Charis Michaels

A fun read!

A fanciful Regency romance cleverly using the Snow White tradition as the organizing motif to give us a wonderfully witty romance. This fractured regency fairytale has a skew of cleverly inserted identifiable parts.
Lady Helena Lark has been evading her arranged marriage to the Duke of Lusk for years, using more outrageously creative attempts as time moves on.
Declan Shaw, a mercenary dubbed “The Huntsman” languishing in Newgate prison is released on the condition that he will show more guard Helena and prevent her from escaping her upcoming nuptials.
Helena has other ideas. Declan is faced with a rather different challenge. Guarding this astonishing woman is a test in more ways than one. His amazement as Helena plots with all the confidence and ability of the best of spies equals my delight at Helena's capabilities.
Helena plans to introduce alternative candidates to Lusk as part of her campaign.
Her seven potential duchesses list riffs off the seven dwarfs--Sleepy, Happy etc.
Helen's bodyguard and protector Declan (remember the Huntsman movie!) is fabulous.
The swapped roles with Lusk who seems removed to the point of sleepiness and is awakened by a surprising entry is nicely drawn. Indeed explosive!
All the best elements are present, aided by a strong plot and tight writing, to give us a three W read--Wow factor, Winsome and Wonderful!

A HarperCollins ARC via NetGalley show less

I am a bit at war with myself over this book. It is witty and entertaining, yet totally anachronistic – more like reading a contemporary novel. I understand it is a nod to the Peter Pan fairytale with Tinkerbell as the heroine and I think the author did a nice job of working in references with the pirates and the missing watch. I think the ‘Lost Boys’ reference was a bit of a stretch though. I liked both of the lead characters very much, but I would have expected our male lead to be show more more of an alpha hero than a very beta one. As a much-lauded war hero and agent for the crown, you’d expect someone much more alpha and much less beta. However, I still loved the romance between the two leads.

Jason (North) Beckett is the newly minted Duke of Northumberland, and he isn’t in the least happy about it. He dearly loved his father and two brothers who have pre-deceased him, so now, he’s grieving and having to adapt to a lifestyle he has never wanted. All of his life, he has abhorred idleness, stillness, inactivity and that is all his life as duke will hold. His restlessness has served him well as a soldier and then a secret operative for the crown. Having to give that up is tearing his heart out. He has just one more mission before his work is done – and that mission isn’t an ‘official’ mission, though it really is. His hapless cousin, Reggie, has managed to get himself and several other merchants from his village, captured by pirates. Not just any pirates – no – these are Icelandic pirates. Not a lot is known about Iceland and certainly little, if anything, is known of Icelandic pirates. North needs to find someone with practical knowledge of the country and the language. His agency has a file on a woman who has spent time in Iceland and she speaks the language, all he has to do is convince her to help him. As the manager of the Everland Travel agency, North assumes the lady will be middle-aged, but in his several days of observing the agency, he has only seen two younger women entering – one is very tiny and very lovely. Where can the manager be?

Isobel (Bell) Tinker led a nomadic lifestyle as the daughter of a renowned actress. Together, they traveled the world when Isobel was very young, and when Isobel was older she traveled on her own with the children of others involved in the theater. Seven years ago, that all ended in tragedy for Isobel. Her uncle managed to rescue and retrieve her from Iceland and bring her home to England, and Isobel has sworn that she’ll never, ever, under any circumstances, leave English soil again. What is she to say when a duke approaches her at work and asks for her help? She’ll tell him what she can for the money he offers – but that is all she’ll do. So, when he comes back again and asks her to go to Iceland with him to rescue his cousin – what is she to say except a resounding – NO? What if he sweetens the offer to include her heart’s desire? Uh-Oh!

I loved that a large part of this book took place in Iceland – something you certainly don’t normally see. I loved Jason though he seemed a bit milquetoast to me. I loved Isobel with her strength and intelligence. I loved the vivid descriptions of Iceland, the northern lights, etc. I thought the pirate portion was anticlimactic and much too easily solved.

I enjoyed this book and I can recommend it. It is witty – and heartbreaking – and romantic – and has a lovely HEA to it. However, if you want any semblance of period correctness at all, you might want to read this at your own risk. Since it was a feel-good fairytale, I could ignore all of the anachronisms and just enjoy the story.

