One Foot in the Grave (Night Huntress, Book 2)

JEANIENE FROST

Isn't that cover gorgeous? One Foot in the Grave picks up four years after the events of Halfway to the Grave. Cat Crawfield, half vampire,half human, has been working for an elite government unit, leading her own team and doing her part to eliminate as many rogue vampires as she can. She now has a reputation among the vampire world. She hasn't seen or had any contact with Bones, the vampire bounty hunter she worked with and fell in love with in the first book. And then unexpectedly she suddenly finds herself in the same room with him.

I raved about the first book, and I loved this one just as much. Cat, still sassy and sarcastic, has grown and matured, having settled into her new life and her job and being genuinely fond of her co-workers. Seeing Bones again brings up all sorts of emotions, feelings she never got over. But she isn't sure if he feels the same or if he hates her now, or maybe he moved on with his (undead) life and never even thought about her.

Now her life has been targeted, and in between dealing with trying to stay alive and find out who has put out the hit on her, she also has to figure out just where she and Bones stand with each other. And since she needs his help, there is no avoiding the issue. Or eventually the sex, and there is one very hot session that takes Cat somewhere she thought she'd never go.

As in the first book, the writing and dialogue is fresh and snappy and amusing. A couple of my favorite passages:

Lazarus stared at my glowing eyes uncomprehendingly. “It can't be. You breathe, your heart beats...it's impossible.”

“Yeah, isn't it? Life's a bitch and then one stabs you.”

And:

When I came up to the vampire that looked the closest to taking his companion on a one-way stroll, I didn't even bother with small talk. I just elbowed the pretty blonde he'd been speaking to aside and slapped my panties on his chest.

“As soon as I saw you,” I purred, “I knew I wouldn't be needing these.”

I don't have much else to say, except I loved this book and I can't wait to get the next one in the series.

Oh wait, I do have one more thought: Bones. Ahh, Bones. * sigh * Bones is the hottest, sexiest...words fail me. I love him. I do.

(I received this book through BookCrossing.)

June Acquisitions

This may be my  new monthly feature!

First, from Random House, thanks to Friday Reads, which I participate in via Twitter:

Next to Love, by Ellen Feldman

After I finish the book I'm currently reading (One Foot in the Grave by Jeaniene Frost) and then read the book I already have lined up next (A Game of Thrones by George R.R. Martin), this will be next. Alas, Lonesome Dove by Larry McMurtry, which I started like a month ago, will be put on the back burner once again.



I read a Maureen Child awhile back and really enjoyed it, so on my latest Amazon spree I purchased a few of her books:



Beyond the Boardroom; Claiming Her Billion-Dollar Birthright; and Forever...Again.



High Society Secret Pregnancy; The SEAL's Surrender. As well as:

                                              

Love is Murder, by Rebecca Brandewyne, Maureen Child, and Linda Winstead Jones; and Visions of Magic: An Awakening Novel, by Regan Hastings (isn't that cover just gorgeous?)

Some other acquisitions throughout the month of June:

                                 

Pacific Vortex!, by Clive Cussler - I don't really read much of this type of book, but after seeing the movie recently, I was inspired....

A Man Called Masters, by Lucy Walker - I just love her quaint little romances. Some of them are hard to find and can go for as much as $100 on Amazon! I think I paid about $6 for this one from Alibris.



Damage, by Josephine Hart; Taking Lives, by Michael Pye; and Should've Been a Cowboy by Vicki Lewis Thompson (another gorgeous cover - yeehaw!).

And, a little more on the naughty side:



Wicked Allure by Leslie C. Ferdinand (which I've already read and reviewed).




Spanked: Red Cheeked Erotica, edited by Rachel Kramer Bussell; and Naughty Spanking 3: 20 Erotic Stories, edited by Miranda Forbes.

Okay, I need to slow down in July and not buy anymore books as my TBR pile is way too high!

