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The Killing at Kaldaire House by Kate Parker

April 11, 2018 by bubblebathbooks 1 Comment

 

A dying man. The painting within her reach. What’s a thief to do? Talented London milliner Emily Gates creates amazing hats for Society ladies, but to collect from those who don’t pay her bill, she burglarizes their homes. She needs every penny to send her deaf brother to school. Late one night, she sneaks in to find Lord Kaldaire badly injured in his study. Unwilling to abandon him, she calls for help. When Kaldaire dies without revealing who attacked him, his widow agrees to keep Emily’s secrets ― if Emily will help find her husband’s killer. A bigger danger is a Scotland Yard inspector who threatens to arrest Emily — unless she spies on her father’s family of swindlers and conmen. Worst of all are the attacks from an unknown assailant. What will Emily face first, jail or death?

 

Bubby:

Go ahead. Judge this book by its cover. It’s ok this time, because the cover is a fantastic representation of what you’ll find inside. London society? Check. A touch of royalty? Check. Fabulous turn of the century fashion? Check! Our heroine, Emily Gates, was an instant favorite for me. She’s smart, sassy, driven and not afraid to speak her mind. Reminds me of someone I know…

Sissy:

Yourself?

Bubby:

I was thinking of you, but sure! I’ll take that description.

Sissy:

Sassy, for sure, but I’m certainly not as driven as Emily Gates. But what a delightful setting for a cozy mystery! The early 20th century is buzzing with new inventions and social ideas. It was fun to read about the new motorcars, which people had drastically mixed feelings about. Emily is smart in using the car experience to come up with a new product to sell–driving veils for times when ladies are in a 12 mile per hour speeding horseless carriage.

Bubby:

I think I pull out of the driveway going faster than 12 miles per hour. I can’t imagine living life that slowly! How things have changed. Emily is trying so hard to just be a respectable millinery shop owner and take care of her deaf brother. She just wants to have her bills paid on time and make beautiful things. But before she knows it, she’s embroiled on all sides by people who want something from her. Lady Kaldaire, who wants her husband’s murderer found. The Scotland Yard Detective who wants her to stay out of it all, but also to spy on her crime ring family. Her family, who want her back in the fold. What’s a girl to do?

Sissy:

I think the character of Lady Kaldaire was painted well. She was just nice enough to make you think that she had new ideas about social class disparity but just mean enough to let you know that she still thought she was better than everyone. Emily and her family have a complex relationship as well. She knows what they are doing is wrong but she loves them, won’t turn them in and relies on their help and protection at times. 

Bubby:

I loved the whole premise of this story which is book one of a new series – The Milliner Mysteries. It’s the spunk of Eliza Doolittle and the class and nurturing of Mary Poppins, all wrapped up in a fashionable dress with a spectacular hat. I haven’t read Kate Parker’s other series (The Victorian Bookshop Mysteries and A Deadly Mystery Series) but if those characters are as entertaining as these, they deserve a place on my TBR list!

Sissy:

Emily is a complicated but likeable character and in The Killing at Kaldaire House, she even finds a little romance with an unlikely chap. I can’t wait to see what her next adventure will be! Don’t forget to click on the Rafflecopter link below to win a great prize!

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Click HERE to buy The Killing at Kaldaire House by Kate Parker

 

Filed Under: Author, By Author, By Genre, Reviews Tagged With: Cozy mystery, Kate Parker, London

A Night in Grosvenor Square by Sarah M. Eden, Annette Lyon, and Heather B. Moore

January 24, 2018 by bubblebathbooks 1 Comment

A MATCH FOR PRINCESS POMPOUS by Sarah M. Eden
Matchmaker Adelaide Northrop may be embarking on her greatest challenge yet. Miss Odette Armistead has been dubbed “Princess Pompous” by Society’s elite, and Odette’s parents are desperate to see her married off to a respectable gentleman. When Adelaide first meets Odette, she is expecting a young lady who fits the pompous description. Instead, Adelaide discovers that Odette is far from conceited, but has chosen to wear a mask in a desperate attempt to hide her love for a gentleman who has been chosen for someone else. It seems that Adelaide has far more than matchmaking to accomplish.

CONFECTIONS AND PRETENSE by Annette Lyon
Anne Preston dreams of opening her own dessert shop some day and saves every spare penny she earns working at Gunter’s Tea Shop. She makes ice cream molds to perfection, bakes and decorates cakes, and hopes to one day be an independent shop owner. When an American man orders an ice, Anne is immediately taken with Davis Whitledge, but he is far above her station in life, so she tries to forget about his cordiality. Soon, she finds herself in a dangerous situation when confronted by two troublemakers, and Davis happens to be nearby. He sends the scoundrels on their way, but this only makes Anne more of a target. He doesn’t understand London ways, and his generosity has the potential to steal Anne’s dreams, or to make them soar.

