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Vivienne Lorret

Författare till How to Forget a Duke

23+ verk 1,117 medlemmar 100 recensioner

Serier

Verk av Vivienne Lorret

How to Forget a Duke (2018) 89 exemplar
Lord Holt Takes a Bride (2020) 88 exemplar
Ten Kisses to Scandal (2018) 78 exemplar
A Christmas to Remember (Anthology 4-in-1) (2017) — Bidragsgivare — 76 exemplar
The Rogue to Ruin (2019) 69 exemplar
My Kind of Earl (2020) 61 exemplar
Daring Miss Danvers (2014) 60 exemplar
The Debutante Is Mine (2016) 57 exemplar
Winning Miss Wakefield (2014) — Författare — 51 exemplar
The Devilish Mr. Danvers (2015) 49 exemplar
The Wrong Marquess (2021) 49 exemplar
This Earl Is on Fire (2016) 48 exemplar
The Elusive Lord Everhart (2015) 44 exemplar
When a Marquess Loves a Woman (2016) 43 exemplar

Associerade verk

Five Golden Rings [Anthology 5-in-1] (2012) — Bidragsgivare — 30 exemplar

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I think this was by far my favorite book of Lorret's with my favorite couple of hers. Rafe and Hedley were so wonderful. And I especially liked that we got more clues into Montwood - he's been a rather mysterious figure throughout and this book gave some better hints to his past (mainly in his interactions with Hedley).

And I can't tell you the number of times I teared up thinking about what was done to Hedley (and continued to be done, curse her family).
 
Flaggad
lexilewords | 4 andra recensioner | Dec 28, 2023 |
Back when I was part of Avon Addicts (in late 2012/early 2013) one of the books I reviewed as part of the holiday season was "Five Golden Rings", an anthology of Christmas short stories. Part of the collection included the precursor to Lorret's new series "Wallflower Weddings" called "Tempting Mr. Featherstone" it was my favorite story of the set in fact. We return now to watch as Penelope's three friends--Delaney, Emma and Merribeth--find their own true loves in adventures of their own.

Emma is, both in her opinion and the general opinion of everyone else (friend, family or otherwise), a decorous, modest young woman interested in propriety. She has to be else she will never find a suitable husband; not with her "artiste" parents disgracing her and her older brother Rafe's best friend Oliver Rathburn glaring all eligible young men away during balls. Which is perfect for Oliver since she also happens to be not only the only young lady that his severe grandmother approves of (thus helping him gain his inheritance finally), but also the only woman he can think of as a perfect match for him.

This begins more or less how you'd expect a romance of its kind to--Emma and Oliver are constantly at swords point with each other. Oliver flirts outrageously with her, getting away with it mostly because Emma has the most lackadaisical parents and chaperone I have ever read in a historical romance. Meanwhile Emma silently laments never hearing her parents say "We're so proud of you", they finally say as much because they believe she's running head first into catastrophe! Its not that they're neglectful or cruel or unloving; at some point they said FU to the ton and became happier for it so they want their daughter to find that same level of happiness.

In no time at all Oliver realizes that the bumble broth he's found himself in is not causing him anxiety at all, in fact he is vastly excited about the prospect and wants Emma to feel the same way. Which good luck to that since Emma is certain he is not serious and besides she wants someone who grounds her, not encourages her to make out in public with him causing scandal.

This was a thoroughly enjoyable book, but as much as I liked the characters I found myself wincing any time Emma's parents appeared. Their acceptance of Oliver's faux engagement plan was just too easy. Neither so much as batted an eyelash at what could, at the very worst, destroy their daughter's chances at marriage to anyone even partially acceptable.

And honestly the dancing around their emotions thing seemed to go on forever. Don't get me wrong, Oliver realizes much quicker then Emma his feelings, but neither was in a hurry to vocalize said feelings even as they both fretted over various disasters (not the least of which was Emma's brother, who I'm pretty sure would have gotten over it if he had seen how openly in love the two were with each other).

I found Emma (and Oliver by proxy)'s battle of wills with Oliver's grandmother, the dowager duchess, to be far more entertaining. On the one hand the dowager was everything Emma hoped to one day be--upright, seen as a beacon of propriety despite her family's eccentricities and a formidable hostess. However the lady terrifies her and really she doesn't want to inspire that feeling in people.

The set up for both Delaney and Merribeth's romances (of which Merribeth is next, with "Winning Miss Wakefield") are present, but don't distract. Neither does the continuation of Penelope's romance (and aren't they just the cutest pair ever?). Really if Oliver and Emma had just admitted things a little sooner I would have been perfectly happy to watch them join forces to beat the dowager at her own game for the rest of the novel!
… (mer)
 
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lexilewords | 8 andra recensioner | Dec 28, 2023 |
3.5 stars

I received this book for free, this does not affect my opinion of the book or the content of my review

“Because her grandson, the Duke of Longhurst, and I are engaged to be married.”

