A Reckless Bargain (Signet Regency Romance)

Rating:
Summary: Delightfully Entertaining
Review: A Reckless Bargain is a thoroughly delightful and entertaining novel that sparkles with colorful characters and a very sensual romance.

Kit Mallory has immersed herself in books after the death of her emotionally abusive husband, but her greatest delight is her friendship with the lively, outspoken and thoroughly unconventional Dowager Duchess of Wexcombe.

However, the Duchess' extended family mistakes Kit for a fortune hunter and sends in the family rogue, Nicholas, Marquess of Bainbridge, to seduce and abandon her so she'll be disgraced in the Duchess' eyes.

But nothing goes as planned, and the reader is treated to witty repartee, great passion and relentless opposition as Kit and Nicholas unwillingly fall in love.

Kit and Nicholas are thoroughly likeable, but it's the Duchess who steals the show. She is a delightfully crotchety, warm and clever character who is such fun to get to know.

Don't miss A Reckless Bargain!

Rating:
Summary: Don't Read This in a Public Place!
Review: Her Grace, the Dowager Duchess of Wexcombe, was going to visit her grandson at his estate whether the rest of her family liked it or not! To stop them from interfering, she asked a young friend, Kit Mallory (widow), to go with her. The two had met on a journey from India. Kit agreed.

However, the dowager's family did not like the friendship the two had developed. Determined to show the dowager, and everyone else, what they believed Kit really was, they had Nicholas Darcy (a.k.a. the Marquess of Bainbridge, who was a well known handsome rake) set out to seduce Kit. Though Kit was attracted, she was NOT the loose and self-centered woman that the family believed her to be. Instead, she honestly cared for Her Grace. She ended up having to ask Nicholas for help in smoothing the family trouble Her Grace was having. He agreed, but only if she would sleep with him. A major error on his part!

Well, that is the best synopsis I can give without ruining it. The author added special touches, such as a Hindu butler named Ramesh and his wife, Lakshmi. Kit, I am happy to report, is not weak willed, empty-headed, or prone to fainting at the drop of a hat. Instead, she is very loyal, things before she acts (except when it comes to giving Nicholas a second chance), and stubborn. I gladly recommend this book to Regency Romance fans. However, a word of warning here, there is more "seduction" than most Regency Romances normally have and Nicholas never left me with a good impression of himself.

Rating:
Summary: Don't Read This in a Public Place!
Review: One word sums up this book: Wow!! Up until now, I'd grown sick of wimpy, whiny Regency heroines who do nothing but wring their hands and worry about what dress to wear, and heroes who have no depth of character beyond being handsome, wealthy, and well bred. Here, Ms. Powell gives us a heroine who is intelligent and emotionally vulnerable, and a flawed hero who manages to redeem himself in the end.

I won't reprise the storyline, since the other reviewers have already done so, but I must say I was very impressed with Elizabeth Powell's dealing with a storyline of seduction. I was reading this in a bookstore coffeehouse, and the seduction scenes made me...well...let's just say I was getting very flushed. Finally, a rake who acts like a rake! Not only that, I was impressed that the author gave me a peek into Nicholas's mindset - the reasons behind his behavior. He didn't come off as slimy at all, but a man who had his own demons to defeat.

I'm a fan of Mary Balogh, Carla Kelly, and Edith Layton for the exact same reasons - they get us into the characters' heads and let us see what makes them tick. I will certainly look forward to Ms. Powell's next book.

Rating:
Summary: a well written novel, even though it was not my cup of tea
Review: The Dowager Duchess of Wexcombe has just made the unpleasant discovery that her nearest and dearest are out to curtail as much of her independence as possible. They claim that a lady of her years should be ensconced in her dower house, looking forward to the daily visits of her great grandchildren, and being taken care of by those who care for her -- not racketing about all over the world with little thought to her health or consequence. The dowager however has other ideas: after years of being tied to a man she didn't love and didn't like, the time has come, the dowager feels, to spread her wings and to do the kinds of things she's always longed to do. And fearing that she will be ambushed by everyone when she goes to visit her grandson (the current duke) at his country estate, she asks her good friend, Kit Mallory (a young widow she had met on the voyage back from India), to accompany her.

The dowager's family, however, are under the impression that Kit is an adventuress. And fearing that Kit is out to worm her way into the older woman's will, the dowager's relatives have come up with a plan to discredit Kit. They have decided to get the family rake, Nicholas Darcy, the Marquess of Bainbridge, to seduce Kit, and so to reveal her 'true' colours for all to see. Bored to death with nothing to do (obviously attending the House of Lords and taking care of his estates doesn't figure into Nicholas's scheme of things) Nicholas is fairly chomping at the bit to get his hands on the delectable widow. Afterall EVERYONE knows what widows are actually like! And Kit, suffering from the twin evils of being the only daughter of a spendthrift roue and the widow of a cit, must be, in the dowager's family's collective minds, the quintessence of a hard-eyed adventuress!!

Kit, however, turns out to be something other than what Nicholas expected her to be: a nice, intelligent and entirely beguiling young woman, who obviously cares for the dowager very much. But he is at the house party in order to 'free' the dowager from the clutches of an adventuress. And so he goes about his task of seduction. And when Kit turns to Nicholas for help in smoothing things between the duke and the dowager, Nicholas blackmails Kit into agreeing to be his mistress in exchange for his help. Appalled but intrigued (never had kit met a man who makes her feel so alive as Nicholas does), Kit agrees to the terms. But the more time he spends with her, the more Nicholas comes to the conclusion that Kit is someone really special, and someone that may want to spend the rest of his life with. But his relatives expect him to carryout the PLAN. What should Nicholas do? Please his family? Or confess all to Kit? But at the back of Nicholas's mind lies the fear of what Kit will do once she learns of the NEFARIOUS PLAN...

Although I've been a little dismissive about the plot, honesty compels me to admit that Elizabeth Powell is a brilliant authour. Even though I didn't care for the manner in which the plot was unfolding, I did find myself totally engrossed in what was happening between the pages of this novel. And I was totally engaged by Kit Mallory, the heroine of "A Reckless Bargain." Kit turned out to be the kind of intelligent, charming and forthright character that we all like out heroines to be. I just didn't take to the hero (Nicholas) very much -- he wasn't her equal in any way (certainly not in character, inner strength or intelligence). And when he begs her to give him a week to prove that he has changed? It was all I could do not to throw the book away in disgust. How, on earth, can anyone credibly gauge if someone has changed or not in a week?

If you don't mind the I'll-only-help-you-if-you-agree-to-sleep-with-me gambit, than this novel will definitely satisfy. Because it is a really well written book. Elizabeth Powell does a fantastic job of showing us why Kit finds Nicholas so vital that she's willing to give up her self respect in order to experience some of the sensual pleasures he's offering. I may not like this book, but it's well written and really rather good.

Rating:
Summary: sort of blah...
Review: The other reviewers did a nice job describing the plot so I won't do it again. I just wanted to add that I had no issue with Nicholas trying to seduce Kit. Sometimes regencies are too sweet, the heroine being too innocent. Kit here knows a thing or two which is interesting in a regency. However, Nicholas seems a bit slimmy. A rake sure, most regency heros are rakes. So that is nothing new. But the impression of him being a slim never goes away. And, yes, a week to prove to Kit that he is trustworthy? The Duke and his wife and sister-in-law are also typical, the evil nobles and all that. So really, nothing new in this book.