#CBR9 Book 110: "Follow My Lead" by Kate Noble

Page count: 384 pages
Rating: 4 stars

Jason Cummings, the Duke of Rayne, has worked diligently for years to be responsible and take care of both his sister and estates. Now, as he is nearing thirty, he feels that it is his duty to find a wife and father some heirs, and after experiencing just how ruthless some of the debutantes on the marriage mart can be, he asks his sister for assistance. Just as he seems to have found a promising lady of suitable temperament, his wooing is temporarily derailed because of bluestocking Miss Winnifred Crane, who wants to join the prestigious Historical Society (one of Jason's refuges) and is willing to do anything to prove her credentials.

Winnifred, or Winn, as she prefers to be known, is the daughter of one of Jason's old art historian professors from Oxford (not that he remembers her much) and claims to be the author of several very insightful and interesting historical essays. Now she wants to be admitted to the Historical Society (who don't even like the idea of a women visiting their hallowed halls, let alone becoming a member of their exclusive group). Unfortunately, her cousin (who also wants to marry her) tries to stop her by claiming HE wrote the texts, and therefore Winn enters into a wager with the head of the society, one of her father's old friends. If she can prove the origins of a famous painting hanging on his wall, she'll be considered for membership.

To win her wager and prove her credentials, Winn needs to go to Europe, Vienna to be exact. She's quite happy to go off alone, but her cousin/fiancee insists on accompanying her (so he can try to sabotage her mission - if she loses the bet, she has promised to give in and marry him). Lord Forrester, the head of the Historical Society and father of the young lady who has taken Jason's fancy, asks him to escort Winn and her little entourage to Calais, where other people will be on hand to see her to her destination. Little do they know that Winn has a plan to trick her cousin and travel on her own. Jason observes her sneaking off the ship to Calais and follows her onto a new one, headed for Hamburg. He is unwillingly trapped on the vessel with her, and once they reach Germany, his honour won't allow Winn to travel unaccompanied to her destination. What follows is a very eventful road trip? Will Miss Sarah Forrester seem like the perfect bride once Jason returns to London?

Jason Cummings was a grade A asshole in the previous book in the series, The Summer of You. He went off on his Grand Tour of Europe, leaving his sister alone to grieve with their elderly father shortly after their mother's death, and even upon returning to England refused to step up and take responsibility or help out, when it was clear that their father's health was deteriorating, and his sister Jane needed help. Getting drunk a lot and trying to flirt with an old flame (now happily married with children) seemed to be all he was good for. Happily, at least five years have passed since the events of that book, and Jason has inherited his father's title. There is some reference made to his irresponsible youth at the beginning of the book, but it's clear that this is an older, much changed man who takes his duties as both the Duke of Rayne and as a caring brother/brother-in-law/uncle seriously. Hence his wish to settle down and marry, as it is "what comes next".

Winnifred Crane is her scholarly father's only daughter and grew up to be both his assistant, clerk and as he aged, his carer. Her mother died when she was young, and for a long time, there was just the two of them. Her father was clearly proud of her intelligence and scholarly aptitude, but nevertheless made her publish her writings under a pseudonym. Now that he has died, Winn is feeling the pressure from her cousin George to agree to the very informal arrangement set up by their mothers when they were still children, and become his wife. Of course, George wants to claim the identity of C.W. Marks for himself and use Winn's brilliant mind to get himself a membership in the Historical Society and a lecture post at Oxford. It wouldn't do for Winn to be the acknowledged and lauded one. Winn doesn't particularly want to marry anyone, and at 30 years of age, considers herself to be firmly on the shelf. Nonetheless, she doesn't really want to hurt her cousin's feelings and therefore tries to soften her rejection by saying that if she can't win her wager, she'll settle down with him.

Jason and Winn find themselves travelling unchaperoned through most of Germany and Austria, and to make it slightly harder for George to hunt them down, end up posing as a newly married couple (don't ALL couples thrown together on a road trip do this sooner rather than later?). While Jason is both angry with and exasperated by Winn to begin with, he also cannot in good conscience let her travel through Europe alone (especially seeing how she's fleeced trying to hire transport by herself). Unfortunately, a pickpocket stole Jason's money before he ended up on the ship to Hamburg, and he doesn't even have a change of clothing with him, so they can't exactly travel in the style to which the Duke is accustomed. They strike some pretty interesting bargains with various locals over the course of their journey for food, lodgings and other services and get more comfortable in each other's company, as well as more informal as the journey progresses.

