Debra Dier - Scoundrel

Independent minded Emily Maitland knew her parents would never allow her younger sisters to attend the Season until she married. Since she had no intention of making a loveless match with some witless fop or sentencing her sisters to spinsterhood, she eloped with the perfect man. Major Sheridan Blake was her ideal husband: handsome, charming, dashing—and completely imaginary. She was stunned when a counterfeit Major Blake marched into her life and claimed her as his bride. Determined to vanquish the handsome rogue without revealing her own deception, Emily soon discovers the bewildering scoundrel is even more intriguing than any ideal from her imagination.
An agent for the Ministry, Simon St. James exploited Emily’s deception to suit his mission. He was searching for a traitor smuggling arms to Napoleon’s army. He found an auburn haired virago who could heal his wounded soul. Trapped in the web of his own deception, he would fight the devil himself for the chance of winning his lady. 

Comment: This is one of those poor lost books in the bottom of lists kind of books. It means it has been kept alone for a long time since arriving at the pile but usually there are two reasons for that: a) you got it for some weird reason (some cheap or free deal) and now no longer feels interesting or b) you are leaving for the perfect time and don't want to go through the pain of reading it and that is it.

To be really honest, this is more alike the first reason....

This is the story of Emily Maitland, a young woman who decides, along with her grandmother, to invent a fake husband so her sisters can enter society and, eventually, marry themselves. This because their parents thought of only allowing Emily's sister into society if Emily married first.

All seem well when, during a party, Emily's fake husband appears and Emily can do nothing but go along with his plans.

Why this stranger showed up using her lie, she doesn't know, but she believes him to be scoundrel of the worst kind...too bad she likes him and wants to be close to him...

This is my second story by the author and unlike the first one, this didn't have many positive qualities in my perspective, which made it seem weaker to me.

I mean, the story isn't all that bad but the way the plot moves along and the absolutely silly situations the heroine gets into and her often childish behavior put me off a lot. It took me some days to go through this book but it was a struggle, especially at the beginning.

The writing style isn't very appealing to me. It offers the right information but it's not properly done, for instance, when we get why Emily's husband is posing as such the information is important for us to know but why he had to use that particular disguise is silly, there were so many other ways he could have tried to find the information he wanted... There seems to exist a very small amount of logic in some aspects and even in terms of character development, I felt things weren't well thought.

Major Sheridan, however, has some interesting personality details, things to endear him to the reader, his motives, expectations, past experiences...he tries to the best out of a sticky situation, he obviously plays a part in order to find of someone in Emily's family and father's business is smuggling...and forgetting about the idea of pretending to be married to her - which is silly - his actions seem to have a reason, a line of continuity...I liked several scenes with him, some emotional details, but the execution only made him look unprofessional and a cliché.

Emily, however, is the real element in the book that got on my nerves. She is a young woman but her attitudes and behavior seem those of a bratty teenager. I suppose this is meant to make her look feisty and impetuous, somewhat wild too, for us readers. But for me, she only looked ridiculous. The way she dealt with the masquerade of Sheridan, how she imagined she could get rid of him by sending him in a ship somewhere, how things go wrong and he then pretends to be amnesic... and in the middle of all this she is supposed to, convincingly, be falling in love with him...I mean, no. I don't think anyone would consider her mature enough to be sane, much less a good wife or companion.

This is meant to be a romance, so I get the path the author takes us on, but I feel the plot is very lacking in structure and reasonable development to make it something I enjoyed reading.

But between the irritating heroine and the several situations they both get into (maybe the shooting the husband on the head but not causing him harm can be one of the most challenging), I just think the author invented too much, too many things had to be secret from some characters to others and when we got to the real villain's identity, the solution was as stupid as the reason it had to exist in the first place.

The HEA is sweet, and sure, that is great, but I won't miss this book and after two less than stellar attempts, I think this is it between me and this author. I won't say never again, but so far, I think I might be done. Too many loose points and unnecessary situations to be dealt with. Too much and not well explained or presented.

