Lynne Barron

Emily is a twenty-four year old heiress to a grand plantation home and horse farm in 1826 Maryland, but her life isn’t balls and proper society. She’s forced by her father to raise her younger siblings and to manage the farm, but she enjoys this. She’s a hoyden and her mischief turns the family into a laughingstock. When her fiancé leaves her, her father sends her to England for an arranged marriage her aunt set up. Emily became sick on board the ship and she’s so depressed and scared about how her life is turning out that she abuses her medicine, laudanum. She finds escape in the little blue bottle and her life quickly unravels even more.
Nicholas is desperate to marry to save the family home, title and dwindling fortune but backs out of the almost betrothal after the scandal a drug-addled Emily created among the Ton. No one knew about her problem until it was almost too late and the scar now on her body doesn’t compare to the one in her heart.
This book starts strong with believable characters. Emily is a very strong-willed woman but she loses sight of who she is. All she’s ever known among her family and life in Maryland is spousal betrayal, pain and humiliation. She wants better and drowns her sorrows in drugs since she thinks she’ll never have it. Nick is a proper man bound by honor to help his family and to secure their happiness, but he meets an addict and cannot follow through with his promise. When Nick and Emily meet again months after she’s clean, romance blossoms but Emily’s self-esteem is fragile and she doesn’t trust Nick to love her and to stay loyal to her as she deserves.
Most of the side characters brought a lot of depth to the story. Emily’s father and aunt, Charles and Margaret respectively, love Emily but didn’t know how to help her. Nick’s father, brother and sister are delightful characters and I love the relationship between the father, Andrew, Viscount Talbolt, and Aunt Margaret, Lady Morris. Bernice, Adelaide and Lucy were great friends to Emily, Veronica was the antagonist and rival for Nick’s affection, and Jamison was Nick’s mysterious best friend. A few other side characters played bit roles while even more seemed to be filler.
The pacing slowed in the middle of the book and seemed rushed at the end. In my opinion, the author introduced a few minor characters not needed for the story which slowed the pacing. The reader is left to speculate through the majority of the book about what happened to scar up Emily’s chest but, since it’s not described until the end, my assumption didn’t match up to what the author wrote. That’s pretty annoying since I read the book with this one idea in mind. By the end, there were a lot of loose ends not tied up. The reader is left to wonder about who is trying to force Veronica to marry and why is she so mean, why did Jamison refuse Bernice’s love even though he loves her and why is he so cold and seemingly unfeeling (I was dying to learn more about this couple!), why did Nick buy the box at the apothecary shop and what happened with all the other couples in the story. It was hard to keep track of who was falling in love with whom because there were so many side characters.
The book needs another round of editing. Periods are missing and wrong words are being used. It’s written in third person, sometimes in passive, and the POV occasionally shifts from each main character to a few side characters without scene breaks. The shifts were well-written, however, so I usually knew who was talking and thinking.
I haven’t read many romance books where the female lead is the drug addict. It was refreshing to see the downfall, recovery and forgiveness from the female perspective. Emily and Nick are wonderful, three-dimensional characters with flaws and a lot of heart, but I’m debating on giving the book 3.5 to 4 stars. With editing, tightening up the middle section and the addition of an epilogue to wrap up the loose ends, this is easily a 5 star story. I hope there will be a sequel (starring Jamison and Bernice please!) to answer the above questions but I think I’ll round up to 4 just because I really enjoyed the story.
4 Stars

Disclaimer – I won a print copy of this book through a contest. I am a reader. I am not paid or compensated in any way, shape or form for this honest review. I will not change or alter this review for any reason unless at my discretion.
… (meer)

So, the writing style of this was great. I loved the heroine and the side characters and most of the backstory. However, at 74% I had to stop reading, and I absolutely won’t finish this book. Not only does the hero take every opportunity he can to think the worst of the heroine, even though he knows the people he is getting his information from are not reliable, but - and this just really ruins it for me, he plans to rape her, twice. For some unholy reason the text presents the sex in these two events as passionate and pleasant for the heroine, but honestly? I can’t root for a piece of sh*** who basically decides itˋs okay to assault a woman who trusts him, just because she didn’t tell him the truth about absolutely everything......

I‘m not putting this under a spoiler, because if a romance novel has two rape scenes I feel like readers should be warned beforehand....… (meer)

Thank you Net Galley and Booktrope for the chance to read this book. Here is my honest review.

I was eager to read this book once I had read the synopsis. I work within the drug and alcohol addiction field and work with people that are in recovery from their addictions. I also love any form of historical romance. I wanted to see what an author could do with both historical romance and drug addiction. Lynne Barron has blended the two elements together very well. Emily Calvert the main focus character was well done. She struggles through the illness of the putrid throat and then been given laudanum by a doctor her father finds for her on the way to England. It is clear that the author took a lot of time to research the effects of opiates. Not just on the body but also the fragile mind. She also explored the apothecary's that sold the drug in "pretty blue bottles". She has also given her character at great deal of depth and pure human emotions and raw fears.

Emily has a tough time at the start of the book, being jilted at the beginning by a man she thought she loved. Then being forced to go to England to marry a man she had never met, in a country she had no wish to go to. Her romance with Nicholas Avery was a highlight of book for me. It was nice to see that they explored their emotions the good and the bad. I love the characters of the aunt and Emily's "Da". These two made me laugh alot but in a good way.

All in all an amazing book 5 out 5 stars. I can't wait to read more novels by the author.… (meer)

Courting Chaos by Lynne Barron
Dunaway Daughters #2

Dunaway is a rake and roué who even as he gets older is appealing to women. With six daughters – some born of his wife and some not – he has his hands rather full. Five of his daughters love him – one does not. That one who is not his fan is Hesperia Eris O’Connell – Harry – and she wants to see Dunaway put in his place and the place she has in mind is not a good one.

Into this mix steps a new Viscount, Phineas Griffith. He needs money to refurbish his homes, his lands, provide funds for his sisters coming out and well, he needs money for just about everything. He never expected to inherit a title and then to inherit one that has been ground to dust and has loans out the wazoo is a bit daunting. He needs a wife with MONEY. So what happens? He meets Harry and finds her charming, challenging and entrancing. What is a man to do? Does he follow his heart and live a poor life or does he go for the girl with gold lined pockets? The two lead one another a merry dance as they court a bit while Harry puts in place the threads that will “save” her sisters and at the same time bring her biological father down.

There were moments in the story that made me think of the movie “Working Girl” – because both Harry and Tess stayed abreast of what was happening in the world and this put them ahead of others when dealing with finances. They were also alluring, attractive and adventurous. One other thing that intrigued me was the many alliterative phrases threaded through the book. They were a delight and so was this novel.

I have said it before and will say it again; I like this author’s writing. I like the people she populates her books with. They are not perfect but they are perfect in the story and the story is always well told. I am eager to read the next Dunaway daughter’s book when it comes out – or – any other book that the author might decide to write.

Thank you to the author for the copy of this delightful novel – this is my honest review.

5 Stars… (meer)