While I liked that their romance took a while to develop, the presence of Miss Sarah Forrester, Jason's more or less intended back in London, was an uncomfortable complication. While Jason has not formally proposed to her before he heads off on his impromptu road trip with Winn, I hate it when it feels like one of the parties is cheating on someone else. Interestingly, while Winn's relationship with her cousin George is almost more formalised, it never felt like she was betraying anyone (probably because her unwillingness to marry him at all was made so clear from the start). Even as they grow closer and stop trying to fight their attraction to one another, there seems to be this unspoken agreement between Jason and Winn that "what happens in Europe, stays in Europe" and that they can just go their separate ways and forget about each other once Winn's quest is complete.

Interestingly, what Sarah Forrester does once it's clear that Jason is in love with another, is the story in book 4 of this series, If I Fall, which was the first Kate Noble I ever read, and which didn't make much of an impression on me (mainly because Sarah seemed to be a spoiled beyotch in much of the book). Having re-read my review of the book, I'm not sure the book would improve all that much even knowing the backstory that led to Sarah's jilting. I am glad that these other Blue Raven books were a lot more fun, and that I finally got round to reading them.

Judging a book by its cover: Another Kate Noble Regency romance, another partially headless lady running through some foliage in a pretty dress. I'm going to just be grateful that the dress is period appropriate (although this outfit looks way more fashionable and expensive than anything Winn wears over the course of the book, in my recollection).

Crossposted by Cannonball Read.

#CBR9 Book 109: "The Summer of You" by Kate Noble

Page count: 354 pages
Rating: 4 stars

Lady Jane Cummings has been mourning her mother's death for a long time when she's finally allowed back into society. Before she gets much of a chance to enjoy the balls and garden parties, however, her brother Jason returns from his Grand Tour on the Continent and insists that she take their ailing father, the Duke of Rayne north to their summer residence in Merrymere in the Lake District. He's terrified that someone in society will discover that the respected Duke is losing his wits and while Jason's plan involves Jane taking care of it (as she has done since before their mother died), she insists that he has to come with them.

Jane is not happy about having to give up the glamour of London for the backwaters of the Lake District, especially as everyone there has known her since she was little and delights in bringing up the time she was five and ran naked through the town square. She's still grieving her mother and getting increasingly more worried about her father's health, while her irresponsible brother seems mostly content to get drunk at local pubs and leave her to take care of everything. She is intrigued by stories of a reclusive and stand-offish new resident in the area, who may or may not be a highwayman as well. When she discovers that this man rescued her brother from a pub brawl, she goes to thank him, and discovers that she knows who he is. She met Byrne Worth, injured war hero, when he was helping his brother Marcus and Jane's former nemesis Phillipa Benning look for a French spy.

Now he seems content to brood and alienate the locals in a small cottage he inherited from a distant relative. Jane thinks the rumours of Worth being the local highwayman are preposterous, especially since she knows he was in London when some of the crimes were committed and sets out to prove that Mr. Worth is innocent. Soon she's not missing London society much at all, and instead looking forward to every new meeting she can steal with the cranky Mr. Worth.

While this is the second of The Blue Raven books, I actually read it first, hence I discovered a few things about the identity of the infamous Regency spy that made certain plot points in Revealed rather less of a surprise discovery. While the first book in the series has more suspense and is more of an adventure romp, this book was also entertaining, on a smaller scale. What is unusual with this book, compared to most other historical romances I've read, was the large array of points of view we got over the course of the book. In most romances, you tend to get switching POVs from the hero and heroine - here you also get POVs from Jane's brother Jason (who is an immature and selfish idiot), quite a few different villagers (including at a least one of a duo of adolescent scoundrels who run around wreaking havoc as young boys are wont to do). It was a bit strange, and I'm really not sure if it added to or distracted from the main story.

