Stacy Alesi's BookBitch.com™

Click to purchase

The Taming Series

Biana Mansfield has been stuck at home for two seasons now while her older sister, Kate, has been off having a grand old time. After their mother passed, their father indulged Kate’s every whim and her latest is making sure she doesn’t have to compete with Bianca for a husband. Kate convinces her father that she needs to marry before Biana debuts, and he aquieses. Bianca and Kate have a temptestuous relationship but luckily, Kate’s been away with their stepmother for months.

Their little brother needs a tutor, and when Lucian Dorlingsley, heir to the Earl of Medford, sees Bianca he is smitten. His friend convinces him to become the boy’s tutor, “Luc Dore”, insuring that he gets to know Bianca. That ruse works, until they fall in love and Bianca finds out he’s been lying to her.

This is a very quick read but could have used a little more depth. The plot is thin, the characters interesting albeit shallow, and the predictable ending lacks spark. A very quick read for sure.

5/14 Stacy Alesi, AKA the BookBitch

WOO’D IN HASTE by Sabrina Darby. Avon Impulse (May 20, 2014). ISBN 978-0062304858. 160p.

Click to purchase

At the Kingsborough Ball (Book 2)

This is the second book in the Kingsborough Ball trilogy. The series is founded “at the Kingsborough Ball,”a lavish event at the heart of the first book in the series, The Trouble with Being a Duke, and this book begins at the same event. These books do not have to be read in order.

Lady Rebecca has been orphaned, and her aunt and uncle take her in. She is of marriageable age and their goal appears to be to marry her off to the highest bidder. She feigns madness for a couple of years to avoid this end but time runs out.

Unfortunately, the two highest bidders are both fifty years older than she is. Barnes seems to like the “trophy wife” theme, but in this case the trophy wife to be has no intention of living that life. Instead, she sneaks into the Kingsborough Ball, and meets Daniel Neville.

Neville is a notorious rake and heir to the Marquis of Wolvington. He is also orphaned and his aunt and uncle have threatened to cut him off financially unless he mends his ways and finds a bride by the end of the month. Off to the ball he goes, where he is ostracized by all the good girls looking for a husband.

Then he spots this gorgeous woman in a scandalous scarlet dress. There is a mutual attraction and need, and Daniel pursues Lady Rebecca, but finds he can’t outbid her other suitors. Things take an even more scandalous turn and then they have to live with the consequences.

There is the requisite happy ending, of course. But there are also lots of obstacles along the way and some explicit sex. It is a very fast paced story and Barnes really knows how to draw the reader in – I read it in one sitting.

I am looking forward to the last book in the series, The Danger in Tempting an Earl. The teaser of a first chapter of that book is in the back of this one.

NOTE: As of this writing, Kindle version available for $.99!

5/14 Stacy Alesi, AKA the BookBitch

THE SCANDAL IN KISSING AN HEIR by Sophie Barnes. Avon (December 31, 2013). ISBN 978-0062245175. 384p.

Click to purchase

At the Kingsborough Ball

I really like historical romances, but they have to be well written – Eloisa James has spoiled me. I am delighted to have found another good author in Sophie Barnes.

This is the first book in the Kingsborough Ball series. It appears the books following all get their start at the same event, the ball given by the Anthony Hurst, the Duke of Kingsborough. This is the first party held at the estate in more than five years, since his father became ill and eventually died. A year later, Anthony decides that returning to the habit of hosting their annual event is just what his mother needs to help pull her out of mourning.

Tradition holds that it be a masked ball, and Cinderella is the theme, replete with a glass slipper carved of ice, and a pumpkin inspired carriage outside, with an artist on hand to sketch couples who deign to sit inside it.

To honor his father’s memory, the Duke realizes that he needs to change his rakish ways, find a bride and produce an heir – and he meets the girl of his dreams at the ball. She is beautiful but masked, and gives her name as “Miss Smith.” The family quickly realizes that she is lying about who she is and that she’s not on the guest list, but the Duke is smitten. Fireworks are set for midnight, and of course “Miss Smith” disappears, but the Duke is determined to find her.

Isabella is an avid reader of fairy tales, and dreams of meeting her prince. But as the daughter of a carriage driver, she knows that it’s impossible, especially as her parents have an arrangement with Mr. Roberts, who has been calling on her weekly for a year. He hasn’t proposed, but she suspects he will, and she feels it is her duty to marry him. He is a wealthy entrepreneur and will help take care of her family, and he is looking for what we now consider a trophy wife.

Barnes excels at creating tension, making the pages just fly by until the requisite happy ending, but not before throwing several obstacles in the way – as well as a bit of sex.

I am looking forward to the next book in the series, The Scandal in Kissing an Heir, especially after reading the first chapter which is included in the back of this book.

4/14 Stacy Alesi, AKA the BookBitch

THE TROUBLE WITH BEING A DUKE by Sophie Barnes. Avon (August 27, 2013). ISBN 978-0062245076. 384p.