Grade: 4/10

TBR Challenge: Debra Dier - Devil's Honor

When Isabel Darracott went to London to meet her guardian, the Duke of Marlow, she never expected to be ravished in the library by a half-clad barbarian--or that the rogue would turn out to be the duke himself! Though she found herself devastated by his kisses, prim-and-proper Isabel knew she could not give in to temptation... for he was the devil in a very handsome disguise.
Known as the Devil of Dartmoor--the most man in London--Justin Trevelyan preferred the company of widows and prostitutes to the charms of innocents. The last thing he needed was this impertinent maiden and her two young sisters under his wardship. Yet from the moment he laid eyes on Isabel, he was captivated by her sweet beauty and somehow needed to protect her as well as possess her. But before he could gain an angel's trust, he'd have to prove his...DEVIL'S HONOR

Comment: Another month, time for the challenge post. This time, it's the new-to-you author theme and once again, I had lots to choose from, but decided on this not only because I have had it for years in the pile, but also because I felt like getting it over with, therefore strong reasons to finally read this one. The author is new to me, I no longer remember why I got it in the first place and I had hopes this would be amazing enough that, 1) I'd feel glad it was good and 2) I could make others envious over my good luck, so glad to have read something good.
However, it wasn't as pretty as that.

Te story follows Justin Trevelyan, a duke famous for his reckless ways and not proper behavior. The story starts when he is awakened by a young lady asking about his late father. Thinking the lady is a prank sent by his brother, they kiss - because that is what strangers did in the 19th century - and after making things right, the lady leaves Justin with the news he is now a guardian to three females and they need his help to have means to survive. Justin mans up and goes after Isabel, the recently met and apparent older ward of his.

There's something between Isabel and Justin from the start, although they tend to deny it even when they kiss - again - and among some arguments here and there. Many cliched in historicals to go through, the older friendly grandmother, the gold diggers, the true love knows it all, the innocence meets the experience, real feelings change it all, among other expected things, all until the more than known HEA, something that proves true love exists, as does life after lust.

Well, this book has all the expected elements in historical romances. The story is from the late 90s, so it's not characteristic of older times where women behaved in a certain way. But it looked like the author tried to insert all the things one wants to see in historicals and make a go at it. If it's certain she did a much better job than what I could ever aspire to do, I also think in the end everything sounded a bit boring. I mean, I liked it overall, but there wasn't any detail any new thing, new elements that changed this from cliché to a fresh historical, timeless and amazing. I don't mean only the action or the character's personalities. I mean the behaviors, the plot, the feel one historical has... I wasn't engrossed by the story although I admit it didn't take me long to finish it. But this happened more because of my rhythm of reading than by the story itself.

The plot is more of the same. After all the obstacles are dealt with, true love beats it all. But there wasn't anything about this that made me think, wow the author was so clever by writing it this way or by making me think about this character like this...it just went through the motions.
The characters did their part, both in action and in thinking. I liked them on the surface, but it seemed they didn't have more than just the expected reactions to the usually seen scenes in historicals, jealousy, lack of self confidence, wrong images of themselves, I don't know, everything.
Isabel had her moments but she didn't move me as much as I feel she could. Her attitude was just too plain. And Justin was seen as a libertine, but in truth he wasn't one, despite trying to maintain that image. Things that, with another take, could have been a good challenge, but in reality no, because everything was done only on the surface, it lacked some depth I think.

The author did a good effort, she tried and she delivered a story with the right elements, but all things considered, her writing just wasn't special enough for me. And I think the fact some of the character's actions being there just to fill some apparent expectations of what a romance should be like in this era of sexual content everywhere, where characters act very sexually although certainly it wasn't so in those days, and by putting in evidence the sex side of things instead of the romance and the seduction, well, it was a bit of a let down. I understand the appeal and some author do it well. But in this case it felt something seen so many times... perhaps a different take would have been better, I don't know...

In the end, a good effort yes, but several things that, having been different, could have given a different and better take on tis desired timeless novel.
Grade: 6/10