Verity is the serious, plain, and at almost twenty-six years of age, spinster sister of the Hartley family. Her two younger sisters are beauties and with a scandal that had her father accused of masterminding a swindling deal and older brother that was forced to leave his architecture apprentice job to join a merchant ship, her prospects don't look too inviting. Which is why when her neighbor nemesis is mocking her again, Verity, the staid, responsible one, lies convincingly for the first time about being engaged to the Duke of Longhurst.

“But it will still be a lie, all the same.”
“Not for this week. I fully intend to treat you as I would if we were betrothed. Therefore”—his lungs expanded and contracted on a resigned breath—“Miss Hartley, for the next seven days, will you consent to be my betrothed?”


Magnus is on the brink of finally righting his family's fortune after his father lost it all in the Hartley swindle with a betrothal to the Button King's daughter, Anna Snow. When a rumor reaches London that he is already engaged, Anna's father is, rightly, upset. Magnus promises to get things sorted out within a week and travels to the village that his grandmother and former bestfriend, Truman Hartley's family live. With his grandmother's advice of not looking like the jerk that breaks off the engagement that everyone seems to believe, when he confronts Verity about the lie, they both agree to act engaged for one week, before Verity will break it off.

He wasn’t drawn to her out of a need to tame her. For some inexplicable reason, she had unleashed something wild inside of him.

It had to Be a Duke is the start to the new Liar's Club series and with it's light angst and back and forth couple, it was a fun start. When Verity and Magnus are together, which was wonderfully for most of the book, they had an amusing chemistry with Verity pushing Magnus to his brink with either her word play with him or his protective nature over all the scrapes she gets herself into. They pretty much banter throughout the book and while I can see some thinking it goes on too long, I liked how each banter session had Magnus cracking just a little more. He can't let go because he thinks he needs to marry an heiress to refill his estate coffers and allow for his younger brother to come back home and “live the life he was promised” by their father. Magnus is pressured and guilt tripped by his mom and there is still that lingering animosity Magnus has for Verity's father.

Verity hated the Duke of Longhurst. He was the most maddening, vexing man she had ever had the misfortune to know.

After the week together in Verity's village, they shared a kiss, Magnus kind of hightails it back to London, still determined to marry his heiress. With some maneuvering by his grandmother, she and Verity go to London and there Magnus can't seem to get away from her, especially when Verity and Anna become good friends. Magnus has his issues and we get a better look at how Verity has her own, feeling like the always forgotten plain one due to men paying more attention to her sisters and a governess who liked to lock her in closets. Verity can't quite believe that Magnus would want her, it's a little comedy of errors when every time they're together Magnus is fighting his attraction and Verity thinks he's fighting the urge to throttle her.

But, perhaps, he just didn’t want her to feel alone.

The latter second half has the mystery of what really went down with the swindle deal and we get some danger, suspense, and mystery characters revealed and explained. There is an open door bedroom scene and an ending third act breakup that felt a little forced but I'll accept it because it did eventually lead to a pretty big grin inducing move by Magnus.

And when she smiled up at him without the slightest degree of maidenly shyness, he knew he was too far gone to resist her.

There were times where I really enjoyed this and times where I thought it started dragging. I just felt like the story wasn't quite shored up right, this did have a lot of little and big elements outside of the romance and I'm not sure they were structured or laid out cohesively, probably first in a series syndrome. There were plenty of series baiting characters, Anna and revealed mystery character and the story ending with Verity's sister's supposed to be made up betrothed viscount showing up at their house.

It was just that, somewhere along the way, she had stopped hating him quite so much. And all this not hating him was making her heart ache.

There was also a desk scene I don't want to forget to mention (Pushing back the chair, he stood in front of her. “You’ve made me waste a lot of ink, I hope you know.”) that was sweet with it's finally dawning on Verity what Magnus' feelings truly are when she finds some of his keepsakes and then steamy when he shows some of those feelings, very smile inducing. Even with some of my complaints, I did just plain enjoy the lighter angst relationship of these two, I'll always love a lead slowing breaking down for another lead.
… (mer)
 
Flaggad
WhiskeyintheJar | Nov 15, 2023 |
This was adorable and sexy and made me laugh with the two leads relationship. And the obstacles keeping the couple apart weren't too hard to overcome nor too easy.
 
Flaggad
msmattoon | 5 andra recensioner | Aug 24, 2023 |

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Statistik

Verk
23
Även av
2
Medlemmar
1,117
Popularitet
#22,994
Betyg
3.9
Recensioner
100
ISBN
68
Språk
1

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