Blue Wolf Reviews

Tag: romp

  • How to Not Marry a Lord

    How to Not Marry a Lord

    Emma Orchard delivers a light-hearted Regency Romance How To Not Marry a Lord as she introduces the Constantine Sisters who have just discovered they are no longer boarder line poor, dependent on the legacies supplied by their already well married and connected sisters, but heiresses.

    Once the shock wears off, and it was a serious shock, discovering not only an Aunt of whom they knew nothing at all, but that she had left to the three of them, in equal portions, a house, Albrey Hall, and a very sizable fortune, they rally and set out to travel to  Suffolk to discover just what it is they have inherited.

    Albery Hall turns out to be a delightful, if somewhat run-down red brick Tudor Style manor looked after by three staff, overgrown gardens and more sparsely furnished rooms than they had ever imagined.

    It is not long before the three sisters, Beatrice, Cecilia and Bianca discover they are the subject of local gossip in the small town as well as the target of Lord Oliver Pallant and his siblings as they need a fortune before he is declared bankrupt.

    Major Alistair Bartrum is healing from horrific wounds caused fighting Boney at Saint-Dizier; he is grumpy and in pain much of the time, trying to heal by walking on the sands at low tide, has shunned society and feels very sorry for himself. He does not want anything to do with the new arrivals.

    And so, as each day slowly unfolds, the sisters begin to enjoy their newfound freedom with money to spend and the ability to live how they choose, so long as they abide by the two strict conditions of the inheritance.

    Something disturbing occurs which makes them begin to wonder about Albery House, the history of the House and area in which they now live. Was there an intruder in the house and if so, who was it and why. It also raises a very salient point about the location of the house to the shoreline and whether this mysterious and charming house has hidden passages, secret tunnels and if so where are they to be found.

    But in the meantime, Cecilia begins to fall in love, Beatrice discovers she has been played for a fool and Bianca is enjoying her freedom to paint and sketch, while darker forces are at work which could see them all in considerable danger.

    How To Not Marry a Lord is a most enjoyable, light-hearted return to a time of Victorian England, where anything can and often does happen in the marriage stakes.

  • A Gentleman’s Offer

    A Gentleman’s Offer

    A tall, well-dressed woman fleeing in the darkest night goes unremarked; the shabby carriage arrives, the heavily cloaked figure enters and a comforting voice reassures the runaway that all will be well.

    Sir Dominic De Lacy was a man in need of marrying or so his mother kept telling him. He did not think so, but as she kept assuring him, his father and the reclusive Lord Nightingale had struck a bargain several years before his untimely death, he eventually gave into filial pressure, agreeing to offer for the hand of Miss Maria Nightingale.

    She was considered a rare beauty, wealthy and personable, except he felt she was a marble statue, going through the motions, but offer he did and she accepted. The die was cast until the evening of their engagement party; an evening Beau de Lacy was not soon to forget as it turned what until this point in his life, was a very orderly and straight forward existence, into something entirely different.

    So begins a madcap regency romp A Gentleman’s Offer, which sees the very conservative Sir Dominic De Lacy plunged headlong into an event that could result in the largest scandal of the Season, with a woman, his betrothed, who is not the woman to whom he became betrothed!

    Hatred, manipulation, theft and skulduggery are all uncovered along with outright ruthlessness, as Dominic and his fiancé Margaret ‘Meg’, the twin sister of the woman he thought he was engaged to, find themselves embroiled in a terrible and what could be deadly scheme to cover-up outright theft.

    Emma Orchard has created a wonderfully enjoyable regency romance with A Gentleman’s Offer, in the style of her beloved Georgette Heyer with a very modern twist, which will appeal to lovers of a very good regency romp. Great reading for a weekend of pure indulgence.