Book Review Club: Lord Perfect by Loretta Chase

My December choice for Barrie Summy’s Book Review Club is Lord Perfect by Loretta Chase, an audiobook of a Regency romance which, dear FCC, I got with an Audible credit and listened to on my iPad. While it isn’t a holiday book, I do think it would be a fun read for the holidays, if you’re in the mood for love and laughter.

paperback cover

paperback cover

Lord Perfect by Loretta Chase
Carsington Brothers series
Audiobook read by Kate Reading.

This is one of the most enjoyable Regency romances I’ve read in a while. In a word, hilarious.

Benedict Carsington, Lord Rathborn, aka Lord Perfect, is a paragon of gentlemanly virtue. He sits in the House of Lords and works with law enforcement. A widower, he shuns scandal if not the company of women. He has also taken on responsibility for his 13-year-old nephew Peregrine, Lord Lyle, who is misunderstood by his parents.

Bathsheba (emphasis on the first syllable) Wingate describes herself as the “most notorious” woman in Britain. She doesn’t deserve that reputation, but she is a member of the “Dreadful DeLucey” branch of her family, descended from an ancestor who turned pirate, or at least smuggler. A widow, she struggles to raise her 12-year-old daughter Olivia, who has inherited most of the dreadful DeLucey traits, by teaching drawing to young girls.

Lord Perfect audio cover

audiobook cover

The four meet at an exhibit of Egyptian antiquities. Olivia and Lyle get in a conversation that moves swiftly to argument. When Peregrine informs Olivia that girls can’t be knights, she hits him with his sketchbook, knocking him to the ground. Bathsheba makes Olivia apologize to Peregrine and explains that she has tried to give Olivia to the gypsies, but they refused to take her. Naturally, Benedict is intrigued. He and Bathsheba are thrown together and the attraction is mutual and instantaneous. Each one knows nothing can come of it, but they haven’t made allowances for Olivia’s machinations.

When Olivia decides to run away to search for buried DeLucey treasure, Peregrine goes with her to keep her out of trouble, knowing Uncle Benedict won’t be far behind. He hasn’t made allowances for Olivia’s ingenuity. Benedict and Bathsheba follow, only to end up in hilarious and improbably situations, including a public brawl with a group of drunken louts on the Bath Road. So much for Lord Perfect. Everything comes to a head at the estate of the respectable branch of the DeLucey family.

The book is well-written and the dialogue and inner thought are wickedly funny, but listening to the expert narration by Kate Reading made the book even more fun. I can’t wait to read Peregrine and Olivia’s grown-up romance.

Linda

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#Holiday Romance & #Recipe with Lady @KatherineBone

Pirate Lady Katherine Bone is here with a Holiday Recipe and an excerpt from her latest historical romance, The Pirate’s Debt.

Christmas treats

Photo by belchonock from depositphotos.com

Thanks for welcoming me aboard ship, Lady Linda. The holidays ARR a perfect time to celebrate romance and try out new things, especially recipes. Special thanks to Author Tina Gayle for organizing this #Holiday Romance and #Recipe Exchange. I’m looking forward to the tasty additions I’ll be adding to my recipe file! Huzzah!

As you can see, I love the holidays. ’Tis the season for sharing and I’m especially happy to reveal one of my all-time FAVorite recipes, one that comes from my days as an Army wife. This salad is a healthy and delicious addition to any meal, any time of the year. The reds and greens are super festive and punch up the color at the dinner table. I get loads of compliments on this one!

Dewitt Salad

Ingredients:

Head of Broccoli (small pieces)
1 cup Celery, chopped
1 cup Onion, chopped
½ cup Green Pepper, sliced
1 cup Red Grapes, halved
1 cup Green Grapes, halved
½ lb. Bacon, fried crisp
½ cup Pecan, optional

Dressing:

1/3 cup Sugar
1 cup Miracle Whip
1 tsp. Vinegar

Combine all ingredients and mix well.
Best to prepare ingredients then add dressing closer to serving time.

kb-dewitt-salad

When your feet are too tired to walk, your shopping is done, and you’ve got spare time on your hands, there’s nothing like diving into a good book. Here’s a peak at my latest release, The Pirate’s Debt, the continuing story of the Black Regent in my Regent’s Revenge Series.

