Hard Country (Kerney Family #1) / Michael McGarrity / 608 pages

I read this for a book club and I likely would not have picked it up otherwise. However, lately, when I find myself forced to read a western, I end up really enjoying it. This book is no exception. This is the first book in a trilogy, and I actually really want to know what happens next.

The book starts off with a young man and his pregnant wife living in rural Texas, with the designs of building a ranch. However, the wife dies after giving birth to a son and the man's brother and son are killed by horse thieves. The man gives his sister-in-law his infant son to care for while he goes in search of the murderers. Thus begins a story of revenge, family, horses, ranches, war, and the old west spanning three generations and 43 years.

I especially loved that the characters were complex and multi-dimensional. Not every "villain" you meet turns out to be a bad guy and not every person you expect to be a good guy is all that terribly good. I absolutely loved it!

Persuasion / Jane Austen / 290 pages

Bonus categories: Audiobook, Stories with a TV/movie adaptation

This was a re-read for me--one of my favorite novels by Jane Austen. I listened to two different versions, one from Dreamscape Media on Hoopla and one from Blackstone Publishing on Overdrive and preferred the latter, narrated by Nadia May, though both were well-done.

The premise of the story is this: Eight years before the novel begins, Anne Elliot is happily betrothed to a naval officer, Frederick Wentworth, but she breaks off the engagement when persuaded by her friend Lady Russell that she is too young and inexperienced for such a match. The breakup produces in Anne a deep and long-lasting regret. When Wentworth returns from sea eight years later as a rich and successful captain, he and Anne are thrown into company again by mutual friends who know nothing of the previous events. Anne has the pain of witnessing Captain Wentworth wooing other women while she herself is being pursued by interested men, and the story sifts through various changes until the quick and dizzying conclusion!

Jane Austen has always been one of my favorite authors because of her ironic observations on social custom, love, and marriage. In Persuasion even more than her other novels, we see the differences of rank and situation found in Regency English society and what all those differences entail. There are also many observations on life and society in the English countryside versus Bath, and I would recommend this to anyone with a love for classic British literature or a curiosity about life among the gentility of early 19th-century England.

The Study of Seduction/ Sabrina Jeffries / 357 pgs

This is easily one of the best historical romances I've read this year. I don't read Sabrina Jeffries all that often but heard this book had a story element I love--unbeknownst to the heroine, the hero has been attracted to her for some time. Edwin is an earl who's a bit grumpy (I love a grumpy hero!), doesn't have much of an inclination for all the social niceties, and is interested in making automatons. He has known social butterfly Clarissa for a few years through a friend/family connection. Clarissa thinks he's very stuffy and always criticizing her. They are thrown together when Clarissa's cousin, the head of their family, is called out of the country and he asks Edwin to watch over her. She needs watching over her because the acting French ambassador is stalking her. The reason for that was fairly obvious to me but that didn't detract from the story.

Clarissa has a traumatic secret in her past which, word of warning, is described in enough detail that it might upset some readers. I thought the portrayal of Clarissa post-trauma was really well done as was Edwin's handling of the revelation of that incident. While there are peripheral external subplots going on, this is truly a sweet romance between a curmudgeon and a resilient woman. Read it if you get the chance.

Charming Sir Charles/ Anna Campbell / 140 pgs

This is just a novella but it was exactly what I needed--short, sweet, romantic. Sally is a widow who endured a 10-year marriage to an unpleasant man. He wasn't physically abusive but definitely didn't treat his wife well. Sally is now trying to launch her niece into Society and a good marriage and she thinks Sir Charles is about to propose to the niece. Charles, however, is in love with Sally and everyone of their friends and even the niece seems to realize this. Everyone except Sally, of course. She's oblivious but finds herself falling for Charles but doesn't let on that she'd be crushed if he married her niece. The story got a little angsty toward the end but luckily Charles shook some sense into Sally and they were able to live happily ever after:-)

The Unexpected Duchess/Valerie Bowman/368 pgs

I am an unabashed lover of historical romance but this, unfortunately, was not my cup of tea (pun intended, though really no cup is my tea because I do not care for tea!). Lucy is an outspoken young miss who never learned to curb her tongue and scares off all the gentlemen. Derek is a war hero who was just created a duke. He promised his dying soldier friend that he would marry a lady named Cassandra. Cassandra is Lucy's friend and she doesn't want to marry this new duke because she's in love with someone else. So she asks Lucy to use her sharp tongue and help her scare off Derek. As generally happens, Lucy and Derek end up falling for each other. This would definitely be considered a Regency romp. There are funny parts but the characters seem very young, and honestly theywould have been more at home in a contemporary novel than a historical. Still, Bowman writes well and if you are looking for something lighthearted and fun, this just might be YOUR cup of tea.

Lady of Sin/Madeline Hunter/432 pgs

I really enjoyed this book! It's the seventh book in the Seducers series but I haven't read them all and was still able to follow this one just fine.

Charlotte, a widow, and Nathaniel, an earl's son who has disappointed his father by becoming a criminal defender, have never got along. They spend much of their time bickering. One night, however, Charlotte attends a scandalous masquerade party and seduces Nathaniel. Oddly, the author doesn't show this scene but starts the story about a month later. Charlotte and Nathaniel are thrown together for a bunch of different reasons, including solving a mystery.

This is a wonderful story of two mature adults slowly falling for each other. These two do not have misunderstandings because they actually talk to each other. They also know each other well enough to call the other out for trying to hide their true feelings.

This was a truly lovely romance that left me with a smile on my face:)