I voluntarily read and reviewed an Advanced Reader Copy of this book. All thoughts and opinions are my own. show less

　　　
Lady Helena Lark, an heiress with a plan, has spent years trying to escape her betrothal and pending wedding to the drunk and dull Duke of Lusk, Bradley Gridleston. She’s evaded, refused, and even ran away—more than a handful of times. When her family’s patience runs out, they pack her off to London to walk down the aisle but Helena has another idea—find a more suitable bride to take her place, even if she must look for a replacement duchess every day (which later to be show more revealed as a Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs reference) that prompts an unlikely alliance with Declan Shaw, better known as “The Huntsman,” who is a mercenary who can pick and choose his clientele. After his last job, escorting a young noblewoman, Knightly Snow, to France, landed him in jail under false accusations, he wants nothing to do with aristocrats or women but the law isn’t done with him, and if he agrees to babysit a duke’s errant fiancé, the payout could make his legal troubles go away.

When their polar opposite worlds collide, Declan realizes that containing his new client is only slightly harder than keeping his hands off her while Helena senses an ally in her handsome new bodyguard and solicits his help. Together they must escape the forces that oppose them and fight for the fairy-tale love they desire, leaving readers with a strong lasting impression.

Embarking on this read, I am shook. This was waaaaaay better than I had originally expected and to think I wasn’t going to request this ARC on Netgalley but thank goodness I ignored my stupid thoughts and took the plunge.

Helena was hands down one of the best heroines I have read in a historical romance in a very long long time! She oozes confidence, was playful and forward with Declan, and remained true to herself throughout the novel. Declan and Helena had a great balance in their romance. There wasn’t any winey, woe me moments and they took a realistic approach to their bubbling relationship (pros/cons) and made it work. They complimented each other so well despite their backgrounds and I instantly fell in love with these characters and that also included the sides Knightly (she’s a riot!) and Lusk (more so after Knightly resurfaces).

I sincerely hope the next installment to the series, ‘When You Wish Upon a Duke’, features Knightly and Lusk. The Duke truly did awakened by a kiss before doing a 180 when she came out of hiding. He was no longer dull, boring, drunk and a pushover when it came to his uncle. I really need more of this couple now and I would be utterly devastated if we don’t get to see more of them in the future. My fingers are crossed!

show less

I usually let the book “percolate” in my mind for at least a week before I do a review of it. Well, this time I just had to jump on a review because this book, a debut mind you, was so much fun, I couldn’t wait to let you all know about it.

The first thing I noticed is the prose. I just loved it!

"Kissing her was like taking a hasty bite of something he hadn’t expected to find quite so delicious. Something warm and sweet and too sumptuous to be gobbled up in passing, without giving its show more due. Without savoring."

~~~ * ~~~

"She leaned back against the wall and slid downward. To sit. On his floor. He blinked, watching her descend. Past his chest. Past his bloody groin. Between his knees. She sat down on his floor, her bare feet and ankles sticking out from beneath her skirt like sweets from a pouch."

~~~ * ~~~

The second thing was the characters, and not just the hero and heroine, but everyone that was introduced to us, starting with the marchioness [if you’re a fan of Downton Abbey, than this character will remind you a lot of Dowager Violet] and Jocelyn, whose POV was refreshing and enlightening. But it’s Piety’s family that will shock, surprise and disgust you, while making you chuckle.

"Jocelyn led them all inside; the mother; the shark-eyed one; a fat one; a bald one; a tall one; and Edward, the smallest brother who had turned up in London the week before."

And the third thing was the plot, which turns into the plots, and both were interesting and entertaining.

As for the chemistry between Piety and Trevor, it was off the charts! Every time they were in a scene, I kept picturing that scene from ‘It’s a Wonderful Life’ in which George finally breaks down and proposes, sort of. Do you know which one I’m talking about? He shows up at Mary’s house, she invites him in, and they are having a talk when the phone rings and Sam is on the phone, and then George and Mary are both on the phone, but neither is paying attention to Sam. George has a plan for his life and Mary is not in them. Mary only wants him and to be his wife. George drops his phone and is furious at himself because he just can’t not love her. He is angry and says some things about his plans, and then kisses her … Just love that scene.

Trevor is the same. He has plans and none involve marriage and he fights his attraction throughout the story, to no avail. Piety understands him and feels sorry for him, but she can’t help but fall in love with him. It was a lot of fun watching them come to terms with their attraction to each other.

And the last thing I expected to read in this story is the name of the country I was born in, Serbia! That was so cool, especially because I love my Serbian history and just glimpsing it in a romance novel was awesome.

Here are my notes from goodreads as I was reading it:

21.0% “Debut book and I’m finding it easy to read and very fun.”

33.0% “At 33% and I can’t put the book down! LOVING IT!”

45.0% “People you have to read this book! It is so fast moving and very easy to read! The hero is just so so good!”

Highly recommending it!

Melanie for b2b

Complimentary copy provided by the publisher show less