With Seduction in Mind by Laura Lee Guhrke

Is 1896 and Daisy Merrick, Girl-Bachelor, has lost yet another post. This doesn't surprise anyone who knows her as she's forever losing her jobs due to her outspokenness, but this time is different, instead of going home to her sister Lucy - who owns and operates an employment agency - and letting her find her yet another job she dislikes, Daisy decides to instead pursue her dream of becoming a published author. To that effect she seeks out Viscount Marlowe (from And Then He Kissed Her) to ask him to read one of her manuscripts. Marlowe - who's married to one of Daisy's friends - agrees to read one of her manuscripts and also gives her the opportunity to write a review of the Earl of Avermore's new play.

Sebastian Grant, Earl of Avermore was once hailed as one of England's greatest writers, but he hasn't written anything worthwhile in almost a decade, he's almost four years past his last deadline, deep in debt and the play that's about to open in the London stage was sort of a last-ditch attempt to make some money he desperately needs, never mind he wrote the play over three years ago and that he knows it isn't any good.

The day after the opening, Sebastian reads a review by some George Lindsay - a.k.a. Daisy - that shreds his play to bits, since said review was published by one of Marlowe's papers - who happens to be his publisher- Sebastian decides to have a talk with his publisher, since this one review has gotten under his skin. There he meets George/Daisy, and while watching them fight and argue about the review, Marlowe gets a crazy idea that just might work: what if he has Daisy and Sebastian work together as critique/writing partners?

Well, to find out how that works out you must read the book.

If there is one thing I love about this series is that Ms. Guhrke writes about mature, capable women who make their own way in life - even with the limited options they have during the late Victorian era - and aren't waiting to be 'rescued' or sit idly by eating bonbons, this has made me a fan from the start and I love reading each new installment of the series because it feels like I'm visiting with an old friend, Daisy's book was no exception. She's hard working, an optimist and full of love and wonder. Sebastian is moody, a perfectionist and even though he knows he is - or was - talented, he, even at the height of his success, has always been plagued with self doubt. This is a book about writing, about two writers in very different points of their career (Daisy's it's just starting, Sebastian fears his is over) and who approach writing in entirely different ways. At the same time, it is a love story.

There is one thing I didn't like, mostly because it reminded me of something that happened in The Wicked Ways of a Duke (Book 2) toward the end. But I still breezed through this book and enjoyed it a great deal.

Story of My LIfe # 3 - On Families, Craziness and Zazu

Story of My Life 3 – On Families, Craziness and Zazu.

Just a few days ago I finished reading the latest installment of Lisa Kleypas’ Hathaway series: Tempt Me At Twilight, and it got me thinking about family. The series revolves around the Hathaway family; a bunch of eccentric but lovable people, and it got me thinking about my own family. Having grown up in a large, embarrassing and extremely close-knit family, I understand eccentric families, and I appreciate reading about them in a more or less realistic fashion.

The Hathaways are particular favorites of mine. Usually when you read about eccentric families is in a cartoon-like way, with the families serving just to humiliate our normality-seeking protagonist and mortifying said protagonist no end. The heroine must learn to overcome her family’s oddities and break away from them; the hero must learn to love the heroine in spite of said family. It’s a common enough plot, especially in Y.A. Fiction, few authors – like Melina Marchetta or Mariah Fredericks – write realistic family life without judging or preaching.

The reason why I love the Hathaways is because, yes, they are eccentric – they discuss any and all topics, they argue with each other, had an unconventional upbringing where the girls were taught that they were equal to the boys (something quite unusual in England during the 18oo’s), and one of the sisters, Bea, adopts any and all animals that come her way and when she gets stresses kleptomania gets the best of her- but they love each other.

My family is a bit like that, eccentric and loving at the same time. I have gossipy aunts and insufferable uncles and branches of the family that I’m not at all close to, but with the ones I AM close to, it’s great. Sure, we embarrass each other, and it’s a sheer act of courage to bring a boyfriend home since one of my uncles like to interrogate them, another makes fun of them and my aunts like to say ‘indelicate’ things in front of everyone, and we also have a fondness of discussing our many medical maladies with each others. We hold each other through thick and thin. We are different and clash and are each other’s pains in the behind but, in the end, we belong to each other.

And, as for annoying relatives, in the words of Zazu from the Lion King: “There is one in every family, two in mine”

Tempt Me At Twilight by Lisa Kleypas

Poppy Hathaway has always longed for normalcy, but that is something very hard to obtain when you're a Hathaway - her brother's inherited viscountcy gave them entry to high society, but they have never quiet fit, her two older sisters are married to gypsies and her younger sister is a part time kleptomaniac and a full time animal lover/rescuer.

As her third London season draws to an end, Poppy's dreams are about to come true since she's secretly almost betrothed to the very respectable (and normal) Michael Bayning, and they will make their relationship public as soon as he can convince his father to accept the match.

