Friday, November 1, 2013

Friday Featured Spotlight ~ Author Jaimey Grant & 4 Reviews



Author Jaimey Grant
Jaimey is an author who battles ADD with sporadic doses of writing, book cover design, blogging, online promotion, homeschooling her two kids, fermenting things with her husband (mostly beer), video games, reading, and housework. (The housework suffers.) She sleeps and eats when she remembers. She is the proud writer of seven published novels and several short stories and the designer of more than six dozen book covers.

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*Books source ~ Many thanks to the author for providing review copies in exchange for honest reviews.

Published ~ 28 November 2012
Genre ~ Historical/Romance
My Rating ~ 4 bites and a nibble out of 5

Richard, an impoverished Duke, marries Maria, the daughter of a Cit. She gains a title and a position in Society and he gains a vast amount of wealth. However, what she really wants is his love. Can wishes really come true in a practical arrangement?

This story is told in 10 small installments. The writing drew me in from the beginning. It is well-written with characters that are interesting. I especially enjoyed Maria with her strengths and vulnerabilities. She despairs over the fact Richard is still keeping a mistress and that it’s a well-known fact and gossiped about. She has no idea if he feels anything for her other than the fact she brought a shitload of money to the marriage and she tries to gather her courage to talk to him about it and his mistress, but well-bred ladies just don’t do that. I know that it’s just because of the time period she’s in, but I want to shake her and tell her to pull up her big girl knickers. lol I also want to shake Richard for being a stubborn idiot and for his stupid actions that hurt Maria. However, it all works out in the end.

All-in-all this is a wonderful short historical romance.

Title ~ Intrigue 
Published ~ 1 July 2013
Genre ~ Historical/Romance
My Rating ~ 4 bites out of 5

Lady Malvina Brackney is in a pickle. She’s being blackmailed to do some dirty work for a nasty man in exchange for his not revealing her husband’s private journal.  Gideon Mallory de Witt, otherwise known as Lord Holt, is sent by the Home Office to suss out if the widow is guilty of the same treason they suspect of her dead husband and to find proof if she is or isn’t. To complicate matters, Malvina has a 16-yr-old son Beowulf who is in danger of being harmed if she doesn’t cooperate with the blackmailer. Can Gideon get to the bottom of things and keep everyone safe? Will Malvina trust him to do what he does best?

This historical romance is well-written with great characters, but I found the romance hard to believe. Gideon and Malvina don’t trust each other yet suddenly Gideon is offering to marry her to keep her and her son safe and preserve her reputation and she is agreeing. Well, I can see why she’d agree. She’s stuck between a rock and a hard place and to keep them safe she would marry Gideon who has many secrets yet seems to be an ok guy. Still…I just couldn’t buy into it. I needed more than what was given. The ending left me a bit bewildered because I saw no reason for what happened.

All-in-all this is a solid historical romance if you can buy into Gideon’s insta-love.


Title ~ Heartless
Publisher ~ Jaimey Grant
Published ~ 18 September 2008
Genre ~ Historical/Romance
My Rating ~ 4 bites out of 5

Hartley Giles St. Clair, the Duke of Derringer, has been plagued with problems, accidents and outright attempts on his life since he inherited the title of Duke at age seven. Now, an additional problem has cropped up in the form of a clause in his late father’s will, a clause that has gone unnoticed all these years (I’d fire that law firm). He has a week to marry or he loses his considerable inheritance. Since no one in London has any appeal to him he decides to travel to his estate and snag a bride nearby. On his way he stops at an inn when his carriage wheel breaks and that’s where he crosses paths with Leandra Harcourt, the beloved yet bastard daughter of the Earl of Harwood who is recently deceased. In dire straits after her stepmother throws her out, she accepts the Duke’s proposal and becomes his Duchess. However, their troubles continue. With someone out to get him, will Heartless survive to produce an heir?

With wonderful writing, fantastic characters and a twisty malevolent plot this should have been a 5-biter for me. However, while Leandra and Heartless were excellent characters when apart from each other, any time they interacted on page they became frustrating to read. Their wildly swinging emotions were confusing to me. Are they bipolar? I didn’t understand how they could go from happiness to rage to lust or whatever else emotion happened to pop up in just a few sentences. It was exhausting. I actually looked forward to them being apart so I could enjoy the book again. Also, I didn’t understand the huge time frame there at the end.  I won’t give it away, but it didn’t seem to fit the plot very well.

All-in-all a wonderful read if you can survive the emotional roller coaster ride between the main characters.


Title ~ Redemption
Publisher ~ Jaimey Grant
Published ~ 18 September 2008
Genre ~ Historical/Romance
My Rating ~ 3 bites and a nibble out of 5

Miles and Darius (Dare) Prestwich are twins, sons of gentry if not title. Lady Guinevere (Gwen) and Lady Genevieve (Jenny) are twins, daughters of a Duke. Miles loves Gwen and the feeling is mutual even if they have not declared it to each other yet. Dare and Jenny fall into lust. Suddenly Jenny is no longer a virgin and Dare runs away. When Jenny discovers she’s pregnant, Miles steps in yet again to clean up his brother’s mess. But will that really solve anything?

Ok, I have no idea how to start with this historical romance. The good part is it is very well-written with great characters. Except for Dare. I cannot express how much I dislike this guy. A selfish immature asshole, he does whatever he wants whenever he wants with no thought for anyone but himself. Everything is a joke to him and he takes nothing seriously. He thoughtlessly creates chaos wherever he goes and it matters not to him who he disrupts or hurts in the process. He had no redeemable qualities in my eyes and the fact he uses charm to manipulate his way out of everything is beyond annoying. I would have loved this story if he wasn’t in it. But without him there is no story. If he had gained some humility he would have been much more likeable. Unfortunately, though his thoughts from his POV reveal he believes he is sorry for the messes he creates, his actions prove loud and clear he isn’t. Actions speak louder than words. I think Jenny is an idiot to love him, but you can’t help who you love.

So…if you are more flexible and forgiving than I am then Dare and this story will be fantastic for you. 

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