christian agrees, needing the money, but also feeling that saving Annabelle from a clearly bad fate might help him atone a bit for his own past sins.

Here is a witty example of Christian really working it, doing his best to teach Annabelle the evils of living in a dilapidated English estate:

“We have ne-vah had central heating, my lady,” he said in a ponderous voice, managing to seem every bit as proper and stuffy as she’d always imagined an English butler to be.  “And we ne-vah shall, God willing,” he went on.  “Keeping our feet warm is what the dogs are for.”

 “Dogs?  You mean foxhounds?”

“No, no, hounds are another thing altogether.  They rather go along with the estate, like the entail, you know, and the leaky roof, and the inevitable dowager who always hates being usurped.  No, I’m talking about Rummy’s own dogs.  He has nine.”

Annabelle is attracted to Christian from the start, but has a weakness for bad boys, and she will not go down that road again.  She is determined to carry out her plan, despite the fact that Christian shakes all her mistaken beliefs about marrying for status and respectability down to their very core.

Sparks truly fly between these two.  Here is an exchange between Christian and Annabelle as he informs her of what her life will be like after her marriage:

“They’ll want to change you, mold you into what they think you ought to be.  They’ll change the way you dress, the way you move, your voice—”

 “What’s wrong with my voice?” she demanded, but even as she asked the question, she could hear how she sounded, how my became mah and voice became vo-iss, and she stopped, biting her lip in frustration.  A month’s worth of diction lessons, yet she still couldn’t stop drawing out her vowels, especially when she was upset.  

 “Don’t do it.”  He leaned close, all trace of amusement vanishing from his face.  “I meant what I said.  You have a gorgeous voice.  It’s like warm honey butter oozing over warm toast.  Don’t let them change it.  Don’t let them change you.”

Christian doesn’t count on falling in love with her.  This leads to absolutely disastrous consequences, which leads to even more disaster…

This is a really fun read full of freshness and deep feeling.  Both Annabelle and Christian must grow and change and realize what they truly want in life (and it is the complete opposite of what they thought they wanted).   Their inner conflicts feel very real.  Their road to happily-ever-after is fraught with trouble, and you will really enjoy the ride!

I highly recommend Trouble at the Wedding.  So now off I go to find books one and two of this trilogy…

Rating: 4.5 Stars
Heat Level: 4 (Hot) 

Reviewed by Miranda

Comment to enter to win your own advance copy of TROUBLE AT THE WEDDING!

I hope everyone had a great Thanksgiving. I know I did. Now it’s full speed ahead to Christmas. I’m exhausted just thinking about it. My son has been bugging me to put up our tree since early November. He won’t be put off any longer. Sigh.

So what’s up? Well, as of early this morning, the tally for free downloads of ALL’S FAIR IN LOVE & SEDUCTION has reached 126,417. That’s a little more than halfway to my goal of 250,000. When I reach that goal, I’m going to give away a Kindle Fire.

In other really great news, I’m saying KUDOS to Avon Books for their latest pricing move. What did they do? Well they’re currently making digital books much more affordable if you pre-order. It’s a very smart move on their part since pre-orders count toward the first day of sales so by pricing books like Julie Anne Long’s HOW THE MARQUESS WAS WON, Sarah MacLean’s A ROGUE BY ANY OTHER NAME, Lorraine Heath’s SHE TEMPTS THE DUKE, Caroline Linden’s BLAME IT ON BATH, and Gaelen Foley’s MY RUTHLESS PRINCE at a low $4.99, they all have a better chance of hitting one or more of the ‘lists’ on their first week out of the gate. It certainly encourages fans and readers to pre-order to lock in that price because the price appears to go up the closer it gets to the release date. By release date, I expect it will be back at the agency priced $7.99 (for mmpb). So I encourage you to get these deals while you can.

You can also pre-order Eloisa James’s THE DUKE IS MINE and Stephanie Laurens’ THE CAPTURE OF THE EARL OF GLENRAE for $6.99 (not too bad, $1.00 off). I’m not sure if this is something they’re trying out but I can guarantee you this, it will help to increase their digital sales.

And if I may…I just have to post this cover because it has totally blown me away. Talk about gorgeous to the nth degree. Avon’s art department has done it again. Sarah, I’m torn between awe and fits of envy. I already wanted Sarah MacLean’s next book. Her cover just made me want it more.