However, a stolen letter and a casual encounter with Harry Rutledge change the course of Poppy's life forever. Harry is a successful hotelier and inventor, too smart for his own good and too lonely for words. From the moment he meets Poppy, he decides she's the woman for him and decides to make her his, no matter what or who stands in his way.

The third installment of the Hathaway Series is, so far, my favorite. Before -during Mine Till Midnight and Seduce Me at Sunrise - I never felt much connection to Poppy, the most 'normal' of the Hathaway clan, but in this one I felt the connection instantly, beautiful but awkward Poppy longs for normalcy though she very much loves her eccentric family.

Harry was intriguing, during various of Lisa Kleypas' previews books we have heard of the Rutledge Hotel and it's mysterious and reclusive owner, here we finally get to meet him and see the inner workings of the hotel. Harry is charming and devilish and single minded. He has never known family-like affection and he tells himself he doesn't want it, until he finds himself tangled with the Hathaways.

I found Tempt Me At Twilight to be very funny - laugh out loud funny, which is rare for Historical Romance, but maybe that's just my sense of humor - and sweet, the story flowing and fast paced. We also get to catch up with the rest of the Hathaways, and unveil parts of a mystery that leads into the next book Married by Morning (out in the Summer of 2010).

There is one plot twist that I didn't like, that I felt it came out of nowhere, which keeps me from giving this book perfect score. Even so, I think Tempt Me At Twilight, is possibly my second favorite Lisa Kleypas book after Dreaming of You.

Grade:
2/3

Book Gossip (#5.1)

Of followup gossip as you might call it!

Back in, I posted the cover for Anna Godbersen's upcoming Splendor, the conclusion of her Luxe Quartet, which will be out in late October.

Now I bring you the summary, courtesy of the Harper and Collin's site:

New beginnings.

Shocking revelations.

Unexpected endings.

A spring turns into summer, Elizabeth relishes her new role as a young wife, while her sister, Diana, searches for adventure abroad. But when a surprising clue about their father's death comes to light, the Holland girls wonder at what cost a life of splendor comes.

Carolina Broad, society's newest darling, fans a flame from her past, oblivious to how it might burn her future. Penelope Schoonmaker is finally Manhattan royalty—but when a real prince visits the city, she covets a title that comes with a crown. Her husband, Henry, bravely went to war, only to discover that his father's rule extends well beyond New York's shores and that fighting for love may prove a losing battle.

In the dramatic conclusion to the bestselling Luxe series, New York's most dazzling socialites chase dreams, cling to promises, and tempt fate. As society watches what will become of the city's oldest families and newest fortunes, one question remains: Will its stars fade away or will they shine ever brighter?

Sounds good! I'm certainly looking forward to find out what's going on with Did and Henry, my two favorite characters from this series.

The Disreputable History of Frankie Landau-Banks by E. Lockhart

Frankie Landau-Banks was once a slightly geeky, neither popular nor unpopular freshman at Alabaster Preparatory, a boarding school where most kids are some kind of rich and educational standards are high.

In the summer between freshman and sophomore years, Frankie undergoes a transformation, turning from an okay-looking girl into a curvy beauty that draws eyes, and meets a random guy on a boardwalk in the Jersey Shore some days before the start of her sophomore year.

Once back in Alabaster, Frankie is finally noticed by her crush, Mathew Livingston, a popular senior boy and they begin dating. She also meets Mathew's best friend, Alpha - or Alessandro Tessoreri, as he doesn't like to be called - and their group of popular senior friends.

Then, Frankie finds herself mixed with and yet excluded from the secret society of long standing tradition in Alabaster: the Loyal Order of the Basset Hounds. She knows about it because her dad was a member, and she finds out Mathew, Alpha and his friends are too, but it's an all boys club that she's not supposed to know about. But Frankie doesn't deal well with that kind of exclusions, especially when Mathew begins to lie to her about it.

Soon, Frankie is master minding the moves of the Order - while remaining in the shadows - but will that get her what she wants? And what is that she wants, anyway?

That was my biggest problem with the book, I could never truly get Frankie's reason to do all the things she ends up doing, they are brilliant and all but in the end they sort of make me dislike her a little. There are times when it seems that she does things just to prove that she can, to make a point rather than because there is a real reason. Now, I understand part of her reasoning, about feeling excluded and wanting in and wanting equality and despising double standards - I've been there, too - but I can't finish empathizing with Frankie, at times she seems to just want to exercise and prove her own cleverness.

Mathew and Alpha end up looking silly, really, they are supposed to be cool but I just didn't get it. I ended up only liking background characters, like Frankie's sister Zeda; Trish, her roommate and best friend, and her ex boyfriend Porter.

However, the book is cleverly written - if it starts a bit slow until about a third way in - and it is fun at parts (though at parts I did feel like these weren't entirely teenagers but thirty year-olds trapped in teenage bodies), and ultimately entertaining but maybe just not my cup of tea.

Grade: