New Book Alert: The Dukedom of The Beast by Tiffany Baton; Beauty and The Beast Tale Set in The Regency Era is Rich With Great Characters and Suspense

 

New Book Alert: The Dukedom of The Beast by Tiffany Baton; Beauty and The Beast Tale Set in The Regency Era is Rich With Great Characters and Suspense

By Julie Sara Porter

Bookworm Reviews

Spoilers: With apologies to Walt Disney Music, Alan Menken, and the late Howard Ashman, Beauty and The Beast may be a tale as old as time but it still can be the inspiration for a winning Romamce set in any time period. (Actually, as we will soon learn, fairy tales are a huge inspiration for many books set in many time periods.) Tiffany Baton's The Dukedom of the Beast is a Regency era variation of this familiar tale and in of itself is rich with great characters and an engaging suspenseful plot.

Lady Nancy Bolton, daughter of the Duke of Cornington, has her life set out for her. She is engaged to Timothy Lockhart, Marquess of Honeyfiield when at a ball, she is sexually assaulted by Viscount Geralt Hodge. Even though she pushes him off, Nancy is blamed for the event. Unfortunately, this is another tale as old as time: when a woman gets assaulted, she is often the one that is blamed and is judged for it while the man gets off with no punishment whatsoever. Timothy ends the engagement and seeks a bride with a less tarnished reputation. Geralt continues his cred as a rogue with no consequences, will no doubt still be seen as a stud by his friends, and look for other young women to abuse. Nancy is the one left as the subject of scorn and gossip and is socially exiled: a woman with an independent mind and spirit but unable to fit in with the expectations set for her. She is left an outsider with a scarred reputation.

In fact, the only person who would have her is another outsider and there is one. Phillip Wallace, the Duke of Peterhum, is also an outsider left scarred. However, his scars are physical not emotional. An attack left him disfigured and claimed the life of his parents. Since then he has been raised in seclusion by his uncle, Jeremy Wallace. Since Nancy is a childhood friend, he formally requests permission to court Nancy himself. Nancy is incensed at the thought and even more so when her father agrees to the proposal. Then, she goes to meet Phillip herself…

The Dukedom of the Beast is a Regency Romance done right. It doesn't praise the rules and standards of the day, filling it with a false nostalgia. It opens up the double edged sword of a society where a woman can have a damaged reputation or a man can be physically injured by others and they are the one who are the ones who are left abused and abandoned. Nancy and Phillip's conflicts with the ton show that a society that is built on a standard of artifice and perfection is bound to fall when that perfection is rarely achieved.

A humorous dialogue occurs when Nancy and Phillip discuss habits and interests and are found to be incompatible. (She likes the pianoforte, going to the theatre, and reading novels. He likes the violin, reading nonfiction, and horseback riding.) In a normal courtship, more might have been made of those differences, but their loneliness and mutual understanding transcends those differences as they see the world through each other's eyes.

Both Nancy and Philip are imperfect people and their relationship prospers because of that imperfection. In fact, they develop an understanding and empathy towards each other that they may not have had if they weren't mutual outsiders.

Once Nancy and Phillip find that common ground and develop an understanding, complications occur that trouble their courtship. Phillip is attacked by an unknown assailant. Nancy is being stalked by a mysterious disguised figure and a wing of Phillip's estate is set on fire. 

The perpetrator behind these events is revealed in a well done plot twist that is a decent surprise. This twist also plays into the repressed frustrations of the day when some people feel that they aren't given their due. They have very little in their lives that they can claim is theirs and are driven by boredom and frustration to the point of insanity. 

The Dukedom of the Beast is a brilliant commentary on the Regency period and reveals that sometimes those that are outside of society  understand and love each other. Once those standards are removed, they no longer see the beastly and instead they recognize the beauty.

Weekly Reader: The Earl's Sinful Quest by Lisa Campbell; Dark and Mature Regency Romance Shows Love After Death

 

Weekly Reader: The Earl's Sinful Quest by Lisa Campbell; Dark and Mature Regency Romance Shows Love After Death

By Julie Sara Porter

Bookworm Reviews

Spoilers: The Earl's Sinful Quest is among the darker more mature of the Regency Romances that I read this month. The female protagonist is in a different stage in her life from the other women. She isn't a young virginal woman in her late teens or early twenties awaiting her Season so she can catch a potential husband and first love. Lady Amelia Turner has already been through that. In fact, she is a widow and currently the Dowager Countess of Wilton. 

Her husband, Arthur, died a year after their marriage leaving Amelia a widow who is at the mercy of her in laws including her domineering sister in law, Leonora and younger brother in law, Malcolm who is forced to end his medical studies and assume the title of the Earl of Wilton.

Of course in the time honored tradition of any romance, Malcolm appears and he and Amelia hit it off, developing a friendship that evolves into a romance. 

This romance does a good job of pointing out many of the social standards of the time period.

Once Amelia and Malcolm's romance develops, they face public scrutiny. This is a society in which some believe that being involved with the widow of one's brother is technically considered incest (even though they are not related by blood.) It's a Biblical concept that is still believed in some cultures. Amelia and Malcolm's romance could be cause for scorn and scandal. Not to mention, Amelia could look like a gold digger being with two brothers from the same family. At the time, their relationship could be enough to end their reputation.

