Jill Marie Landis’ HEART OF LIES – An Irish Girl in the Louisiana Bayou Finds Love

Set in New Orleans in 1875, this is the story of Maddie Grande, raised in a “tribe” of street urchins, taught to be thieves by Dexter Grande, the  man who reigned over them all. Maddie doesn’t recall a time before Grande and doesn’t know her real name or where she came from. Once on the streets, she now lives in the bayou with her twin tribe “brothers” where she has learned to fish and trap muskrats. She longs for another life but despairs of ever having enough money to escape.

When the twins kidnap the daughter of a wealthy man and force Maddie to hide the eight-year-old, involving Maddie in their crime, she thinks to return the girl and claim the reward, but Pinkerton agent Tom Abbott, sent to New Orleans to find a missing woman, begins to work the kidnapping case, too. He believes Maddie is one of the kidnappers. But now the child has escaped.

In a journey that takes them to Baton Rouge, a mutual attraction develops, but Tom and Maddie do not trust each other. She knows he wants to send her to prison and he thinks she is a consummate actress.

This is a well-told story that brings you into the bayou and then the streets of New Orleans. The tension between Maddie and Tom grows as both search for the lost child who has run away. But the child, an intelligent girl, sees their growing chemistry between the two and tells them they like each other. Penelope is a great character and adds much to the story.

Jennifer Blake’s SOUTHERN RAPTURE – A Wonderful Post Civil War Story with an Intriguing Hero and a Winning Heroine

Lettie Mason, a Boston schoolteacher, lost her brother to an outlaw’s bullet in a small Louisiana town during the Civil War. As a result, when the war is over, she travels to that same town to learn about her brother’s death. She believes he was killed by an outlaw known as the “Thorn”. She has heard tales of his many good deeds as well as the bad. And when she encounters him in the dark, he kisses her and then, later, makes love to her. She does not resist.

Meanwhile, she has begun to teach two young men at Splendora, the estate where she is staying. One, the very handsome Ransom Tharp, who returned from the war with a head injury that left him “not quite right”. Or is he?

A local hero carries on with two personalities to help his people…a disguise that keeps him from the woman he would have. But Lettie suspects all is not as it seems.

A great story, well told by a master of historical romance. It’s part of the boxed set, “The Best of Jennifer Blake. Highly recommended.

Patricia Preston’s TO SAVE A LADY – Intriguing Story set in New Orleans During the War of 1812

Set in 1814 in New Orleans, this is the story of Elisa Plaisance, a lady’s maid, who becomes a messenger for the Americans, feeding information to Capt. Jesse Cross, an aid to General Jackson. She does this as a part of a bargain she made with a man named Louis Beauvais, who agrees to search for her mistress’ missing son. Her mistress, having lost her husband and her other children is pining away for her son.

Elise’s one desire is to avoid her mother’s fate, ending up as the neglected mistress of a married man. Yet she falls in love with Jesse and is the one to suggest they make love—without benefit of marriage. Jesse seems to have only honorable intentions but it takes him a while to get around to that. And then there is the war…

Preston brings to life the time at the end of the War of 1812 when, unaware that a peace treaty had been reached, the Americans and British in New Orleans fought on. She obviously did much research to get the events correct. Her fight scenes are exciting and the fictional intrigue believable. Elise is a sympathetic figure though at times she does seem a bit confused about her goals. Still, she is unselfish and wants only the best for her mistress, who saved her from a fate worse than death. Jesse is honorable in all things and his cousin is a worthy character (who will be a hero in an upcoming book).

It’s a great start to her French Quarter Brides series and I recommend it.

Laurie McBain’s TEARS OF GOLD - Irish Heroine Finds Love in America from Old California Ranchos to San Francisco to New Orleans

Set in 1848 (prologue) and the early 1850s, this is the story of Mara O’Flynn and her brother Brendan, who live with the stigma of being bastards of an Irish nobleman who left them to survive on their own. Both Mara and Brendan, like their mother before them, are actors. Mara’s mother died in poverty after her wealthy lover cast her aside, and Mara will never forget it. She has no desire to follow in her mother’s footsteps.