Wicked Allure

Leslie C. Ferdinand and Shirley H. Ferdinand

I wasn't really sure what to expect from this book. I mean, erotica, obviously, and from the back cover copy it seemed to actually have a real plot. But with erotica, you don't always know what you're going to get from an author you're unfamiliar with, whether it will be something really good – a love story, for instance, or something really crappy – a bunch of sex scenes cobbled together with a little narrative. So I was happy to discover a story about desperate love, denial of feelings, and determination to stay away from the other. .

The book opens with a lengthy, fairly hot, but slightly bizarre sex scene between Zach and Madi, which ends with them going their separate ways, neither really remembering that night and both thinking it was a drug (Zach) or alcohol (Madi) induced dream.

Three years prior, Zach and Madi had been in a hot and heavy relationship. Madi was young and very in love with Zach, wanting to settle down with him and start a family. But Zach had no desire to travel down that road, and when Madi walked in on him with another woman in his bed, she fled from him and her family and started life over in a new city. Now Madi's mother, who is also Zach's business partner, has conspired to bring her home and manipulated her into running the company's newest acquisition with Zach, a spa/sex club.

I'm pleased to tell you that Madi and Zach are two incredibly tortured souls, who we, the reader, get to know really well. Madi's whole family is dysfunctional, and her mother has never forgiven her for siding with her father in their divorce. The girls have grown up in the public eye. They're celebutantes, but not your typical spoiled little rich girls. When Madi and her sister find themselves having to buy groceries they don't even know where to start:

“Where do we begin, Madi?” Brianna's hesitant voice snapped her back to the present.

“I don't know. I-I think you go in alphabetical order.”

While this is Madi's story, her two sisters are important characters as well. The girls love each other, but they also fight and squabble amongst themselves. And since they have the Mother From Hell, it's no wonder they're all a little damaged. Karolyn's treatment of her daughters sometimes made me cringe, and I was glad when she left town and stayed away for awhile, though her influence was still strongly felt. .

Zach lost his mother as a teen, and his father crumpled under his grief and left his sons emotionally abandoned. Zach is a strong and charismatic man. He has a lot of failings, and he treated Madi pretty bad three years ago, but you can't help but be drawn to him. Sometimes I would think how in the world can Madi get past his actions. Then I would remind myself that drugs and alcohol affected his behavior, and he's trying to be a better man now. Yet despite that, at the core he hasn't changed, he still doesn't want that settle down and start a family life. It was a struggle to decide how I really felt about him. On one page I adored him, and then suddenly I wanted to smack him. We also meet his brother, Dakota, who's come back to town and is staying with Zach. Some of the scenes with the two brothers talking were my favorite, and it was very satisfying to see how their relationship slowly evolved.

I was once asked if I prefer novels that are plot driven or character driven. For me it's characters, first and foremost. A book can have absolutely no plot at all, but if the characters are well written it doesn’t matter. The characters in Wicked Allure fit that description. From the beginning, the authors put us inside both Madi's and Zach's heads, and by the end I was very emotionally invested in their story. Zach, particularly, burrowed into my heart as he grew and matured and redeemed himself and learned what's really important in life.

My only problem with the book was in the editing. There were a lot of small instances of the wrong spelling of a word being used, or a comma where I didn't think one was appropriate. Not anything major, but enough to be a little irritating.

While the back cover copy describes the book as multicultural, that essence of the story was matter of fact rather than drummed in, as it should be in real life.

To sum up, the authors have created a powerful story and vivid characters with an HEA that was a long time coming and extremely satisfying.

Oh, yeah, the sex – this is erotica after all! There's plenty of it, and it's good. But honestly, I don't think I would have really noticed if some or even most of it had been deleted. The rest of the book was that good.

(I received this book from the author through a giveaway on Reader Views.)

