Today’s Steals and Deals at AAR…..

It’s Cyber Monday. Please use the links from our site for you shopping–that itty bitty amount Amazon throws our way helps keep us on line. You can start you shopping here. And THANK YOU!!


 

We love Kelly Bowen’s work. All three novels from her Devils of Dover series are on sale today. Here’s our rave review of A Duke in the Night.

Some authors just get better and better each time out, and Kelly Bowen is one of them.  Her last series, Season for Scandal, was tremendous, but right out of the gate, A Duke in the Night trumps them all.  It’s smart, sexy and romantic, and I enjoyed every bit of it.  In the lovely novella The Lady in Red (released late last year), Ms. Bowen introduced us to Clara Hayward, the headmistress of the Haverhall School for Young Ladies, who takes center stage this time out.  A brilliant and beautiful feminist ahead of her time, Clara meets her match in August Faulkner, the Duke of Holloway.  The pair, and this story, are sure to find their way onto my best of 2018 list in December.  New to Ms. Bowen?  You could start with this novel as it works perfectly well as a standalone.

August Faulkner, the Duke of Holloway, would give the world to his sister if he could.  After a childhood of hunger and desperation, he isn’t content to rest on his laurels and he’s amassed a fortune buying and selling companies.  He’s ruthless, determined and unsentimental… except with it comes to Anne.  When A Duke in the Night begins, he’s surprised her with a new ball gown and jewelry to match.  When she interrupts him in his study, he assumes it’s to thank him.  Nope.  Anne wants to discuss one of his hotels.  August, oblivious to her interest in the business, can’t fathom why she wants to discuss his hotel; he cuts her off mid-discussion and holding up her floor plan illustrations, patronisingly suggests she apply her talents to portraits or landscapes instead.  Poor Anne. The awkward visit ends when August’s man of business interrupts.  Anne departs – unhappily – but August is distracted.  He’s recently acquired the Haverhall School for Young Ladies and its surrounding property after two failed earlier attempts.  He wants to know the reason why and sets his man of business, Duncan Down, to discover it.

Ten years earlier,  August was an immature rake who, on a dare from his snickering companions, confidently asked famed wallflower Clara Hayward to dance.  When she accepted with an expression of bemused tolerance and allowed him to lead her out on the floor, Augustus was smitten…  and lost. Heart hammering once it was over, he left her in the care of her brother Harland… and never danced with her again – in fact, has not spoken to her since.  Discovering her name on the previous deed of ownership for Haverhall surprises him and triggers a flood of memories… and undermines  his pleasure in the purchase.  His instincts were right – Clara’s family fortune is gone and her brother, Baron Strathmore, is at risk of losing their shipping business.  August decides to acquire it – by any means necessary – before his competitors get wind of a possible sale.  When Duncan mentions Lord Strathmore is often found at the British Museum on Wednesday afternoons, August plans a ‘surprise’ meeting; instead, he sees Clara Hayward… and falls hard for her all over again.

You can get all three for 1.99 each here.


Looking for some sexy times–Katee Robert is here for you. In our B+ review of The Last King we wrote,

The Last King introduces us to Beckett King, the heir to his father’s oil empire, and Samara Mallick, who is working for his aunt and biggest competitor, Lydia King. Beckett’s father just died in a car wreck and it has left the balance of power in Houston feeling unsteady as Lydia is ready to make a play against her nephew’s company while he’s getting his bearings and mourning his father.

The complications are about more than business, however. Six months previously, Samara and Beckett burned up the sheets during a work trip overseas. Even though they can’t stand each other during work encounters, there’s plenty of sexual chemistry bubbling just below the surface. Seeing Beckett reeling from his father’s death, and brought low by his aunt’s inheriting his family home, is enough to make Samara realize that her initial impression of Beckett as a hot pain in the neck might have been wrong.

Though Robert is known for sexy books, I wasn’t sure where The Last King would fall on the steam-o-meter. If you’re a fan of her previous work, you’ll be happy to know that this new series promises to be just as sexy as all her other books. Samara and Beckett have chemistry in spades. From their first encounter in Norway, they cannot keep their hands off each other. Every bed, office chair, or shower is fair game for some hot sexing.

However, beyond that I was really pleased with how loving their relationship turns out to be. Beckett falls hard and fast for Samara and, unlike so many romance heroes, he doesn’t spend the entire book denying it. I liked how readily he embraces his feelings for her and that he wants them to have a relationship. It felt like he was on her side from the word go,  which, with everything else going on, he really needed to be.

It’s on sale at Amazon for 1.99 here.


I have a serious soft spot for second chance love stories. This one’s a winner.

Shane Tremont and Tish Gallagher had a brief, tempestuous marriage. Though they haven’t seen each other since their divorce two years earlier, neither has managed to get past their love for the other. Shane, a secret service agent, is now responsible for guarding the president’s daughter, while Tish struggles to make a success of her career as a wedding videographer to the wealthy residents of Houston.

