Helpful Score: 2
This was an interesting read. A historical romance, yes...but you get sucked in to the story as if you were at the elbow of the heroine. Now, I might add, the ending was spectacular, so any boredom before the last 3 - 6 chapters is brushed out of your mind. You will love the ending, and the rest of the story builds up well to it, even if at some points it was dull or repetitive. Enjoy this read though, because the underlying story is beautiful :) And, you'll never believe "whodunnit"!!
Helpful Score: 1
This was a very enjoyable book. It does tend to start slow but picks up and is well worth the read.
Very enjoyable, one of the author's best.
I so enjoy reading about heroines who attempt to shape their on lives. In Countess Confidential, the Heroine goes so far as to try and solve a crime. So she must be clever and resourceful as well as charming enough not to raise the suspections of others. A good read.
A good read!
Clair Hollybrooke, whose mother had been disowned by her noble family because she married a tutor, has taken a disguise as a widow and uses a fictitious name in order to work as a companion to a young woman making her come-out. Although the family she works for is unaware of it, he is actually Claire's grandfather, the Marquess of Warrington, and the young girl she's to companion is her first cousin. Claire's father, a scholar and an author, has been jailed for theft; Bow Street believes he's the thief known as The Wraith who steals jewels from aristrocrats. Claire thinks her grandfather is involved so she takes this position in his home which takes Claire into the path of her cousin's suitor, Simon Croft, the Earl of Rockford, who secretly works for Bow Street. From the moment they first met, they were attracted to each other........
I didn't read this book but it got four and a half stars on Amazon.com.
Here is a review for it;
Claire knows that her father, Gilbert, is not the notorious thief known as the wraith. But the fact that her father is a noted Shakespearean scholar, that the thief always leaves a Shakespeare quote at the scene of the crime, and that a stolen diamond bracelet is found in her father's desk is proof enough for the police. Claire believes that someone in the aristocratic Warrington household--the same family that disowned her mother when she married Gilbert--is the real thief. Claire dons a disguise and becomes the latest chaperone to Lady Rosabel Thathrop, the youngest daughter of the house, in order to find the evidence she needs, never imagining that her plan will put her in the path of Simon Croft, Rosabel's latest suitor, and the man who helped put her father in prison. In her latest elegantly written and subtly sexy Regency, Smith neatly untangles a complex plot composed of equal measures of desire and danger.
Here is a review for it;
Claire knows that her father, Gilbert, is not the notorious thief known as the wraith. But the fact that her father is a noted Shakespearean scholar, that the thief always leaves a Shakespeare quote at the scene of the crime, and that a stolen diamond bracelet is found in her father's desk is proof enough for the police. Claire believes that someone in the aristocratic Warrington household--the same family that disowned her mother when she married Gilbert--is the real thief. Claire dons a disguise and becomes the latest chaperone to Lady Rosabel Thathrop, the youngest daughter of the house, in order to find the evidence she needs, never imagining that her plan will put her in the path of Simon Croft, Rosabel's latest suitor, and the man who helped put her father in prison. In her latest elegantly written and subtly sexy Regency, Smith neatly untangles a complex plot composed of equal measures of desire and danger.
New York Times bestselling author Barbara Dawson Smith mesmerizes readers once again in her latest novel of a woman forced to enter the aristocratic world she despisesonly to find a man she can't live without
Dear Reader,
This is the story of how I, a penniless upstart, became a countess.
I never set out to be the heroine in a romantic tale of derring-do. As a spinster of five-and-twenty, I was much too practical to imagine myself tracking a dangerous criminal or falling prey to ardent nonsense. Nor did I ever envision myself entering the gilded ballrooms of society where indolent aristocrats nibbled cake and traded gossip. But that was before my father was wrongfully imprisoned as a jewel thief.
Determined to uncover the true criminal, I posed as an impoverished widow and secured a post in the grand household of a noble family the very family that had cruelly cast out my mother many years ago. Of course, they knew not who I was. To them, I was merely a servant, an invisible hireling. And little did I know, my daring plan would throw me into the path of Simon Croft, the almighty Earl of Rockford.
Arrogant, charming, and too handsome for his own good, he might have walked straight off a pedestal in a museum. I had no use for such a rogue, yet from the moment of our first meeting, he tempted my unruly heart. And soon, he threatened my schemes as well, for Simon had secrets of his own.
Claire, the Countess of Rockford
Dear Reader,
This is the story of how I, a penniless upstart, became a countess.
I never set out to be the heroine in a romantic tale of derring-do. As a spinster of five-and-twenty, I was much too practical to imagine myself tracking a dangerous criminal or falling prey to ardent nonsense. Nor did I ever envision myself entering the gilded ballrooms of society where indolent aristocrats nibbled cake and traded gossip. But that was before my father was wrongfully imprisoned as a jewel thief.
Determined to uncover the true criminal, I posed as an impoverished widow and secured a post in the grand household of a noble family the very family that had cruelly cast out my mother many years ago. Of course, they knew not who I was. To them, I was merely a servant, an invisible hireling. And little did I know, my daring plan would throw me into the path of Simon Croft, the almighty Earl of Rockford.
Arrogant, charming, and too handsome for his own good, he might have walked straight off a pedestal in a museum. I had no use for such a rogue, yet from the moment of our first meeting, he tempted my unruly heart. And soon, he threatened my schemes as well, for Simon had secrets of his own.
Claire, the Countess of Rockford
I didn't get a chance to read this one. My friend who passed it on said it was good. Not my kind of romance.
