Book Review: Because of Miss Bridgerton

Title: Because of Miss Bridgerton
Author: Julia Quinn
Publisher: Avon Romance
Date Published: March 2016

Billie Bridgerton is no ordinary lady of the manor. The eldest child, she has been raised like a son, and age 23 has taken over the running of her family's estate while her younger brother is away at Eton for schooling. Billie is plainly a tom,  more comfortable on her home estate and that of the neighboring Rokesby family. She is more comfortable running around in breeches, riding, and reading about agricultural improvements than planning house parties and embroidery, and the husband market. Everyone in her family and the Rokesby family expect her to marry either Edward and Andrew the Rokesby  boys she ran wild with as a child. 

However, while rescuing a detested cat from a tree, Billie becomes stranded and injured and is rescued from her plight by the eldest Rokesby son George. The wild Billie and the reserved George have never gotten on and Billie is not very happy to see him at the foot of the ladder. When Billie's mother the Lady Bridgerton  plans a house party Billie is unable to get around due to her sprained ankle. George makes it his job to help Billie out until she can get around on her own. With the two spending so much time together, an attraction forms and the tumultuous relationship starts to change as sparks begin to fly between the two in a different sort of way. When George kisses Billie, they both are shocked by each other's response.

I picked this up on a whim when at Walgreen's waiting on a prescription a few weeks back. I had a wait while my order was finished up and I didn't have a book with me to read while waiting. I picked this one up because I have read other books by Julia Quinn before and was in the mood for a historical romance. I enjoyed this book quite a bit. It is the first book in the Rokesby series which is a prequel series to Julia Quinn's Bridgerton Series. I enjoyed the two main characters and their elevation of tentative friendship into romance. Billie is headstrong and beautiful and stubborn. George is reserved as is expected of the Rokesby  heir. However for years he has envies the freedom and fun his siblings and the Bridgeton children have. this was a ligthearted tale of  finding friendship and love where once there was a back and forth feeling of detest between the two.  This was a very light and quick read perfect for the summer.

Book Review: What The Librarian Did by Karina Bliss

When Rachel meets Devin she has no idea who he is. She develops a friendship with him that quickly becomes more as mutual attraction flares between both adults. However, Devin's friendship and mentor ship of young musician and fellow student Mark threatens to keep the two possible lovers apart.

Mark confides to Devin that he is looking for his birth mother, whom he has never seen but knows works at the Aukland University. He only knows she was a teenager when she put him up for adoption, and wants to show her how being abandoned feels. To find out why she gave him away and in revenge make her feel the conflict he has felt since he discovered he was adopted.

Cautious librarian Rachel's past holds a huge secret that has defined her life for seventeen years. As a teen she made a decision to give up the child from a teen pregnancy. At the start of the school term she sees Mark and recognizes him for who he really is. When her friendship with Devin becomes more than just a casual acquaintanceship she is torn with sharing with him. Because she knows the knowledge will change the relationships she is forming with both Mark and Devin as well as strain Devin's friendship with Mark.

Can she learn to cope with her growing attraction to "bad boy" Devin? Will she find a way to introduce who she really is to Mark without alienating him?

I received this from Shaunesay a few days ago. I actually read this during commute time and finished it this afternoon. It was a fun read. However, there were things included to I'm guessing broaden the characters that were introduced but then never explored. It left the characters a bit flat and not as fully rounded out as they could have been. I'm guessing this was due to the length as it was a fairly short book.

But that aside, I loved the three main characters, Mark - fresh at college trying to find his birth mother for possibly wrong reasons. Devin Freedman retired superstar musician who is starting school in an attempt to change his life, and leave the rock and roll lifestyle behind, and Rachel Robinson a campus librarian with a pension for vintage clothing.

Book Review: The House on the Shore by Victoria Howard

Read and reviewed for Armchair Interviews

Anna MacDonald has been betrayed! The coveted teaching position she has been waiting to get has been given to the other woman that her boss, and boyfriend, has been sleeping with. In anger, Anna quits her job, gives up her flat in Edinburgh, and takes off for the only place that she has ever felt truly happy. Anna’s late grandmother’s croft, located on the shores of Loch Hourn, in the Scottish Highlands.


The croft is isolated. Anna has no phone, no close neighbors, and only her two border collies for company. Her plan for the summer is to nurse her broken heart and pride back to normal while working on the novel she has been yearning to write for years. She doesn’t plan for company during this time. Especially not the unexpectedly handsome company offered in the form of the slightly rude American who knocks at her door one morning.

