Last week I had a headache, and I turned off the TV, and turned on my Kindle, onto which I had previously downloaded The Governess Affair, at some point when Amazon was giving it away. And then I spent the rest of the day, and much of the night, reading the entire rest of the series. Which I know is Amazon’s sly marketing ploy – “Reel them in with one story and the simplest ‘One click here to buy the next book’ tactic” – but, what can I tell you? If the books are good, that definitely works. It is a good thing I had a leftover gift-card balance, is all I can say. (Also, I will tell you that as of this writing, The Governess Affair is still free, so if you’re interested, it won’t cost you anything to try it out. She says, playing right into their hands.)
These are regency romances, so dukes and countesses and heiress abound, along with plenty of misunderstandings, social mores that must be observed (or else there will be dire consequences), gossips, wallflowers, mistresses, mysteries and rakes. If you read the genre, you know the general idea, but these are well constructed and often slightly skewed versions of the same old stories. I really appreciated Milan’s ability to take well-tread territories (like the overly ebullient social outsider – as in The Heiress Effect –or the rake with a shocking secret – as in The Countess Conspiracy) and add a little twist to them. It’s nice to find, after so many years of reading the same types of books, that there are still surprises out there.
Including, but not limited to: sarcastic doctors who have Opinions about Things; Evolutionists who face some unique challenges; Panic Attacks in crowds that come from a realistic experiences and don’t magically disappear just because the heroine wants them to; virgins in unexpected places; and enough back and forth banter to fill any modern day rom-com.
My personal favorite of the lot was The Countess Conspiracy, in part because I am a sucker for pining for your best friend, and in part because there’s so much interesting Science! and who gets to do the science is just as interesting. There’s supposedly another two books to come in the series (according to Goodreads, anyways): The Mistress Rebellion & Talk Sweetly to Me, both with anticipated publication dates of this year. (Where there are already star ratings for both books, even though there weren’t any published reviews for either book, which confuses me.) Although I have no idea who that last book will be about, we have already been introduced to the heroine of The Mistress Rebellion (the younger sister of one of the Brother’s Sinister), and I quite liked her, so I’m looking forward to her story as well.
As a whole, the series gets 4 stars: mostly due to The Countess Conspiracy & The Governess Affair; the remaining books all get 3 stars. (These are reviews 7-11)
Lucky you, bingeing on Milan. A Kiss for Midwinter if one of my top 5 romances of all time. I had major problems with The Heiress Effect, and I think that while not stunningly romantic, The Countess Conspiracy is a masterpiece of genre rattling. I wrote rather a fawning review of it. I will, of course, buy ANYTHING that Milan writes going forward.
Have you read the Turner Brothers series already? The third book, Unraveled is in my and my partner-in-romance’s (Malin) top 10.
Oops! I wanted to ask if you have any author recommendations. I am desperate for someone new to read.
Mrs. Julien – I have yet to read the Turner Brothers’ series: it’s on the TBR list, which means… eventually. But Milan definitely made it onto my auto-buy list, which is always nice – I highly agree re: The Countess Conspiracy . I will look over some of your reviews, and see if I can come up with a recommendation that you haven’t already heard of (since we seem to have a lot of authors in common.)
Ahhh, I love free stuff. I couldn’t resist. Milan hasn’t been one of my favorites so far, but I’ll give this one a try.
I know: Free is hard to ignore, sorry about that. Hope you enjoy them!
I love Milan, as anyone who reads my reviews knows. I wait with bated breath for each of her new releases. I’m so glad that they occasionally have Milan’s novellas available for free, it’s a great way for me to hook new friends on her books.
It’s odd because I know I’ve been hearing good things about Milan for a while, but just hadn’t got around to picking anything of hers up. So – of course – then I must glom all the books. And add her to the auto-buy list. (I’m glad she still has some backlist I can read, since I don’t seen a release date set for the next book.)
Her first two books, Proof of Seduction and Trial by Desire are not actually all that great. Only read these if you’re an obsessive completist.
Her Turner Brothers trilogy, and pretty much all the novellas she’s written are great though. Unraveled the third book in that trilogy is possibly my favourite of all her books. Plus, none of the characters in that book are even vaguely upper class.
Even if you are an obsessive completist, don’t read Trial by Desire. It is TERRIBLE.
Do you have The Lady Always Wins by Milan? It’s free on Amazon right now. Also, a DELIGHTFUL novella by Tessa Dare called The Scandalous, Dissolute, No-Good Mr. Wright is just $.99 and worth every penny. I have a review of it going up next week.
I picked up The Lady Always Wins as I was writing this review, actually, since I saw it was free. And I will definitely add the Dare book, because $.99 is almost as hard to resist as free. Especially with your recommendation.
I have to ask, what about the underwear? It really bugs me when in period romances, all a lady is wearing is a chemise, dress, and stockings. *coughStephanieLaurenscough* Does Ms. Milan do better?
*coughJuliaQuinncough*, too. It makes me CRAZY!
Milan is good on this topic, but I don’t think she goes into tremendous detail about the undressing process. Loretta Chase’s Dressmakers series goes into wonderful detail about it.