#Review Candace Camp – The Courtship Dance

The Courtship Dance is book 4 in The Match Maker series by Candace Camp.

Candace does it again with a wonderfully charming historical romance. The Match Maker series has been a delight to read and it’s a must for anyone who likes historical romance.

The Lady Francesca Haughston is the main character in this book and we have met her several times before, as she is The Matchmaker, herself and my favorite character. In this particular book she is trying to assist a young lady in having a good Debut Season and she is trying to find her old friend the Duke of Rockford, Sinclair Lilles, a bride.

The latter didn’t ask for her help. She is guilt driven to help him and insists despite him. He allows it, following her instructions on which ladies he would find most desirable but he isn’t entirely playing by her rules. He has his own agenda and is using her to achieve it. A ghost haunts Francesca from her past threatening to take everything she has struggled so hard to keep. Will a knight show up to save her? Or has he been there all along?

These are sweet books with a happy ending eventually. Sometimes taking longer than I would like to get there. That was the case with The Courtship Dance, I only had a few pages left and was worried that maybe Candace wrote a cliffhanger and I would have to take up the quest for a happy ending in yet another book. This was not the case and a satisfactory ending was found. I was relieved because I’m not fond of cliffhangers.

Candace Camp – The Wedding Challenge

Candace is an excellent author. I really am enjoying her books.

The Wedding Challenge is the third book in the series and the third book of hers that I have read.

I especially enjoy that I don’t have to read them as a series to get closure but by doing so I get to learn more about previous characters as they reappear in the story as friends or relatives. This particular book is about Calli, Lady Calandra Lilles, the Duke of Rockford’s sister and her endeavors to find a husband on her terms, not her grandmother or brothers’. She enlists the help of Lady Francesca Haughston a known matchmaker and dear family friend to help her.

The women immediately begin eliminating candidates for various reasons when Calli begins being called upon by a suitor that causes her and her brother’s blood to boil but not in the same way. Her brother’s anger isn’t uncalled for but she is a grown woman who must learn things on her own. Her brother fears that this lesson may ruin her.

This one kept me guessing right up until the end. At one point I only had a few chapters left and almost abandoned the book for fear it wouldn’t all get straightened out. In the end a satisfactory conclusion was reached and the realizations made by Lady Francesca toward the end of the book, I believe, will lead to a wonderful next book. I can’t wait and I recommend if you like a steamy romance that you read this one. It’s not a knock your socks off contemporary erotic romance, just a sweet historical romance with a girl falling in love with a boy and losing all morals.

Candace Camp – The Marriage Wager

This is book one in Candace Camp’s The Matchmaker’s Series.

The Marriage Wager is a charming historical romance where a young woman, Constance Woodley, forgoes her life to fulfill her duties and then ends up not getting to start it. She gets shuffled to the side while younger girls get all the attention.

As the name implies there is a wager that is placed and her future dangles in the balance against it. Lady Francesca Haughston and Lord Sinclair Duke of Rockford are the ones who attend the scales. Constance is unsure if she should take the risk but charges ahead with the battle cry of: I will always have this one Season. Then she would resign herself back to her humble station.

Francesca must deal with Constance’s Aunt and Uncle who would much rather keep Constance as a free servant and marry off one of their own two daughters. But Francesca has her ways of making them thinking that her friendship with Constance will benefit all parties.

Candace has done it again with this one. It whisks the reader to another time and place and allows them to live through Constance’s eyes. I enjoyed it very much and would indeed recommend it to others. It is sweet but by no means wholesome it is for a mature audience. I feel in love with the characters and at times couldn’t stop reading until I had read the conclusion to the adversity. I would go so far as to say this is a Cinderella story and who doesn’t love one of those.

Candace Camp – The Bridal Quest

The Bridal Quest is Book Two in the Matchmakers Series.

The beginning sets the stage of this romance for the lovers giving them both a commonality. Neither come from ideal family situations, which really helps me relate to them. One, Lady Irene Wyngate has declared she will never marry and have such a life and the other Gideon, the Earl of Radbourne, must marry to keep his family off his back and maintain appearances.Irene has made herself undesirable by being plain and practical. But this is the very thing that attracts Gideon to her. Having spent his life raised as a commoner her frankness is quite refreshing to him. And his rudeness does not offend her as it would a more genteel Lady.

She agrees to help him learn the ways of his birthright but with the clear understanding she will not marry him or any other man and lose her freedom. But is she really free? She is forced to live in her childhood home with her brother and new wife. Her father’s past deeds squandered most of their resources and his selfishness left no preparation for Irene and her mother.

After a few days and lessons Gideon is introduced to several prospective brides. Dances, dinners and chaperoned outings begin to take place but the heat continues to rise between Gideon and Irene. Though she still refuses to marry anyone! And she thinks that he only wants a figurehead and not an equal in a wife.

Finally it’s too much to bare and Irene gives in to Gideon but after a lovely group outing a horrible truth comes to light putting to question whether she will truly ever get married to anyone.

The story builds slowly but once it takes off it soars. The characters are very relatable. I find myself in Lady Irene with her plainness and practicality. And her wanting to be sure that she was not treated poorly or inferior. We all want someone to love us for us no matter who we are.

2015 Year of Books

This is a pictorial list of the books I read in 2015.  Reviews for most of them can be found under the My Reviews section. I have 61 on here not to bad, I have a few I started but haven’t finished they will get counted when completed.

Books I reviewed in 2014

This post is WAY over do!

   

    

Those seven books are the books I finished my 2014 year with before about October of that year I had no desire to pick up reading ever again.