Clean,Non Religious-Reads discussion

Penelope ( A Madcap Regency Romance )Kindle Edition by Anya Wylde,and so far it's fun.

Besides the wonderful Jane Austen books,I'm not generally one who reads much Regency,but I came across this book while browsing and it sounded like too much fun to pass up! :]

I would love to hear your thoughts as I have that on my kindle to read!

I am currently reading, actually re-reading, Edenbrooke: A Proper Romance (which it certainly is!) by Julianne Donaldson! It is so wonderful! Funny, romantic with a wonderful adventure! I highly recommend it!

Well, I'm sorry to say that I had to stop reading 'Penelope ( A Madcap Regency Romance )' as it just crossed the line from being silly to~ to STUPID to read anymore! I couldn't get past the 29% when she meets the so-called 'lady' who is supposed to teach her the social graces.I really didn't like this book from the beginning,as I detested the hero who is a callous,rude, brute,and the heroine is just far,far too stupid,with the behavior of a toddler!

So now I am reading a romance with a male Genie 'Aladdin's Samovar'. Since I love humor in my romances I saw this mentioned and checked the synopsis and reviews and it sounded like such fun,plus it is PG so it was an instant buy for me.I'm just hoping that it doesn't turn out to be too stupid to finish,also, LOL!

If it does,I have the next book on reserve from my library for Duty and Desire: A Novel of Fitzwilliam Darcy, Gentleman by Pamela Aidan the second book in her trilogy of Darcy from his point of view. I totally loved the first book~An Assembly Such as This: A Novel of Fitzwilliam Darcy, Gentleman.Darcy's valet Fletcher is a riot,and I love this Darcy.

BTW,Edenbrooke: A Proper Romance sounds good,so I have added it to my TBR list. :]

I hope you enjoy that one instead. I want to read that trilogy.

I highly recommend Edenbrooke. It's so good!

Well, the Genie book was also too silly to finish reading,but I do have total confidence that I am going to love the next book I will probably start tonight~Duty and Desire: A Novel of Fitzwilliam Darcy, Gentleman by Pamela Aidan,because I loved the first book,and it's a blast reading a retelling of Pride & Prejudice from Darcy's point of view.

Are they clean variations? I had heard they were not... They looked interesting though :)

Hi Soph, oh my yes! There wasn't anything at all objectionable in the first one,and so far about 50 pages into Duty and Desire,it is perfectly fine.

Maybe I am thinking about a different one :) I will have to add this to my list! :)

Have been really busy here the past several days and falling asleep early so,I haven't read as much as usual,or I would have already been finished with this book!

I am enjoying it though,and really love Darcy and his sister Georgiana in it.

Bummer, I've really been having rotten luck recently with my books. I'm not sure exactly why,but I really started getting bored with Duty and Desire then on pg 92 the author made the fatal mistake[for me] of changing one of her character's names! The valet Fletcher suddenly became 'Witcher' and I was like~'Whaaaat'!

I tried to continue but finally gave up at pg.123.:[ Taking this and the third book in the series back to the library,unread. Other readers may be able to stick with it,but I just wasn't engaged enough.

Oh, how I hope soon,I will come across a book again that refuses to be put down until finished! :]

That's a shame! Have you read .... Edenbrooke? By Julianne Donaldson.

Actually Soph,I reserved Edenbrooke and I am just leaving for the library to pick it and a few other books up that came in.

I love Edenbrooke! It's a lot of fun and I look forward to hearing your thoughts :) which other books?

Right now I am reading 'Rose' a western HR by Leigh Greenwood,and I got another of his ~'No One But You',plus a gothic suspense romance~ Stormcrow Castle by Amanda Grange,and

An Afternoon Walk by Dorothy Eden

The Vines of Yarrabee by Dorothy Eden

Winterwood by Dorothy Eden

and Edenbrooke by Julie Donaldson

I hope I like a few of those anyway,LOL!

I LoVE Edenbrooke. It's so funny! The hero and heroine are wonderful!

I also have read and enjoyed Stormcrow Castle :) look forward to hearing your thoughts :)

Whoa Soph, who's that babe whose pic you are now using,LOL?

