Jocasta and the Cruelty of Kindness

Sisters of Castle Fortune #2

by Alicia Cameron

In Regency England, the last months had changed young, beautiful Jocasta Fortune.

In her previous London Season, Jocasta had tripped through ballrooms delighting an army of admirers, one of whom (Lord Robert Paxton, heir to an earldom) had been invited by her papa to a house party at her home at Castle Fortune, to continue the acquaintance. Many things had happened at the house party, including the shattering of Jocasta’s naive confidence, when Paxton had preferred her younger sister, Portia.

Jocasta was making a good job of pretending to be fine, and only one man can see that her front is false.

Sir Damon Regis, known in London as The Demon King, has a wicked reputation and a use of his own for Jocasta Fortune – but not one which includes wooing her. Pursuing her for one of his renowned schemes, Sir Damon seems the only one who sees beneath Jocasta’s act, and then feels bound to do something about it.

Enter Cecilia Montgomery, newly arrived from her country home accompanied by her childhood friend, Tom, who is also the Duke of Enderby.

Enderby is smitten by Jocasta, but Cecilia wants to use the duke to tease Damon, who considers himself her guardian, and is suspicious of the rakish duke’s interest in his ward. Cecilia persuades Tom to make damon worry more, by appearing to woo her.

Soon the whole town talks of a love triangle between Cecilia, the duke and Jocasta.

Genres: Historical Romance, Regency, Romance, Historical, Clean Romance

355 pages, Kindle Edition

First published June 29, 2021

About the author

Alicia Cameron is a crime writer with another indulgence - I have always enjoyed the work of Jane Austen and Georgette Heyer, loving the Regency period and the romance, but especially the wit of the authors.

My interest in crime probably started with the awful kleptomania of my family, stealing these books from each others shelves.

I'm not to be confused with the other Alicia Cameron. My Regency romances have very little raunch and a great deal of silliness.

Reviews

[OLT · Rating 3 out of 5]

Finally we get another Fortune sister paired off. Well, I guess it is only 15 months or so since Georgette Fortune had her story, so the wait hasn't really been very long. I enjoyed Georgette's book quite a bit and it is fun to meet up again with this dysfunctional family, especially to see how happy Georgette and her husband are now, as newlyweds.

In this new book, it's sister Jocasta's turn to find romance. In spite of the horridness of the Fortune father and his heir, the only male sibling, all the sisters are looking, it seems, for love. Baron Fortune, on the other hand, is just looking to marry off each daughter to the highest bidder. If I were one of these Miss Fortunes, I'd probably just be looking for any halfway decent man to get me away from my father and brother, but they, apparently, are more discriminating.

Jocasta wasn't especially appealing in the first book and she wasn't, and isn't still, a happy camper. The man supposed to be courting her in the first book fell in love with a younger sister instead. Quite a blow to her self esteem. Not to mention that she feels there may be something deficient or unlovable about herself.

So now she's just going through the motions in London society. Acting flirtatious and frivolous on the outside, but, you know, kinda crying on the inside. But beware anyone who tries to feel sorry for her. That compounds her injury. Too bad she's not close to anyone in her family and confides in no one so she only suffers in silence and pretends to be perfectly fine.

Enter our hero, Damon Regis, the Devil King, who observes her from afar at a ball. No, it's not love at first sight. It's a "yes, she's exactly the one to serve my purposes." See, he has a young ward who he feels needs protection from an unsuitable (in our hero's eyes) suitor. Solution: Get that suitor interested in superficial, flirtatious Jocasta instead.

Thus begins our story. He wants to use Jocasta for his purposes. Jocasta finds herself using him for purposes of her own. He's the only person around her whose company she finds peaceful. He is indifferent to her and cares nothing for her. She doesn't have to pretend around him.

The development of their friendship, followed, of course, by the inevitable fall into love, is well done and realistic. However, I found it to be too slow and repetitive to give this novel more than three stars. And the fun and delight I found in the strange Fortune family in the first book was not quite there in the second. It felt a bit too been there/done that this time around.