Second Chance Bride (Love Inspired Historical)

JANE MYERS PERRINE

Annie MacAllister is an unusual heroine for a Love Inspired romance – a former prostitute (with a heart of gold to quote the old cliche). Annie had a horrible childhood after her mother died and, orphaned at age 14, uneducated and illiterate, her only option for survival was to go to work in the local brothel. Having saved her money, she's now on a stagecoach for the town of Trail's End, hoping to put her old life behind her and make a fresh start. Then a horrible accident occurs, and a young woman named Matilda Cunningham, also traveling to Trail's End, is killed. While the driver goes for help, a distraught Annie mourns for the lovely young woman and wonders why she should be allowed to live instead. And then in a flash of inspiration (for lack of a better word), she goes through the other girl's belongings and puts on her clothes and shoes, and becomes Matilda.

Annie doesn't know much about Matilda, except that the other girl had a job waiting for her in Trail's End and someone would be meeting her when the stagecoach arrived. So she was somewhat dismayed to discover that Matilda was a schoolteacher.

John Sullivan, a member of the school board and president of the bank, meets Annie/Matilda and drives her to the schoolhouse. He's a little concerned that maybe she received a head injury in the stagecoach accident as she seems a little disoriented, asking him questions about her job, the answers to which he'd already detailed to her in letters and the contract she signed when she accepted the position.

John is a likable hero, though a little high hatted. He's a widower who is a wonderful father to his young daughter. He's a pillar of the community, but doesn't really give God much consideration in his everyday life. He seems more about what's proper and accepted than about spiritually right and wrong. He arrogantly tells Annie/Matilda that she is to basically, to paraphrase, live in the schoolhouse, attend church every Sunday, attend meetings when the Board of Education requires it of her, and not have a social life of her own. Okay, maybe that's not quite what he said, but that's how it came across to me. Naturally, he is attracted to the new schoolteacher, but he tamps down that attraction as it is improper. Not to mention she seems terrified if he gets too close to her.

While the story is told from both Annie's and John's POVs, the majority of it is Annie's story, and it's an engrossing story. Annie wonders how she will teach her students when she herself can neither read nor write, and I was pretty curious myself. She prays that she can have just a few days, maybe a week, to enjoy sleeping in a warm bed and having enough food for the first time since she can remember. While Annie seems quiet and shy, she is a strong character, with good morals despite her previous career. She is determined to never go back to that kind of life, and to stretch this schoolteacher gig out as long as she can. Annie overcomes so much during the course of the book that you can't help but admire her.

Eventually of course the truth must be told, and I was gratified that Annie's friend Amanda and the sheriff both wrap her in their love and friendship, with no judgment of her past. John's reaction on the other hand made me want to smack him. But I guess there has to be some conflict before they can have their HEA.

All in all, a very enjoyable story.

(I purchased this book at a library book sale.)

Halfway to the Grave (Night Huntress, Book 1)

JEANIENE FROST

Damn you, Jeaniene Frost! I have a shelf in my bookcase full of books that are part of series that I need to catch up on, and now you've hooked me on yet another!

Ok, I know, its really my own fault, because when I picked up Halfway to the Grave, I knew it was the first book in a series. But I'd read a couple of reviews about it some time back and, despite my resolve to not start any new series until I finish the ones (or at least one of the ones) that have piled up on me, I really wanted to read this book. So I caved. And it so lived up to my expectations!

There are a lot of vampire fiction/romance series out there. Some I've avoided like the plague (yes, Twilight, I'm referring to you), some I've wearied of and I have to space them out (sorry, Anita Blake, I like sex in a story but I like some story in between the sexual encounters, and lately you are all about nothing but sex sex sex), some I'm eager to continue with (Argeneau clan! Call me!), and some I've only gotten a little way into and haven't really decided  on (Lil Marchette, you kinda get on my nerves, but damn, I want more Ty Bonner!).

So here we have Catherine "Cat" Crawfield, who learned when she was a teenager that her rapist father was a vampire. She's human, but she's half vampire, with enhanced strength, senses, and eyes that glow green when she's pissed. She's always been a loner, never had any close friends, and her first boyfriend coerced her into sex and then dumped her. She and her mother share a room in her grandparents house, and it's a house, not a home, at least not for Cat. On the weekend, she trawls the local bars, looking for vampires to lure out, get alone, and then kill. Her mother has taught her that all vampires are evil and should die, and she's devoted her life to this mission, hoping to eventually find and kill her father.