I haven't been able to start Edenbrooke yet because two Kindle books to borrow came in for me at BookLending,and I only have 14 days to read those.Almost finished with the first one.

BTW,I saw in your FAV books that you have read The Fortune Hunter by Diane Farr. I thought that book was HILARIOUS,Loved It!

I loved the fortune hunter!! It was great!
Have you read any other Diane Farr's?

That is Mr John Thornton, as portrayed by Richard Armitage in the 2004 adaptation of Elizabeth Gaskell's North and South. I watched it for the first time recently and I loved it! I recommend it!

Oh yes, I should have recognized him. Though he is very good looking,I just didn't care for N&S,and normally I love British Period Dramas like the incomparable 'Lark Rise To Candleford' which can be seen on youtube,but I borrowed each seasons DVDs from my library.

Yes, I have also read and loved 'Once Upon A Christmas by Diane Farr and now have her 'Kissing outside the Lines:A True Story of Love and Race and Happily Ever after',and 'The Nobody' on reserve at my library.

I have enjoyed the nobody and want to read the christmas one (this coming Christmas) I haven't heard of that other one? I didn't come across when I was searching her books a while ago... Is it a fiction?

No, it's nonfiction about her life.I found it when I put in her name for a search on my library's online catalog,then posted the title at Amazon. It sounded interesting so I reserved it.

BTW, I am about halfway into Edenbrooke and LOVING it! Philip is exactly my favorite type of hero[like the Highwayman of Tanglewood] who is an ornery tease,but can also be very sweet and serious.It was very hard to stop reading at 1AM,and it would have been an all-nighter for me,but I just couldn't stay up any longer.I have no doubt that I will finish it in the next sitting.Do you know of any other similar ones?

I absolutely love Edenbrooke as well! It is so good! I look forward to hearing what you think of the rest! She has a second book coming out in September called Blackmoore which looks good. As for another like Edenbrooke... I haven't found one as yet! It was so very good Edenbrooke and I loved the story! Enjoy the second half! :)

I am reading Bluebells in the Mourning by KaraLynne Mackrory :) I enjoyed her Falling for mr Darcy :)

Oh well if you fell in love with Philip,I think you will fall for the Highwayman too,since their personalities are so similar.

I did think both of Diane Farr's books that I read were similar in tone.Lot of fun to read.

Can you tell me more about this highwaymen of tanglewood? I keep hearing about it!

I am looking forward to reading the remainder of Farr's work :)

The HOT is about a chambermaid that is forced to leave her position because of increasingly forceful unwanted attention from the son of theLady of the manor and she is told of a position elsewhere so she sets out one night to the other place and that is how she meets him and he steals her kiss and her heart.

I knew the next time that I picked up 'Edenbrooke I would not be able to put it back down until it was finished,and that is what happened! It is wonderful.Marianne and Philip are just perfect characters and a delight to read.I am cheap and usually by my books used,but this one is so good that I intend to pay full price for my own copy as a reward to the author.

ETA: BTW This Book has become my #1 favorite romance,even surpassing HOT!

That sounds great!
Where is it set?

I am so glad you liked it. I loved it! It is one of my favourites and I can't wait for her second novel! :)

Soph wrote: "That sounds great!
Where is it set?

I am so glad you liked it. I loved it! It is one of my favourites and I can't wait for her second novel! :)"

I believe it's medieval UK[England/Scotland].

I will have to read it. I hear the author is known as 'queen of the kissing scenes'?

Oh yes she is and after you read HOT you will know why.Her writing makes you feel that you are the one being kissed,or that's how it affects me anyway, LOL!

Now it will be hard to top a book as much fun as Edenbrooke was... with the dairymaid song,and her falling into the brook twice on the same day,LOL!But the hero of HOT is so much like Philip.

I cannot wait then!

Are you one for reading variations/what ifs on the classics? (Jane Austen/pride and prejudice)

Well, the only one I tried was the first two books in the trilogy by Pamela Aidan,but I loved the first book.An Assembly Such as This: A Novel of Fitzwilliam Darcy, Gentleman.

