Janna MacGregor

I'm bedazzled!

Oh my! I loved this. I adored the intelligent, stubborn Lady Emma Cavensham trying to find justice for her dead friend Lady Lena Eaton.
I was smitten with the damaged the Earl of Somerton, Nicholas St. Mauer who had been alone and rejected from an early age. It was after a terrible encounter with his father at Eaton, that Alex Pembrooke interfered when Nick was being bullied by other students. This later becomes the doorway into to a relationship with Pembrooke and Emma's show more family.
Rejection by his father, Drake St. Mauer, the Duke of Renton, has put Nick onto the trajectory of desiring to surpass his father’s wealth and to isolate himself from the hurt of meaningful relationships. He has decided to not marry. Nick focuses all his attention on the acquisition of wealth. He engages in trade to do with merchant ships and their cargoes, and purchases ships for new trade routes. Vengeance would be sweet. 'He could taste victory.'
I love the sometimes dim witted (where Emma's concerned), but fiercely loyal men of the Cavensham family. Their presence is a wonderful addition to the story.
Lord Somerton keeps encountering Emma on her forays into what could be dangerous, or at the very least scandalous places, and coming to her rescue, or imposing rescue on her, whichever fits the bill. His thwarting of Emma frustrates her. The repartee they engage in is amusing and invigorating. I loved Emma's thoughts after the first such encounter, When 'his laughter followed her all the way to her carriage. Insufferable cur.'
When Emma is driven to investigate her dearest friend Lena's husband, the despicable, hateful Lord Aulton, to make him pay for Lena's murder its Somerset who keeps rescuing Emma from her own fearlessness. With her brothers and father just a few paces behind.
These rescues ultimately takes a course that is in keeping with the times.
The last scenes left me somewhat teary with happiness.
As far as I'm concerned this is a rare winner in the regency romance stakes, complete with intrigue, interest and wonderful lead characters.

A NetGalley ARC show less

Full Disclosure: Janna MacGregor is one of my favorite authors and her Cavensham Heiresses series is one of my favorites. This 4th book in the series does not disappoint.
While Paul, the new Duke of Southart, has been portrayed as a villainous rake in the previous books, Lady Daphne has been in love with him since she was a young girl. He had been a friend of her brother but he damaged that relationship with his bad behavior - which eventually led to her brother's happy marriage.
As the show more Christmas holidays approach - Daphne is left behind in a scene reminiscent of Home Alone. She goes upstairs to change and when she comes back down her whole family has left her behind. Her brother thought she was traveling with their mother and step-father and they thought she was traveling with her brother's family. Left alone in London, she goes for a walk only to have her journal stolen. The journal contains her thoughts and secrets and would be disaster if it's contents got out. Luckily for her, Paul spots her and decides to help with the journal search.
The chemistry between the two is amazing. The pages sizzle with it. But surprisingly, it is in the quiet times when this book really shines. These two misunderstood people recognize something in each other. He has always lived down to his father's low expectations by being a scandalous rake. On the other had, she has always tried to be the good girl, becoming almost invisible in the process.
One of the most touching scenes in the book occurs between Paul and Daphne's little neice, Lady Margaret. It will bring a tear to your eyes.
There is additional sorrow to come as each tries to sacrifice to say the other but there is nothing that will keep these two from getting the Happily Ever After that the deserve in the end.
I received a free advanced copy of this book. show less

Curves for the Secret Duke is another one of author Janna MacGregor’s delightfully romantic, funny and sexy stories set in the Regency Era. I love MacGregor’s books. She portrays The Regency as a time of beautiful gowns, elaborate, delicious meals, luxurious estates, non-stop social events for the ton. She also shows us the other side of this wonderful, majestic period in history, where society’s conventions and rules and mores were strict and unforgiving, for women at least. Where show more spending time alone with a man almost anywhere and being discovered meant you were ruined or instantly married, where almost any men had power over you: your father, brother, uncle . . . all could dictate what you wore, where you went, how or if you were educated, who you married.

But the best part of MacGregor’s books is that she has a knack for taking that setting and creating women who are smart, strong, courageous, know what they want – or don’t want – and may have a trick or two up their sleeve. Add a man who (naturally) is devastatingly handsome, sensitive, sweet, already head-over-heels and you have the perfect love story.

That’s what Curves for the Secret Duke is, a perfect love story.

A man could exert his power over you even from the grave and that’s exactly what Lady Penelope Harrington’s late father has done. She loved him dearly and was sure he felt the same. But then why does his will say must have a husband and live humbly for a year to inherit her fortune? How on earth is she supposed to manage that? Practically the minute her father dies, at least one sleazy potential suitor shows up. Ugh.