While guarding 22-year old Elysee Benedict at a routine ceremony, Shane’s hand is seriously damaged in a fluke accident. Elysee stays by Shane’s side through his hospitalization, and takes him back to the family’s Texas ranch (yes, another Texas president) for recovery and rehabilitation. It soon becomes obvious to Shane that Elysee is in love with him, and in a weak moment, he proposes. Shane instantly regrets the proposal, but doesn’t want to go back on his commitment to Elysee. He also decides that a marriage to calm, sweet, Elysee may be exactly what he needs. While he’s not madly in love with her, she’s safe and comfortable, unlike Tish.

Tish has her own problems. She has incurred major debts purchasing equipment for her business, while clients are still rare. She is also a shopaholic, and has maxed out her credit cards. Financially irresponsible, Tish let her bills pile up for several months. After a disastrous meeting in a restaurant with a potential client – at which the waiter cuts two of her credit cards up – Tish walks out and discovers that her car has been repossessed. Does this stop Tish? No, she spends her remaining money at a Nordstrom’s shoe sale. When Tish is at her lowest point, she is offered the rather surprising opportunity to serve as videographer to the President’s daughter. All this is rather exciting, until she discovers groom’s identity.

Now you might think that Tish sounds like the type of heroine that has given some chick lit a bad name. But there’s a lot more to her than we initially see. Tish is not a simple, one-dimensional heroine. Nor is Elysee the beautiful, evil stereotypical “other woman.” In fact, Elysee is rather plain. Although seeming to be almost too sweet and compliant, we learn that Elysee is much smarter, and tougher, than she initially seems to be.

It’s on sale at Amazon for 1.99 here.


We love Black Silk. It’s unique, smart, and sexy.

Let me state that it is difficult to summarize Black Silk without doing it an injustice, because this book, this story, these characters and their interpersonal relations are so unusual, so remarkable, and so complex that the whole is near nigh irreducible. I mean, is it possible to admire the Mona Lisa a square inch at a time? Reading Black Silk is like going to a five-star restaurant for the first time. You fidget a little in your chair, admire the ambience and the elegant waiters doing their nightly ballet. The kitchen is taking its time. A little plate of nibbles arrives, compliment of the chef. You munch, you ooh and aah. It’s fabulous. But it’s only a little plate. You wonder a little anxiously whether the rest of what is to come can measure up. And then the appetizers arrive – and then the first course. You half-swoon. Then comes the entree and you can hardly comprehend how you came to be in such heaven. Then the dessert which ends your experience with a bang (well, almost literally in this case, if I may be pardoned for a little risqué pun). You cannot believe the evening is over since you wanted it to go on and on and on.

Pardon the gustatory analogy, which in this case is apt. Judy Cuevas is a master of sensual description. Her writing has flavor, succulence and substance. It has that indescribable something that can only be called literary “fat”, a quality that makes her particular confection of words deliciously tangible.

But her talent goes far beyond mere linguistic sumptuousness. Ms. Cuevas creates memorable characters. Graham Wessit, the hero of Black Silk, could probably be labeled a bad boy, a Victorian bad boy if you will. But unlike so many other romance novel bad boys who seem to copulate their way from one end of the country to the other and in doing so, generate nothing but good-willed envy from all men and trembling desire in all women, Graham has troubles. He is the defendant in a false paternity suit. His current mistress is thinking of divorcing her husband to marry him – a big scandalous deal in 1858. And on top of it, there is a popular newspaper serial that has its root material in the deeds, mistakes, and peccadilloes of his life, all exaggerated and ridiculed for the entertainment of the masses. Lest we forget, those were far more puritanical times. Even men paid for their transgressions.

Submit Channing-Downes is a virtuous widow, still in mourning, clothed in black – hence the title – for almost the entirety of the book. Her late, much older husband Henry had been Graham’s cousin and one-time guardian. Submit loved and still loves Henry. Graham despised and still despises Henry. From their vastly different experiences with Henry and their intertwined present predicament, (thanks to a nasty posthumous bequest from Henry to Graham) arises what surely must be the most intriguing triangle of human relations in romancedom.

Graham is indolent and indulgent, but as the story unfolds, we see his honesty, kindness, and sincerity. He is also vital, exciting, and young at heart. Submit is equally complex. She is intelligent, thoughtful, and serious. And it is Ms. Cuevas’ great accomplishment that this woman of true gravitas is also endowed with a subtle yet potent carnal allure. The two of them are a wonderful match because she needs his energy and vigor and he needs to be anchored by her rationality and cool-headedness.

The late Henry, of course, was one of a kind. Read and marvel. This book is perhaps not to everyone’s taste. I’ll admit, it took me a while to get hooked. Black Silk is not exactly a comfort read, and does not offer instant gratification, meaning, no kisses until half-way through, and no hero/heroine love scene until the last fifty pages or so. But those readers who stick with it will be richly, splendidly rewarded. And that is a promise.

It’s on sale at Amazon for 1.99 here.

 


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