Nevertheless, this is entertaining and not badly written. It's not my favorite Cameron novel but it's not at the bottom of the list either. You will, BTW, get two romances here for the price of one book and also a continuation of two romances begun in the first story. All in all, it's a bargain at the price.

[Jennifer · Rating 3 out of 5]

I can't say that I enjoyed this as much as the previous book about Jocasta's sister, Georgette. I wouldn't say that Jocasta was a bad person in the first book; she just wasn't very nice and came across as prideful and immature. However, the author succeeded in convincing me that the heroine was indeed changing her ways. Overall, this book had a lot of character growth but there was just so much angst to go along with it. So.much.angst. And not realizing one's own feelings. And then trying to save people from themselves or their own feelings or whatever.

Plus there was one of my biggest pet peeves: OW drama. Unlike the first book where the hero was in love with another woman and kind of did the masculine pining thing the hero in this book had an intimate and sexual past with the OW who pops back into the current timeline. The author spared us most of the details, but I prefer not to know any of those things about either character, but especially the heroes. I also don't prefer rake heroes and while the hero in this story isn't the worst I've ever read about, I still didn't like the extreme disparity where the hero lived the life of a hellion for a decade while the heroine was an innocent.

Overall, I really liked seeing the Fortune family again. I wasn't sure if I'd feel that way, but they were cringe-y but fun. Hopefully the twins and Katerina will have their own cute stories. Thanks, Alicia Cameron, for another nicely passed afternoon.

[Vibliophile · Rating 5 out of 5]

The underestimated Jocasta conquers a king

Frankly, I didn't care much for Jocasta in Georgette's story (Georgette and the Unrequited Love); she seemed so shallow & self-absorbed. However, she's much more sympathetic here, even if I'll admit that I couldn't entirely relate to her (when I'm unhappy I like lots of sympathy, lol).

Jocasta is struggling with the jealousy from her suitor throwing her over for her sister (in the previous book), not because she wanted him, but because of their happiness together.

Damon is her perfect complement, being both similar to Jocasta & very opposite. He relates to her well enough to understand her. He brings her back to herself, but also helps her to know herself & mature.

One of the more delightful aspects of the story is how everyone keeps underestimating Jocasta, including herself, and she takes everyone by surprise, including herself!

Though the aspect of this series which I think I enjoy most is its ensemble feel & the growing sense of camaraderie. Just as in Georgette's story, we have the romance of the main couple with several secondary romances developing alongside, such that by the ending there's a triple dose of happily-ever-after to leave you with a warm glow & a sappy grin on your face! 😊

*Romance level: passionate kisses, nothing graphic

[HR-ML · Rating 2 out of 5]

I stopped past the quarter mark.

Jocasta seemed colorless and the 'hero' a manipulator.
I could not wait for him to grow a conscience or to mature.

[Mia · Rating 3 out of 5]

The Fortune family has ten girls to marry off and in this installment it is Jocasta's turn for a London season. Jocasta was quite cold, superficial, and seemingly selfish in earlier books. Now, we witness her growing up as she realizes how to be a nicer person. Her development comes about as a result of being rejected and the author does a lovely job of describing a young girl's self-realization and understanding of her own emotional state. Unfortunately, the author did not do as well in describing Demon King, the hero. I found it difficult to warm up to him. The Fortune sisters were raised in economically and emotionally bereft circumstances and given little education. Jocasta is referred to several times as being "unintelligent" and failing to match Demon's great intelligence and interests. But what were his interests? What is his background? Was I introduced to him in earlier books and simply forgot? Maybe. And why is the young woman described as unintelligent? I'd prefer the term "uneducated" because how on earth she's supposed to know anything coming from her creepy castle is beyond me. And while I appreciate that Demon encouraged her to explore her own interests and become her own person, something in the repetitive description of him as "manipulative" and always having "a plan" was disturbing. It sounded like the grooming of a sexual victim. Ick!! I say this because the pairing of very young girls (Another sister, Portia, is sixteen, Jocasta is eighteen) with older men in the romance genre is beginning to bother me. As both readers and writers, we need to be careful as to what we describe as "romantic."