Penelope is often impulsive and emotional, but she’s also clever and resourceful and willing to fight for what she wants. And she has a secret weapon. That weapon is Edward Thorton, best friend from childhood who’s always been there for her and always will. It’s obvious he loves her beyond measure, but if that is the case why hasn’t he told her? Well, Penelope is a Lady and Edward is most definitely not a Lord. His father was a tutor on the Harrington Estate and Edward is now a tutor himself. And society will not allow that match.

Off Penelope goes to start her year of humble living, however that’s going to look, with Edward right beside her to protect and help her. She gets a job at her old boarding school, and to simplify things – in her rash, impulsive mind, anyway – says she and Edward are husband and wife. This situation has so much potential and author MacGregor takes advantage of every bit of it.

Traveling together, sharing rooms, trying to avoid the scoundrel who insists he wants to marry her (for her future fortune, of course), and wondering who that stranger is who is following them and how much danger he poses to Penelope. MacGregor reveals just who that stranger is and just what he wants in an interesting twist that could change everything.

I received an advance copy of Curves for the Secret Duke from the author as part of her review team. It was satisfying in every way: Edward’s tenderness for Penelope, her slow awakening to just how much Edward really means to her, their hilarious journey and fake marriage in Scotland, the dangers they must avoid, and the secrets no one had any idea about. I recommend it without hesitation; you will love it and all the other sweet, sexy, spicy, exciting books Janna MacGregor writes. I voluntarily leave this review; all opinions are my own. show less

I love romance books set in all the ‘eras’ in British history: Georgian, Regency, and Victorian. Especially Regency romance. But I hate the confusing, cruel, constricting rules that were accepted and practiced in those eras. At some point while reading one of these romances I always inwardly rail against the horrific treatment of women, the dashing of their dreams, the shunning, the ostracizing, just for daring to be themselves or stray outside society’s lines of what was correct and show more acceptable. Two Ruins Make a Right did indeed get me riled up.

Nell and James were young, starry-eyed and hopelessly in love once upon a time. It would have made a great story: “James and Nell grew up together, realized they had always been in love, got married, raised a beautiful family, and lived happily ever after. The End.” Music, stars, birds singing. But that was eight years ago. That was then, this is now. Now Nell is a widow and James is looking for a wife to produce an heir. If anything remains of what was in their hearts years ago, it’s locked up tight now. Nell is very cautious and James is very bitter.

Fathers ruled in the Regency, especially in the ton. Reputation was everything, the opinions of others mattered, and a single misstep could result in ruin for the entire family. James asked Nell to marry him and she went home believing her family would be as happy as she was. James wasn’t titled but he worked for a titled gentleman and expected to provide well for Nell. When Nell got home, however, her father informed her marriage to James was out of the question; there was a crisis in the family and Nell was the only one who could save them all from ruin. An older title gentleman wanted to marry Nell and agreed to pay the family’s debts. If Nell declined her young sister would become the bride. With family like this, who needs enemies. Guilted into it, Nell agreed and was married, and didn’t see James again.

While her marriage was not romantic, wedded bliss her husband was kind and provided for her when he died. She resolved that this would be her life: young as she was alone, childless but able to care for herself. Whatever memories of James remained were relegated to the far corners of her mind. James, however, knew nothing of the truth and believed for eight years that Nell chose money over love, an old man over him. When her carriage breaks down outside his estate on the very week he is bride-shopping, he is unwelcoming, angry, closed off and bitter, believing she has plotted to ruin the rest of his life.

Author Janna MacGregor takes their unexpected meeting and turns it into a meet-cute – to readers anyway if not to Nell and James. There is still attraction there, and beyond that longing and sadness and regret. But not hope, because there can’t ever be anything between them, not with all that has happened in the past, not with their current circumstances. Nell won’t share her family’s shame and James is afraid to trust. But there is something . . . a push and pull between them that is intriguing; we want more. Add in a cast of fascinating characters that includes James’s adorable daughter, a motherless little girl who immediately selects Nell as her new momma, even if Nell isn’t in the running in the bride contest, Nell’s sister and James’s cousin bending the rules of propriety and James’s employers from years ago who have made him their heir and you have an enchanting, delightful story. You should expect nothing less from MacGregor: she always fills the story with romance and tenderness, sweet moments, more than a bit of swoony heat, a lot of humor, and throws in a few rather unsavory people for good measure.

I received an advance copy of Two Ruins Make a Right as part of the author’s advance reader team. I am always very eager to read MacGregor’s latest and this book did not disappoint. I thoroughly enjoyed it and recommend it without hesitation. I voluntarily leave this review; all opinions are my own. show less