Review: In Search of Scandal by Susanne Lord

In Search of Scandal 
by Susanne Lord
Series:  London Explorers #1
Pub. Date:  Dec. 1, 2015
Publisher:  Sourcebooks Casablanca
Pages:  416
Format:  eARC
Source:  NetGalley


My Rating:  
Sultry Scale:

A DARING EXPLORER

All of London is abuzz with the tale of Will Repton. The lone survivor of a massacre in Tibet has returned to England a hero, but the traumatized explorer has no time for glory. Another dangerous expedition awaits. Nothing will deter him from his quest, and no one will unearth his secret—until Will meets Charlotte Baker.

IS NO MATCH FOR AN ADVENTUROUS HEART

Vivacious Charlotte Baker also has a mission—to find a man whose bold spirit matches her own. When she meets Will Repton, she immediately recognizes him as her soul mate, and she’s naively willing to turn her back on the rules of propriety to ensnare him. Will is torn between his fascination with Charlotte and his vow to finish his quest. He knows what it is to risk life and limb—but what if his most perilous adventure doesn’t lie across an ocean, but within his own lost heart?

I am absolutely astounded that this was Susanne Lord's debut novel. It was utterly fantastic, and gets my vote for my favorite historical romance of the year.

The heroine in this first installment of the London Explorers series, Charlotte Baker, is not an explorer but she does have an adventurous spirit. She has been following the explorations and adventures of botanist Will Repton by reading his scientific papers, and she has pretty much fallen in love with him sight unseen. So when he shows up in her salon, handsome and shy, its like the man of her dreams has come to life. I cannot say enough good things about this heroine. She was so vivacious and good-natured that you could not help but love her. I had such a great connection with her character, even though I don't usually go for those bubbly naive heroines. Her romanticism of Will's adventures and their interactions were written in a way that resonated with that fanciful part of me that tends to daydream up situations in my head.

As for our hero, Will Repton, he was a broody and broken man after suffering a horrible tragedy on his last expedition through China. I was quite surprised that I liked his character so much as I don't usually go for the shy and bookish heroes... I tend to prefer the devilish dukes, rakes and riffraff. But Will was one of those perfectly imperfect heroes that you could empathize with on one hand, and call him a dunderhead on the other. He really was self-sacrificing when it came to Charlotte. I loved that he put her up on such a pedestal, even though most of the misunderstandings between the two could be attributed to Will's low self-esteem.

There were a few times when I felt like I was missing something - when discussing Wally and the Earl and Lucy's prior marriage. I had to check Goodreads a couple times to make sure I wasn't missing a prior book. But this was very minor in the overall scheme of things and it did not detract enough from the story to change my 5 star rating.

I can't put my finger on exactly why this story was so poignant for me, but it evoked lots of emotions and I found myself with a tear in my eye quite a few times. It's rare that modern historicals engender that emotional connection for me, so I was delighted when I felt it happening here. I was really pulling for Charlotte and Will throughout the story, and I was so proud that Charlotte was able to stay positive when things did not quite line up with her dream of a happy relationship. I think one of my favorite moments was When finally realized/believed that Charlotte loved him, even if he didn't think he deserved her devotion. Overall, this was just a beautiful story and I would recommend it to any historical romance fan.

I received an advanced copy of this book in exchange for an honest review. I am definitely adding Susanne Lord to my auto-buy list for her future works. 5 stars / 3 flames.

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Series Saturday Audiobook Review: Archangel's Enigma by Nalini Singh

Archangel's Enigma 

by Nalini Singh

Series:  Guild Hunter #8

Pub. Date:  Sept. 1, 2015

Publisher:  Tantor Audio

Narrator:  Justine Eyre

Length:  12 hrs 25 min

Format:  Audiobook

Source:  Hoopla

My Rating:  

Sultry Scale:

Naasir is the most feral of the powerful group of vampires and angels known as the Seven, his loyalty pledged to the Archangel Raphael. When rumors surface of a plot to murder the former Archangel of Persia, now lost in the Sleep of the Ancients, Naasir is dispatched to find him. For only he possesses the tracking skills required—those more common to predatory animals than to man.

Enlisted to accompany Naasir, Andromeda, a young angelic scholar with dangerous secrets, is fascinated by his nature—at once playful and brilliant, sensual and brutal. As they race to find the Sleeping archangel before it’s too late, Naasir will force her to question all she knows...and tempt her to walk into the magnificent, feral darkness of his world. But first they must survive an enemy vicious enough to shatter the greatest taboo of the angelic race and plunge the world into a screaming nightmare…

The fight with Lijuan continues, only this time she is seeking a sleeping ancient instead of our beloved Archangel Raphael. Raphael tasks his best tracker Naasir to find where Alexander sleeps before Lijuan and kill the ancient, and to assist on journey will be the angel Andromeda, a scholar who studies the ancients.

Once Naasir was introduced, he quickly became my favorite of the series. We finally find out exactly what this semi-vampire is! His simplistic view on the world is a result of his animal nature, and it was utterly beguiling. I loved the way he played with his friends, and talked about his mate. The narrator did a fabulous job with his character and accent as well. As Naasir has been hunting his mate for the past seven months since the last book, he doesn't immediately desire to go on this hunt with Andromeda. However once he meets her and takes his first whiff, he can't wait to bite! There is a problem however - Andromeda has taken a vow of celibacy which cannot be broken unless Naasir can find a "stupid grimoire book."

