ARC REVIEW It Started with a Kiss by Ella Quinn

Book Three of Ella Quinn's The Worthington's series but can easy be read apart from the others. Ella Quinn has a way with words it's a quick read and has all the charm and romance of her other books that makes her so enjoyable to read. I loved the first book. There is a large cast of characters on Louisa's side of the family and it's easy to get lost if you allow yourself to get distracted by them really the only thing you need to focus on is Louisa and Gideon but if you can't then read the first book it is so worth it.

The romance was pretty easy between Gideon and Louisa. It was love at first sight and Louisa knew pretty much from the start that Gideon was going to be the man she wanted to marry. The main conflict has purely to do with male pride and Gideon not feeling worthy of Louisa because the state his father left the estate in, which was a wreck. Gideon flat out refused to pay any of his father's gambling debts, and even gave his father's mistress plenty of time to vacate the townhouse she occupied. He also send out word to all the pawn shops that if any of the items on the list were to show up that they were stolen property and to be confiscated and returned. Gideon had his solicitor earning his wages with all things Gideon was trying to fix. But people don't take the hint, people are threatening Gideon, and his father's mistress isn't going to let go so easily. All the while he was hiding this from Louisa.

Conflict number two, Louisa is pretty much the bell of the ball and even with all the suitor she could choose from she just wants Gideon, unfortunately his cousin called Gideon to London to help him persuade Louisa to marry him, but Gideon had already met and fallen in love with Louisa. Gideon loves his cousin and tries to do things Louisa's way by showing him their is someone better for him. To add to the all the crap Gideon has to deal with with his father's vowels, someone tries to blackmail Gideon into marrying his daughter but when Gideon is faced with the girl Louisa speak up and claims she is already engaged to Louisa which his cousin overhears and throws a tantrum. Gideon needs to learn it's ok to ask for help and that Louisa is much stronger than he thinks.

Overall, I really liked this book. It was fun and I loved the characters, the whole family is great and loveable I can't wait for their books.    

ARC REVIEW Three Weeks to Wed by Ella Quinn

First impressions on this book, it's a Regency version of Yours, Mine and Ours.(1968 Lucy Ball and Henry Fonda; I love older movies and as much as I love Dennis Quaid I don't count the 2005 remake) If you like cute 'n silly books with a heavy dose of insta-love, this is a good book. I liked it well enough and the family dynamic is great the family members are the comic relief of the story let us not forget the two great danes. The biggest difference between Three Weeks to Wed and Yours, Mine and Ours aside from the fact that one is regency and the other is in the nineteen sixties, is that in the movie is two widowers with 10 and 8 kids the book is the story of the oldest sister,Grace, taking on guardianship of her brothers and sisters all seven of them; and an Earl, Matt, who is taking care of his step mother and his three half sisters. The conflict is mainly internal for Grace for the majority of the book, she has fought hard to maintain guardianship of her siblings and has accepted that she will remain a spinster. She has to come to terms with the fact Matt really does love her and wants to help her with the children. There is some external conflict with one of Grace's relatives and an idiot religious zealot. But those are all solved pretty quickly.

Grace has been in love with Matt the Earl of Worthington since her first season. When Grace meets him again he doesn't recognize her and she seizes the opportunity to have one night of sin with him before she is forever set on the shelf. Stuck at an Inn during a storm Grace and Matt share the private parlor; through tea time and dinner they talk, Grace never revealing who she is. By the end of dinner Matt has decided she would be the perfect wife for him and by morning he was in love. The only problem was that she disappeared before he woke up and he never learned her name. Grace realized the mistake she made as soon as she woke up. She should have never done it because now that she knows what she's missing it worse then it was before. Fate has a funny way of bring together the people that need to be together. Through mutual friends Matt finds Grace again and as soon as it becomes obvious to their family that they love each other but Grace is stubborn the siblings all work together to make sure the transition is a smooth one and that Grace really has nothing to worry about. The bad sheep of Grace's family shows up and misreads the situation and tries to get money by way of blackmail.

Over all this was a cute read. There isn't a lot of conflict just stubbornness and it is a quick and easy read.    