LITTLE LONDON by Heather B. Moore
Ellen Humphreys has never had a Season, has never danced the waltz, and will likely never do so while confined to watching over her ill mother at their country estate. Therefore, Ellen creates her own Little London, and imagines all the gentleman she’d dance with and all of the friendships she’d have with other young ladies, if only she were allowed to have a Season. When Quinn Edwards, the Marquess of Kenworth, comes upon her quite by happenstance while Ellen is imagining herself in a London ballroom, she is mortified about her playacting. But a chain of events is set off from this one meeting that has Ellen questioning if her reputation would ever survive a Season or another encounter with the marquess.

Sissy:

How, Bubby, after writing countless Regency romances, can these Timeless Regency Collection writers keep coming up with new and fresh twists on their genre?

Bubby:

I really couldn’t tell you. There’s a reason why I’m a reader, not a writer. But it is impressive. Eden, Lyon and Moore never disappoint!

Sissy:

Let’s start, for example, with A Match For Princess Pompous by Sarah M. Eden. Who would have come up with the idea of a protagonist who is a lady of quality, “working” under the table as a matchmaker? It becomes obvious in this story that Adelaide Northrup, the matchmaker, could have her own series.

Bubby:

Yes, please. I thought the same thing and I really hope that Sarah M. Eden wrote this novella as a teaser to an upcoming new set of books featuring Adelaide. I’d buy those.

Sissy:

We end up, via Adelaide’s skills, getting not one, but two happy endings. I shall never complain about a happy ending!

Bubby:

Next we have Confections and Pretense by Annette Lyon. The idea that an American businessman and an impoverished confections maker would fall in love in a whirlwind romance is so lovely and original. Hooray for Americans in Regency books!

Sissy:

Down with the gentry and their Regency period snootfests!

Bubby:

Right? Davis Whitledge and his American ideals about class equality made this novella quite entertaining.

Sissy:

Little London by Heather B. Moore begins so whimsically with the imaginations of Ellen Humphreys, a classic “poor little rich girl.” How she garners the attention of a Marquess and has her life-long dreams come true is an enchanting tale.

Bubby:

A Marquess, you know, is below a Duke and above an Earl in importance. OK, I didn’t know either but Google did and that’s the same thing!

Sissy:

In my opinion, Heather B. Moore, Annette Lyon and Sarah M. Eden are a dream team when it comes to romance, whether in the form of anthologies or stand alone novels. They always give me so much more than I expect. May they have long lives and ever-sharpened writing pencils.

Bubby:

Interesting fact: these three ladies are the founders of the Timeless Romance Collection anthologies. Usually only one of them contributes a story to a collection, so this anthology is rather special. I loved every word. As long as they (and their friends) keep writing these collections, I’ll keep reading them.

 

Click HERE to buy A Night in Grosvenor Square

Filed Under: Author, By Author, By Genre, Regency Romance, Reviews Tagged With: Annette Lyon, Heather B. Moore, London, Romance, Sarah M. Eden, Timeless Romance Anthology

Kisses on a Paper Airplane by Sarah Vance-Tompkins and a GIVEAWAY!

May 16, 2016 by bubblebathbooks Leave a Comment

Kisses on a Paper Airplane by Sarah Vance-Tompkins Drama student Hannah Evans isn’t kissing any frogs on her path to find Prince Charming. She’s determined to share the perfect first kiss — with the perfect boy — in the perfect place — or she’s not kissing at all. When Hannah meets a cute ginger-haired boy in first class lounge in the London airport, she knows he’s ‘The One.’ Pop star Theo Callahan is on the road to get as far away as possible from his back-stabbing best friend, and his supermodel girlfriend who broke his heart. Until one shy smile from Hannah has him rethinking all of his travel plans. Theo is smitten, but he’s worried she’s just a groupie in search of the ultimate selfie. Can Theo learn to trust Hannah in time to share one perfect first kiss, or will Hannah be forced to kiss a frog?

Sissy:  At 83 pages, Kisses on a Paper Airplane is a very quick but utterly delightful read.  I think meeting and having a whirlwind romance with a cute pop star in an airport when I was x amount of years younger would have been right at the top of my fabulous fantasies list. 

Bubby:  David Cassidy?  John Travolta?  Davy Jones from the Monkees? Andy Gibb?  No, wait, I know–it’s that ginger from the Partridge family!

Sissy:  The first three are before my time and the last one, Danny Bonaduce,–just EW!!!  Andy Gibb, however is EXACTLY the British pop star my younger self would have been thrilled to encounter via the friendly skies.  And btw, the fact that you are cognizant of all those now elderly or dead former teen heart throbs dates you as well as me.  So there.  The sweetest thing about the story, although it has been done before, is the fact that Hannah doesn’t initially recognize Theo and thus gives him the rare experience of an honest conversation and relationship.