In her private revenge, Mara intentionally makes noblemen fall in love with her only to send them away brokenhearted. In one such encounter the young man shot himself. Unbeknownst to Mara, she made an enemy of the young man’s uncle, a Creole Frenchman from New Orleans, Nicholas Chantale—who vows revenge.

In pursuit of a new future, Mara and Brendan set sail for California on a clipper ship. Ever the Irish optimist, Brendan hopes to find gold. While on the ship, however, Brendan gambles away what little money they have, and they are forced to agree to the plan of another passenger, Don Luis, a Spanish Californian. Don Luis wants Mara to act the part of his half English niece who, from her youth, has been the fiancé of another ranchero in the Sierra Nevada. Mara and Brendan become involved in the lives of the rancheros even as they long to leave for San Francisco. Then one day a stranger shows up—Nicholas Chantale.

The beginning takes a bit of patience as McBain meticulously brings to life old California when gold was discovered and the Californian ranchos were beginning to disappear. As is typical of her novels, she includes much historic detail adding richness to the story. It’s a tale of people fleeing their past hoping for a better tomorrow. Tara flees poverty and shame and Nicholas flees his aristocratic family that cast him out when they thought he murdered his brother.

The story moves from London to California to New Orleans as Mara and Nick are continually thrown together and Mara resists the love she feels for the man who only wants her to share his bed. Once the story picks up in San Francisco, it moves along at a fast pace and will definitely keep you turning pages with some great action scenes, mystery and intrigue and a heartwarming ending. I recommend it.

Jennifer Blake’s SWEET PIRACY – Wonderful Story of a Privateer in Louisiana

Set in 1815, this is the story of Caroline Pembroke, governess to a young charge. She is accompanying her from France to the Delecroix plantation in Louisiana when American privateers attack the ship and their leader claims a kiss from Caroline.

Safely arriving with her charge, soon a mysterious marquis moves into the plantation next door. Can he be the privateer who stole a kiss from her?

I can’t say enough good things about this story. It’s so well written at times I had to read a sentence again just to enjoy it. It has enough historical setting to make you realize just what time they are living in. The plot develops slowly as we are introduced to the life of Louisiana Creole gentry and a wonderful cast of characters in the Delecroix family. The ending is sweet and surprising and will make you sigh.

A lovely read by a great author. Well done!

Becky Lee Weyrich’s THE SCARLET THREAD – The “red lantern” district of New Orleans in the Victorian Era… oh my!

Having read and loved Tainted Lillies, I was anxious to read another by Weyrich.

This is the story of Desiree La Fleur. It begins in 1885 when she is seven and her mulatto nurse flees Desiree’s drunken father with Desiree and her infant sister, Innocente. In the swamps they become separated and Desiree is recaptured by her father’s men. We don’t learn much of her youth after that except she is taken home and though she has a stepmother who has no love for her, Desiree is educated in the East. In 1899, when she is 21, she decides to take the money she gained from a writing contest and join her best friend, Nanine, in New Orleans.

As soon as she gets off the train, Desiree is mistaken for a woman named “Garnet” who, she later learns, is a prostitute living in “Storyville,” the red lantern district of New Orleans. It’s “the scarlet thread” on Basin Street. Right then I realized, even if Desiree did not, that she’d found her long lost sister.

Meanwhile Nanine plots to match Desiree with Dr. Roman St. Vincent, dubbed “the saint of Storyville” for the help he gives to the young prostitutes. And the prostitute named Garnet is in love with him. Two sisters both in love with the same man. Because of their beginnings, one is ostensibly good and the other a fallen woman, raised to believe she is a woman of color when she is not.

Neither Desiree nor Roman want marriage but decide, at their early encounter, to pretend they are engaged to appease Nanine and her husband in whose home Desiree lives.

Weyrich writes well and tells a good story so, of course, I was sucked in from the start. There were lots of improbable twists and turns but once I got over that, I had to find out if this smart girl was really going to be so dumb as to do some of the things she did. And what of Garnet who really loves Roman but who he thinks of as a young sister? And then there is this “ripper” guy who goes around killing prostitutes. Ah, yes, lots to think about. And did I mention it’s a bodice ripper?