Then her latest conquest-to-be turns the tables on her, and she wakes up in a cave, stripped to her underwear and chained to the wall. She's been kidnapped by Bones, a gorgeous vampire with a cool accent - I pictured/heard Chase from House in my head (is that weird?). Bones is a bounty hunter - like Cat, he kills vampires, when someone has offered a bounty for one. But he's also trying to take down a mysterious ring of vamps who are preying on young girls, and he thinks Cat is working for the enemy. Once she convinces him she's only working for herself, he decides she might be useful to him, and blackmails her into training with and then working for him. She'll still get to kill vampires, but he will choose the targets. The inevitable happens of course, and romance blossoms. But as with all romances, there are complications, and Cat is not sure they can be overcome.

Cat is an awesome heroine, bright and sarcastic. She's a ruthless killer when it comes to vampires, not so much with humans unless they are working for or with the vampires. Bones is a violent hero, also a ruthless killer but with fewer scruples than Cat. A couple of times I felt a little squeamish at some of his actions, but not so much that I didn't adore him regardless. I so want them to be able to be together, and I can't wait to read the next book in the series.

(I received this book through BookCrossing.)

May Acquisitions

I've gotten lazy about not updating my Acquisitions page. Meh. But I did acquire quite a few new (and old) books in May:




Dead in the Family and Dead Reckoning, Books 10 and 11 in the Sookie Stackhouse series, by Charlaine Harris; Halfway to the Grave, by Jeaniene Frost

 

Claimed! by Vicki Lewis Thompson; Sweet and Deadly, by Charlaine Harris; The Future Scrolls, by Fern Michaels



Some Girls Do, by Leeann Banks; Hedda Gabler, by Henrik Ibsen; Reese's Bride, by Kat Martin

 

Just Like a Man, by Elizabeth Bevarly; For Pete's Sake, by Geri Buckley; Bad Boys to Go, by Lori Foster, Janelle Denison, and Nancy Warren




His Secret Duchess, by Gayle Wilson; Paint Me Rainbows, by Fern Michaels; My Man Michael, by Lori Foster



Small Town Protector, by Hope White; Plain Secrets, by Kit Wilkinson; Bullseye, by Virginia Smith



Zero Visibility, by Sharn Dunn; When You Dare, by Lori Foster

The After Wife

GIGI LEVANGIE GRAZER

I was very pleased recently to win an ARC of The After Wife from www.greatthoughts.com. I’d previously only read one book by Gigi Levangie Grazer, Rescue Me, and became very emotionally invested in it. It was a wonderful character study. I also follow Ms. Grazer on Twitter, so I’ve read countless tweets by her, and knew that she had a great sense of humor, even though Rescue Me touched on some serious shit and was not funny. I have Maneater in my TBR pile, and I could have sworn I had The Starter Wife there as well, though now I can’t find it. I already suspected, having seen both of the filmed versions of those books, that they were going to be more along the lines of chick lit than Rescue Me was (which I'm perfectly fine with of course!), and The After Wife falls into that realm as well.

But believe me, there is still plenty of emotional depth. I was already in tears by the end of the first (four page long) chapter!

Hannah Bernal, mother of a three year old daughter, becomes a widow at age forty-four. She is devastated at the loss of her husband, John, and leans heavily on her little group of friends for support, all of whom are quirky in their own way.

And then she meets Trish, the woman who used to own her house, and who happens to be dead. After Trish, other ghosts start popping up, wanting Hannah to convey messages to whoever she happens to be with at the time. John also puts in some appearances, and rather than the usual ‘oh I want you to be happy you need to meet someone else and get on with your life” crap that you usually get from ghosts in movies and such (excluding horror movies of course), John is more down to earth (so to speak) and worries that his daughter will love the new manny more than she remembers her father, and exhibits a little jealousy when he thinks Hannah might be attracted to someone else.

