Alyssa Everett - An Heir of Uncertainty

Lina, Lady Radbourne, thought being a countess would rescue her from poverty. Unfortunately, her young groom failed to plan for the future, and his drunken accident left her widowed and pregnant. Now Colonel Winstead Vaughan--Win--will inherit her late husband's fortune...unless she gives birth to a boy. Win is her natural enemy, so why can't she stop thinking about him?
Win is stunned to learn he stands to inherit a vast fortune. He's even more surprised to find himself falling for the beautiful, spirited Lady Radbourne, who is the one woman who stands in the way of a life he'd only imagined.
When someone tries to poison Lady Radbourne, suspicion falls on Win. There's a clever killer in their midst, and if Win doesn't solve the mystery fast, Lina may perish. He needs to win her trust, but how can he prove it's she he wants, and not the fortune?

Comment: I got this book because I've liked reading another one by the author and I also saw some positive comments about it in some reviews. I was eager to see how it would be like for me.

In this story we have Lina as the main protagonist and one night she is awaken by someone to be informed her husband has fallen from high heights on a dare and was immediately dead. Lina and her younger sister Cassie now must leave their house for Lina and her husbands have no heirs which means the estate will go to the next male of kin, which happens to be a cousin.

However, after a lengthy trip, Winstead and his small daughter and his brother arrive at the apparent new estate he will inherit - hopefully in good enough conditions to help him take care of the estate he already had and left to inherit this one - discover the lady Lina happens to be in a delicate condition, which means they have traveled all this way and now everyone needs to wait to see if the baby is a boy or a girl.

The problem is that Win sees in Lina all the opposite others tell him she must be like and it also seems someone is trying to stop the estate from going to either Win and Lina...

This was a goon enough story and I liked some elements. I liked spending time reading this novel. However, the romance was a bit lacking and that sort of had n impact in how I was able to enjoy the secondary situations.

What I liked best in this novel was the fact both Lina and Win had very good reasons to want to keep the estate. Neither had a stable past in the financial sense which means we have a set of protagonists who not only deserve to have something of their own but are also trying to have stability for the ones they care about.

I thought this premise alone on the situation would be the perfect starting point for a great romance but the truth is that I found it to be very luck warm.

It's always a positive point for me when the characters have some financial difficulty but by good character (if not just hard work) they manage to be worthy of having something extra in their lives. Lina comes from a disgraced mother and she has tried to do what she could to stop her younger sister from poverty.

Win has managed to keep a smaller state which already have problems and now things are dire and Win spent a lot just to travel. We obviously know he will take good care of this inheritance too.

I really wanted to see how this natural need to provide, to take care of others would be the merging element between the main couple but what I didn't count on was how they lacked sexual chemistry.

Now that I've read the story I must say the way the author decided to put the main couple interacting - even if properly adjusted to the time of the story and based on logical behaviors - in a very boring scenario. The scenes they shared just felt... so boring and when they finally give in to some of the attraction they (supposedly) felt, I got the feeling it was badly done and especially Lina's reaction tot he whole thing not in par to what her life and expectations had been to that moment. She reacted in a very non-wise manner. I guess I can understand but it didn't help me liking to see them together.

This book has a mystery going on, someone is trying to stop Lina and Win from being alive to inherit the estate. I confess I had a suspect until a certain point, where I believe the real villain becomes so obvious it's amazing how it wasn't so before. The whys are sort of understandable in the way usually not very sane villains carry their agendas...

The two elements - romance and mystery - should have been a great combination but the mystery always felt "stronger" for me, and more compelling.

All in all, this was a good effort, there are some good elements in general but I wish some situations/details could have been used more (like the main character's personalities, their sense of self and being worthy and also Win's younger brother having what we could say was Asperger's). Still, a good enough historical for when one is debating what to read.

Grade: 6/10

Alyssa Everett - A Tryst With Trouble

Lady Barbara Jeffords is certain her little sister didn't murder the footman, no matter how it looks…and no matter what the Marquess of Beningbrough—Ben—might say. She can scarcely help it if his cousin is the only other suspect. In fact, she wants nothing to do with ruggedly handsome Ben; he reminds her of all the insensitive clods who passed her over.
For years Ben has been dogged by painful gossip about his father's rumored homosexuality. His gruff shell hides a passionate nature, and he's also fiercely loyal—which is why he'll never let the clever and beguiling Lady Barbara pin a murder on his cousin.
Sparks fly as the two compete to defend their loved ones. But as strange new clues emerge that neither can decipher alone, they have no choice but to compare notes and sleuth in tandem. A tenuous bond develops that soon faces its toughest challenge when Ben himself becomes a suspect…

Comment: After reading some positive comments about the plots of this author, I've decided to add one to my reading list and this happened back in January 2016. Now, almost three years after, I finally picked it to see if it would be another author to follow.

In this story we meet Barbara Jeffords, a striking lady who wants to help her younger sister Helen stay way from the accusations of murder after a footman is discovered dead in their house. There is also Teddy, her sister's fiancé, who swears on Helen's honor she has nothing to do with it.

Also in the house is the marquess of Benningbrough known as "Ben", Teddy's cousin, and he thinks Teddy shouldn't marry into this family. He particularly clashes with Barbara because she is opinionated and isn't scared of arguing with him.

Both Barbara and Ben have some heavy feelings regarding who they are to world but joining forces to discover what really happened with the footman will force them to spend some time together and they realize there is a lot in common between them.

I didn't have many expectations about this story so I can say I was positively surprised by several details. I was not, however, with what I see as a lack of balance between the character's attitudes and behavior and the tone of the story which was meant to be more serious than comic or "light" as we can expect from certain authors. Since this was a new author for me, I could sort of see past that for the most time but it is a detail I wasn't able to "ignore".

The main segment of the plot revolves around the mystery of the dead footman and who might be the culprit. As the story develops we discover more and more about the protagonists and their relationship develops. Several more things happen as well which are part of the investigation but mostly, the confusion comes from some external issues - mostly related to the family members of those not in question - and also because of the protagonist's self doubt. At one point I was also a little annoyed the author has decided to make Ben dismiss Barbara because he thought he "wouldn't be good enough for her" or something alike. This tactic is often used to create antagonism where none was required and the way it happened here wasn't very smooth in my opinion. 

Of course that in the end every secret is uncovered and the HEA is deserved. The main villain isn't that difficult to know, since the clues are rather obvious. 

The romance is interesting because it starts with a sort of enemies to lovers trope with some opposites attract in the middle, and these are two of my favorite tropes in romance novels. Generally speaking, this was well achieved and I was glad about the way Barbara and Ben discussed but slowly started to trust things to the other, almost unaware of that but gradually with more importance. This led to some of my favorite scenes in the story but at the same time there was a certain issue...

This is a story about a murder and proving someone is innocent. The tone is expected to be serious because nothing about the author's work nor other clues would point out to comedy. However, here and there, the characters would act a certain way which I found to be a little too silly (and not in a funny way). This was mostly about the two of them and their reactions to things other other said or did. Having doubts is always complicated but didn't we have much proof they were clever, rational people? Some things didn't add up, were sort of silly.

The secondary characters were well depicted but for instance, Helen, such a key point in the whole plot was certainly not someone I'd care about and this almost made me feel the reasons Barbara had to help her weren't that valid. But, alas, Barbara is a good enough heroine. Ben's father was also very interesting and the explanations he provided for his situation ended up being too superficial. After so much supposed angst, the serious conversations I expected weren't that elucidative as I hoped.

All in all, a good story, several issues I'd change or didn't think were amazing... I'll try another one by this author to compare, but this just barely went above average to me.

Grade: 7/10