From the Bookshelf of Clean,Non Religious-Reads…

Mrs. Drew Plays Her Hand

Carla Kelly

Start date: June 1, 2013

Finish date: June 3, 2013

Why we're reading this: After her husband's death, Roxanna Drew is left with more beauty than fortune. Now, desperate to escape t…more
[close] After her husband's death, Roxanna Drew is left with more beauty than fortune. Now, desperate to escape the perils of her past life, she must learn to trust the dashing Lord Winn---a broken man with a past of his own. This award-winning romance by bestselling author Carla Kelly is a moving and memorable book you won't be able to put down.

Loved this clean, charming and fun read from a new author for me, Mrs. Drew Plays Her Hand was a delightful page-turner for me. The characters and story was wonderfully developed.Roxanna and Winn make a wonderful couple and her two daughters stole my heart as they stole Winns.
I also loved the fact that this was a clean romance, without all the 'god-talk' one has to suffer through in those Christian romances.It's wonderful to discover clean 'non religious' fiction! Kudos to the author.

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Sep 01, 2012 Kathy * Bookworm Nation rated it really liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: regency-1811-1820, marriage-of-convenience, 2012, widow-or-divorce, traditional-regency

I really liked this one. I have to say, I’ve been pleasantly surprised with the Carla Kelly books that have been recently published. I liked that this one was not your typical regency. It takes place entirely in the country, which was a nice change of pace. Ms. Kelly certainly knows how to tell a story, you quickly get sucked in and the characters become real. Roxanna was a really likable lead, very strong. Even though she may put off bad news, she always figures out how to take care of things. ...more

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Jul 18, 2014 Emmy B. rated it liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: period-regency, genre-romance, genre-historical, star-rating-3

Of the CK novels I have read (With This Ring and The Lady's Companion) this is the weakest [correction: it is not the weakest. That position has since been taken by Reforming Lord Ragsdale]. I liked the other ones because unlike so many romance novels the hero and heroine spoke to one another and so the conflict did not stem from them being unable to say what they wanted, which is often so tedious. Here, unfortunately, CK does resort to the trope and it made what started off as an interesting st Of the CK novels I have read (With This Ring and The Lady's Companion) this is the weakest [correction: it is not the weakest. That position has since been taken by Reforming Lord Ragsdale]. I liked the other ones because unlike so many romance novels the hero and heroine spoke to one another and so the conflict did not stem from them being unable to say what they wanted, which is often so tedious. Here, unfortunately, CK does resort to the trope and it made what started off as an interesting story into another predictable slog to the end.

This is made much worse by the fact that CK deliberately kept the hero and heroine apart even though it made no sense for it to be so. First of all, he asked her to make up her mind whether she wanted a marriage of convenience or a real one, which is fine, but if he was so in love it would make sense that he would declare himself somehow first, not to mention that he could have probably checked in on them from time to time, even in a friendly way, since they were good friends regardless of whether they were romantically involved or not. Secondly, you'd think that he would have heard of the great disease spreading in the area, and that his bailiff had taken ill, even if she was too stubborn/stupid to inform him herself, surely someone else would have done it for her, which should have brought him to Moreland long before he does arrive at the very last minute!

The other thing I did not like is the hero's action in the end when he, without informing the heroine beforehand, invites the man who molested her and threatened to take away her children (which necessitated her marriage to a man she did not love or know very well) to come and visit them and, somehow counting on the fact that he was not so bad after all, suggests he take one of the daughters away. I know the author meant show that the hero was mending bridges in the heroine's family, and that he was keeping ties to the family of her deceased husband, but for that to work the villain's actions would have had to have been much much milder than they were (i.e. if they had had a quarrel or dispute over some material thing, like an heirloom, say, this would have made sense). I cannot think of anything worse you can do to a woman (or man, for that matter) than molesting her sexually and threaten to take her children away (and ok, he did not succeed in these endeavours completely but the heroine suffered great anxiety because of the prospect of those things, so much so that she vomited at the very thought of that guy!), and so at that point whatever sympathy I felt for the hero evaporated.

The other problem I have with CK in all her novels is the Americanisms. Some of them I can forgive since I know it must be difficult to fish them all out and likely since I am reading this on a Kindle I am reading American editions. But, seriously, as a novel set in Britain, this sentence is hilarious in unintended and entirely avoidable ways:

He resisted the urge to pat her on the fanny as she hurried off to the kitchen.

I gave this three stars because CKs novels are, in general, really very readable and this one, for the most part, is no different. Until something like 70% in it's quite good, but then it goes downhill for the reasons mentioned above. ...more

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Jan 19, 2013 Melissa rated it really liked it

Shelves: forced-arranged-accident-marriage, regency-romance, clean-romances

This was a fun cute read. The characters made me smile a lot:} I had a hard time putting this one down, I just loved these two together. This is an earlier Kelly book so it is not LDS or church related in anyway. There are no explicit love scenes but this is not exactly clean. They talk about sex in a roundabout way a lot both being married before and then getting married themselves. So you have to use your own inner compass on this one. Very worth the 4 dollar kindle price.

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Jun 13, 2013 C. rated it it was amazing

Shelves: library-book, my-favorite-reads, clean-romances, historical-romance, clean-reads, regency-romance, romantic-comedy, marriage-of-convenience, clean-non-religious-reads, brit-uk-lit

After her husband's death, Roxanna Drew is left with more beauty than fortune. Now, desperate to escape the perils of her past life, she must learn to trust the dashing Lord Winn---a broken man with a past of his own. This award-winning romance by bestselling author Carla Kelly is a moving and memorable book you won't be able to put down.

Loved this clean, charming and fun read from a new author for me, Mrs. Drew Plays Her Hand was a delightful page-turner for me. The characters and story was won ...more

Like · see review