[Hemmel M. · Rating 2 out of 5]

I liked the group of characters, again, and enjoyed how their opinions about and behavior towards each other shift. Jocasta was one of the Fortune sisters and in the end I disliked her wool gathering. I constantly forgot or missed what she was sad about this time. I even skipped the last half hour because I could not stand her idiotic, whining about made-up, twisted problems.
The narration was all right although in one chapter there was a constant knocking sound. It made me think of the annoying beeping sound from book #1. Maybe this is not recorded in a studio.

[JANET SMITH · Rating 5 out of 5]

Another Excellent Read

The second book in this series continues by being well written and the book cover very striking.The plot again very madcap and convoluted. The obnoxious duo papa and son Fortune, make an unwanted appearance, with the Baron getting a bit of a comeuppance from his soon to be son in law, Damon Regis (The Demon King) but Why the old curmudgeon Vicountess Swanson should think Baron Fortune 'the bee's knees' is beyond me and apparently his daughter's also. The sister in question is Jocasta in this book , once the love interest of Lord Paxton in the first book, but who was usurped in that place by her younger sister Portia, Jocasta once a very conceited young lady had difficulty coming to terms with this and with every one being very kind to her and attempting not to draw attention to the fact , made her London season miserable added to which everyone kept telling her she looked like a fairy princess, well what's a girl to do but go into a decline!! Enter Sir Damon Regis, he of the mobile eyebrows which seemed to have a life of their own, and quite a bit of book space to boot, he had decided upon a plan to use Jocasta to keep the Duke of Enderby from his 'ward' Cecilia as he felt the Duke was not good enough for her. These two had been friends from childhood and were as thick as thieves, so this plan was doomed to fail from the beginning due to a number of flaws (Cecilia and Duke Tom, were straight out of a Georgette Heyer novel, very much taken with one another but totally daft) The Demon King although outwardly not nice to Jocasta had a hard time telling that to his heart. ( I personally have difficulty believing that a 31 year old man and an 18 year old girl would have anything in common, but if we are to believe this was the way of the world so be it.) It was a delight to see characters from the previous book again and it all added to the ridiculous but thoroughly enjoyable read. I wholeheartedly look forward to the next in the series, and would thoroughly recommend this book.

[Lo Brown · Rating 4 out of 5]

Very enjoyable read!

This was a little too predictable to be perfect, but it was a very interesting read! And to be fair, a reader knows in advance that it’s a happy ending sort of book. I liked the characters though, very likeable and they weren’t all the same. I also like that there’s a continuation of the previous romances rather than being dropped like a hot potato to move on to the next. Life isn’t like that, and it’s nice to see that reality reflected in the book. We learn from each other, and have an impact on each other’s lives, and that felt reflected in this story.

[Pilar · Rating 5 out of 5]

Sweet and clean but clever romance. The author uses a rich vocabulary, which is very nice compared with many regency romance novels that are quite simple. Well rounded descriptions of characters, funny dialogues and profound messages.
I loved the way you discover with the male character how his feelings change and develop.
I’m very grateful I discovered this author. The book is a gem.
100% recommended

[Corinne · Rating 5 out of 5]

Alicia Cameron has done it again. The author has a talented hand for storytelling that entertains with snappy dialogue and unusual characters and plot lines.
This is another wonderful tale to read and forget all around you while you accompany Jocasta during her second London Season. It's a growing season for her; she makes a friend and learns to appreciate her sister, Georgette.
And she unwittingly loses her heart.

[Aapree · Rating 3 out of 5]

3.5 ⭐️

Second book of the series and I liked it about as well as the 1st. We get a second Fortune sister's tale with this one. Jocosta isn't unlikeable, whereas in the 1st she was a little bit, but neither did I find her a very great heroine. Not until closer to the end when we see more change in her. This book had a lot of character growth especially for the heroine which I liked. It felt sincere and the changes she was striving to make were admirable.