Luke Tallantyre is a well known artist from Cape Cod Massachusetts. Faced with an artistic dry spell, he has set sail for the unknown wilds of Scotland. He has braved the Atlantic Ocean alone, and has come to Loch Hourn. When his yacht develops a navigational problem, he ends up knocking on Anna’s door for help.

Anna is more than a little resentful of Luke’s intrusion. Faced with an attraction she doesn’t know how to handle after her last rejection, she finds him an unwelcome distraction into her hermetic life. However, when an unknown assassin tries several times to kill both Anna and Luke, they find themselves thrown together in an attempt to find out why.

Will Anna and Luke find out who is trying to kill them and why? Will either of them realize the opportunity for true love that arises during the time they spend together?

I really enjoyed this book. The story drew me in quickly. I found myself having to pace my reading speed in order not to rush through the book. I enjoyed Victoria Howard’s descriptions of the Scottish Highlands, and Loch Hourn. They made me even more convinced that this is a part of the world that I want to someday visit. This was a very compelling story, and I totally enjoyed it despite it being a very quick read. It was one of those rare books that left me thinking "I can't be done yet!" when I turned the last page.

Book Review: Love, Suburban Style by Wendy Markham

Read and reviewed for Armchair Interviews.

The fatal day that everything fell apart, Meg Addams decided to leave Manhattan for the wholesome suburban life-style of Glenhaven Park. The small suburban town that she grew up in. She assumed that moving out of the big city wasn’t going to be a problem for either her or her fifteen year old daughter Cosette. Well, other that re-adjusting their lives from the rhythms of the city that never sleeps to those of small town living. However there were things Meg hadn’t expected that were making that transition a less than easy experience.

Glenhaven Park had, in Meg’s absence changed. Many of the inhabitants were more wealthy than the blue-collared inhabitants Meg grew up with, the main street has been invaded by upscale boutiques and posh eateries. On top of everything else, Meg had not expected her house to be truly haunted (although it had that reputation when she was a kid). She also did not expect her next door neighbor to her high school crush. Neither did she expect the fact that he was a hunk and that she found herself attracted to him still.

What follows is a wacky story of homecoming, romance and finding ones place in new but familiar surroundings. Meg and her daughter bump into each other (teen conflict combined with the added stresses of moving), their home’s un-earthly co-inhabitant, and their new neighbor Sam and his two children. While Meg and Sam try and figure out their attraction to each other, Cosette and Ben (Sam’s eldest), find themselves attracted to each other and in a fledgling relationship of their own. Wendy Markham has written a contemporary romance that will please the older chick lit fan with a quick paced and movingly funny plot. This book has a quirky and funny look at life as a single mom dealing with major life changes, a teen age daughter who is testing her limits, a ghostly inhabitant who may or may approve of sharing a house with Meg and Cosette, and a growing attraction to her neighbor Sam.

Book Review: The Price of Pride by Donna MacQuigg

Read and reviewed for armchair interviews


In her third novel, Donna MacQuigg takes her readers to the wild west of New Mexico. It is 1892, New Mexico has recently become a state, and its capitol city of Santa Fe is trying to become a more civilized place than its surrounding towns.
U.S. Marshal Ira Ferrell has returned to Santa Fe from his posting in Carefree, Arizona after the death of his youngest brother Zachary and his fiancé Emily Brighton. He is also trying to find any info about the death of a fellow lawman, who had been working undercover to find and arrest people involved in a cattle smuggling ring rumored to be operating in the area. He thinks that perhaps the fire his brother died in may have not been accidental.

Ms Sarah Brighton is the sole surviving relative that Zachary's fiancé Emily had. She lives in St. Louis where she is a reporter. When she finds out about her cousin Emily's death. She gets on a train to SantaFe to find out more about the death, and to take care of her cousin's affairs. She arrives to find that in the time between being notified of the death. and arriving that her cousin has been buried alongside her fiancé Zachary out in the Ferrell family plot. It is while going through Emily's belongings that Sarah finds a strange button shaped like the head of a lion, which had been clutched in her cousin's hand when they found her and Zachary, and comes to the conclusion that maybe her cousin's death was not an accident.

What follows is a tale filled with mystery, suspense and romance. Ira and Sarah look through the clues left behind and find themselves digging up much more than they expected to find. They butt heads and lose their hearts to each other as they try to expose the murderer, bring the members of a cattle rustling ring to justice, and keep each other alive when the bullets start flying.

ISBN 10: 1594144648
ISBN-13: 9781594144646
Publisher: Thomson Gale
Publication Date: May 2006
Binding: Hardcover