Review: A Gentleman Never Tells by Amelia Grey

A Gentleman Never Tells
~Amelia Grey

Mass Market Paperback: 384 pages
Publisher: Sourcebooks Casablanca
Publish Date: July 1, 2011
ISBN-10: 1402239750
ISBN-13: 978-1402239755
ASIN: B00514OWVI

From the author's website:
When a lady is in a predicament...

Beautiful, clever and courageous Lady Gabrielle thwarts the shackles of her arranged betrothal by kissing a stranger in the park. But who is this man? Finding herself stuck in yet another forced engagement Gabrielle needs another strategy that isn’t so dangerous.

A gentleman may find himself in deep trouble...
Brentwood is walking in the park early one morning when a beautiful, enchanting young lady walks out of the mist and into his arms. Now Brent has no choice but to marry the delightful Lady Gabrielle. Unfortunately his intended bride has other ideas, and the determined Viscount finds himself plunging into one scandal after another.

Viscount Brentwood (Brent) is walking his mother's dog, Prissy, though Hyde Park when he runs into a beautiful young lady who is accompanied by an extremely large dog.  They exchange a few words, and then - she kisses him!!!  Before he knows what happened, her father and her fiancee's father are there, demanding to know how long they've been secretly meeting.  Naturally Gabrielle's engagement is called off and Gabrielle's father, the Duke of Windergreen, demands that Brent marry her to salvage her honor.  He threatens Brent's younger brothers' new shipping company if he does not comply. In the confusion, Prissy runs away.


Lady Gabrielle just caught her younger sister kissing Gabrielle's fiancee!  Distraught, she takes her mastiff, Brutus, for a walk through Hyde Park.  She comes upon a gentleman walking a tiny dog, and after a few minutes, leans in and kisses him!  She doesn't have explanation for her behavior, she was overcome with curiosity and kissed him, and she liked it.  She's pleased she'll no longer have to wed her fiancee, but when her father informs her she'll be marrying Brent instead she is horrified - she doesn't want to be forced to marry.

As Gabrielle works to convince Brent that he doesn't want to marry her, he realizes more and more that he does.  Gabrielle wants a husband that wants her, not one that's being forced to marry her.

My thoughts:
A Gentleman Never Tells was adorable!  I liked both Gabrielle and Brent, they were honorable characters without being saccharinely so.  It was funny to watch their story unfold from each of their viewpoints, if only they would have communicated more with each other!  The secondary storyline revolving around Prissy being missing was a nice diversion to get these two to spend time together.  I liked that the H/H were both dog lovers.

With respect to the secondary characters - they were a juicy bunch!  Gabrielle's sister and ex-fiancee totally deserved each other; that's all I'm saying about that.  Brent's younger twin brothers were rakish fun - I hope they each get a story.  Gabrielle's aunt, who came down to visit for the-wedding-that-didn't-happen, is one of those characters who is insightful and fun.  I hope now that she's in London she'll continue to try the Duke's patience!

All in all, A Gentleman Never Tells is a sweet story featuring an adorable couple, their canine companions, a feisty pair of twins, and a mysterious pet thief.  


My Rating:




This book was received by the publisher in exchange for an honest review.

Review: Never A Bride by Amelia Grey

From the author's website:
Her name is on everyone’s lips . . .
When he left for America six years ago, the handsome Viscount Stonehurst never suspected that he would return home to England to find his lovely fiancé embroiled in the scandal of the decade. The woman he planned on making his wife has been kissing every man in London . . . except him!

But scandal doesn’t matter in search of the truth . . .
Engaged and then abandoned, Mirabella Wittingham is determined to find the man who drove her cousin to suicide, even if it means ruining her reputation and disgracing herself in the process . . .


When her plans go awry, Mirabella has no choice but to turn to her long-lost fiancé for help. But can she trust the man who deserted her so many years ago, or is he destined to fail her yet again?

______________________

This is my first book by Amelia Grey. I'd heard wonderful things about her Rogues' Dynasty series and was looking forward to reading Never A Bride.

The premise of the story was good: Mirabella's father secured her engagement to Viscount "Cam" Brackley. Cam then had no intention of marrying Mirabella until he was old, he only agreed to the engagement because her dowry would help his father pay off debts. Six years later, Mirabella's father demands he come back and marry or Cam's father must repay the portion of dowry he already received.

Mirabella, however, knows none of this - only that her fiancee has been gone and will probably not come back any time soon. She is on a mission to find out who disgraced her cousin so badly that the cousin committed suicide. In order to do that, she must get the young men of the ton alone and get her finger into their neckcloths in search of a scar the cousin had written about in her diary. Needless to say Mirabella is starting to get a bit of a reputation when Cam unexpectely returns.

Here's the thing: I liked both Mirabella and Cam, just not together. They were both lovely characters but they didn't "mesh" for me. It was like they just kept bumping up against each other but didn't quite connect. My other problem was that I guessed the "whodunit" very early into the book. I would have preferred a bit of mystery and suspense on that front. It was frustrating to watch Mirabella go through all her machinations when I already knew who it was.

We also met Cam's best childhood friend, who was unexplainably mean to both Cam and Mirabella, but we never found out why he was such a jerk - jealousy? I'm not sure what he would be jealous of as he was already titled and married and had an heir. I was a bit confused on that point.

As I mentioed above, while I did like the main characters, this book was just not a good match for me.

My rating:

I received this book from the publisher in exchange for an honest review.