Bite Me, Your Grace was a disappointment on a couple of levels. I was expecting a fun wallpaper historical romance with vampires, a smart heroine and humor (kind of like Minda Webber's books), which I guess was my first mistake. This is by no means a bad book, its just...Angelica is so annoying. She's an utter harridan!


***SPOILERS BEYOND THIS POINT***

This was kind of how things went:

Mother: Angelica! You need to behave!
Angelica: I refuse to behave as a lady must! I will RUIN MYSELF! :flings self into ruination:
Ian: This damn female...I should marry her and maybe possibly get these people off my back about being a vampire...ho young lady! I shall save you! You shall be awesomely celebrated! Also lots of passion!
Angelica: Married to a vampire? Never! I will show you how smart I am! And difficult! And political! And strongly against women being marginalized!
Mother: Oh my smelling salts!
Ian: All you are doing is proving how different you are and how right I was.
Angelica: I'd rather be poor and destitute! As long as I can write it doesn't matter!
Ian: :shows Angelica the poor and destitute lifestyle:
Angelica: :immediately horrified by the stench: Maybe I will marry you I mean it can't possibly be as bad as all that right? I mean I can still do whatever I want...

So on and so forth. The book is literally one idiotic notion of Angelica's after another as she attempts to either a) get Ian to not marry her, b) get Ian to tell her more about his vampire lifestyle for her Gothic writing or c) both at once. After they marry it only gets worse because she then falls into the 'Oh the sex is so good! Why does he not love me?' angst. I don't know Angelica, considering you spent half the book trying to convince him you shouldn't marry? Or maybe because you're idea of communication is to say how strong and independent you are and then run off doing something stupid? She gets drunk at Almack's and kicked out just to prove she shouldn't get married for pity's sake!

I realize she was meant to be a 'strong' and 'socially progressive' woman, but instead it seemed like she was a child having a tantrum because no one would listen. Why did she have to be a Women's Rights Activist AND a gothic romance author AND cross dress AND not want to be married or have children AND hate everything about the ton AND be virtually friendless? Mind you she's also an immensely wealthy heiress who's apparently gorgeous.

Meanwhile Ian, who's a couple centuries old and has not apparently ever fallen for a mortal before, finds her simply refreshing. Personally I think he just likes having to save her. Oh he's Lord of London and is super powerful and super wealthy and super this and super that, but for a guy who's ready to take some poor writer's head off for writing a satirical novel (that may or may not be about his vampire self) he's awfully jolly about sharing everything with Angelica. Only to wonder why his gothic romance obsessed wife would try to write a gothic romance about it. Ian you knew what you were marrying when you married her, don't acted surprised when the crazy woman who broke into your house (for research!) ends up, well, being crazy even after you marry her.

Honestly it sounds like I dislike the book and really I only disliked Angelica. She just...no. Every time she spoke I was taken out of the story. Yeah I can see why folk want her dead. Your mileage may vary though, so take this as a cautious recommendation.
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This book is missing something. That elusive something. ( )

Witty heroine and hero. A light, fun(ny) read. ( )

I love me some historical romances. I love me some vampires. Put them together and I am in 7th Heaven. With Bite Me, Your Grace, Brooklyn Ann brought my two loves together in a way that wasn't awe inspiring but an OK read none the less.

Angelica Winthrop is an interesting character that unfortunately does quite a bit of flip flopping throughout the book. In the beginning she is intelligent, strong willed and witty but towards the middle she ends up becoming a bit, well, awful and no one I'd be interested in knowing. She does come back around but I was no longer in awe of her and moved my attention towards Ian and his second in command.

As far as Ian goes, he too managed to disappoint me in the end. I expected much more from the Master of the City than what he gave me upon rescuing his bride from the evil clutches of...well, it doesn't really matter who he rescued her from because technically he didn't really rescue her. But whatever.

From a plot perspective there was almost way too much going on because the author spent too much time focusing on the secondary plot threads giving too many pages away to them instead of focusing on building a believable romance between our hero and heroine.

On the positive side Brooklyn Ann's vampires are really interesting, her characters have much potential and Ian's second in command is so intriguing that he is more than enough to make me want to read more by Ann to see where she takes his character. ( )

The heroine wants nothing to do with marriage. She'd be content to remain a spinster and pursue her ambition to be a successful and noted gothic novelist. So, she concocts a plan to make herself unmarriageable. She dresses is bold colours, talks about her stories and ventures into cold games. There she captures the attention of the hero. A vampire at a time when the successful novel The Vampyre has circled society, the hero is pressured constantly by rumor that he is indeed one of these blood suckers. When he finds the heroine in his house seeking out inspiration for her next novel, he's enraptured with the beautiful young woman who never ceases to amaze him with her courage and her humor and her intelligence. But when it's discovered she was in his house alone at night, her reputation is ruined. He sees this as an opportunity to solve all his problems. A wife will silence the rumor that he's a monster, marriage will save the beautiful girls family from ruin and he will get to have her as his own. When the heroine broke into the gothic house across the street she wasn't actually trying to ruin herself but the dead is done and know the duke has proposed marriage but she fights it at every turn. She tries every tactic she can to push him away but everything she says and does only seems t amuse him and make him more intrigued. So finally she relents. Upon realizing that she can't in all good conscious put her family through the shame of having a ruined daughter and the fact that her landing a duke has managed to bring her grandfather and her mother and father back on speaking terms makes her accept the dukes proposal. So they marry. And for the first few months the heroine experiences true bliss in the arms of her new husband. He is attentive, passionate and together they find peace and happiness with one another. But the heroine was expecting him to turn her to vampire by now but she over hears his plans to leave her instead. Heartbroken she pulls away, becomes distant. In her innocence she crafts a book about her love story and when the hero discovers the premise of her book he becomes infuriated that the divide between them grows even larger. It's only when a vampire hunter comes calling that the heart realizes how stupid she's been. She becomes a lioness protecting her mate and the hero sees just how devoted she is to him after all. I loved this book so much because I loved the characters to the moon and back. The heroine was horribly naïve and ignorant but you can't fault her for not learning from her mistakes. When she's shown the error of her ways she's quick to change and to better herself. All she wants to do is write. She denies the hero not because he is a monster, in fact she shows great interest in him and not the hint of fear. Not she's afraid of marriage because she's afraid of losing her freedom. The hero is turn is enraptured by the girl. He's not the tortured brooding vampire type and is able to laugh and banter with the heroine easily. He becomes hurt by her rejection and strives to prove to her how happy their life can be together. This was such an enjoyable book and really sparks interest in the books to follow in the series. This is defiantly an author to watch out for. ( )