And Then He Kissed Her (Girl Bachelors, #1) in Trash Talkers

Jan 07, 2010 Juliana Philippa rated it it was amazing

Shelves: romance-historical, 4-half-to-5-romance-books, hr-humorous, hr-series-book-1, 0-own-in-dead-tree-form, 0-own-in-dead-tree-form-mass-market, 0-own-avg-rating-3-point-8-plus, 0-reviewed, hr-heroine-without-family-orphan, 4-to-5-stars

This was the dawn of a new day, and a new Emma Dove. Never again was she going to sit by while life went on around her. Never again was she going to wait for fate to hand her what she wanted. From now on, she was going to reach out and grab her dreams and not let go. She had never been more scared in her life.

(Written January 2010)
I read And Then He Kissed Her 2.5 years ago and remember loving it, though it was before I started rating my books and keeping track of my ratings. After finishing

This was the dawn of a new day, and a new Emma Dove. Never again was she going to sit by while life went on around her. Never again was she going to wait for fate to hand her what she wanted. From now on, she was going to reach out and grab her dreams and not let go. She had never been more scared in her life.

(Written January 2010)
I read And Then He Kissed Her 2.5 years ago and remember loving it, though it was before I started rating my books and keeping track of my ratings. After finishing it a second time today, I completely understand why I loved it so much and why I remember it so fondly. It was an amazing book and definitely warrants a 5-star rating!! The only thing I wished for was an epilogue.

(Written February 25, 2013)
Haven't read a historical romance in ages - seriously, it's been months and months and months. Was great starting off with one of my favorites. I've read it three times before and knew that I loved it, so maybe that's why my rating went down from 5 stars to 4.5. Still a great book though! I know I will be reading it again in the future :-)

(Written December 14, 2017)
Just as fabulous as ALWAYS!! Oh how I love this book, how I love Harry, and how I love Emma. ::sigh:: followed by ::happy-as-hell grin::

Excerpt

Her eyes narrowed, and he saw his chances of getting her into bed diminishing, but he was so frustrated, he almost didn’t care. “You’re not Mrs. Bartleby. You’re not Aunt Lydia. You’re Emma.” He grabbed her shoulders and gave her a little shake, wishing he could shake some sense into her stubborn brain. “You swear and you read naughty books. You’re passionate and warm and the sweetest thing I’ve ever tasted. And I don’t think you really believe I was wrong to divorce my wife, and I don’t think you disapprove of me nearly as much as you think you ought. If you did, you would never have agreed to come back and write for me. And I know damn well you don’t believe kissing me is wrong.”

“If two people are not married nor engaged to be married, it is wrong! It is!” She tried to jerk free, but he wouldn’t let her go.

“Why? Because of what you’ve been told, but it’s not what you feel. And I’ve known that since the day I kissed you in that bookshop, because I saw your face afterward. God, Emma, it was radiant, your face, all lit up from the inside like sunshine. It was the most beautiful thing I’ve ever seen. And tonight you didn’t believe it was wrong when I touched you, or you would have stopped me. When I said those things earlier, you could have told me to leave. You could have slapped my face. You could have dressed me down in spades, but you didn’t. You wanted me to say those things. You wanted to hear them. You did, Emma, you know you did.
[...]
Why can’t you be honest about what you really think and how you really feel? Where is Emma? What happened to her? What happened to the little girl who liked rolling in the mud and singing off-key?”

Her face twisted, and she made a choked sound like a sob.

He knew he was hurting her, but he was driven to say these things, for he was at the end of his tether. “I’ll tell you what happened to her. She’s been stifled and smothered by people and their opinions her entire life. […] But they didn’t succeed in snuffing Emma out completely, did they? There are times when she breaks through, and when she does, Lord, she’s so lovely she makes me ache with wanting her.”

She sagged and all the fight went out of her. “Go away,” she said. “Please, just go away.”

“You’ve called me insincere, Emma, but it’s you who lies. You lie to yourself. You push aside what you want to do in favor of what you should do. You ignore what you really think in favor of what you ought to think. You are dishonest in your own heart, and that’s the worst dishonesty there is. You’re so damned concerned about being a lady. Why can’t you just allow yourself to be a woman?” (p.280-282)

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Jul 15, 2009 Karen rated it it was amazing

Shelves: favorites

This is one of the sweetest, most beautiful love stories that I have read. The characters of Emma and Harry have so much depth, you can't help but take the journey of falling in love right along with them. I rarely cry when I read, but this book had me in tears right up until the very end. I can't think of anything I didn't like about this book except that it was much too short. I could have used a few hundred more pages of Emma and Harry! ...more

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Dec 29, 2007 Rhapsody rated it it was amazing

Shelves: fiction, romance, damsel-in-distress

One of the best regencies I've ever read. The characters were pretty well-developed, especially the heroine, and the writing was great--not really lavish or anything, just fresh and very readable. The characters felt very modern and were easy to relate to. Emma, a spinster about to turn thirty, is the viscount Harry Marlowe's secretary. He's is a divorcee and has sworn never to marry again. Marlowe is in publishing and Emma hopes that one day, he will publish her books on etiquette. When she fin ...more

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