Mad for Love, Elizabeth Essex

What an adorable novella. (I bet you can guess what my criticism will be already.) Our French heroine, who has escaped from the French Revolution with her father, is a heroine I haven't often encountered -- she's tiny and agreeable and doesn't argue with anyone or plot or scheme. She's funny and adorable and agreeable, but not a wide-eyed ingenue or a sheltered optimist. It's hard to describe; I really liked her, even though the first half of the book is mostly her saying "Yes, Papa," or "Please stop forging art, Papa."

Our hero, Rory, is Scottish. He's an art-fraud-discovery specialist. He says "ye" instead of you about a million times, and although he was charming and funny, too, that was pretty annoying.

Mignon (her nickname) comes from a family of art forgers; Rory catches forgers for a living. And it doesn't go at all where you think it's going to. She's precious but not dumb; he's enamored of her and not dumb either. Very very charming, even though a quarter of the book is spent in a closet together, kissing and touching and swooning.

But then, because it's a novella, it just ends. He's been lying about who he is; she finds out; she's fine with it; they agree to get married. At the beginning of the last scene she has a moment of "oh god, oh no!" and cold sweats, but then by the end of the same scene she's absolutely fine with marrying a man she was just monologuing that she really knows nothing about. Just... one more scene would have helped that a lot.

Grade: B
#51 in 2016

Almost a Scandal, Elizabeth Essex

I LOVED THIS BOOK. Our heroine is from a family of sailors, and when her brother fails to go to sea she dresses up like him and goes in his place. Then she falls for a sailor, who -- get this -- also loves her! (He figures out almost immediately who she is, so there isn't too much Mulan to it.) What's GREAT is that she is the BEST and BRAVEST and SMARTEST sailor! She's so competent she keeps getting promoted, and everyone basically agrees she's amazing, except the villain, who she first confronts, and then ends up helping, because she is wonnnnnnnnderful. I loved her, I loved the romance, I loved how serious and competent everyone was.

Grade: A

#16 in 2016

A Breath of Scandal, Elizabeth Essex

This book was an absolute delight, with a couple of caveats. First, the good: I loved the hero. It's rare to find one with no dark secrets or lurking man pain. He's a sailor and he's lost his job since the defeat of Napoleon, and he's kind of bummed, but eh. It'll work out somehow. And I loved the heroine. She's feisty and competent. And they LIKE each other. Sure, their loins throb for each other, but they also just LIKE each other a lot. He calls her Preston, which I think is adorable.

On to the caveats: the bad guy (and the heroine's mom) are really bad. Like, super over the top ridiculously bad, with no redeeming qualities. That's fine, I don't need nuance in my villains, but there was nuance in the last Essex book I read, so I was startled. Second, there's a scene at the end where the heroine does something that's honestly just dumb. I rolled my eyes and briefly put the book down. Third, it ends kind of abruptly.

But overall, this whole series is a definite thumbs-up DO recommend.

Grade: B

#17 in 2016