Sue London

Marked as The Haberdashers #2.1, and as a Tale is apparently as clean as The Haberdashers isnt! At time of reading/reviewing, I haven't read other books in the series (Trials of Artemis being the first in the series) I couldn't possibly comment!

Anyway, this is a standalone book, where you dont need to know other characters elsewhere in the series to enjoy it. It's a short story length, and with virtually all the staff having been sent home for the Christmas holidays by Dibbs, the butler, there is a naturally reduced cast list to contend with.

Grace Ashman has been kicked out of the house by her (unseen) brother after the death of their remaining parent, all a week before Christmas. She has trailed through the streets of London, finding out who her true friends are - she has none it turns out - and after a week of walking the streets she takes the chance and knocks on a back door, which is opened by Joshua Dibbs the Butler.

Dibbs is on his own, after his master has gone to the country for Christmas, and Dibbs has left the staff take a few days for Christmas. He has no idea why he opened the door, or why he let the girl stay to dry out. However, he is thankful when the Earl returns to London earlier than expected, and with no cook or female servants in the house!

Turns out that Grace is a decent if simple cook, and is roped into cooking and cleaning duties until the main staff arrive back. She has to contend with outrageous flirting from the Earl's valet Whitman (who it turns out is Dibbs' cousin) but it goes nowhere but to force Dibbs into showing his hand under the mistletoe on Christmas day.

This is a short sweet novel, ideal book to wile away a few hours, no matter what the time of year. I'm certainly going to check out other books in this series, and see where we go!… (meer)

Marked as The Haberdashers #2.1, and as a Tale is apparently as clean as The Haberdashers isnt! At time of reading/reviewing, I haven't read other books in the series (Trials of Artemis being the first in the series) I couldn't possibly comment!

Anyway, this is a standalone book, where you dont need to know other characters elsewhere in the series to enjoy it. It's a short story length, and with virtually all the staff having been sent home for the Christmas holidays by Dibbs, the butler, there is a naturally reduced cast list to contend with.

Grace Ashman has been kicked out of the house by her (unseen) brother after the death of their remaining parent, all a week before Christmas. She has trailed through the streets of London, finding out who her true friends are - she has none it turns out - and after a week of walking the streets she takes the chance and knocks on a back door, which is opened by Joshua Dibbs the Butler.

Dibbs is on his own, after his master has gone to the country for Christmas, and Dibbs has left the staff take a few days for Christmas. He has no idea why he opened the door, or why he let the girl stay to dry out. However, he is thankful when the Earl returns to London earlier than expected, and with no cook or female servants in the house!

Turns out that Grace is a decent if simple cook, and is roped into cooking and cleaning duties until the main staff arrive back. She has to contend with outrageous flirting from the Earl's valet Whitman (who it turns out is Dibbs' cousin) but it goes nowhere but to force Dibbs into showing his hand under the mistletoe on Christmas day.

This is a short sweet novel, ideal book to wile away a few hours, no matter what the time of year. I'm certainly going to check out other books in this series, and see where we go!… (meer)

Plot: Jacqueline Walters is in a library searching for a book when Gideon Wolfe, an Earl, mistakes her for a woman he was meeting for a lovers tryst. When they are caught together by other members of the ton, Gideon panics and tells them that he and Jacqueline are engaged. Jack's furious because she never wanted to get married but after it's leaked that their engagement isn't real, Jack and Gideon are forced to get married the following morning. At first, their marriage isn't great fun because they disagree about everything and Gideon seems set on insulting Jack's honor even though *he* is the rake.

I've read quite a handful of historical fiction novels over the past couple of years but this book is my favorite by far. I love Jack, she's got a great character and personality that you can't help but love. There were a couple of times that Gideon got on my nerves but that's what the author intended so it wasn't really upsetting. Jack's love for her weapons was a very unique passion for any woman (even for current times) so I really enjoyed such a refreshing personality that I'd never read before.

I started the sequel yesterday, "Athena's Ordeal" and while I'm not as in love with it as I am with "Trials of Artemis," it's still a good read as well… (meer)

Originally posted on Tales to Tide You Over

I chose this book out of my digital to-be-read pile on a whim, looking for something light and quick. Well, it was neither, but Athena’s Ordeal was exactly what I needed. Some intrigue, lovely character clashes, and a mix of rejecting the rules of the time and having to conform to them.

Sue London provides delightful, strong characters with very different natures who manage to work together despite their differences. Sabre and her duke are a lovely couple who are ignorant of love until it binds the two of them together in an unbreakable bond. Which is not to say their path is easy.

Quincy Telford, Duke of Beloin, makes one horrible mistake before he learns love’s power, and a much worse one after that, but this book is true to the romance genre in that it all comes out right in the end. At the same time, we get to travel a rough, treacherous path that offers much entertainment on the way.

There is a horrifying background to this book that the characters are trying to learn to live with and resolve. A good bit of animosity exists between the different sides in the story, making the source of the blackmail that brings Sabre and Quincy together not easy to puzzle out. The sex is also quite explicit in an oddly innocent way, or not so oddly once the truth is revealed.

I really enjoyed my time with this cast and am curious about the others in the series, both Jack and Gideon before this book and now the mostly absentee George. That dark background helps to create an environment where the gentlemen must rise above their pasts and write a new, better future for themselves…or they could choose to wallow in their histories, but the first is a far more entertaining story if Athena’s Ordeal is anything to go by. Nor do the ladies stand aside to let their gentleman figure things out on their own. The ladies don’t call their club The Haberdashers for nothing, nor do they confine themselves to traditionally female pursuits.… (meer)