Romance Thursday: What the Duke Wants and Mark of the Gladiator

What the duke wants….

Is not three young ladies for wards.

Nor is the responsibility for finding them a governess.

Thankfully that is delegated to his housekeeper, who he might add is blind as a bat.

That really could be the only excuse she has for hiring Carlotta. 

Because Carlotta is far too beautiful to be a governess.

Temptress, yes. 

Unable to restrain himself—because restraint is not one of his virtues, his reputation is testament of that fact—he finds the young governess far more spirited, opinionated and tempting than he is able to resist.

And of course, because he’s an idiot. He falls in love.

Never questioning whether she’d be a willing participant.

Of course life isn’t that easy, not even when you’re a bloody duke. 

And after one meddling Lady Southridge, 

Leads to two fiascos, 

Three wards decide to take matters into their own hands.

Because what the duke wants…is simply to fall in love (preferably with the young woman in mind, falling in love too.

My thoughts:

Yes that is the blurb, it's not the best written or formatted. Yes it tells what the book is about but come on.

Carlotta is the daughter or a baron. Now she is a poor orphan, so she becomes a governess. And suddenly she is all, I know my place, it is below the stairs..but hey, your dad was still a baron.

Charles is a Duke. A young handsome Duke. Suddenly he had 3 wards and is all hell no! But one look at the hot governess and he is all hell yeah!

I did like that he wanted her from the start, and he wanted to do right by her. She was the one who was all but I am a governess! He was also a bumbling fool at times, and that is always nice.

Conclusion:

It was  a sweet one. No smexy times before the wedding here.

ebook, 240 pages
Published February 13th 2014 by Blue Tulip
Greenford Waters Legacy #1
Historical romance
Own

After an inconvenient display of mercy in the arena, the gladiator Anazâr is pulled from the sands and contracted to nobleman Lucius Marianus to train his new stable of female gladiators. His new charges are demoralized and untested, and they bear the marks of slavery and abuse. Anazâr has a scant four months to prepare them for the arena, and his new master demands perfection.

Anazâr’s surprised by how eager he is to achieve it—far more eager than a man motivated by only self-preservation. Perhaps it’s because Marianus is truly remarkable: handsome, dignified, honorable, and seemingly as attracted to Anazâr as Anazâr is to him.

But the rivalry between Marianus and his brother, Felix, sparks a murder conspiracy, with Anazâr and his gladiatrices caught in the middle. One brother might offer salvation . . . but which? And in a world where life is worth less than the pleasures of the crowd or the whims of a master, can there be any room for love? As a gladiator, Anazâr's defenses are near impenetrable. But as a man, he learns to his cost that no armor or shield can truly protect his heart.

My thoughts:

Look at that, I read a MM without knowing it. Well, I realised it after reading a bit.

Anazar is a slave and gladiator. And then he gets "hired" to train female gladiators.

Some of the smex scenes bothered me. He is a slave. Someone tells him something so he does it. I am just not ok with that. That is not smexy to me.

It is not historically heavy, the author tries to get by on little (to me at least), but then it is a romance so it does not have to.

There was also a suspenseful part, well sort of. You will see.

Conclusion:

Interesting, with a happy ending. Yes it is a romance, but I still did not think it could happen. 

ebook, 250 pages
Published November 26th 2012 by Riptide Publishing
Warriors of Rome #4
Historical romance / MM
Own

Rameau Friday: Counterpunch - Aleksandr Voinov

Imagine a modern Britain where at least two or three decades ago the politicians gave up on trying to keep up with the ever-growing prison population, chucked the fourth article of the Universal Declaration of Human rights, and started to commute life sentences into slavery. Now people are both born and condemned to it. And it’s not just in Britain, it’s all around the world. 

Brooklyn Marshall was born free and worked hard to build a good life for himself. Then a simple mistake, an accident, at the job took all that away from him. He was made into an example and his life was no longer his own. Now he boxes because it’s better than getting shot at in a war zone, and he fucks and is fucked because he is told to. He is used. He’s chattel that can talk.

”You haven’t resigned yourself to slavery yet, have you?”
“No. And I never will.”

It’s cruel to give hope to a such man, but that’s exactly what Nathaniel Bishop does. 

I’m not a fan of romanticising slavery, and I’m not a fan of any relationship that’s based on a severe imbalance of power, but I’m always curious to see if the author can make it work. If those obstacles of differing wealth, social status, and culture can be overcome believably. Realistically. Even in urban fantasy.

It works here because Brooklyn has never accepted his status as anything less than a human being. It works because both Brooklyn and Nathaniel recognise how wrong their situation is, and because both are fighters in their own way. 

Much of the story focuses on the boxing—again, something I know nothing about—and how it reflects Brooklyn’s growth as a character. He’ll never see any of the winnings, but the fighting he does is for himself. He’s broken and beaten both in the ring and out, and he is affected by it, but he’s also a survivor. What doesn’t kill him makes him stronger, and the final fights show this vividly.

If I hadn’t struggled with the beginning of the story—it was good but not amazing—the ending would have earned Counterpunch its fifth star. Voinov opted out of the fanciful and kept it realistic.

P.S. The story includes triggers for <spoiler>rape.</spoiler>

4 stars

Series: Belonging #2

Pages: 173 (ebook)

Publisher: Storm Moon Press LLC

ISBN: 1937058182

Published: November 4th 2011

Source: Bought

Rameau Reviews: Dine and Dash - Abigail Roux

After the fourth book in the Cut & Run series, Abigail Roux continues to write Ty Grady and Zane Garrett alone. I don’t know why this is, but I do like how it shows in the writing. The content is still nonexistent plot and characterization wise, but the text that delivers the somewhat detached scenes is smoother. 

Although, I could never pinpoint the exact moments when another author had taken the scene over from the other, I could tell that two minds were working on the scenes because there were logic gaps and action irregularities in the early books. Now, with one author, those remain absent but the repetition is still there. Armed & Dangerous was basically a long list of moments when Ty and Zane told they loved each other. 

Dine & Dash is a porny outtake for the series that I didn't find particularly arousing. Oh, well, that comes with reading too much quality fanfiction porn. I’m guessing the author looked at how Armed & Dangerous and decided to mollify her readers with a plotless fuck between plotless books. I’m guessing this works for the die hard fans, but it didn’t for me.

2 stars

Series: Cut & Run #5.5

Pages: 10 

Publisher:       Abigail Roux

Published:  May 18th 2012

Source: http://abiroux.tumblr.com/post/26789688331/dine-dash