Pirate's Debt coverLady Chloe Walsingham is an enthusiastic gothic romance reader and hopeless romantic focused solely on finding her perfect hero. She also happens to have a penchant for getting into trouble. So when the man she loves disappears after a scandalous duel, she decides to follow him to the ends of the Earth. To do so, however, Chloe must evade her brother, an infamous revenue man, and board a ship bound for Penzance. And nothing in her beloved books can prepare her for the harsh realities of wreckers who ply the coast.

After his father destroyed the lives of countless innocent people, Basil Halford, Earl of Markwick is willing to do anything to earn back his honor. Betrayed by his blood and his reputation ruined, Markwick answers the request of a well-heeled duke and dons the Black Regent’s mask to repay the debt. His task? Rescuing a young woman who is chasing down a ghost of a man.

But a pirate has plenty of enemies, and Markwick isn’t any different. No matter how diligent a captain he may be, sailing to Lady Chloe’s rescue involves risking not only the Regent’s legacy but the last thing he can afford to lose…his heart.

Available at Amazon, Nook, Kobo & Apple

~ Excerpt ~

Seated in Markwick’s cutter, cloaked in his clothing, Chloe felt incredibly shallow. To think that she’d cast all inhibitions to the wind and sailed off for an enterprising adventure, only to need to be rescued by the very man she’d set out to find. Though she hadn’t known she’d be finding the Black Regent.

Regent sightings were rare for the average villager. She’d never known anyone who’d actually met the gallant hero that stole from the rich and gave to the poor.

Oh, to be sitting so near to him now, to have touched him, to be in love with him, is even more exceptional than I imagined it would be!

She fought to curb the jubilation pulsing through her veins, igniting her headstrong passions, and forced herself to remember this was all about her devotion to Markwick and the lives lost on the very ship on which she’d obtained passage. To anyone else, the Black Regent might be a dashing pirate who’d just plucked her off the Mohegan’s decks and saved her from certain death, but Markwick was also the man she loved.

She sighed, half trembling, half in despair. Unable to tear her gaze away, she desired to stretch out her fingers and touch the man, to assure herself that he wasn’t a figment of her imagination. What kind of nightmare would that be, to discover she was dreaming and that Markwick really wasn’t there?

Oh, but the blackguard truly was just as she’d envisioned! In her mind’s eye, he’d been a swashbuckling champion born from the pages of fiction and fantasy. Now, sitting before her, was the living man whose very existence defied her infatuations because he was the man she loved. Broad-shouldered, lean, with a firm authoritarian profile, he stood a head taller than she did, and oh . . . when he’d held her in his arms on board the Mohegan, a lightheaded euphoria had immediately stunned her. Markwick had stood behind her before but only to teach her how to shoot a bow and arrow. Not like this. Never like this!

Her gaze lowered to his upper arms. They were thick, flexing muscular limbs capable of sweeping her off her feet at a moment’s whim. And oh, she wanted to be his Matilda. She wanted him to be her Theodore.

Bother. Matilda and Theodore were Horace Walpole’s creations. She and Markwick lived in the real world. She inhaled a breath of frigid, moist, salty air.

Admit the truth, you silly girl. Markwick triggered breathless exhilaration and the unbridled beat fluttering within her breast, not the Black Regent. For her, there had always only been the Earl of Markwick.

About the Author:

Katherine BoneNational best-selling historical romance author Katherine Bone has been passionate about history since she had the opportunity to travel to various Army bases, castles, battlegrounds, and cathedrals as an Army brat turned officer’s wife. Who knew that an Army wife’s passion for romance novels would lead to pirates? Certainly not her rogue, whose Alma Mater’s adage is “Go Army. Beat Navy!” Now enjoying the best of both worlds, Katherine lives with her rogue in the south where she writes about rogues, rebels, and rakes—aka pirates, lords, captains, duty, honor, and country—and the happily-ever-afters that every alpha male and damsel deserve.

Ports of Call:

Website,  Facebook- Official Fan Page, Twitter, Amazon Author Page,    Goodreads

Thank you for allowing me to share one of my all-time FAVorite holiday recipes with you and your readers, Lady Linda. I wish you all a very tasty and hearty holiday season!

Blessings,

Katherine