After the police arrest a suspect in John’s death, John tells Hannah that they have the wrong person, and pushes her to track down the real culprit. In addition to Hannah’s visits with the skeptical detective in charge of the case, there’s quite a lot going on in this book, between Hannah finding a new preschool for her daughter, losing her job, trying to find a way to hang onto her home, and just learning to live again while still grieving.

I wonder if this one will be filmed as well? I hope so, as I really enjoyed reading it.

And I do highly recommend Rescue Me as well. I wasn't blogging yet at the time that I read it (August 2010), but this is what I put in my journal entry on BookCrossing:

I don't think I've ever read a romance, with star-crossed lovers, where the lovers part ways, and gotten angry about it. You know from reading the first chapter, and yet when it finally happens, I was so disappointed! Fortunately, the ending was still satisfactory.

This is the first book I've read by Grazer, though I have The Starter Wife in my TBR pile somewhere. It started out a little slow at first, but I quickly became very involved and invested in the characters. I definitely want to read everything else Grazer has written now. 

A Little Less Talk and A Lot More Action

LUANN MCLANE

I picked this book up at a library book sale because the title and cover caught my attention, proving that sometimes those things really do matter.

Macy works in a beauty salon in a small country town with her best friend, who just got married and is headed off on her honeymoon. Macy has been crushing on Jamie Lee’s brother, Luke, since forever, and during all the wedding planning they’ve been thrown together a bit as maid of honor and best man, making her almost feel like part of a couple. But now that the wedding is over, a feeling of let down settles in.

Luke is a hometown hero, previously as the star of the high school football team, and now as a coach. After getting his heart broken, he’s come back to Hootertown (yes, that really is where they live!), but he’s being courted by some big schools and a new job is just on the horizon, which will take him away again.

While looking through inventory at the beauty shop the day after the wedding, mainly just to be somewhere besides her apartment, Macy is surprised by a country star popping in with a hair emergency. Next thing she knows, she’s on a tour bus headed to Nashville, fixing the star’s hair. And then all sorts of adventures follow as Macy embarks on a new life. Which Taylor, the very down to earth and likable singer, manages to drag Luke into, telling Macy she can thank her later.

This is the kind of book I love. A contemporary romance, with lots of humor and lots of heart. While Luke is your standard hunky cowboy hero, Macy isn’t a stick thin fashionista. She’s curvy and self conscious about her looks, comparing herself to the girls Luke could have if he wanted. She knows he looks at her as a sister, and she debates with herself constantly about whether to pounce on him and make him notice her, or avoid him.

All of the secondary characters, which in addition to the singer include her two backup singers/songwriting partners, her bodyguard, and a television chef, are a little quirky. I laughed out loud more than once. And I’m eager to find the rest of the author’s books and read everything she’s written.

(I purchased this book at a library book sale.)

Trust Me On This

JENNIFER CRUSIE

Jennifer Crusie has long been one of my favorite authors, and I have pretty much everything she's written. So I was beyond excited when I came across this book at a library sale and realized it was one I'd not read yet. I put it on the shelf, not intending to read it right away as I already have so many books lined up, but it began taunting me, “read me, you know you want to, trust me on this!” So I finally dove in, and oh, it was worth it. Jennifer Crusie never disappoints.

Dennie Banks is a reporter, looking for that elusive big story that will make her career, but stuck at a small time paper where she covers weddings and such. Alec Prentiss works for the government, investigating fraud, and currently targeting a grifter who pulls real estate scams. Alec and his boss have been after this guy for a long time, and desperately want to bring him in.

Dennie and Alec wind up at the same hotel for a convention, where Alec has spotted his target and is determined to set him up and reel him in. Meanwhile, Dennie has gotten a scoop about an esteemed professor who is at the convention, but the professor doesn’t want to be interviewed and complains to hotel management that Dennie is stalking her. Alec happens to know the professor, who is a friend of his aunt, who is also at the hotel.