Do you know of any really good ones?

well I love KaraLynne Mackrory's variations. (I am currently reading and loving even more than her first one BlueBells in the Mourning)
http://laughingwithlizzie.blogspot.co...

I also read and enjoyed a lot The Houseguest...
http://laughingwithlizzie.blogspot.co...

I am planning on reading quite a few others as I did a load of research to find the clean, better ones of the hundreds that are out there and i selected these ones...
http://laughingwithlizzie.blogspot.co...

Great, thanks for those suggestions. I will be adding them to my list.

Have you read any of those by Carla Kelly? From the reviews it sounds like hers are also 'clean', and free of religion,and I'm adding several of hers to my list.

I haven't heard of hers and I will look into them :)

Oh I forgot I also very much enjoyed a 'western' version of Pride And Prejudice that I read back in 2010~First Impressions (The Austen Series, Book 1) by Debra White Smith.

Thanks!

You're very welcome.I've always had a thing for cowboys.My dad was career Air Force so I grew up out west where all the bases are.Cowboy country-WY,WA,TX,and AZ.Plus whenever my dad was not working,he dressed western.Funny,but my older sister and I both married G.I.s,so have to say that I have a thing about those dress blues too,LOL!

Then I read HOT and I would read more about Knights and Lords and castles too,if I could find more 'clean' books with them.I will also read more Regency as long as it does not dwell on fabrics/lace and the clothing like I found Georgette Heyers to do to the point of boring me to sleep whenever I tried to read one of her 5 books that I checked out once! They all went back to the library,unread.

Thankfully,'Edenbrooke' was nothing at all like that.Nor the few others that I have enjoyed.Frankly I don't see how/why GH is so recommended?!

Haha! I hope you do find some more clean ones :)

Good Morning Soph,and good luck this week on your exams.Hope you are getting your rest,as well.

Yes, I hope I find some more books with the Knights,also.

Thank you for remembering!
They are going well so far I think. I have a few left and I am not looking forward to them!

I am really enjoying 'Bluebells in the Mourning' though! :) keeps me going through the exams!

Great I will check out 'Bluebells in the Mourning'I hope that spelling isn't a forewarning of a lot of ANGST! Normally I avoid tales of WOE in my fiction reading.

No no. Here is my version of the plot...

It begins on the evening when in the original Darcy goes to Huntsford Parsonage to prosose to Lizzy. However, in this one, when he arrives at the parsonage, Lizzy has just recieved a letter from her sister Jane informing her that Lydia had died. She had been out for a walk with Kitty, Denny and... (guess who) Wickham. She slipped and fell...
So, of course Darcy could not propose at such a time! Instead he assists Lizzy and Maria Lucas home and is hospitality itself. When they finally arrive home Mr Bennet wishes to speak with Mr Darcy about the inncident as he does not believe that Wickham explained everything when he brought Lydia home after the fall and he also wonders why Wickham now seems to have disappeared in a puff of smoke.... so he sets Darcy, whom he knows knows Wickham, on the case! But will Darcy discover what really happened and will it endanger his chances with Lizzy?

Ahhh, a mystery,sounds intriguing.How fast are you reading this book,how far along are you,LOL?

I am enjoying it a lot. I am only able to read a few hours in the evening before bed cause of exams but I am about half way through and I love what has just been happening! :D (I am going to need to go for more walks among the bluebells in future!)

LOL,good thing you are able to limit yourself,sounds like the type of book that could be'unputdownable'.

In would be continually reading it if I could.
It was like that with Edenbrooke as well. I didn't want to put that down!

That is the way I was with Edenbrooke but my body failed me,to go an all-nighter with it.It was a 'two-sittings' book though,LOL!

Well, Soph I hope you have a very nice day.I need to eat something then finish reading my very first Danielle Steel book 'Until The End Of Time' as it is due and can't renew because someone has a reserve on it.So far it's very good and clean-two closed-door bedroom episodes between husband and wife.

Hahaha!! ;D I love all-mightier. I would do that with this if it weren't for exams!

Last night I received Secrets Of The Castle/Stormcrow Castle by Amanda Grange, from booklending so I started reading it.

How is it?