Bubby:  It must be hard for celebrities to know if people like them for themselves or for their fame, fortune, and status.  I fell completely in love with both the characters as well as Hannah’s mom and new stepdad.  And in case you were wondering, back in the day I would have chosen to meet Jon Bon Jovi or Simon Le Bon.

Sissy:  Jon Bon Jovi is still cute.  Just sayin’.  Hannah is slightly naive, but it works so well in this story.  Kisses on a Paper airplane is lovely and, as a matter of fact, perfect as an in-flight read!

Bubby: My only complaint with Kisses on a Paper Airplane is that I wished it was 283 pages instead of 83.  Be sure to enter the giveaway below for a $25 Amazon gift card!

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Click HERE to buy Kisses on a Paper Airplane by Sarah Vance-Tompkins

 

Filed Under: Author, Reviews Tagged With: celebrities, London, Romance, YA Romance

The Nightingale Girls by Donna Douglas

June 3, 2014 by bubblebathbooks Leave a Comment

Three very different girls sign up as student nurses in 1936, while England is still mourning the death of George V. Dora is a tough East Ender, driven by ambition, but also desperate to escape her squalid, overcrowded home and her abusive stepfather. Helen is the quiet one, a mystery to her fellow nurses, avoiding fun, gossip and the limelight. In fact she is in the formidable shadow of her overbearing mother, who dominates every aspect of her life. Can a nursing career free Helen at last? The third of our heroines is naughty, rebellious Millie an aristocrat on the run from her conventional upper class life. She is doomed to clash over and over again with terrifying Sister Hyde and to get into scrape after scrape especially where men are concerned. This utterly delightful novel brings a London pre-war hospital vividly to life.

Sissy: Take the BBC’s “Call The Midwife”, move the nurses to various floors of a pre-WWII London hospital and you’ve got The Nightingale Girls. This is a good thing. I just finished watching Season 4 of “Call The Midwife” and absolutely loved it, so it was easy for me to have the TV version of The Nightingale Girls playing through my head as I read it. You’d be surprised at how much drama and intrigue can go on in a 1930’s hospital setting — not quite ER or Gray’s Anatomy but still intriguing, funny and heartwarming.

Bubby: I have never seen “Call The Midwife” but if it’s anywhere as good as this novel, I’m in! I loved the differences between the three girls, all sharing a room whilst training to become nurses. Dora is trying so hard to rise above her upbringing (and her miserable lecherous sad-excuse-of-a-man stepfather) and Millie wants to escape her aristocratic responsibilities. And poor Helen just wants to be able to choose something, anything, for herself instead of constantly having to please her harridan of a mother. They are an unlikely trio and don’t get on well at all at first, but in the end, they make peace with each other. The play between the three adds so much life and color to this story. It was just wonderful. Oh, and even though I had no desire to enter the healthcare industry prior to reading The Nightingale Girls, now I REALLY don’t want to be a nurse. Nope. Never. Uh-uh.

Sissy: Yep. I was almost a nurse. Then I got to student nursing in post-op and discovered that I am nothing like Florence Nightingale. I’m more like the agoraphobic cat lady across the street who wants NOTHING to do with your personal business! While Florence is probably in heaven, I guess that tells you where I’m going! But back to the story. It leads off with Dora, whose story is amazing, and ends with all three girls having quashed certain demons and found very satisfying life pathways.

Bubby: And romance! There’s some romance too! Good, parent-thwarting, “I will die if I can’t have that man!” romance! Loved it! (Of course, if it was MY kid who was involved in a parent-thwarting soul searing romance it’d be a whole different story. But this is fiction so it’s okay.)

Sissy: Sometimes when you read about these parents who engage in such life-hindering behaviors, you think, “There can’t possibly be parents who behave this way!” but after having surgery last week and watching 59 episodes of Say Yes to the Dress, I can say that there are definitely horrid mothers who deserve to be exposed on national TV. The Nightingale Girls is the first in a series of books (so far, four novels and a short Christmas story) which are all available as e-books now in the U.S. (you can only get them in book form in the U.K.). I shall be reading all of them. You should too. 4 bubbles.

Bubby: So now not only do I have to go watch 4 seasons of “Call the Midwife”, but I also have a whole stack of Nightingale books that I must read. Oh, my life is so terribly difficult… 4 perfectly sterilized, pristine, health-inducing bubbles from me.

Click HERE to buy The Nightingale Girls by Donna Douglas at Amazon.com

We received a copy of this title from Netgalley in exchange for a fair and honest review.

© Bubble Bath Books 2014

Filed Under: By Author, By Title, Reviews Tagged With: Contemporary Fiction, Donna Douglas, hospital, London, Romance

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Bubby and Sissy (aka Talei Lawson and Leslee Preece) are sisters who love to escape through a great read (and any other way we can think of!). We would like to share with you our favorite books, products, and destinations to help you get away from it all, if only in your mind!
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