Rating: 
Summary: Could Not Put it DowN!
Review: I mean really, who else could come up with this story? A young gently bred Lady married to an older man who seemed on his last legs and in order to save the manor and the people must have an heir which the older gent cannot seem to provide. Rosamund Overton and her cousin, Lady Diana, come up with a plan to find a likely candidate at a masquerade ball but Rosamunde chickens out and flees the event. On her way home she comes across a man along the side of the road. Playing the good samaritan she picks him up and brings him to her cousins dower house and after cleaning him up a bit, recognizes a likely candidate who could possibly 'do the deed'.
It sounds a little cold blooded, but then this is a MALLOREN and things are just bound to HEAT up!
The story is wonderful, the characters are so well fleshed out, and what more could you expect? This is another of Jo Beverley at her best - but when is she not? Definitely a keeper.
Rating:
Summary: At last: Mature Heroine!
Review: I thoroughly enjoyed this book, and finished it in one day! "Rosie" is a mature and honest character, and a pleasant alternative to the immature and spoiled brats that so often prattle and tantrum their way throughout historical romances. The love scenes are hot and realistic! This is my first Jo Beverley read, and I'm here looking for more!
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Summary: Great historical romance
Review: ISBN: 0-451-40847-0 In 1762 Wenscote, her elderly spouse pleads with Rosamunde Overton to find some stud to impregnate her for the good of their people since he is incapable of doing so. He worries that if no heir is born to them, the estate goes to his nephew. The lad would simply hand the property over to his rigid religious order. Taking to heart her spouse's desires, Rosamunde sets a plan in motion. However, on her way home from a failed attempt to select a suitable hunk at a masquerade party, Rosamunde finds an unconscious person. Rosamunde decides he will sire her child. An ailing Lord Brand Malloran agrees to assist his unknown angel, who wears a mask while they are together. They make love and both find their hearts captured by the other. However, he now wants more, but she fears to give into his demands. As she flees back to the safety of her home, he begins to search for the love of a lifetime. Jo Beverly is clearly not a secret amidst romance readers and her latest tale, THE SECRETS OF THE NIGHT, typifies why her books are so loved. The story line never stops hooking readers from start to finish. However, as is usual with a Ms. Beverly fiction, the characters run the show. The lead protagonists are a witty duo struggling for something that seems just outside their grasps. The support cast adds much period piece authenticity as they move the plot to its stirring conclusion. Ms. Beverly continues the magic of the Mallorans with this delightful romp. Harriet Klausner
Rating:
Summary: beautifully written
Review: Jo Beverley creates believable characters with appealing personalities who engage the reader from page one. She also writes electrifying sexual encounters, but sadly, rations these episodes to an average of three per book. While I am NOT looking for porn in romance, she could spice up her books and increase her readership if she weren't so tightfisted with her "favours".
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Summary: Brand Malloren's adventures as a love slave in Yorkshire.<G>
Review: Lord Brand Malloren hasn't appeared much in the previous novels about the Malloren family in Georgian England. That's because his interest in life is agriculture, and he spends most of his time traveling around the many estates belonging to his brother, the Marquess of Rothgar, encouraging good land management and progressive farming methods. Boring? Remember, though, he is a Malloren. When he recovers from a drugged stupor, and the masked woman who seems to have saved his life asks for sex as her reward, he pays her with generosity and skill. Hence the fun subtitle I've been giving this book. "Brand Malloren's adventures as a love slave in Yorkshire." However, neither he nor Rosamunde Overton thought their adventure could lead to love, to a deep bonding of mind and heart that can only cause agony when she has to take up her real life as a sensible married woman. After all, she'd only ventured into sin to save her beloved husband's health and estate. Brand's love is deep enough to let her go, even when she drugs him again to preserve her secret identity, but when his brother the marquess arrives on the scene, he is not so willing to forgive and forget. In pursuing Brand's mysterious lady, Rothgar comes up against Rosamunde's cousin Diana, an autocratic countess in her own right who is ruler of that part of Yorkshire. Even though it's part of a series of books about the Mallorens, SECRETS OF THE NIGHT can be read alone. However, if like so many you are "Waiting For Rothgar" you won't want to miss this one, available in early June. I let the people on my e-mail list know about excerpts on my web page and other news, including the appearance of the book. If you'd like to be on the list, e-mail me. "Read historical romance -- where women are strong, and heroes love them for it."
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Summary: An all nighter!
Review: Oh my, ladies, this was an all-nighter! Do you girls ever do that thing at 3 AM where you're talking to yourself saying, "Lord, you're going to feel [terrible] tomorrow, you'd better go to bed!" "Oh no, I've got to finish this part at least!" "Yeah, but you've been saying that for an hour - go to bed." "Oh man, I can't stand it! I have to finish this part! And this part! And this part!" ......... til 5 AM! ???????
Yes, it was one of those nights.... I could not quit reading this book! Even when my eyes hurt, I just had a couple of chapters to go & NO WAY was I quitting then! It was fun, had an interesting plot, & such warm passion (I LOVE warm passion)... it was really good; definitely on my keepers shelf!
Rosie & her cousin Diana were a hoot - their 'plans' were nuts & their friendship was soooo sweet. Brand was as good-hearted a hero as I've ever read about, & the secondary characters added soooo much to the story. This was a book from the Malloren Series, so Bey (Marquess of Rothgar, Brand's brother) figured into quite a bit. I still can't wait to read his story!
If you like historicals definitely go for this one.
Rating:
Summary: An all nighter!