Because of the situation that she is in, Amelia is not as naive as many other female protagonists in her genre. She understands the ideal of marriages of convenience and to her credit had a good one. She married Arthur to get her family out of debt and to help his reputation. He was gay and needed a wife for appearances. Despite their marriage not being consummated, Amelia and Arthur were good friends and generally happy with their marriage. In Arthur, Amelia found a close friend and loyal supporter.

In Malcolm, Amelia finds not only a good friend but a lover. Malcolm fills the emotional needs that his late brother could not. Malcolm also recognizes that emotional need with Amelia. Even though he never married and is by definition less experienced than Ame!ia, he has been committed to his studies and pursuits of women. He 

is regarded as a family outsider. 

When he is welcomed by Amelia, he finally feels a connection to his family that he previously kept at arm's length. He finally feels accepted. Their love making is established late in the book as they slow!y recognize each other as friends before they become lovers.

This book also shows what happens when most of the scrutiny comes from within one's own family. Malcolm and Arthur's sister, Leonore is unmarried but uses her dominating personality to control things from behind the scenes. She thinks that she knows best regardless of their arguments to the contrary. She tries to arrange the engagement of Amelia and Malcolm to the Duke of Derby and his sister. She disregards their feelings in the matter.

Leonore has a marginal hold in society. As a wealthy unmarried woman, no one regards her. She is completely diminished, so all that she has is her limited role that she is determined to hold onto. It is very likely that she sees Amelia as a threat so is determined to marry her off in an attempt to get rid of her. Leonore is a woman who social climbing and maintaining a good reputation are everything to her because that's all she has. She is unable to fill the one role that society placed on her, to be a loyal, loving, and wealthy wife so she expects others to do so. Her determination flies into obsession and causes her to tdo some manipulative and abusive  things to hold onto that role.

The Earl's Sinful Quest is filled with darker themes and characters than your average Regency romance but it still retains the sweetness and attention to detail that surrounds other romances. Somehow, the darkness is what actually makes Amelia and Malcolm better lovers.

Weekly Reader: Bared To The Wicked Baron by Ava McAdams; Captivating Regency Romance But With A Very Misleading Title

 

Weekly Reader: Bared To The Wicked Baron by Ava McAdams; Captivating Regency Romance But With A Very Misleading Title

By Julie Sara Porter

Bookworm Reviews

Spoilers: In the Romance genre, certain things sell and are as  omnipresent as scary things are to a Stephen King novel. Sex sells as shown by the covers featuring barely dressed lovers wrapped in each other's arms. Certain time periods sell as shown by the glut of historical romances, particularly during the Regency Era. Certain words in the title, like "Wicked," Naughty,"  "Forbidden," "Sinful," and "Passion," sell as well. Those words reveal something dark and forbidden about the romance that Readers are about to indulge into. It's a business decision, but at times it is an unnecessary one especially when the title is extraordinarily misleading.

Take Ava McAdams' novel Bared To The Wicked Baron. It would be a halfway decent Regency era Romance of a couple getting to know each other despite outside forces attempting to break them up. 

However the title Bared To The Wicked Baron suggests something else. It suggests something more salacious and sultrier than what we get and it seems to do so only to sell the book to more Readers.

The titular Baron is nowhere near wicked. Sir Phillip Andrews, The Baron of Havordshire, is actually a sweet, but private baron who is caring for his ailing mother. He has been steadily losing money and now resides in a humble cottage to care for her. He has a few loyal servants, but he does much of the nursing himself. Because of this, he doesn't have a lot of time to do the usual social routine of a man among the ton. His friends convince him to spend one night away at a ball so he can finally relax. Now does this sound remotely wicked to you?

He is not wicked in temperament nor in reputation. I could sort of understand if Phillip harbored a reputation of being wicked to ward women away from him so they, and the Reader, don't know that he is caring for his mother leaving his family problems to be a surprise. Perhaps it could be the hidden heart inside his Byronic reputation. But his family conflict is revealed in the second chapter. No one describes or refers to Phillip as wicked and he never behaves that way. Arthur Thistlewood from The Second Mrs. Thistlewood has more right to the adjective than Phillip does. At most Phillip could be private, maybe secretive. Were Bared To The Private or Secretive Baron taken as titles?

Because he has been AWOL from social duties, Phillip's friends warn that his time may be up pursuing young viable women to be brides and give birth to his heirs without looking like an aging fool. Another character running out of time is Helena, daughter of the Earl of Brimsey. She is 27 years old and missed an earlier Season, because of her family's dwindled finances. Now her parents say better late than never and she needs to be married before it's too late. Naturally she goes to the same ball in which Phillip is dragged. The two meet, share a dance, and begin to fall in love.

Their courtship is rushed. That could be attributed to their ages in a time period where they were expected to already be married and the implied anxiety that would happen in a time period where death in childbirth is far from unheard, when late in life pregnancies can produce many long term complications, and when the medical profession amounted to guesswork.  Helena and Phillip's courtship is steamy in that it's an emotional release for a long delayed dream, one that satisfies them on a personal level. They are a nice decent couple that couldn't be further from villainous if they tried.

There is a wicked character in the book that complicates Helena and Phillip's courtship. They use underhanded means to come between the couple like physical attacks and secret confidences. More cannot be revealed but that person is definitely not a baron. This character has some development but it is revealed too late since they are unbearable and annoying throughout. In fact, their villainy is pretty transparent and certainly not compelling. 

Bared To The Wicked Baron is a decent romance but it promises to be something else. With so many words that could have been chosen for the title, wicked should not have been one of them.