Laura Trentham

Amelia Fielding and Josiah Barrymore have known each other for a long time – sort of. Josiah was best friends with Amelia’s brother Daniel when they bought their colors and left for the wars. Amelia’s letters to Daniel brought comfort to both of them – and then – after Daniel was killed – her letters brought comfort to Josiah. However, when Josiah returned to England and became a vicar, he didn’t continue his contact with Amelia.

Now, Mrs. Dove-Lyon wants him to marry Amelia to save her from her remaining wastrel brother, James. Josiah knows his parish expects him to marry soon and so does the church leadership. His wife would have to be someone who could deal with being a vicar’s wife and all that entailed. Could that be Amelia?

To save herself and her inheritance from her only remaining relative, Amelia contacts her mother’s old friend to find work. Mrs. Dove-Lyon certainly doesn’t want Amelia working ‘upstairs’ in her gambling den, so she comes up with an alternate plan. Will Amelia agree?

I loved both Amelia and Josiah. Amelia was so much stronger than she knew – not to mention how resilient and smart she was as well. It was so much fun seeing the two of them thwart her brother and his dastardly friends. Theirs was a lovely, sweet, caring HEA that was well deserved. I thoroughly enjoyed the book and I hope you will as well.… (mehr)

The Marriage Experiment is the second book in the delightful Laws of Attraction series. We met Adriana briefly in the first book, The Courtship Calculation, and I’m glad we now get to enjoy her full story. Everything Laura Trentham writes is a winner to me, but sometimes the characters and storyline just feel extra special from the beginning and I fall right in love with them. The Marriage Experiment is one of those times. Maybe it’s because Trentham said her inspiration for this book was the song "Jesse's Girl" by Rick Springfield. Well who doesn’t love that song and wish the guy on the outside looking in gets the girl?? Whatever it is, Adriana and Dawson captured my heart and held on until THE END.

Adriana is a woman society considers too smart for her own good. What is an amateur lepidopterist, anyway, and why would any young woman want to be one instead of hunting for a husband? She is beautiful, intelligent, full of spirit and fire – and underappreciated and undervalued by society. Even though I understand how it was in Regency times and even though I read many historical romances, I always manage to get myself worked up over the way women were (mis)treated, ignored, forced to enter marriages that were unhappy, unhealthy and often unsafe merely because the men said so and it was for the good of the family, the estate, the whatever. Adriana’s father earned a fair amount of wrath from me when he acquiesced to his wife’s pressure and agreed that Adriana should marry her evil, boorish, loutish, cruel, mean (get the picture?) stepbrother Richard Pace-Verney to “keep her future secure, keep the estate in the family” and blah, blah, blah.

Adriana is of legal age and doesn’t have to agree to marry anyone, but the pressure from her father is intense, and he won’t listen to any criticism of Pace-Verney. She and everyone else always assumed she would marry her neighbor and childhood friend, Cyrus Shaw, once he grew up a bit and decided to settle down. Not a burning love there but they’d always been close and seemed to understand each other. Except things are heating up at home, Cyrus is off in another country gallivanting and getting the most out of life, just like all the other young dandies – and when she sends him an urgent plea to come home at once and marry her to save her from Pace-Verney, Cyrus doesn’t exactly jump on his horse and hurry home.

Fortunately (very, very, very fortunately as it turns out – yes, you can swoon now) for Adriana, Cyrus’s stepbrother Dawson, the new Earl of Westhorpe through the tragic loss of father and older brothers, realizes how upset Adriana is when she asks him to send her letter to Cyrus, and Dawson reads the letter. And from that moment on this story is sweet, sexy, spicy, swoony, spectacular.

Dawson is the ex-soldier, the serious one, the one who never expected to be in charge, the one who doesn’t find it necessary to do the Grand Tour before settling down. And Dawson is also the one who has always truly loved Adriana but would never have dreamt of venturing where he assumed he brother wanted to be, was meant to be. Until Cyrus doesn’t come back to rescue Adriana and it’s clear Evil Richard will stop at nothing to force the marriage and secure that estate.

So . . . Dawson and Adriana are married. He is an Earl, a neighbor, an old family friend, respected. Her father won’t object. But will Cyrus? For that matter, will Adriana? And to what lengths will Richard go to take back what he thinks is rightfully his?