When their paths cross, Alec thinks Dennie is working for the scam artist and cozying up to her will get him closer to the target, and Dennie thinks cozying up to Alec, who seems to be a bit of a nerdy goofball, is the key to getting the interview of her life.

In a note to readers at the front of the book, Crusie describes this as the only screwball comedy she's ever written. While I'm not sure I quite agree, as I love screwball comedy and I love all of her books, which all have wonderfully humorous and at times screwballish scenes in them, this is definitely screwball in the way some of the greatest old movies are. I was captivated from the beginning. I loved the banter between Dennie and Alec, and the way they were so attracted to each other but bound and determined to ignore and/or fight that attraction and just use each other for their respective purposes. And of course it all ended just the way it should have.

(I purchased this book at a library book sale.)

Some Kind of Wonderful

MAUREEN CHILD

Some Kind of Wonderful is full of interesting characters, people you'd want to be friends with in real life. Carol Baker moved to Christmas, California, two years ago, and has a successful shop selling candles and keepsakes and Christmas themed decorations. She has carved out a happy life for herself in this weird little tourist town.

I say weird because I'm not sure I would want to live there myself. The entire town stays decorated for Christmas all year round. There is a permanent Nativity scene set up in the town square, the local businesses include the Reindeer Cafe, the Ho-Ho-Hotel, Elve's Hardware and Christmas Carol's (the heroine's store), and the streets have names such as North Pole and Jingle Bell Way.

Jack Reilly grew up in Christmas, and is back in town, temporarily, to fill in for the local sheriff who has been ill. Jack used to be an LAPD cop, but left the force, and he took this temporary position very grudgingly. He's anxious for the sheriff to come back to work so he can get back out of town. He's surly and always scowling, with shadows in his eyes.

One night Carol is walking her dog through the town square, and finds a baby lying in the Nativity scene's manger. A real, live baby, only a few hours old. She takes the baby to her friend Phoebe's clinic, and that's when she meets Jack, who is of course called to investigate. Jack's sister, Maggie, is the local county welfare officer, and when Carol volunteers to be the baby's temporary emergency foster mother, Maggie agrees.

Having grown up in the foster care system, Carol has always longed for home and family. She doesn't expect to keep baby Liz forever, she is just determined that the baby not wind up at a group home, where row upon row of babies lie in cribs waiting for someone to pay attention to them.

Carol and Jack are of course attracted to each other, but Jack keeps her at a distance, while moping around and glaring at everyone. Honestly, what is it about a man like Jack that is so appealing? I've not actually known one in real life, but I do love a moody angtsy hero in a romance novel.

I was swept up in this story pretty quickly, and really enjoyed the author's voice. Lots of humor. While the identity of the biological mother of the baby isn't revealed until the last quarter of the book, it was pretty obvious early one who she was, at least to the reader, though not to the other characters. But I think the author intended for us to figure it out, as she slowly fleshed that character out and made us sympathize with her. The ending was predictable and a little sappy, but then I would have been upset if it had ended any differently.

Well, actually, that's not quite accurate. SPOILER ALERT - STOP HERE IF YOU DON'T LIKE SPOILERS:

In my mind, I pictured Carol taking both mother and baby under her wing, letting them both live with her and taking care of baby while mom went to college, but not actually adopting the baby as her own child. But then, I kind of forgot about Jack becoming a part of Carol's life also, because my mind left him out of that scenario. So obviously the author knew better than me how to end the story.

This is the first book I've read by Maureen Child, and when I looked at her back list on her website I realized that she has written a lot of books. Many of them are of the Harlequin/Silhouette variety, but I'm more eager to find her other contemporary novels first.

(I purchased this book at a library book sale – based on the cover which caught my eye.)