Jane Cummings was Phillipa Benning's main rival in Revealed, but over the course of the story, they found a way to become friends, and this book actually starts with Lady Phillipa's wedding to Marcus Worth. Mostly set in the countryside rather than bustling London, this book has a quieter feel, and while the main plot of Jane and Byrne becoming friends and trying to figure out who is trying to frame him as the local highwayman is fun enough, there is a dark undertone in the story because of the Duke of Rayne's developing dementia, and the heavy responsibilities Jane faces in caring for him and trying to keep the world at large from realising the extent to her father's illness, with little to no help from her oblivious and irresponsible brother, who clearly doesn't want to face up to reality.

Byrne got a gunshot-wound to the leg at the end of the Napoleonic war and tried to manage the pain by drinking copiously or using laudanum. Due to his addiction, he didn't really feel he could help his brother sufficiently and retired to the country to try to wean himself off his cravings and slowly get himself back into shape. On the advice of a local doctor, he's been swimming in the lake daily and while he's still struggling with pain, he's on the way to recovery. He's surprised that he finds such comfort in his conversations with Jane, who he initially believed to be just an air-headed society miss.

With Jane being the daughter of a Duke, while Byrne is a mere baron, their social standings are different enough that their happy ending seems difficult. After the dramatic events at the end of the novel, no one really has any objections to their union. There is also a rather sweet secondary romance in the story, involving one of the local magistrate's daughters, Victoria, who for much of the book harbours a very ill-advised and very much unrequited infatuation with the oafish Jason, not noticing just how perfect the younger of the two local doctors are for her until it's nearly too late.

Judging a book by its cover: It seems that Ms. Noble's publishers were very fond of the Regency lady running through random landscape theme, as all of the three first books of The Blue Raven seem to feature this. While it was quite appropriate with Revealed, there is a lot less running around done by Jane in this book. At least they gave the cover model red hair. That's something.

Crossposted on Cannonball Read.

#CBR9 Book 108: "Revealed" by Kate Noble

Page count: 400 pages
Rating: 4 stars

Lady Phillipa Benning is a young, beautiful, fantastically wealthy widow and the undisputed queen (and Mean Girl) of London society. She has set her eyes on the Marquis of Broughton, who is equally eligible, wealthy and popular, but her arch rival from school, Lady Jane Cummings also seems to have him in her sights and the vexing man is not beyond playing the two ladies against each other. Things start getting complicated after Philippa, having arranged a tryst with Broughton in a library, ends up hidden in a sarcophagus overhearing what appears to be famed English spy The Blue Raven discussing an enemy plot with one of his superiors.

First of all, Philippa is shocked that unassuming and plain Marcus Worth (he doesn't even have a title!) could be the exciting and infamous Blue Raven who helped England defeat France. He's so tall and gawky and wears glasses and always seems too clumsy for his own good. He's nothing like what she would have expected a dashing spy to be (which when she thinks about it is probably why he was so good at it). Philippa's reputation in society is flawless and she gets invited everywhere. She makes a deal with Marcus that at the end of the season, she will be allowed to reveal the identity of the Blue Raven at her big ball in return for securing him entry to all the society events where he suspects the sinister French agent might strike.

Of course, as they continue working with each other, Philippa keeps getting distracted from her pursuit of Broughton (although she skilfully uses Marcus to try to make the other man jealous), finding herself fascinated by this quiet, intelligent and unassuming man and his dangerous mission. Marcus discovers that Philippa isn't just beautiful and cruel, but that she hides a lot from the wider world to maintain her position. She's fiercely intelligent and an excellent organiser and there is pain in her past that she's clearly not willing to talk about. Over the course of their quest to uncover the French spy, he also learns that she seems to have a near-photographic memory, which is very helpful when navigating large crowds.

Revealed pretty much takes the fairly common story of the charming and experienced society rake who falls in love with the plain and intellectual nobody and gender-reverses it. Not that Philippa is really the female equivalent of a rake. While she was previously married, it was not of very long duration and she plays at being a lot more experienced and sophisticated than she is in reality. She's certainly an alpha female, however, and her views and opinions are closely followed by the majority of the ton. Marcus Worth is very much not an alpha male, and while he's initially ready to brush off Philippa as a malicious and self-centred manipulator, he's also very observant and keeps seeing the things she keeps hidden from others. He's fascinated by the woman she could be, if she wasn't so busy dazzling her surrounding and claiming to be indifferent to everything.

