Samantha Hastings's Blog, page 6
October 6, 2022
Never Rescue a Rogue
NEVER RESCUE A ROGUE by Virginia Heath
Rating: ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
I received an eARC in exchange for an honest review.
The Merriwell sisters continue to both charm and make me laugh out loud in this second novel. (You don’t need to have read the first book to enjoy this one. But I highly recommend it! NEVER FALL FOR YOUR FIANCÉE is an absolute hoot). Giles Sinclair is an heir in trouble. He has a terrible secret and no one is better at sniffing out secrets then the journalist called the Sentinel. Who also happens to be Miss Diana Merriwell. The former foes become friends and solve a family mystery. It’s a witty war of words with two likable protagonists.
Heat level: Diana has her way with the Duke 😉.
#stmartins #stmartinspress #stmartinsgriffin #VirginiaHeath #NeverRescueARogue #regency #regencyromance #bookrecommendation #bookreview #bookish #booklove
September 15, 2022
The Duchess Contract
Read for free! Miss Selina Stubbs signs the contract of her life with her father—her perfumes in every major shop in London, in exchange for marrying the reluctant son of the Duke of Hampford.
Lord Theophilus, the courtesy Marquess of Cheswick, has no desire to wed the daughter of a London merchant. He wishes to go to Africa and study the animals there. But his father, the Duke of Hampford, desperately needs her dowry.
After the wedding, Selina gets to know Theophilus and learns of his care for wounded animals. Together they plan a daring rescue of a lion from the Tower of London. Selina decides to make a new bargain…this time for love.
August 30, 2022
Marlowe Banks, Redesigned by Jacqueline Firkins
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MARLOWE BANKS, REDESIGNED by Jacqueline Firkins @jfkillsdarlings
Review: ✨✨✨✨✨Perfect for fans of BEACH READ by Emily Henry!Marlowe Banks has moved from NY to LA to leave behind a fiancé and a stage failure. She’s a personal assistant to a costume designer and by chance, ends up in a small bit on a TV show with sexy actor Angus Gordon. Sparks fly on and off screen, but Marlowe doesn’t want to be in the spotlight…she wants her costuming to be. Misunderstandings, internet trolls, and social media threaten their budding relationship.
It’s a meet-rude instead of a meet-cute, but the chemistry between them sizzles. I loved the vulnerability and growth of the characters beneath their costumes and the faces they show to the world. I also adored how Marlowe dealt with her ex and how she learned to love herself.
Sweet, steamy, and completely satisfying.
#MarloweBanksRedesigned #JacquelineFirkins #stmartinsgriffinsbooks
August 27, 2022
Something in the Heir
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SOMETHING IN THE HEIR by Suzanne Enoch
Rating: ✨✨✨✨✨An original premise, charming prose, and hilarious characters make this story a positive delight.
“Are there any more little blessings I should know about?”
Mrs. Pershing informs her husband that she has made up not one, but two children! To keep her estate Emmeline married her friend Will, but they didn’t have an obligatory child in five years. So she made some up. Her grandfather, the Duke who owns the estate, insists that she bring her children. The Pershing’s try to borrow children from neighbors but eventual are forced to get some from an orphanage.
The romance is subtle and sweet, but secondary to the family plot. The focus is on humorous antics and heartwarming family time as two partners, who are almost strangers, learn how to be parents.
#SuzanneEnoch #SomethingInTheHeir #StMartinsPress
August 23, 2022
Author Interview: B. R. Myers
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A Dreadful Splendor releases today!
1. Do you believe in ghosts? And/or have you ever attended a séance?
I don’t believe in ghosts, but I do when I wake up in the middle of the night and hear a noise downstairs. We had a Ouija board when I was a kid, Parker Brothers sold them, it only seemed to come out during sleepovers. The planchette always spelled out something like ‘fart’ or ‘poop head’, but of course everyone denied interfering with the spirit world. They really should reconsider calling it, “I’m not pushing it, are you pushing it?”