Need I say more? Trentham is a master at words and emotions and scenes and action – and best of all, at romance. Watching Dawson and Adriana circle each other, and then seeing that circle become smaller and smaller and smaller as they were drawn to each other, was heart-stoppingly satisfying. I loved these characters, I loved this story, and I cannot wait for the next book in this wonderful series. Thanks to the author for providing an advance copy of The Marriage Experiment as part of her review crew. I voluntarily leave this review; all opinions are my own.… (mehr)

It has been a while since I’ve had a new Laura Trentham book to read and I was very much looking forward to this one. I was not disappointed: The Courtship Calculation is a delightful beginning to the new Laws of Attraction series and I am already looking forward to the next book. Author Trentham always gives us the best and the worst of the Regency Era: the glamour and extravagance, the balls, the elegant houses, the beautiful clothes, but also the constraints, the restrictions, the intrigue, the scheming rivalries and the shameful treatment of women. They have to be clever, strong and resourceful just to survive. Madeline Barnes is one of those women.

Madeline left America under a cloud, her prospects of marriage there gone. She’s getting to that spinster age, and maybe even worse, she’s a smart woman, a botanist, who doesn’t especially care if she marries. She would rather pursue her scientific interests. Unacceptable, so off she goes to relatives in England to make an acceptable match. Doesn’t matter that Thornbury, the man she is supposed to marry to carry on the family line – and wealth – is totally unappealing to her and that he reciprocates her feelings. This match is destined and the sooner the better.

Just one hitch in the plans. Thornbury’s illegitimate half-brother, Damien, learns of the intended match and that it is how Duke Ralston, his and Thornbury’s father, plans to save his estate: from Madeline’s dowry. Damien blames his father’s shabby treatment of his mother for her hard life and early death. Revenge is foremost in his mind and this is the perfect way to destroy Ralston once and for all. He’ll seduce Madeline, ruin her, thwart the union, and he’ll be happy at last. Or so he thinks.

Because once he and Maddie meet – and those sparks fly – he begins to think that foolproof plan of his might not work. At first she believes he’s a gentleman coming to rescue her. He tries to convince her that he’s not, but she sees deep into him, sees things no one else has. What’s it going to be, gaining his revenge or losing his heart?

The Courtship Calculation is so much fun, the interactions between Maddie and Damien will have you smiling and swooning and hoping. Ralston, Thornbury and the Duchess will have you gnashing your teeth. A great start to what promises to be a great series. Thanks to the author for providing an advance copy of The Courtship Calculation for my reading pleasure and honest opinion. A Laura Trentham story is always a pleasure and I can’t wait to see who’s up next. I voluntarily leave this review and all opinions are my own.… (mehr)

This was a short but intense story from the Lyon's Den series that I read in one sitting. When Josiah Barrymore left the army after the war, he became the vicar in a small village near London. There, he receives a message from the notorious Black Widow, Mrs. Dove-Lyon of the Lyon's Den, summoning him to see her. He's shocked when she tells him that the younger sister of his deceased best friend, Daniel, is in trouble and needs his protection.

Amelia is alone in the world except for her profligate younger brother. James is determined to get Amelia's inheritance and has tried to marry her to one of his friends to do so. Desperate to escape that fate, Amelia goes to her mother's old friend, Mrs. Dove-Lyon, willing to do anything required. The last thing she expects is to have her arrange a marriage to Daniel's friend and her girlhood crush.

Josiah is resigned to his fate until he sees Amelia again for the first time in many years. He's stunned by the changes in her and overcome by her beauty and his immediate attraction to her. He's no longer reluctant to marry her, despite the complications she will cause. After a few days in the Lyon's Den, Amelia is no longer quite as innocent as she used to be and recognizes the feelings he stirs in her. Marriage to him will be no hardship as long as she can adjust to being a vicar's wife.

The chemistry between Josiah and Amelia is explosive. Thanks to their previous meeting and correspondence after Daniel's death, there is already a connection between them. But Josiah has a secret and is unsure whether he can trust her. That worry goes by the wayside when Amelia stumbles upon that secret and shows she has the intelligence and courage to handle whatever comes her way. The intrigue and danger of Josiah's other calling added an extra layer of intensity to the story. They boosted the rapid realization of their feelings for each other. I liked the epilogue and the surprise sent to them by Mrs. Dove-Lyon.

#netgalley… (mehr)