Reviewed by Jen

Generally, the Big Secret trope is one of my least favorites, but I like Caroline Linden and I enjoyed the first book in this series, so I decided to give this book a try. I’m glad I did, because while the secret was, indeed, the driving plot device of the story, I thought it was well done and it didn’t prevent me from rooting for this couple to make things work.

Eliza is the daughter of a successful businessman. Her father is ruthless in his dealings, and as a result, he has more money than Croesus. But that money can’t buy his daughter’s way into the ton. Not that such a thing really matters to her. At the end of the day, she is happy with her friends, her home, and her beloved dog. She has no idea that her father has a plan in place to blackmail an earl into becoming her husband. [Read more…]

Reviewed by Jen

I really enjoyed this first installment in Caroline Linden’s new Wagers of Sin series, that features a stuffy duke and the independent pretend-widow that captures his interest. I’m always a sucker for a romance that features a hero and heroine of different social classes and the “forbidden” element that brings. Not only does this book have that, it also has a wonderfully stuffy hero who the heroine manages to unravel completely.

The story starts strong with a peek inside Sophie’s history. She is the granddaughter of nobility, but when her parents die, her beastly grandfather ships her off to school and cuts her off when she reaches 18… all because he never approved of her parents’ marriage. Thanks to her first 12 unconventional years, Sophie has a gift with cards and with gambling, and once she is on her own, she visits gaming hells to amass the money she needs to set herself up for marriage. She even invents a phony dead husband give her the kind of access a spinster would never enjoy. [Read more…]

Reviewed by Jen

Generally I am a fan of all things Caroline Linden, but this re-issue from nine years ago is not one of my favorites from her. It’s sort of a second chance at love story, except the hero and heroine never really made it to the “love” stage the first time around.

Linden introduces us to Celia and Anthony four years prior to the main events of the story. She is a debutante in her first season and he is the disreputable friend of her older brother. Everyone knows that Anthony is a rake of the first order, and a gambler too. The gossip sheets report on him constantly, but Celia remembers the boy he was as she was growing up and isn’t so quick to judge him on his reputation. He is taken by the way she sees him, but he is too late when he asks her brother to court her. She has already accepted another man’s proposal. [Read more…]

Reviewed by Jen

Caroline Linden finally delivers answers to the questions she left us with at the end of Love in the Time of Scandal. This is Olivia’s story. She was the widow with a big secret and the super creepy stalker, Lord Clary.  She is also the woman who should have married Penelope’s brother, Jamie. This story is both a mystery and a reunited lovers story. And it finally unmasks the elusive Lady Constance, whose stories have titillated characters in every book of the series. [Read more…]

Reviewed by Jen

Caroline Linden books almost always work for me. So it was cool to look back on one of her earlier stories with this reissue from 10 years ago. While I’ll admit, the premise is a little far-fetched, I still enjoyed the book. In fact, I plan to pick up the other two parts of the trilogy.

Marcus, the Duke of Exeter, has been cleaning up his twin brother’s messes for as long as he can remember. But this takes the cake.  After his latest scrape, his brother David proposed marriage to a vicar’s widow, then signed Marcus’s name to the marriage certificate. To make matters worse, he put an ad in the paper and wrote to their family about the Duke’s so called romance. [Read more…]

Reviewed by Jen

Lord Atherton wasn’t a character painted with the kindest brush in Caroline Linden’s last book. When we met Benedict in It Takes a Scandal, we knew him as Sebastian’s former best friend; the man who turned his back on Sebastian and then tried to court Abigail, the woman his friend loved.  Ben is handsome, charming, and heir to an earldom, but Abigail’s sister Penelope refuses to ignore all the wrongs he has done.  Why didn’t he defend Sebastian all those years ago? Why did he pursue her sister, when he clearly never loved her? [Read more…]

Reviewed by Jen

This book reminded me how much I enjoy reading Caroline Linden books. It hit all my happy buttons, with minimal internal conflicts, a somewhat tortured hero, and a romance that kept me invested from beginning to end.

Sebastian is a pariah in his small country town.  He came back from war with a broken body, only to find that his father had lost his mind.  If that weren’t bad enough, his dad sold off almost all of their land for a small fraction of its worth, so they are now destitute.  [Read more…]

Reviewed by Jen

Joan isn’t very good at being fashionable.  She’s too tall, too curvy, yet she tries to wear the clothes, the hats, and the hairstyles popular for her more dainty peers. As a result, she isn’t very popular with gentlemen. Her frankness and independent spirit don’t help either.  She yearns for some freedom and a chance at romance, but neither looks especially forthcoming.

Tristan is her brother’s best friend. He is also a notorious rake and hellraiser who has no intention of being shackled by marriage. [Read more…]