Review: Oh my, ladies, this was an all-nighter! Do you girls ever do that thing at 3 AM where you're talking to yourself saying, "Lord, you're going to feel [terrible] tomorrow, you'd better go to bed!" "Oh no, I've got to finish this part at least!" "Yeah, but you've been saying that for an hour - go to bed." "Oh man, I can't stand it! I have to finish this part! And this part! And this part!" ......... til 5 AM! ???????
Yes, it was one of those nights.... I could not quit reading this book! Even when my eyes hurt, I just had a couple of chapters to go & NO WAY was I quitting then! It was fun, had an interesting plot, & such warm passion (I LOVE warm passion)... it was really good; definitely on my keepers shelf!
Rosie & her cousin Diana were a hoot - their 'plans' were nuts & their friendship was soooo sweet. Brand was as good-hearted a hero as I've ever read about, & the secondary characters added soooo much to the story. This was a book from the Malloren Series, so Bey (Marquess of Rothgar, Brand's brother) figured into quite a bit. I still can't wait to read his story!
If you like historicals definitely go for this one.
Rating: 
Summary: Strangers in the night become partners in love
Review: Rosamunde Overton's elderly husband is incapable of giving her a baby. Unless they can produce an heir, the family estate will go to a maniacal nephew and his religious cult. What's a girl to do? Find a man who will give her a baby, that's what. Rosamunde's husband and her irrepressible cousin Diana both encourage her to seek out such a man at a masquerade ball. This is no easy task for a woman who has hidden herself away from strangers for the past eight years because of scars from a carriage accident. Rosamunde goes to the ball with every intention of fulfilling her responsibility, but then she loses her nerve. On the way home, however, her carriage passes a handsome stranger lying drugged in the ditch. Suddenly Rosamunde's dilemma is solved. She takes her stranger to the dower house and nurses him back to health. When Brand Malloren asks what he can do to repay his rescuer for saving his life, Rosamunde asks him to have sex with her. Well, what's a man to do? Oblige the lady, that's what. And oblige her, he does--so well, in fact, that he creates two serious "issues," namely, the one incubating in Rosamunde's womb, and the other one incubating in her heart. Brand is willing to forsake all and run away with Rosamunde, even at the expense of enraging his powerful brother, the legendary Rothgar, head of the Malloren family and a man who ALWAYS gets his way. Yet Rosamunde's sense of obligation overrides her heart. They part, never realizing forces are at work that will throw them back together in a maelstrom of deception and murder. Followers of the Malloren family saga will delight in Secrets of the Night and luscious Brand Malloren. This excellent novel can stand on its own, but those who have waited a breathless eternity for Rothgar's story should not miss this book, for it is there that we catch tantalizing glimpses of the she-devil destined to yoke the mighty beast. Secrets of the Night held me prisoner for two days. Sitting down with a Beverley novel is like eating Chinese food-- you feel satisfied when you push away from the table, but an hour later you're hungry for more. Sherrie Holmes
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Summary: En enjoyable read, everthing by Jo Beverley worthwhile
Review: This book is the fourth in a series of five books set in Goergian England telling the romantic trials and tribulations of the siblings in a powerful family. The hero and heroine in this story are not as temperamental as those in other stories, but this is in line with the personality of the main male character, being more phlematic than his other flamboyant siblings, and is not a draw back to the story. I did have a problem with the ease with which the heroine got the hero into bed (he just recovering from a serious poisoning!) but it didn't detract from my enjoyment of the book. I have read many other romances by other authors with VERY implausible plot devices. Jo Beverly has written in many styles depending on the era she is writing about. She ALWAYS tells an interesting, compelling story, literately written with no glaring grammatical errors or obvious anacronisms to wrench the reader from the fantasy. She doesn't write a "standard" historical romance (trite, cliched), but makes her characters believable people reacting realistically (usually) to their circumstances. This book also gives the reader a glimpse of the plot line which will occur in the fifth book with the most powerful and flamboyant of the siblings, Beowulf Malloren, Marquess of Rothgar. I have followed her writing since her first in the "Rogues" regency series and have been actively trying to find all her other books since then. She is almost impossible to find in used book stores, which tells you the popularity she enjoys with readers. Happy reading!
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Summary: Enjoyable love triangle with a difference!
Review: This is the first Jo Beverley book I have read, and it's also more than half-way through a series. It's a credit to Beverley as a writer, though, that I didn't realise it was towards the end of the Malloren series until I read her author's notes at the end. Rosamunde Overton is married to a man much older than she is, and who is not expected to live long; they have no children, and the heir is a member of a Puritanical sect whom no-one wants to inherit the land. So hints aplenty have been dropped: Rosa should get herself pregnant by whatever means possible, so that the baby can be passed off as her husband's. By pure chance, Lord Brand Malloren has been drugged and dumped in the middle of a bog; Rosa finds him, rescues him and, as payment, demands his sexual services. And what begins as pure sex turns into something more. But Brand has no idea who his temporary mistress is, and Rosa is determined that they will never meet again. But she reckons without Malloren determination, and the resourcefulness of Brand's elder brother, Bey. This is certainly an enjoyable book, though I wouldn't call it memorable; it has none of the haunting qualities of a Mary Jo Putney, or of Balogh at her best. I also felt that some descriptive passages were rushed: I had to read some of the action sequences several times to understand what had happened. Beverley also skips over elements of the story very quickly, losing the sense of suspense and failing to take advantage of opportunities for angst or romantic scenes. And I still don't know, for example, just how Brand managed to be at Wenscote in time to save Rosa from attack, since the last time we saw Brand he was headed somewhere else entirely. His presence was neither explained at the time nor in retrospect. Having said that, I do intend to read the other Malloren books, and in particular - since I guessed from this book who Bey, Lord Rothgar's, own particular Nemesis would be - Bey's own story.
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