2. Who is your favorite character in the book and why?
Genevieve. She came to me completely fleshed out with a backstory and a trunk full of coping mechanisms and grief. Still, she is one determined character with a lot of sass. I could have easily written it from another character’s point of view, but it wouldn’t have been as effective.
3.What made you choose Victorian England as the setting for your book?
Genevieve came to me first, then the story. The setting was purely dependent on her as a character and what time and place she could have lived.
4. What inspired the deliciously creepy setting of Somerset Park?
Thank you! I love the phrase ‘deliciously creepy’. I was eight, and home sick from school one day and my mom let me watch the local channel’s afternoon movie, The Pit and the Pendulum (she was a big Vincent Price fan). The last five minutes of that movie terrified me — but in a fun way. And even though I’ve seen most of his other movies (House of Wax is stellar!) that first trip to the Medina Castle in The Pit and the Pendulum was the seed that eventually led to me write A Dreadful Splendor many years later. Never underestimate the power of television!
5. Which CLUE character, weapon, and room are you?
Colonel Mustard, in the library with the candlestick.
Connect with B. R. Myers!
August 22, 2022
Book Review: A Dreadful Splendor by B. R. Myers
Out Tomorrow! A DREADFUL SPLENDORReview: 5 STARS
The Dreadful Splendor
was splendidly dreadful! With séances, ghosts, a creepy estate by the ocean, and lots of twists! I read it in one sitting. I could not put it down! I was sure that the murderer was each character at different parts of the book.Jenny was a multifaceted character that became more developed in every chapter. I longed to know her secrets!
Author B. R. Myers also spins a slow burning romance that has me melting. It’s the perfect pick for fans of Victorian history, mysteries, and Gothic romance.
Description:
In this spectacularly imaginative and ghoulishly fun Gothic murder mystery brimming with romance, betrayals, and chills, a fake spiritualist is summoned to hold a séance for a bride who died on the eve before her wedding, but as nefarious secrets are revealed, the line between hoax and haunting blurs.
Be careful what you conjure...
In Victorian London, Genevieve Timmons poses as a spiritualist to swindle wealthy mourners—until one misstep lands her in a jail cell awaiting the noose. Then a stranger arrives to make her a peculiar offer. The lord he serves, Mr. Pemberton, has been inconsolable since the tragic death of his beautiful bride-to-be. If Genevieve can perform a séance persuasive enough to bring the young lord peace, she will win her freedom.
Soothing a grieving nobleman should be easy for someone of Genevieve’s skill, but when she arrives at the grand Somerset Park estate, Mr. Pemberton is not the heartbroken lover she expected. The surly—yet exceedingly handsome—gentleman is certain that his fiancée was murdered, even though there is no evidence. Only a confession can bring justice now, and Mr. Pemberton decides Genevieve will help him get it. With his knowledge of the household and her talent for illusion, they can stage a haunting so convincing it will coax the killer into the light. However, when frightful incidents befall the manor, Genevieve realizes her tricks aren’t required after all. She may be a fake, but Somerset’s ghost could be all too real…
A Dreadful Splendor is a wickedly whimsical brew of mystery, spooky thrills, and intoxicating romance that makes for an irresistibly fun and page-turning read.
July 26, 2022
Secret of the Sonnets
Coming January 2, 2023 from Covenant!
Miranda Hatch is a scholar, and at the advanced age of twenty-six, she is undoubtedly a spinster. Her single-minded ambition leads her not to seek a husband but to find the lost manuscript of William Shakespeare. So when she discovers a connection between the Bard and the local dashing marquess, she pens a letter requesting access to papers that might secure her academic triumph.
Lord Robert Hamilton is drowning in debt and must turn things around or risk losing his ancestral home. With the weight of the world on his shoulders, he had little time to bother with a letter from an M. Hatch requesting access to ancestral papers--until he realizes that there may be some financial merit in granting the request. To his great surprise, M. Hatch turns out to be none other than the lovely Miss Miranda. The pair soon embarks on the trail of a centuries-old mystery, drawn together not only by their shared goal but by their growing attraction. However, someone else is seeking the priceless papers, and they will not hesitate to remove anyone in the way of their glory.
