3.5 Feathers
Midnight Scandals
Midnight Scandals
by Courtney Milan, Sherry Thomas and Carolyn Jewel
(Fitzhugh Trilogy # 2.5)
I bought this book because a. the cover is gorgeous and b. I love Courtney Milan. Overall, I thought the premise of how this anthology was set up was very clever and interesting. See, all the short stories in this anthology revolve around one particular house. Different people and different times, but always around Doyle's Grange. I really liked that. But I can't say the same for all the stories in this anthology and they are better analyzed individually.
One Starlit Night by Carolyn Jewel - 4 stars
Amazing! Just amazing! I have found another author I want to read everything she's ever written. This story was sweet and romantic and hot. The writing was beautiful. I felt like I wanted to keep making status updates on my Goodreads progress because there were so many beautiful quotes. Viscount Northword used to live next door to Doyle's Grange and was very good friends with Portia and her brother all through childhood and adolescence. Then he fell in love with Portia and although we don't know what happened at the beginning or the whys, they do not end up married. He goes on to marry someone else and move away. Years later Portia is now to be married to another man and the Viscount returns. And all their feelings for each other come right back. Their love trascended time and I could feel it from the very first page. They didn't fight it, they didn't abide by propriety of the times. They got kinky in the stables. And they got a second chance at happiness. Loved, loved, loved!
This time they were old enough to know there was nothing new in the world and that they did not invent passion, they created it between them, and it was that which was new and rare.
What Happened at Midnight by Courtney Milan - 4 stars
Courtney Milan did not disappoint either. Being that she was the reason I wanted to read this, her story was good. Even though now it's my second favorite of this anthology. Mary is hiding out after the death of her father and the charges of embezzlement against him. John is looking for her for two reasons. He hasn't stopped loving her, after all they were to be married. But also, he's the one responsible for finding her, and hopefully the money, that was stolen from his nephew. He finds her, maybe by accident, at Doyle's Grange where she had taken a position as a lady's companion. John is a bit rough around the edges when you would expect someone with his money to be a bit more refined but that worked really well for me. He knows he wants Mary but he still respects her, even though he really doesn't deny his attraction even when he thought she was a part of the theft. A bit less hot than the previous read but still a lot of sexual tension and sparks between these two.
A Dance in Moonlight by Sherry Thomas - 3 stars
I didn't get it. I couldn't connect with the character or the story all that much. I didn't have a problem with the writing for the story itself was nothing that got me crazy. Isabelle's husband died and she comes to Doyle's Grange in the hopes that she could finally be with the man she loved before, Fitzhugh. But Fitzhugh is married and doesn't want an affair. Except that one day a man knocks on her door and looks SO MUCH like Fitzhugh she thought he had come back and changed his mind. Except it wasn't him. Fitzwilliam was also staying nearby and had seen the beautiful woman before and was enthralled. He even continues to be attracted after she jumped his bones because he looked like her ex-lover. I guess I really never bought the fact that Isabelle loved Fitzwilliam instead of using him as a substitute for Fizhugh, and I couldn't understand how he could get over that. I haven't read the series that this short story goes along with, but I don't think it relates that much to the Fitzhugh's that you couldn't read this first. But I do have to say that, even though I have Sherry Thomas' series on my TBR and I'll get to those eventually, it's not going to the top of the list.