ARC REVIEW Miss Featherton's Christmas Prince by Ella Quinn

Ella Quinn's eighth and final (for now) book of The Marriage Game series. Miss Featherton's Christmas Prince is a funny and lighthearted romance with a bit of suspense. I have read a couple of  the books in the series The Marriage Game, it's not pivotal to the plot that you read all of them but it's nice if you have. I love the Ella Quinn style of writing. She brings humor to romance.

When I first started the book I didn't care very much for Meg, but then I realized something if she wasn't so stubborn and headstrong and blind to everything but her wants then she wouldn't have been so easy to manipulate. I smile because it's a good thing. It really only was the first couple of chapters that she rubbed me the wrong way it soon became clear she really thought she was doing what she thought was for the best.

You have to love Damon, head over heals in love with the chit and never there at the right time. When they first met she was engaged to someone, when that fell apart, due to the fact that the fiance was a sadist, Damon gave her time to get over it, by the time he comes back she's engaged to someone else. Now that that last one's over Damon isn't wasting any time and the Christmas House party at his Godmother's house is just the place to convince Meg that Damon is the perfect man for her. Meg after two seasons and two disastrous engagements has decided to make a sensible match, but the gentleman who she has set her sights on is already spoken for by her best friend. When Amanda realizes her intentions she gets together with Damon and her secret fiance to get Damon and Meg together. They all know Meg is perfect for Damon and that Damon is already in love with her they just give her a reason to be with him all the time so that Meg can see that there is more to Damon than just what she sees on the outside.

But Meg does have her reasons for hesitating and it takes Damon a bit to realize he has to change his strategy if he wants to keep Meg and prove to her that love does matter in a relationship and that they are perfect for each other. But Meg's hesitation isn't the only problem Damon's father is a big pain in the butt. Who it seems is trying to ruin his son's life.

Overall I loved reading this book. It was funny and Meg really does turn around when she realizes what she wants and what she needs are two separate things.

                               

ARC REVIEW Lady Beresford's Lover by Ella Quinn

Book Seven in Ella Quinn's Marriage Games series. Ella Quinn is good about writing books in a series but also they can be read as stand-alone. I liked it it was entertaining and witty; the characters are great I love them but the story just okay. I liked the secondary story of Silvia and Nick more than I liked Vivian and Rupert story.

Lady Vivian, The Countess of Beresford, is glad her husband is dead and that her mourning period is finally over. She has plans of owning a house away from her late husbands family and the embarrassment that comes with being his widow and having one last season in London before her self imposed seclusion. She doesn't think that finding a lover is a good idea because her husband deep scorn and has disillusioned Vivian; she thinks her body to be deformed and thinks that no man will want her after they see her deformity under her clothes. So when Rupert the Earl of Stanstead shows interest she can't help but return his flirtation.

Rupert doesn't care that everyone says he is too young to settle down, he is ready. He inherited his title young and everyone still thinks him young and they keep bringing that up. (I thought, up until they said Vivian's age, that Rupert was quite a bit younger than Vivian; that is how often they they brought it up.) Rupert was interested in one young lady but she made the decision to marry someone else, and even thought his feelings were hurt he wasn't heart broken. His father told him he would know the right woman when he sees her. When he sees Vivian across a crowded room he believes what his father told him. He won't let Vivian go now that he has found her. Sporadically through the book and so little of it and it doesn't really affect the story is a young twat who is determined to trap Rupert into marriage. I think the only purpose is to set up for another story, but I could have done without it.

The secondary story is between the new Beresford, Nick, and Silvia is a second chance story about deception, lies and manipulation. I kind of wish it was a stand alone book but it ties in so perfectly with the main story. Vivian is oblivious she decides she wants to overcome her fear of intimacy due to her "malformation" and seduce Rupert under the guise of Cleopatra. At a masquerade, coincidentally, they dress as Cleopatra and Marc Antony. Vivian doesn't realize he knows it's her and she becomes jealous of her own alter ego. Rupert works hard to prove that Vivian is the beauty he sees and her husband was a fool and everything is good until Vivian's idiot of a father tries to marry/ sell her off to another bastard.

Overall, it's not one of my favorites so far but it is a good book.

