Erica Ridley

This story is delightful. It has everything and you’ll feel all of it: love, lust, joy, sadness, humiliation, confusion, despair – and if you keep your fingers crossed maybe even happy ever after!
I love Regency romance. So many rules. Nobody followed them if all the little trysts are any example. But everyone was affected by them, often very negatively and for the rest of their lives. Many of the rules were cold, cruel, uncompromising. No three strikes or second chances. Mess up once and show more that’s it – you’re out. Who cares how you make a living, or if you go on living. And this is from not just society but your own family. Consequences and punishment were swift and irrevocable. Of course most of these rules applied to women only. Being a rake was kind of a charming thing for a man but get caught accidentally in the garden unchaperoned with a man and that’s the end for a woman. You’re ruined, fallen, you no longer exist. And if someone holds a grudge against you and lies about what caused your downfall it doesn’t matter; they will be believed and you will be shunned. Or erased. And the reason I love Regency romance is because talented authors like Erica Ridley take these dark, dreadful, dreary circumstances and turn them into immensely entertaining stories for us to enjoy!

This unforgiving environment is the one Gladys Bell has grown up in. She’s not drop-dead gorgeous like her younger sister and her marriage prospects are slim, as her mother never hesitates to point out. She’s not old by today’s standards but in Regency eyes she’s practically an old maid. She’s never received a marriage proposal and this is her last chance; if she doesn’t get married now her dowry will pass to her sister and she’ll become the spinster sister who never leaves home. Which is actually more appealing to Gladys than marrying someone she doesn’t love and who doesn’t love her. Her father is trying to arrange a match for her with a man only interested in the property Gladys would bring to the union, but she has reached legal age and does not have to give her consent.

What happens next would make a very funny rom com in today’s world. Not so much for Gladys though. More like the dashing of all her hopes and the ruin of her life.

A (supremely handsome of course) young man approaches her at the ball, tells her she is the woman of his dreams and invites her to meet him in the garden. She’s amazed, mesmerized, charmed – hopeful. A little kissing goes on and there is quite the instant attraction. Only problem is that the young man is Reuben, the most notorious rake in the ton, and he mistakes Gladys for a married woman he is to meet for a secret assignation. He is so taken with the sparks and fire between them that he pays no attention when Gladys tells him her name. Agrees to meet her in the morning at the hotel. He thinks to continue what they started; she thinks for him to ask her father for her hand. Pretty funny case of mistaken identity in this century; not so much in that one. Reuben has figured out his mistake but has no idea who this young woman was and marriage isn’t in his plans anyway. No harm done in his mind. But there is harm. A lot of harm. Gladys waits and waits and waits and waits, and of course there’s a nasty neighbor who saw her come out of the garden and tells all who will listen. Her family immediately cast her out. The potential suitor isn’t even a possibility now. She’s dishonored and shamed the family. Her sister seems slightly regretful but, hey, she needs to get married herself. And her mother and father never look back.

We don’t see the horrible details of Gladys’ immediate struggle when thrown out but meet up with her again five years later. She has done what she needed to to survive and is now a very successful courtesan to the upper crust (she knows all about the ton, right?). She plans to retire after doing one more thing, the thing that has kept her going all these years. And that is to exact her revenge – Revenge with a capital “R” – on that young man who broke her heart, who ruined her life. She is going to reel him in and then discard him and leave him broken just as he did her.

Once Gladys and Reuben meet again and we’re back in mistaken identify land this story becomes utterly charming. Reuben has been going merrily along, ever the rake. Well, not that merrily as he is haunted by that young woman he just can’t forget. He never even considers that Gladys could be her. Gladys, for her part, is single-minded. She knows exactly who Reuben is and what she is going to do, but darn it, she is starting to like him. We learn that while yes, he is a rake, he is a rake with a gigantic inferiority complex, who thinks no one ever could or will like, much less love, him so being a rake is all his life will be, and we start to like him too.

Gladys and Reuben are characters you will love from the start, even when you don’t like them or disapprove of what they are doing. Taming the Rake is funny, witty, surprising, sweet, heartbreaking, sexy and yes, hopeful. You will be transported to the time and beautiful locations they find themselves in. The dialogue is bright and fresh and just snaps and will keep you turning pages, wondering how they will ever avert disaster and get to that HEA.

Thanks to oh so talented author Erica Ridley for providing an advance copy of Taming the Rake. I am voluntarily leaving this review; all opinions are my own. I highly recommend this book and can’t wait for the next story in the Lords in Love series. show less

In the previous book in this series, which I haven't read, Miss Philippa York was betrothed to a duke who fell in love with that book's heroine instead, and married her. Thankfully, Philippa wasn't in love with him and doesn't mind, and she and Chloe, the woman the duke married, are friends. However, Philippa understands that she does still need to marry someone. Because of an inheritance, she doesn't need money, but it would help her father's political ambitions a great deal if she married show more someone with a title. The problem is that Philippa is a bluestocking who'd much rather host her reading circle than moon over some duke, and she's well aware that marriage could spell the end of all the activities she enjoys.

Thomasina Wynchester is a master of disguise who regularly assists with the cases her family takes on. Although she previously never had trouble charming ladies into her bed, now there's only one woman who interests her: Philippa. Unfortunately, she can't even bring herself to have a normal conversation with her. The best she's managed is to attend Philippa's reading circle disguised as Chloe's slightly senile "great-aunt." With some encouragement from her family, however, she does finally manage to talk to and flirt with Philippa...disguised as Baron Vanderbean.

As the Wynchesters help Philippa with a case involving an old manuscript and a man taking credit for the work done by one of Philippa's reading circle friends, Tommy wonders if she can somehow win Philippa's heart as herself and what will happen to the two of them if she succeeds.

This was an impulse purchase, inspired by a random trip to my local Walmart and spotting it in the tiny books section that's sadly the largest source of new books in my town. The cover is inaccurate in multiple ways, but this is one of those times when the message is more important than accuracy. It doesn't matter that Tommy, the brunette, never dressed as a young lady on-page as far as I can remember (I don't count the one brief flashback that I assume happened in Book 1). What matters is that, generally, when two people are depicted on the cover of a romance novel aimed at adults, those two people are the couple, and in this case that couple is a pair of women. On the cover of a physical book sold in a Walmart in my conservative Texas town. Kudos to whoever made that happen.

I went into this wanting to love it, but I was initially frustrated at the way Philippa was depicted. I don't know how often Philippa thought about her "cold, dead heart," but it was a lot. I got really tired of it, especially since Philippa's behavior didn't seem to match up with her assessment of herself - she certainly seemed to enjoy Baron Vanderbean's company and think about him a lot. I assumed the author was setting up for a clumsy scene in which Philippa discovered that the Baron was actually a woman, at which time her heart would miraculously cease being cold and dead and she'd realize she was a lesbian. In reality, although the word was never used, the author actually intended to indicate that Philippa was demisexual. I'm not the best person to judge how well that was accomplished, but I can at least say that it didn't really work for me.

Tommy was fun - very charming, particularly when she was pretending to be Baron Vanderbean and indicating her interest in Philippa. I loved the scene where Philippa attempted to bat her eyelashes flirtatiously, and Tommy was delighted even though she failed miserably. Tommy adored Philippa, which could be both nice and annoying. I winced at one scene in which Tommy allowed Philippa to accompany her on a mission and they almost messed everything up because they were too into kissing each other.

Oh, FYI, it would probably be more accurate to call this a nb/f romance rather than f/f romance - same as "demisexual," the word "nonbinary" was never used and Tommy didn't mind being referred to as "she," but a couple conversations made it clear that she didn't really consider herself to be either a woman or a man.

I could definitely tell that I was missing out on some events and character info by starting this series with Book 2, but Tommy and Philippa's story still worked fine on its own. More than likely, every Wynchester is going to get their own book, and the ones I'm most looking forward to are Graham and probably Jacob, although his hordes of expertly trained animals of all kinds might be a bit much in a full novel. In general, some of the Wynchester quirkiness was almost too much for me. This is the sort of series I'd have to save for when I'm in the right mood.

I wasn't sure how the romance could possibly work out. Philippa needed to marry a man with a title. Tommy could pretend to be Baron Vanderbean, but she didn't want to spend her entire life as someone else. In order to solve this problem, the author did something I thought was very interesting, although I was a bit disappointed that she didn't completely follow through. Major spoilers from here on out.

Like me, Philippa assumed that her and Tommy's HEA would be accomplished by her marrying Baron Vanderbean. "Baron" wasn't as good as "duke" in her parents' eyes, but she figured it'd be good enough. However, instead of going through with it because she adored Philippa, Tommy refused. Temporary disguises were fine, but she didn't want to have to become Baron Vanderbean for the rest of her life.

Philippa then realized that if she wanted to be happy and live her life with Tommy, she'd have to risk disappointing her parents and being cut off by them. In many, many other LGBT romances I've read, this would be the point where Philippa's parents would discover she was a lesbian and maybe initially be shocked and disappointed but then become accepting. Ridley didn't exactly subvert this, but she did do something that got me to thinking about the expectations for stories like these.

Philippa's parents never actually found out the truth about the Baron, or Philippa's relationship with Tommy, but they accepted that she wouldn't be following the path they'd hoped she'd take and let her go. They didn't cut her off, but there was no mention of them in the book's "several months later" final chapter. Even though it would have upset Philippa, I kind of wished that Philippa's parents had been harsher in their final scene, because it's so rare to read (or watch) romance stories in which characters with toxic parents realize that sometimes the only way to achieve their own happiness is to move on and accept that they will never make their parents happy. Philippa did this, in a way, but it was softened by her parents' mild reaction.

Overall, I enjoyed this and would like to read more of the series. Also, here's hoping that spotting clearly LGBT romances on the New Books shelves at Walmart will become a more regular occurrence.

(Original review posted on A Library Girl's Familiar Diversions.) show less

Regency caper with a…No! make that many differences!

My second introduction to the Wynchester siblings and it continues to be a wild ride. An unusual family of mixed persons from varying backgrounds, a family made not born, who seek to right the wrongs done to ordinary folk. There’s a host of animals involved like a gorgeous homing hedgehog. I know—wonderful comic relief!
It seems there’s a counterfeiter loose in the community. Folks are being relieved of their hard won cash.
Marjorie show more Wynchester is the artist who sees things in terms of color explosions! Lovely! She’s hard of hearing and wants to prove to her family that she can take the lead in this case searching for the swindler.
Enter the gorgeous and artistic Lord Adrian. Banished seven years ago to the continent by his father the Marquess of Meadowbrook for daring to turn his energies towards a career in art. He’s the youngest son of Meadowbrook, an intolerant stickler.
Adrian has been blackmailed into counterfeiting coins by the rogue Snowley, known as the Grandfather of St. Giles. He has Bow Street runners in his pocket. Coins that the residents of the area can ill afford to lose. You see, Adrian had been counterfeiting artefacts for those on their Grand Tour but, with the war over chances are his copies would be discovered as just that. He thought a simple explanation to Snowley and he’d be able to bow out. What an innocent! Snowley was not about to cut Adrian loose. He’s about to use Adrian to increase his own profits.
Marjorie, after her own investigations, has decided to put the counterfeiting people out of business. Once she discovers Adrian’s role and the bind he’s in, she wants to fix his situation as well.
Complex, zany and completely enjoyable!

A Forever ARC via NetGalley.
Many thanks to the author and publisher. show less

This was a delight. The author wrote Angelica with a subtlety and sensitivity that blew me away, especially in a novella. A black woman written with such deftness in regency romance?! Wow. And Jonathan, our bumbly bubbly hero, whose depth was slowly peeled off was the icing on the cake. I keep coming back to this point- the author acknowledged the race elephant in the room and made us truly root for the couple.
I adored this.

Thanks to the author and Netgalley for the ARC.