New Review: Karen Jones Delk’s EMERALD QUEEN – Two Men in Love With the Same Woman… and Steamboats in New Orleans!

First published in 1992, this is the story of Simone Devereaux, from one of the Creole families. It begins in New Orleans in 1831 when her father dies in a duel with a man named Marcel Baudin, who demanded Simone become his mistress in payment of her father’s debts. Having lost her father, Simone disguises herself as a boy and gets a job at the fencing club where Baudin and all the young bucks hang out, vowing to have her revenge.

Marcel searches for her, determined to have her, but she has a protector, the man her father asked to be her guardian, Alain de Valliere. Alain, a known womanizer, recognizes her and takes her from the fencing club, intending to keep her safe. Very quickly (too quickly, I thought), he declares his love for her. And she for him. But then something happens to Alain and he disappears.

Once Simone finds herself on the run from Baudin, she finds refuge with Tom Franklin, a very likeable American steamboat captain, who has great plans to build a steamboat empire. She offers him a partnership and he accepts so that she runs the gambling saloon on the Emerald Queen.

The first thing I noticed about this story is that the author head hops unmercifully from one character’s thoughts to another. At other times, she drops as the omniscient narrator to tell us what someone is thinking. I would have preferred one point of view at a time.

Original cover

 

This is a long book (448 pages) and reflects much research into the New Orleans society of the day and the culture of the Creoles. The author provides vivid descriptions of the places and serves up some wonderful characters, though the villain, Baudin, was a bit over the top. With all its twists and meanderings, the story held my attention.

It’s a saga of one woman’s life who was loved, it seemed, by all the men who met her. 

Buy on Amazon.

New Review: Amanda Hughes’s THE PRIDE OF THE KING – Absorbing Tale From 18th Century America—a Heroine to Love and a Ship of Pirates!

Set in French New Orleans in 1748, this is the story of Lauren De Beauville, daughter of French aristocrats who died leaving her and her sister orphans to be raised by nuns. When she is 15, her sister joins the order and Lauren is forced to marry an old man from the English colonies who doesn’t speak French. She is rescued from that marriage before it’s begun by a hurricane that sweeps her away on her wedding day to another life. Eventually she is forced to leave that other life, too, and ends up in New England, where she joins with con artists who use her as bait to lure aristocrats into business ventures.

There are many twists and turns in this complex story that finally sees Lauren onboard a ship of pirates and misfits who serve a master criminal, their captain, who smuggles guns and other goods, selling them to both the French and the English. Captain James St. Clare wants Lauren to be his contact with the French, but it’s a very dangerous assignment and she will have to sell herself to accomplish it. But St. Clare, an enigmatic figure, watches over her.

Most of the story is told through the heroine’s point of view with the exception of short snippets in the minds of other characters. And there is a huge cast of characters as you can imagine from the different “lives” Lauren experiences. You feel for Lauren as a young innocent with an adventurer’s heart who faces one crisis after another and yet always manages to triumph. When the black moment comes—and there is a black moment—it is very real and very believable. I loved Lauren’s courage and her determination—and her kindness. No wonder the hero will not give her up.

I can’t say enough good things about this book or about Hughes’ writing. Just take my word for it and get it and you’ll understand. I don’t want to give away the mystery by saying more about the story except that she peels back the layers like an onion—expertly. I have become one of Hughes’ committed fans.

Buy on Amazon.

New Review: Becky Lee Weyrich’s THE SCARLET THREAD – The “red lantern” district of New Orleans in the Victorian Era… oh my!

Having read and loved Tainted Lillies, I was anxious to read another by Weyrich.

This is the story of Desiree La Fleur. It begins in 1885 when she is seven and her mulatto nurse flees Desiree’s drunken father with Desiree and her infant sister, Innocente. In the swamps they become separated and Desiree is recaptured by her father’s men. We don’t learn much of her youth after that except she is taken home and though she has a stepmother who has no love for her, Desiree is educated in the East. In 1899, when she is 21, she decides to take the money she gained from a writing contest and join her best friend, Nanine, in New Orleans.

