jjares reviewed on 1/30/2021 + 3413 more book reviews

Maura Segar was the only author I wasn't familiar with; while Mary Balogh is a favorite. Different times and places were the backdrops of these stories. Each story was unique in its own way. At the end, I will rate the stories from favorite-to-least.

HIDE-AND-SEEK (Melinda McRae) --
George Atwell, the 6th Viscount Belmont has collected his various illegitimate children from his former mistresses and Miss Waldron does a magnificent job taking care of them and melding them into a little family. Juliet is in love with Belmont but she had a scandalous history, including an illegitimate son from an earlier error in judgment. Belmont thinks Juliet is a cold fish, but he knows she is priceless as a governess. For a masked ball, Juliet sends an invitation to Belmont to meet her.

I can't imagine why Juliet thinks he will be true to her, he already has 7 children with 7 women. He says himself that he prefers to 'love-'em-and-leave-'em' and has never really considered marriage. This was one strange story.

MAD, BAD, AND DANGEROUS TO KNOW (Mary Jo Putney) --
Liza Holden, a recent widow, is coming back from her father's funeral when she sees a handcuffed man being abused. Andrew Kane is a younger son of an English baronet who is to be hanged for murder. She finds out that Kane was the one who killed her husband, and she isn't surprised that it was self-defense. Since her dead husband's father is a major force in the area, there was a kangaroo court that condemned Kane in 10 minutes. This is an engrossing story and I enjoyed it very much.

THE WRONG DOOR (Mary Balogh) --
Viscount Lyndon has been invited to a house party that is fairly dull. Lyndon suddenly finds himself in the wrong bedroom, naked with the wrong woman. Early the next morning, he admits his error to the host of the house party and offers for Caroline Astor's hand in marriage. Caroline comes into the room and refuses the marriage. Instead, the couple agrees to a very strange wager. Pure Balogh; great reading.

CAT'S-PAW (Maura Seger) --
Archer Davalos has a problem; he needs to retrieve some compromising letters of his sister, written to a bounder. The cad is now threatening to release them to the newspapers if Archer does not give him loads of money and an entre' into society. After Megan Dougherty comes to Archer's house and appeals to him to hire one (or more of her brothers), he tells her about needing a woman to collect those compromising letters. Megan needs the job desperately because she is in charge of 5 brothers and a cousin; they are near the end of their rope and about to lose their pitiful housing.

I really enjoyed this story even though how Megan could capture those letters seemed impossible. The pages flew by because I was fascinated with the tale.

HIGHWAY ROBBERY (Anita Mills) --
This is another well-written story about Anne Hardinge trying to pay the fine to release her brother from jail. She's accidentally taken to see Nicolas Swann instead, how is in jail and about to be hanged. Swann uses Annie as a hostage to escape with her. Over the course of a few hours, they share their stories. Swann knows there is no help for him but he tries to assist Anne. When Swann is caught again, she tries to rescue him from the earl's anger. This was an exciting story with lots of action.

Overall ratings (fave-to-least): Balogh, Putney, Seger, Mills, and McRae. In reality, I thought each of these stories was worth my time. 4.5 stars

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