Showing posts with label Loretta Chase. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Loretta Chase. Show all posts

Friday, 2 January 2015

My Best of 2014

2014: what a bumper year for reading. I had set a fairly modest target of 100 books for the year, given that once I had finished off my degree in the first half of the year, I would have a good six months or more to complete the target. Then, in early February, I stumbled across some intriguing reading challenges on Pinterest that I was compelled to undertake. I've been tracking my progress throughout the year in the column to the right and regular readers of this blog will know that as the year has drawn to a close, it has become ever-harder to 'fit' my reads into the categories that I've had left. I wasn't able to complete all three of my reading bingo challenges, but that's for another post.

I did manage, however, to complete my original target of 100 books - exactly. According to my Shelfari profile, my 100 reads can be broken down in genres roughly as follows:


Romance - 47
Steampunk - 7
Children's - 4
New adult - 2
Young adult - 16
Anthology/serial -7
Non-fiction - 5
Chick lit - 2
Urban fantasy - 2
Fiction - 4
Fantasy - 3
Crime - 1

Romance clearly takes up the bulk of my reads, but I've used the heading to encompass the sub-genres of contemporary, historical, medieval and erotica, amongst others. About 12 were re-reads and what re-reads they were. 2014 will be memorable not only for discovering new authors and titles, but re-discovering ones that I've loved in the past.

This is now my third 'Best of the year' post since I started this blog in February 2012. It's always hard to narrow down my favourite reads, and this year was no different. I came across my first favourite of the year very early on, and they didn't stop coming. By the end of the year, I had around 20 'favourites' that have been further (painfully) slimmed down, as follows below (in order of review):


1. Deeper by Robin York, a pseudonym for Ruthie Knox (2014) (reviewed 10-03-2014, Grade A+) (YA reading bingo challenge: A book that made you cry)
Ruthie Knox was my favourite new-to-me author of 2013 and this year, she didn't disappoint. 2014 saw Ruthie Knox tryng her hand at new adult, proving that she's just as adept at this hot new genre as she is at contemporary romance. Deeper and its sequel Harder follows college student Caroline Piasecki when she becomes a victim of revenge porn at the hands of her ex-boyfriend. Bad boy West Leavitt is the last person anyone expects to come to Caroline's aid, but he teaches her how to ignore the haters and accept herself and find joy again in her life. A gritty story that will make you cry - in the best way.


Monday, 17 November 2014

Scandal Wears Satin

Scandal Wears Satin (2012) (Avon)
Loretta Chase
Grade: A
Genre: historical romance
Sex scenes: hot
Source: own
Dressmakers: (1) Silk is for Seduction, (2) Scandal Wears Satin
Romance RBC 2014: A Cabin/Road Romance 

The middle Noirot sister, it is said that Sophia ‘Sophy’ Noirot could sell sand to the Bedouins. As adept a dressmaker as her sisters, Sophy’s true talents lie in writing, and she’s depended upon to infiltrate Society’s grand balls and events, to take note of every last detail of who’s wearing what and who danced with whom to write her column for Fox’s Spectacle, the gossip that everyone in London is reading. Marcelline, Sophy and Leonie need to win over more-high-ranking names in society to their shop, in particular, Lady Warford, who just happens to be their greatest enemy after Marcelline married the Duke of Clevedon, the man who was promised to her daughter.


Saturday, 15 November 2014

Silk is for Seduction by Loretta Chase

Silk is for Seduction (2012) (Harlequin)
Loretta Chase
Grade: A
Genre: historical romance
Sex scenes: hot
Source: own
Dressmakers: (1) Silk is for Seduction
Romance RBC 2014: An Eurasian Historical 

Marcelline Noirot is the best modiste in the country – if not the World – London just doesn’t know it yet. With a modest shop on Fleet Street with her two younger sisters, the Noirots are the three daughters of Edward Noirot, of the disreputable branch of one of France’s noble families, and Catherine DeLucey, of England’s Dreadful DeLucey’s who together, cheated and swindled, lied and manipulated their way through whatever life threw at them. Their offspring are only slightly more honest, determined to see their humble dressmaker shop become the biggest and best in town. When they learn that the Duke of Clevedon is soon to be returning from Paris in order to marry, the sisters decide that this is their path to becoming London’s top dressmaker: they must dress the Duchess of Clevedon.