ARC REVIEW Lady Be Good by Heather Hiestand

Lady Be Good is book three in Heather Hiestand's The Grand Russe Hotel series. We finally get Olga's story, we knew from the first book that she was a princess, several generations removed from the Royal family but still a decedent nonetheless. We learn in this book how she got to be where she is now, after her fiance was murdered she separated from her sister and was picked up and brought to England with the Grand Duchess, but it soon became evident that she wouldn't be welcome for long and never one for charity looked up an old friend, Peter Eyre, she then went to work with his sister in her hotel in Bath where she trained to be a chambermaid. Peter brought her to The Grand Russe to be the manager in charge of housecleaning but Olga isn't happy now unless she's doing something.
Douglas Childers was the youngest of four boys to a Duke unfortunately his older brothers all died in the war, Douglas' father is now after him to settle down and give him an heir. Douglas however in knees deep in the investigation of the Russian uprise and is currently trying to discover the location of the Russian bomber Konstantin who previously set off a bomb in the Grand Russe Hotel  and spy on the Russian delegation that has been staying at the hotel too.

Peter put Olga in charge of an art exhibit in the hotel spotlighting some of the art they have at the hotel. One of the painting she wants is in Childers' room hiding the spy equipment that is what first brings Olga and Douglas together. Douglas is immediately taken with the statuesque beauty of Olga and then he finds out her last name is the same as Konstantin. Douglas decides it's beneficial to find out as much as he can about Olga, really he just needed an excuse. He enjoys his time with her and he wants her to trust him even though he's not being truthful to her until it is absolutely necessary. Olga and Konstantin are cousins but it's not a healthy relationship. Olga is loyal to a fault and foolishly believes he can change but when he gets mean and violent with her she finally tells Douglas everything and after Konstantin blows up another location Douglas finally reveals why he's really at the hotel.

Olga agrees to go under Douglas' protection, she is falling in love with him and him with her, she's met his father and his father approves of the match. But when more of Douglas' secrets come out Olga starts to doubt him and his motives and when it all goes down Olga is left feeling betrayed and she doesn't know if she can marry Douglas after all. Even before it all went down Douglas knows unequivocally that he loves her, and the thought of losing her cuts him deep.

Overall, it was a good read. Olga broke my heart a little bit there at the end. I really hope Peter's story is next, it is revealed (I don't remember if it said previously) is part of the Redcake family, a tie in to her other series. I can just picture Olga's newly returned sister going head to head with Emmaline. (makes me giddy)

ARC REVIEW I Wanna Be Loved By You by Heather Hiestand

I swear reading Heather Hiestand's The Grand Russe Hotel series puts me in the mood to watch BBC's The House of Eliott or dig out my silent movie collection. Not to mention that I  have have this internal jazz soundtrack playing in my head as I read them. I didn't like this one as much as I liked the first book, I rated them the same but I liked Alecia and Ivan more than I liked Sadie and Les. Sadie was a bit more of a flake at first it wasn't until later in the book she really blossomed. Les was pretty much a cad throughout the whole book, constantly lying to Sadie and even though he thought he was doing it to protect her, he was just being a cad and she was just so eager for attention. As much as I didn't like her attitude and how things played out between them I understand that it was how it was back then. The story was good I liked the spy aspect it was nice to get back to the Russian problems happening in England and on the inside of problem.

Sadie dreams of something more, she left her grandfather's home in search of it and until she does find it she content to being a chambermaid. Until she's knocked down by a Russian brute and is picked up by a swave and good looking salesman. Les is drawn to Sadie and even though he knows he shouldn't he brings her into his world of covert operations. Well he brings her in but doesn't tell her what he's really doing, she is his cover. Sadie agrees to playact as Les' wife, she doesn't really know why but when he gets injured and she's stranded with him at the hospital until his release she knows she needs to keep with him or else ruin her reputation. Les likes Sadie and hates that he brought her in on this but it's too late to back out now, not to mention he really is getting attached to her and while he doesn't want to admit it he's falling in love with her. Les and Sadie get married, fake married he was ordered to by his boss to marry her and try and move into the Grand Russe to spy on the Russian diplomat who lives there. But things get complicated when Sadie finds out the truth not just the fake marriage but also the reason he married her and why they are at the Grand Russe. Can Sadie overlook all of Les' lies?

Overall, the spy bit was the best part of the book. Sadie and Les were just not really a good couple for me. I can't wait for the next one though.    

ARC REVIEW If I Had You by Heather Hiestand

I love the Roaring Twenties the dresses, art nouveau, the dancing, the Jazz! I'll pass on the gin though. I really liked Alecia I think if I had been alive in the twenties I would have been like her a little country mouse moving to the big city with dreams of being a jazz baby. I like Ivan because he has accepted his lot in life even after what happened to his family and he's all about the here and now and not dwell on what has happened, he likes his job and he does it well. I love the active setting, I can easily picture the Grand Russe Hotel the fancy art nouveau style the jazz playing in the background. All the characters were interesting, all the other hotel employees have you wondering which one will be next to have a book about them.