Show No Fear

MARLISS MELTON

I know that romances featuring military men and Navy SEALS have become more popular and prolific, but I haven't really read a lot of them. I've liked what I've read so far, so I thought this book sounded good. The publisher's synopsis:

Lucy Donovan always gets her man. As a fiercely independent CIA agent, she's survived hundreds of death-defying missions. But her latest may just get her killed. Weighed down with a secret she's desperate to keep, the last thing Lucy needs is to be sent undercover with a man who brings out the best – and the worst – in her.

Navy SEAL Gus Atwater never turns down an assignment, even if it means working with the only woman he's ever loved and lost. So with a volatile mix of desire and distrust, Lucy and Gus confront their tangled past. Pretending to be man and wife is risky enough, but now the clock is running out. As their mission escalates from desperate to deadly, will Lucy's secret expose them both?

The book opens with Lucy imprisoned in a warehouse, and Gus having been sent in to extract her. She's been beaten, and came close to being raped, and once the ordeal is over she is a changed woman. Where before she was fearless, she's now lost her confidence. She has PTSD, but she is in denial and determined to plow ahead and not let her experience affect her future missions.

Ten months later she is sent on a new assignment, and Gus is her partner. They go undercover in Colombia, as husband and wife and as part of a UN team, to negotiate the release of two of Lucy's co-workers who are being held hostage.

It's not a bad book. Lucy and Gus are both great characters. But the jungle setting on the mountain in Colombia, tramping around in the jungle with the FARC...just not my cup of tea I guess. So it was kind of slow going for me. Until about the last 100 pages, when I was suddenly on the edge of my seat and eagerly turning pages. Which made the book completely worth reading.

(I purchased this book at a library book sale.)

The Brat

LYNSAY SANDS

 I love Lynsay Sands' Argeneau vampire family series, but had only read one of her non-Argeneau books prior to this (The Highland Bride, which was also about a vampire). The Brat is a historical romance, with no supernatural elements, unless you count the fact that Murie, the heroine, is incredibly superstitious. And that superstition is what drives her into the arms of the hero..

Murie was orphaned at the age of ten, and brought to court to live with the King, her godfather, and the Queen, who never seemed very welcoming to the young girl. She was bullied by the other girls, until a girl named Emilie gave her some advice on how to survive life at court. Thus, she became The Brat, known for her fits of weeping and wailing loudly. The King doted on her, spoiling her horribly.

Balan has come to court with his cousin, Osgoode, in need of a wife, preferably one with coin. After his mother died in childbirth, his father neglected the child and allowed his castle to fall into a state of disrepair until his own death. Then the plague struck, and many of the servants and all of the villagers who survived fled for greener pastures, leaving a small collection of loyal servants who, try as they might, just can't do it all. Osgoode suggest the Lady Murie for a wife, to which Balan reacts with horror. Marry the Brat? God, no!

Murie has been ordered by the king to marry, but will be allowed to choose her own husband. Knowing of her superstitious nature, one of the ladies, Lauda, tells her about a St. Agnes Eve belief, that if you either fast all day, or eat rotten meat on that day, you will dream that night of the man you are to marry.

But Balan and Osgoode have overheard two separate conversations – Murie and her best friend talking about how Murie got the king to order her to marry, and Lauda and her brother, Lord Aldous, scheming to trick Murie into marrying him. Realizing there is more to Murie than the rumors and her nickname imply, they determine that they must thwart Lord Aldous, which inadvertently puts Balan in Murie's path as a potential husband. Thank goodness they have no problem eavesdropping!

As with the Argeneau books, Lynsay Sands infuses plenty of humor into her story, causing me to laugh out loud more than once. Murie and Balan wed for practical and convenience reasons, and of course eventually realize they actually love each other, and I was quite in love with Balan practically from the beginning. It's not all roses and rainbows of course, as while traveling to Balan's home it becomes apparent that someone is out to kill Balan, and nearly succeeds more than once. I thought I knew who was behind the murder attempts, it seemed so obvious, but I was wrong, and I like that.

A very enjoyable book, with a satisfying HEA.

(I received this book through Book Mooch.)