Cameron's writings can be confusing for me at times because she jumps perspectives quickly. Sometimes even from sentence to sentence and it can get hard to follow. The story has many perspectives it's told from and a lot of plot lines threaded throughout, so it felt a little hard at times to understand the storyline.

The first book was filled with pining and this one was filled with a lot of angst. I honestly couldn't understand Jocosta's need for people to "not be kind" to her. I get that the idea is that it made her feel pitied and she hated feeling that. Understandable. But I think it went too far that she ended up being pretty pitiful and depressing at first because of it. What she didn't want she actually was. I didn't enjoy reading of her fake-ness among others and her self-deprecating ways. Very unattractive.

For both she and the hero there was a serious lack of understanding of oneself. Again, understandable given the heroine's age and how she was raised. But the hero was not the typical knight in shining armor. He was somewhat of a rake which titled he well earned and deserved. There was quite a disparity between the worldliness of the hero and the innocence of the heroine and that left a sour taste in my mouth. The hero never seems repentant of his ways or his past ... "what young bucks do." Granted, I like that Jocasta never held his past over him or judged him for it. But the complete lack of admittance and resolution in that vein for her as a pure innocent woman seems unrealistic. So it made the romance between the two not super believable to me.

I liked how we see some healing happening for the Fortune sisters and the progress between them to repair some of the dysfunction in their relationships. It was fun to see a continuation of other characters stories from the 1st book.

So while I struggle a little with the writing style these books are still a good read. I will probably pick up the sequels to see how the other sisters make out.

[Tayo · Rating 3 out of 5]

Jocasta is feeling adrift after being thrown over by her suitor who preferred her sister Portia (as covered in the first book). As a person who has always felt assured of herself and her charms, her pride took a complete battering and we open this book with her trying to work out just how to proceed. She finds an unwitting surprising ally in Damon when he more than anyone sees through the tough façade she puts on for everyone else.

What follows is them spending time together and eventually forming a friendship. It's an oversimplification of the plot but it'll do.

It took me a while to connect to Jocasta as a character. Because she was in a transition state there wasn't a lot to grab unto, and who she was before her let-down isn't strictly my type of character in terms of her naïve overconfidence. She was fine as a character and there was growth but I just didn't connect to as easily as some of Cameron's other protagonists.

Damon himself was fine, and I did find his pairing with Jocasta to be pretty charming.

It may have been my inattentiveness, but the continuity of the story was sometimes off in this. For example, sometime you would read about something that's happened, but in the next section or chapter the author has gone back, but then maybe forward which made the story feel muddled at times, because it wasn't always clear what the sequence of events were. I'll give a clearer example. Following Jocasta's realisation that she might be developing feelings for Damon, and that some of her actions might bring unwanted attention to him, she starts ignoring him. We then cut to Damon's perspective of him ignoring her right back. But then in the next instance they're conversing again. But then the very next chapter, is them addressing how they haven't spoken in a while, and how hurt they are by each others actions. So..?

Anyway, gripey, but these are my reasons for 3 stars.

[Jeanie's Kindle · Rating 4 out of 5]

Death by a thousand tiny cuts. That was the life of Jocasta Fortune. Constant barbs and insults from her father and her brother had caused her to put up a cold exterior shield for the world to see. When her sister Portia fell in love with her would be suitor, it was just one more cut. She returned to London to seek a husband still hurt by Portia's insensitivity. She was now living with Portia, her fiance, her brother the barbs were never ending. She just wanted to never return home. She certainly didn't expect a love match.
Demon Regis (Devil King) had come to London with a plan to protect a very young lady with no fortune and a very immature duke with too much money and too little sense from each other. He decided to use the sad eyes of Jocasta to lure the duke away from Coast and help Jocasta heal.
To be expected everything got all tangled up.

[Shirley Harget · Rating 5 out of 5]

Delightful

Brave Miss Jocasta Fortune, possessed of a mercenary oaf of a father, a suitor defaulted to her sister and the looks of a fairy child, must survive a season in Regency England’s Marriage Mart. How will she negotiate this assault to her self esteem and her future and the suffocating pity of her sister and chaperone all the while? Will rakes or fribbles be her destiny? Is there any hope her father will not force the issue disastrously? This delightful romantic romp in Alicia Cameron’s Sisters of Castle Fortune series will answer the question.