I read The Scarlet Pimpernel at an impressionable age, so Regency spies have always held a fascination for me. There is more to the character of the Blue Raven that Philippa first suspects and she comes to discover over the course of her work with Marcus that spying isn't actually very glamorous and adventurous, but involves very real danger to everyone involved. Philippa starts out as really rather horrible and I can see why her personality could put some people off to begin with. To go with the previously mentioned gender reversal, it's nice to see that the heroine can be complex and a bit of a dick, only to be gradually changed and redeemed by falling for someone unexpected. Marcus is tall, bookish, gangly, bespectacled and has unruly hair - that's pretty much my ideal man. He struggles to convince his superiors that there really is a plot to watch out for. They believe him to be overly paranoid and just bored with his post-War desk duty (hence him having to ally with Philippa). Together, they make a very effective team, and they obviously fall in love along the way.

I've only read a few other Kate Noble romances (including book 4 in The Blue Raven series). Neither of them very very memorable and I was glad to discover that this was so much more entertaining and fun.

Judging a book by its cover: The cover is fairly generic for a Regency novel, but I will give the cover designer kudos for using a period appropriate dress (which is sadly so often not the case). As there is quite a bit of running around in gardens, the lady running either from or towards something is a suitable image, I guess, and the dress is fashionable enough to be something Lady Phillipa would wear.

Crossposted on Cannonball Read.

#CBR7 Book 86: "If I Fall" by Kate Noble

Page count: 352 pages
Rating: 3 stars

On the evening of her betrothal party, the duke Miss Sarah Forrester is set to marry, confesses that he is in love with another. Sarah is instantly named "the girl who lost a Duke" in society and prepares to become a complete social outcast. However, one of the leading ladies in society advises her to reinvent herself, and soon Sarah is known as "The Golden Lady", the glittering, carefree toast of the town. Not everyone is as happy about her drastic changes, though.

Sarah's childhood friend Lieutenant Jackson Fletcher is back in London as the ship he was serving on is too old to sail any longer. While he cools his heels, living with the Forresters, waiting to find out the final fate of his ship, he also determines to breach Sarah's glittering facade and see if there are any traces left of the trusting and adventurous girl he once knew. A truly outrageous scheme involving costumes, lurking in a cupboard and assumed identities leads to a passionate kiss, as well as Jackson being recruited to help solve a high-profile murder. The last thing he wants to do is keep secrets from Sarah, as secrets were what broke up her engagement with the Duke.

This was my first romance by Kate Noble, and I must admit, it was a bit of a hot mess. There were so many different story beats, and it seemed difficult to pin down what the story really wanted to be. There was Sarah's transformation to society "Mean Girl" in order to mask her heartbreak. There was Jackson's struggle to acknowledge that life as he'd known it might be over, and he'd have to get used to a civilian life. There was the preposterous scheme Jack hatched to re-awaken Sarah's sense of fun, which amounted to him disguising himself as "The Blue Raven", a masked spy having worked against the French during the Napoleonic wars, basically Sarah's childhood hero. Then there was the plot to uncover a murderer, which both Sarah and Jack eventually got involved in. Too many things happening, none of which felt like they were really properly committed to.

It didn't help that I couldn't really connect with Sarah. I felt bad that she was jilted, but she clearly didn't love her Duke all that much anyway. The social disgrace and fact that she was no longer going to be comfortably settled seemed to be more hurtful than the fact that her fiancee loved another. "The Golden Lady" is a self-centred bitch and I can't fault Jackson for wanting to make her stop being so dismissive of her sisters and behave better. What I couldn't really see was why he was so determined to "break her cover" or why he fell in love with her. Even when she admits that she behaved badly, she's still not very interesting.

From this book, I learned that after the Napoleonic wars, a huge number of naval officers in England were left without positions, as there simply weren't enough ships for them to serve on. I just didn't particularly care. Then there was the dumb scheme of Jack's, that turned into an elaborate murder investigation and the romance seemed to almost be forgotten.

I've bought a whole bunch of Kate Noble books in e-book sales in the past few years, so at some point I'm obviously going to read them. This is not the first book in the Blue Raven series. I started with this one because it fit in my Monthly Key Word Challenge. One of the books in the series is about Sarah's younger sister, whose hurt that her older sister is completely ruining her first season, and as I liked and sympathised with her a lot more than with the protagonists, I'm hoping that other Noble books engage me more than this one. 

Crossposted on Cannonball Read.