REVIEW: A Week to Be Wicked by Tessa Dare

Genre: historical romance
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

Summary can be found in Diana's review here.

Be still, my fluttering heart. My feelings are having feelings right now. Thank you Colin and Minerva for sharing your story. Or rather, thank you Tessa for writing their story!

As this epic love story just needed telling.

REVIEW: The Runaway Countess by Leigh LaValle

Genre: historical romance
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

Summary can be found in Diana's review here.

Review:
Sizzling hot from start to finish!

I can hardly think after all the emotions. The feelings. Oh, how these feelings and thoughts are still resonating within me even after hours I had put my tablet down. And it was a struggle to put it down. I kept going back, wanting to re-read my favorite parts and just soak in these moments LaValle created.

LaValle's voice is very distinct and I'm kind of in love with the way she can string words together and create these profound sentences that unravel in such a moving way. Her voice. Her characters. Her characters' voices.

Both Lord Radford and Mazie are incredibly well developed. The way they speak, their personalities, so defined and complex. Love how they are so very telling in how they express themselves by their actions and words and words they choose not to say.

The chemistry between Lord Radford and Mazie is undeniable and present and so very real, it hurts in the most delicious way.

One thing that I absolutely loved about Radford and Mazie is that neither lost themselves, they stayed true to their character from start to finish! None of the OOC business to suit the plot. Mazie and Radford were all about learning who they were and learning to trust in that, whatever they were to be and become.

[SPOILERS under the cut!]

REVIEW: The Runaway Countess by Leigh LaValle

The Runaway Countess by Leigh LaValle
My rating: 5 of 5 stars


Her heart longs for justice, but her body clamors for sin. 


Once the darling of high society, Mazie Chetwyn knows firsthand how quickly the rich and powerful turn their backs on the less fortunate. Orphaned, penniless and determined to defy their ruthless whims, she joins forces with a local highwayman who steals from the rich to give to the poor. 


Then the pawn broker snitches, and Mazie is captured by the Lord Lieutenant of Nottinghamshire. A man who is far too handsome, far too observant…and surely as corrupt as his father once was. 


Sensible, rule-driven Trent Carthwick, twelfth Earl of Radford, is certain the threat of the gallows will prompt the villagers’ beloved Angel of Kindness to reveal the highwayman’s identity. But his bewitching captive volunteers nothing—except a sultry, bewildering kiss. 


And so the games begin. Trent feints, Mazie parries. He threatens, she pretends nonchalance. He cajoles, she rebuffs. Thwarted at every turn, Trent probes deep into her one vulnerability—her past. There he finds the leverage he needs and a searing truth that challenges all he believes about right and wrong.




The course of true love never did run smooth. Very true, especially when it is made even more complicated when you find yourself falling in love with The Enemy. 'The Runaway Countess' is a stunning debut novel from Ms LaValle; it is thrilling and fraught with tension and intrigue, it is sensual and seductive, and it is sure to captivate your heart. I know that from the first chapter, I was very impressed with the crisp clarity of writing, of how the lush narrative allowed me to immerse myself in Trent and Mazie's world without diffidence.


[ETA] I highly recommend stopping by The Romance Dish blog to read about a very personal and deeply inspiring account of how The Runaway Countess came about. :)