     

ARC REVIEW A Kiss for Lady Mary by Ella Quinn

The Marriage Game book 6 by Ella Quinn, A Kiss for Lady Mary is a good read. This is my second for the series and while the other characters are present and active in this story their own personal stories play no part in this one; for the exception of those wonderful meddling grandmas. They claim to have made the matches for all their children and most of their grandchildren, now it is Christopher "Kit" Featherton and Mary Tolliver's turn. One of the things I liked about this book is the fact that it is the sixth book into the series and I didn't feel lost. You get a feel for who the characters are and the method behind their madness or in this case of  Kit and Mary their reservedness. I also enjoyed Mary and Kit, it was a nice change of pace from the domineering alpha male. Kit was a proper and reserved gentleman dubbed Mr. Perfect who has a knack for drawing out the wallflowers. Mary, of course, is a strong minded woman who will not settle for anything less than love but is so shy from her lack of exposure to the opposite sex she has no idea what to do.

Kit is picky, and very proper, he once saw a beautiful girl out in her first season but too shy to ask for an introduction and a dance. Kit has never been able to get this woman out of his head even three years later. Now as his family is pressuring him to marry he has finally decided to track down the elusive Lady Mary and properly court her. Lady Mary thoroughly enjoyed her first season but was cut short due to the death of her father. For the last three years Mary has been hiding from her cousin Gawain who has been pushing her to marry him and will stop at nothing to have her and her money. Mary's Grandmother hatches a plan to protect Mary until she is old enough to get her trust out of her Uncle's name.

For the last year Mary has lived with her Aunt Eunice in a house way out of the way and implying that she is the estranged wife of the landowner. With Gawain getting more persistent and Kit and Mary finally ready to meet again the Grandmothers do their thing. Kit finds out someone is living on one of his properties acting as his wife, angry he rushes up their only to find the one woman he has never been able to forget. Mary is embarrassed, scared and so honest she tells him everything. Kit quickly forgets his anger and starts trying to figure out how to woo her and marry her. Mary doesn't want to be trapped into marriage she wants another season and her own chance to find love.

So while Mary and Kit try and figure things out Aunt Eunice falls in love, friends from the past books come to visit to help work out a way to avoid scandal and give everyone what they want. The solution a season in Edinburgh. Kit knows he wants Mary he just has to convince her but they are so hesitant around each other they are sending mixed signals, but all the friends agree Kit needs a little competition to get the nerve to act on his feelings. Also while in Edinburgh ( I swear it's like a freakin' historical soap opera. Woman! you gave me heart palpitations with all this.) a lost love returns and claims the children he could not previously claim. The sub-plots are so enticing and enjoyable it makes up for the fact that the Gawain ending plot is short. I read through this quick and easy and I loved it, I really need to read the others I have missed.        

REVIEW Madeline's Christmas Wish: by Ella Quinn

Ella Quinn's The Marriage Game 5.5 Madeleine's Christmas Wish was good but felt like it could have been more. It felt rushed to finish. The down time where the two characters have to themselves didn't seem like enough and it felt like something was missing from the beginning. I missed the one before this and if the missing part is in that book it should have been summarized a little for the unfortunate people who missed the last one. Other than that it has the same Ella Quinn style that I find enjoyable to read.

Madeleine was left in charge of her family with her brother missing presumed dead and her father dead presumed murdered. She was left in charge of the family winery but due to the rules of the new French government she needs a man for her to report to. He is a despicable, condescending statesman who knows nothing of her work. It is obvious he has an ulterior motive, just what Madeleine isn't sure of until the family receives orders that a virgin must leave the house and go to a London whorehouse in payment. To save her young sister Madeleine herself goes.

Georges,Marquis Cruzy-le-Châtel, and his family fled France early on to avoid the war. Georges became a spy for the English, and when he learn that the woman he was betrothed to as a child was being smuggled into England he recruits friends to help intercept her and saves her from a horrible life in a brothel. After saving Madeleine all she wants is to return to her family in time for Christmas. Traveling across France incognito Georges and Madeleine marry to help save her family lands and her reputation. Madeleine thinks it will just be in name only until Georges starts to woo her. Spending time again with her childhood friend and old flame rekindles old feelings but she hold no hope in Georges wishes and her wishes are the same.

Overall it was a good read, and a nice filler story for Georges. I would recommend this especially if you have read all the other books.