Alecia Loudon moved to London to work as a secretary for a Director/actor and his actress wife. She lives with them in one of the suites of the Grand Russe Hotel and every night she sneaks downstairs to listen to the jazz music through the wall that the hotel shares with the nightclub. She has been dreaming of life as a jazz baby and the good looking and mysterious security guard working the night shift. Ivan and his sister are refugees from Russia, they were luckily enough to be out of the country when a family member turned in their parents and their other sister for treason. Ivan has moved on but his sister has not let it go and when the man responsible for their parents death arrives in London and is staying at The Grand Russe she wants her pound of flesh. Ivan is happy with their life now and he doesn't want to risk his life or his sister's life with revenge that won't help only hurt and it won't bring back their family. But she gets in with the wrong crowd and the assassination plot becomes a serious problem.

Ivan finally gets up the nerve to talk to the beautiful blue eyed woman he always sees on his rounds with her head against the wall listening to the music through the wall. Alecia is a shy and sweet young woman who dreams of a life of glamour but after meeting Ivan and experiencing what the life could be like she realizes she would rather be a wife and mother but first she has to help Ivan figure out what to do with his sister and the assassination of not just the Russian Diplomat but British political leaders too. Overall, I really liked this one I love that even after they became intimate they were worried about propriety and not living together until they got married.  

ARC REVIEW Wedding Matilda by Heather Hiestand

Book six in the Redcakes series by Heather Hiestand, Wedding Matilda, doesn't quite have the same magic as the other books. I love this series I have read all of them, as much as i enjoyed the idea of this book the characters and the plot this one seemed really drawn out almost like it should have been just a novella. Ewan I loved, Matilda because of the stress she was going through I can't complain because I have no idea how I would react in that kind of a situation.

Ewan Hales has been a background character for the previous books. Matilda Redcakes has faded in to the background since her major taboo by not marrying the father of her child and has since taken over the cake factory in Bristol. Ewan and Matilda know each other through work but don't work with each other very much if any at all until the quality of  the cakes in the last shipment is lower than normal. It leads back to the flower they got had something added into it.

Ewan always thought he was an orphan, he was recently visited by a solicitor and informed he is the only heir to Earl of Fitzwalter. The old man is a right bastard gives Ewan an ultimatum work for him in one of the little factories or nothing at all. Upon hearing the the problem with the Redcake cakes is the flower from the factory owned by Fitzwalter Ewan chooses that factory and solve the problem or else lose one of their best clients.

Matilda Redcakes has a hard enough time running the factory and raising her son she doesn't need the added problems of bad flower but that's just the beginning. Soon after tracing back the supplier of the bad flower her son is kidnapped. Everyone drops everything to help Matilda especially Ewan. After seeing Matilda again after herself opposed seclusion to Bristol he has felt a connection to her. From then on out the story is all about finding the boy and Ewan convincing Matilda she should marry him.

Overall, I did enjoy reading the book but I think it was too long for the storyline.

REVIEW Christmas Delights by Heather Hiestand

I love the Redcake series and I have been waiting (not so) patiently for Lewis' story!!! Lewis the brilliant inventor who finally gets his own story after being spurned in the very first book of the series. I don't know what I was thinking when I grabbed this from NetGalley I thought it was just going to be a novella, boy was I wrong. A wonderful tear jerking full length novel probably my favorite so far, o.k. so maybe it's a tie with the last one. Virginal widow, a house party for Twelve Nights, a duo of absentminded inventors, one matchmaking mama determined to match all the young couples at her party and a Christmas fairy tale fill this book to the brim with humor, romance, and heartbreak.

Lady Victoria Allen-Hill was widowed before she could become a wife in true fashion and she would like nothing better than to shed her virginal status before choosing to remarry again. He father on the other hand needs someone to take over his factories when he is ready to retires and wants Victoria to remarry as soon as possible, and the house party is the perfect place to find her match. Victoria's father seems ruthless to get what he wants and even stoops to threatening to send her young cousin who has been in her care off to boarding school, but it also shows a softer side of him as he himself finds a potential love match at the house party.

Lewis Noble is only at the house party to help out the Earl of Bullen who is also an inventor and is currently working on a submarine. He was not expecting to find a woman like Victoria at the house party and he finds it very irksome the she is one of the most sought after ladies at the party. Lewis wants Victoria to himself but doesn't want to bend his goals to suit her, he thinks she is just trying to please her father and find a husband to work under her father until he retires, Lewis has had enough with working beneath other men and refuses to let it happen even for Victoria. He doesn't realized the truth of the matter until it's to late. Victoria who just wanted a brief affair now finds herself more in love with Lewis than she ever thought possible but can't give in to him because she needs her cousin to stay with her. Victoria's cousin, Penelope, has had a hard time of things left almost abandoned and put in to Victoria's care by a philandering father when her mother finally goes unstable and shows incapable of taking care of a nine year-old girl. Victoria in between her lustful encounters with Lewis and debating with her father she tells her young cousin a tale of woe about a proud princess and the twelve trials she must endue to find her missing fiancee. The tale weaves in and out of the book, it's the only weird part of the book because some of it is just glossed over and some parts heavily detailed.

The story of Lewis and Victoria goes from hot and heavy to ice cold (figuratively and literally as Lewis gets trapped in the submarine when it sprung a leak and almost froze). Lewis pushes Victoria away because he is stubborn and he thinks he is still in love with Alys, but when he sees Alys again he realizes his mistake, but it is to late Victoria has already accepted someones proposal when it became blatantly obvious Lewis would not. This story really tugged my heart strings because of Lewis being a fool!        




Also Goodreads.com has a giveaway for one autographed copy,

https://www.goodreads.com/giveaway/show/114917-christmas-delights