Andromeda has been working as a scholar at the refuge with Jessame. However she has just received word that she has to begin serving 500 years in her grandfather's court within the next couple of weeks. So this hunt with Naasir is her last hurrah before she endures a half-millennium of servitude and punishment. Andromeda is a little scared of Naasir, not really because of his feral nature, but because of the way he makes her feel. While I liked Andi's character, she was upstaged so much by Naasir that I didn't focus on her that much.

I have a feeling Bluebell's book is up soon, and I can't wait to read about the fun-loving Illium. 

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Guild Hunter Series

Review: Dragon Storm by Katie MacAlister

Dragon Storm
by Katie MacAlister
Series:  Black Dragons #2, Dragon Septs #12
Pub. Date:  Nov. 24, 2015
Publisher:  Forever / Grand Central
Pages:  336
Format:  eARC
Source:  NetGalley


My Rating:  
Sultry Scale:

TURN ON THE CHARM

According to some (including himself), Constantine is one of the greatest heroes of dragonkin who ever lived. Too bad he's now lonelier than ever and his biggest adventure involves a blow-up sheep—until he has an opportunity to save his kind once again. All Constantine has to do is break into a demon's dungeon, steal an ancient artifact, and reverse a deadly curse. The plan certainly does not involve rescuing a woman...

TURN UP THE HEAT

Bee isn't sure whether to be infuriated or relieved when Constantine pops up in her prison. The broody, brawny shifter lights her fire in a way no one ever has before, yet how far can she really trust him? Their chemistry may be off the charts, but when push comes to shove, Constantine will have to make a crucial choice: to save the dragons or the woman he's grown to love with fierce intensity.

These dragon books seriously crack me up. Katie MacAlister comes up with some great one-liners, and her dragons are super dragony! This is the first book of the Dragon Septs World that I have not listened to in audio, so I wasn't sure how it would go. I have been a bit spoiled by Tavia Gilbert narrating this series b/c she does such an excellent job with accents and delivering the aforementioned one-liners. But I still found myself cracking up and highlighting like crazy across the ebook.

I was a little nervous about this book when I saw that it was about Bee. Having committed her sister, Aoife, to a looney bin in the prior book, she did not engender good feelings. So I started off the book not liking her, but she grew on me like a fungus by the end. I didn't quite connect to her all the way, but she was good with Constantine and she didn't run off half-cocked all the time so she didn't get on my nerves. But I wouldn't hesitate to trip her and get to Constantine if it came down to it.

Now, Constantine on the other hand - love love love love love! I always love the dragons in this series, though I don't remember Constantine from the previous books. In my defense, I did read them several years ago and my memory isn't what it used to be. So if Constantine was a baddy in previous books, I think I am glad I don't remember because I loved him so much here. He was totally oversexed, way too into adult toys, but a genuinely nice guy/dragon.

The story arc from the first book is continuing, the dragons and mates are out to break the curse put upon all dragonkin two years prior. This brings them up against some powerful demons, one of which has some interesting connections to our hero. We get a new secondary character in this book as well, Gary, who is a disembodied head and provides comedic relief similar to Effrijim, our lovable newfie demon.

Favorite quotes from this story:

...I am now very much with the times. I have a mobile phone. I listen to podcasts. I twat.

I am quite conversant with internet memes and social phrases. I Twatter. I read the Wikipodium. I am as hip as they come.

I will punch you in the gooch.

I received an advanced copy of this book from Grand Central Publishing via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review. 

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About the Author

For as long as she can remember Katie MacAlister has loved reading, and grew up with her nose buried in a book. It wasn't until many years later that she thought about writing her own books, but once she had a taste of the fun to be had building worlds, tormenting characters, and falling madly in love with all her heroes, she was hooked.

With more than fifty books under her belt, Katie's novels have been translated into numerous languages, been recorded as audiobooks, received several awards, and are regulars on the New York Times, USA Today, and Publishers Weekly bestseller lists. A self-proclaimed gamer girl, she lives in the Pacific Northwest with her dogs, and frequently can be found hanging around online.

http://katiemacalister.com

https://twitter.com/katiemacalister

https://www.facebook.com/katie.mac.minions

Giveaway

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Black Dragons

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#FF Friday Feature and Follow #8 - $100 to Spend

The Feature and Follow is a meme hosted weekly by Parajunkee and Alison Can Read that is designed to find new blogs, followers and friends.  And face it, the more bambinas the better!  So join me for the #FF and let's get to know each other a little better.

Here are the general rules to Follow Friday:

1. Follow the Follow My Book Blog Friday Hosts and any one else you want to follow on the list. 

2. Follow our Featured Bloggers.
3. Put your Blog name & URL in the Linky thing. 
4. Grab the button up there and place it in a post, this post is for people to find a place to say hi in your comments.

5. Follow Follow Follow as many as you can. 

6. Spread the love...and the followers.  If someone comments and says they are following - follow back. 

7. If you want to show the link list, just follow the link below the entries and copy and paste it within your post! 

8. If your new to the follow Friday hop, comment and let me know, so I can stop by and check out your blog!

Please follow via one or more of the following methods:

This Week’s Question

Black Friday Eve! You have $100 to spend on books. What are you going to buy?

- Suggested by Alison Can Read

Answer

Oh Man! I can spend that in 5 minutes or less.  Unfortunately $100 doesn't go very far these days.  I hate when ebooks are priced over $9.99, and some of these from some of my favorite series are $13.99. It's why I usually try to find those at the library or on Hoopla.