[Christin · Rating 5 out of 5]

don’t judge this book by its cover

So wonderful. I can see myself reading this book again. I thoroughly enjoyed watching Regis fall for Jocasta and vice versa. This author has a real skill for character development, authenticity, plot pacing…it’s so wonderful! I’m reading everything she’s written now!!

[Crudelise · Rating 2 out of 5]

Definitely much worse than Katerina's story because here people actually talked... and as previously established the dialogue is bad. The romance felt really off too. I felt like Damon was the main Villain not the main Love Interest and I realky felt bad about letting anyone near him but as I did never care about Jocasta I was okay with them... what, sorry they fell in love? when?

[spanz · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book is just as funny as the first one. Honestly, Alicia Cameron knows how to write to my humor type. We must find the same things funny. The only reason I didn't love this book as much as the first one is simply I didn't resonate with the main characters quite as much. Not that it detracted from the story in anyway, I personally just didn't connect. Still a really great read

[Heather · Rating 3 out of 5]

I didn't enjoy this book very much. I had a hard time warming up to the two main characters. I also found the constant description of Damon's eyebrows to be a bit much. It didn't allow me to really see him; rather, to focus on one minor detail of his face. I also felt the moral center of this book was lacking, at list IMHO.

[James · Rating 2 out of 5]

Bleh

This is the first Alicia Cameron novel I didn't like immensely. It was so far beneath the level of the others that it seemed to have been written by someone else. I think the heroine and the main plot were both ill conceived from the start, but those weren't the only things that were off.

[carole dempsey · Rating 5 out of 5]

Loved it!

Another excellent outing! Familiar characters that tell their story with warmth and a little humour. It really feels like I know them. Can't wait to find out what happens to the rest of the sisters..x

[Angelie Elliott · Rating 5 out of 5]

She does it again

Was so happy to read this latest book by Ms. Cameron. Once again, she delivers a book that is in the spirit of Heyer. Equal parts witty, and moving with just the perfect amount of romance! I loved this book!

[Rebecca · Rating 5 out of 5]

Delicious little romance of manners

Lots of devilish cunning and little intrigues. The characters are all quite complex and lovingly drawn. The Baron is a hoot. I so enjoyed the bits of the absurd that would occasionally crop up and make me laugh out loud.

[Carol · Rating 5 out of 5]

Jocasta is still getting over the situation between her sister, Portia, a d her sister’s betrothed when Regis seeks her out for a specific reason. He decides against his original plan as he gets to know her and then everything that occurs afterwards leads to their hea

[H.J · Rating 4 out of 5]

Loved it a lot! I really like how Alicia Cameron’s characters are different and really interesting in the different books in the series. Even unlikeable characters are interesting. That’s excellent writing. Great job and great series.

[Lazy Lisa · Rating 4 out of 5]

Good story

I enjoyed this book. Yes there is a but. The heroine would become angry with the least provocation with the hero. Other than that the story was enjoyable.

[Susan Wilkes · Rating 5 out of 5]

Charming

Witty and warm. Characters you would enjoy knowing. A romance with lots of humor. I very much recommend this book and all the books by this authot.

[Shobhana Stoyanov · Rating 3 out of 5]

Cute

[Nena · Rating 5 out of 5]

love it

It’s definitely a feel good story. I appreciate this author’s writings. She really compares favorably to Jane Austen and Georgette Heyer.

[JTot · Rating 5 out of 5]

Repulsive

…as Jocasta said.
(She grows a lot, but we grow to like her as he does.) Plus, we get to see Georgette again.

[Tammy Terpenning · Rating 5 out of 5]

The Fairy & the Demon

She is sad and feels humiliated. He is plotting how to use her for his own purpose.
Very engaging and could only put down when needed to recharge my Kindle.