As soon as she gets off the train, Desiree is mistaken for a woman named “Garnet” who, she later learns, is a prostitute living in “Storyville,” the red lantern district of New Orleans. It’s “the scarlet thread” on Basin Street. Right then I realized, even if Desiree did not, that she’d found her long lost sister.

Meanwhile Nanine plots to match Desiree with Dr. Roman St. Vincent, dubbed “the saint of Storyville” for the help he gives to the young prostitutes. And the prostitute named Garnet is in love with him. Two sisters both in love with the same man. Because of their beginnings, one is ostensibly good and the other a fallen woman, raised to believe she is a woman of color when she is not. 

 

Neither Desiree nor Roman want marriage but decide, at their early encounter, to pretend they are engaged to appease Nanine and her husband in whose home Desiree lives.

Weyrich writes well and tells a good story so, of course, I was sucked in from the start. There were lots of improbable twists and turns but once I got over that, I had to find out if this smart girl was really going to be so dumb as to do some of the things she did. And what of Garnet who really loves Roman but who he thinks of as a young sister? And then there is this “ripper” guy who goes around killing prostitutes. Ah, yes, lots to think about. And did I mention it’s a bodice ripper?

Buy on Amazon.

New Review: Karen Robards’ AMANDA ROSE – Victorian Set in England and New Orleans - the Innocent and the Older Man

Robards is a great romance author and always delivers a fast-paced story. I love her historicals. This one, while not my favorite, is still a worthy read and kept me up late at night to finish it.

The story begins in 1842 as ship’s captain Matt Grayson, an American from New Orleans is about to hang in London—for crimes he didn’t commit. He escapes from the gallows but is wounded as he flees to the coast. There, he is discovered by Lady Amanda Rose Culver, a duke’s daughter who has been confined to a convent school by her half brother. Amanda helps Matt and cares for him in a forgotten cave connected to the convent.

Amanda is an innocent waking to the passion of a handsome, older, experienced man who begins as a gentleman but then succumbs to the temptation of the young vixen. He is a man with a past and knows the betrayal of a woman.

When Amanda’s brother shows up with a fat, older suitor in tow who will dig the family out of their money woes, he blackmails Amanda into agreeing to the marriage or he will turn Matt over to the authorities. But Matt has other plans for her.

Original cover captures the couple

 

There’s a lot of action and a lot of angst as the scene moves from England to New Orleans where Matt essentially holds Amanda his prisoner. When he would do the honorable thing, she refuses. Ah, the rocky path of love.

Not much history here but the stage is well set with vivid descriptions of locations, clothing and food—all the goodies we romance readers love.

Buy on Amazon.

New Review: Cordia Byers’ NICOLE LABELLE – Southern Bayou Beauty Finds Love with a Man Who Seeks Vengeance

Set in Louisiana around 1830, beginning in the bayou, this is the story of Nicole Sentelle, whose father, a trapper, is an evil man, causing the death of Nicole’s highborn mother. Her mother’s dying wish was that Nicole would return to their cousin and rich relation, Quinton DuPree, master of the Live Oak plantation. But the note she gave Nicole to carry with her was left behind when Nicole fled into the swamp after her mother’s death and her father threatened her. It was there she met Alex Chandler in a chance encounter and he helped her to bury her mother.

Nicole arrives at Live Oak in a bedraggled condition, but is immediately accepted by Quinton, older than her by 20 years and a kind widower. Suddenly, his lonely days are full of life. Nicole reminds him of her mother whom he loved deeply. Not surprisingly, he falls in love with Nicole and asks her to marry him. On the eve of their wedding, unbeknownst to anyone, Nicole’s father kills Quinton. Seeing the body, Nicole flees in sadness and is thrown from her horse to awaken with amnesia.

Alex Chandler, who would have had Live Oak but for the change in Quinton’s will to leave it to Nicole, believes Nicole shot Quinton and now Alex seeks vengeance on the beautiful girl.

Byers has given us a great plot with mystery and some great twists. I did think that in places, Alex’s mistrust of Nicole and his harsh behavior (once leaving her in a weakened condition on the wrong side of town in the dead of night) was a bit over the top. And their coming together in the end seemed a bit abrupt. Notwithstanding these things, and while not at the same level as her Pirate Royale, this is an engrossing read.