The Handmaiden's Necklace by Kat Martin Review

The Handmaiden's Necklace by Kat Martin
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

I greatly enjoyed this book. I had been wanting to read it for awhile, so I bought it one day on the Harlequin site along with a slew of other ebooks. It was few months before I actually read it though.

The premise is an interesting one. Rafe believes that his betrothed betrayed and he leaves her for five long years. When they meet again it's a function and they still have that undeniable attraction between them.

Unfortunately Dani has become engaged to an American business and she travels with her lady maid and her aunt to the country to marry him and of course Rafe follows her.

What I liked the most about this book was how realistic the characters seemed. Rafe and Dani shared a passion, but both were hesitant to fall in love with each other.

There were a few mysteries going on the book, if you can call them that. Maybe the correct word would be intrigues? There's a subplot with Dani's maid, Caro Loon and a man she originally meet in the Americas. I thought it was well done as well.

I wasn't aware that there were two previous books to this series. I usually try to start with the first book. I thoroughly enjoyed and I will be buying the other two books in the series. Look out for review of those.

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Love and Louis XIV by Antonia Fraser Review

Love and Louis XIV: The Women in the Life of the Sun King by Antonia Fraser
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

This was my first foray into biographies about the members of the French monarchy. I've long been a fan of Marie Antoinette, but it wasn't until I was searching for other books on different monarchy, that I chose to buy this one.

I want to start off by saying that before reading this book I didn't know a lot about Louis XIV. I was more familiar with Louis XVI and his wife, of course, but even then I didn't know as much as I should have.

The book starts off with Louis's miraculous birth. Anne of Austria was of course one of the most important women in the King's life as well she should be. From there the book focuses on the major women in the King's life such as his wife and his mistresses.

I was surprised that the author also talked about his daughters, granddaughters, and even great-granddaughters. She didn't got into a lot of detail, but she could tell that Louis was fond of his female relatives.

I liked how Fraser divided the book into the four seasons. That was an interesting way to do it, I admit. I might have to steal that for my writings one day :P

But in conclusion this was great look at the important women in the Sun King's life. I'll definitely be looking forward to reading more of Mrs. Fraser's works.

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Much Ado About Rogue by Kasey Michaels Mini Review

Much Ado About Rogues by Kasey Michaels
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

This was my first book by Kasey Michaels and I don't think it will be the last. I thought she did a good job of making the characters realistic and the action was written believably.

I picked up this book unaware that it was part of a series. Now that I know that it is a series, I'm planning on reading the rest of the Blackthorn trilogy because I became very attached to Jack. I'm hoping I'll love his brothers just as much.

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And Only To Deceive Review

Six books down and four to go for the month of January. I've made it a goal to read 10 books a month including a classic of my choice. And Only Deceive is my sixth book.



When I first started reading the book, it took me awhile to get into it. Usually I intend to read a full 100 pages, but I only got into the thirties at first. But after I took some time off and I started to read again, I found myself becoming engrossed in the book.

I've always loved to learn and reading about Emily's thoughts on the Illaid and Greek art. There were some lovely snippets from the epic poem and it made me want to pull out my copy and try again. But the copy I have is a different edition of the classics I usually use. I prefer the Penguin Classics editions because I find them more readable.

I thought the mystery was solved in a very nice way for the era. I didn't get the vibe of being a detective or anything though. The villain turned out to be the Palmer brothers specifically Andrew. I have to admit I thought Colin would be the perpetrator, but he was actually investigating the case. I guess that shows that things are not always as they seem.

Now that I've read the first book, I will be order the next one as soon as I can. Although it may took a little while for me to read it because I try not to get overwhelmed by the characters by reading books back to back!

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