July 13, 2022
Author Interview: Joanna Ruth Meyer
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1. You write gorgeous fairy tales; do you have a favorite story?
Thank you! My favorite fairy tale has been Beauty & the Beast ever since I read Robin McKinley’s lovely retelling Beauty when I was about 11 years old. Echo North is a retelling of the Norwegian fairy tale East of the Sun and West of the Moon, which is a cousin fairy tale to Beauty & the Beast and contains a lot of similar elements, so I had the pleasure of exploring both fairy tales while writing it! Wind Daughter is set in the same world as Echo, but is not a retelling.
2. Who is your favorite character in the book and why?
I absolutely loved writing the Winter Lord, but my favorite is probably Satu. I have never put so much of myself into a character as I did into Satu—I gave her my insecurities, my high sensitivity, my social anxiety… writing the book in some ways felt like a self call out on every single page. :D But I wanted to write a character who is hyper sensitive and cries allllll the time but still is capable—and more than worthy—of telling her own story, of changing the world. Satu is my heart on the page—the only difference is the magic.
3. One of the things I enjoy most about your writing is the world-building. What helped you create Satu North’s world? And the Weaver?
The excellent thing about writing Wind Daughter was I had created the world for Echo North, so I mostly got to expand and develop what was already there—this did end up being a two-edged sword occasionally, though, as I was bound by things I’d written in Echo that I had to be sure and keep consistent! It was a joy to take some of the themes from the first book and explore them even more deeply here. I expanded a lot on the idea of “threads of magic,” and the Weaver grew naturally out of that concept—Satu’s world was first woven together by the old magic, so it stood to reason that someone had to do the weaving!
4. Satu North worries that she’s not enough. How do you think teens will relate to her character and her becoming enough?
I think all of us have felt, at one time or another, set apart from our peers, like we don’t fit in, like we’re not interesting enough or smart enough or good enough. Satu eventually comes to learn that her unique perspective of the world has merit, that she, in and of herself, has value. I hope that teens will feel certain, by the end, that they too, like Satu, are enough. That their story matters. That they matter. As I wrote in the dedication, the world needs your great hearts!
5. I’m a sucker for a good romance and the ones in WIND DAUGHTER melted my frozen heart. How do you create a compelling hero?
Okay I’m going to be completely honest here! Part of what inspired the romance in this book was me imagining how to fix the ending of a certain space movie that came out a few years ago that was Rather Upsetting. :D That said, digging into the character of the male lead, seeing his cracks and his flaws, his passions and hopes and failures—showing the depths of his heart is what makes him compelling for me. That and sarcastic banter! :D
Your books:
Your social links:
Website: http://joannaruthmeyer.com
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/gamwyn/
July 12, 2022
Book Review: Wind Daughter
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WIND DAUGHTER by Joanna Ruth Meyer
Book review: 5 STARS*****
A companion novel to ECHO NORTH, WIND DAUGHTER is woven together in the same magical world. The writing is as lyrical and intoxicating as old magic. Traditional fantasy storytelling at its finest.
Satu North is the daughter of the North Wind and must save the world from unraveling. She feels too much and fears that she is not strong enough for the task. She is both aided and hindered by the Winter Lord; a handsome and mysterious character.
July 6, 2022
Free Short Story: What the Dickens?
What the Dickens?
A sweet / clean / wholesome romance / short story with the characters from The Last Word.
When Charles Dickens dies without finishing the serialized novel, THE MYSTERY OF EDWIN DROOD, David sets out with his wife Lucinda to find out who killed the fictional character Edwin Drood. They attend the famous author's memorial service to learn from his friends and family, only to discover a shocking secret about Dickens' death.
