The Governess Game (Girl Meets Duke #2) by Tessa Dare

source: purchased
title: The Governess Game: Girl Meets Duke 2
author: Tessa Dare
published: August 28, 2018
pages: 373 pages
genre: regency romance
first line: Alexandra Mountbatten had common sense.
rated: 3 1/2 out of 5

blurb:
The accidental governess.

After her livelihood slips through her fingers, Alexandra Mountbatten takes on an impossible post: transforming a pair of wild orphans into proper young ladies. However, the girls don’t need discipline. They need a loving home. Try telling that to their guardian, Chase Reynaud: duke’s heir in the streets and devil in the sheets. The ladies of London have tried—and failed—to make him settle down. Somehow, Alexandra must reach his heart… without risking her own.

The infamous rake.

Like any self-respecting libertine, Chase lives by one rule: no attachments. When a stubborn little governess tries to reform him, he decides to give her an education—in pleasure. That should prove he can’t be tamed. But Alexandra is more than he bargained for: clever, perceptive, passionate. She refuses to see him as a lost cause. Soon the walls around Chase’s heart are crumbling… and he’s in danger of falling, hard.

my thoughts:
The Governess Game is book 2 in Tessa Dare’s Girl Meets Duke series but reads perfectly well as a stand-alone. I read the first installment called The Duchess Deal last year. I loved Emma and Ash in that first book as that story  had a Beauty and the Beast vibe going on.

In this second book Alexandra Mountbatten a.k.a. Alex fixes clocks for a living to support herself. When she shows up at Chase Reynaud’s front door he actually ends up hiring her to be a live in governess for his two out of control young wards. She takes the job because she is trying to save up money to buy her own house one day. Hence, Alex becomes an “accidental governess”.  Alex actually ran into Chase at a bookshop months earlier and always remembered him as “The Bookshop Rake” and “Lord Literature” so when she sees him again she is really flustered because she never forgot him after that initial run in.

Ruffled brown hair, fashionable attire, cologne that smelled like bottled sin-and a smile no doubt honed from boyhood as a means to make women forgive him anything.
-p. 2, The Governess Game by Tessa Dare

Eight Goodbyes by Christine Brae

source: ARC via Meryl Moss Media
title: Eight Goodbyes
author: Christine Brae
published: Vesuvian Books (August 28, 2018)
first line: The only benefits of travelling a gazillion miles a year is the braided cord separating those with preferred airline status from the rest of the passengers.
pages: 279
rated: 3 1/2 of out 5 stars

blurb:
One universe, nine planets, 204 countries, 809 islands and 7 seas, and I had the privilege of meeting you.”

When Tessa Talman meets Simon Fremont for the first time, not only is she attracted to him, she’s intrigued by how different their lives are. He’s a dedicated scientist, practical, pragmatic, and grounded—while she’s a head-in-the-clouds romance author. As their relationship grows, they agree to meet in places around the world, while continuing to live on opposite sides of the globe.

Though their feelings for each other deepen, their priorities remain the same. Simon is in a hurry to be financially sound and settle down, but Tessa is enjoying her freedom and newfound success. Neither is willing to give in, but as each goodbye gets harder, Tessa begins to wonder whether fame is the path to happiness, or if she has everything she needs in Simon.

Just as Tessa finds the courage to go after her own happily ever after, the unthinkable happens, separating them in ways they never imagined.

To move forward, she must let go of the past, and determine once and for all if love is truly more powerful than the pain of goodbye.

my thoughts:
Eight Goodbyes by Christine Brae was nice contemporary romance. Tessa is a successful romance author and she meets Simon on a plane. He is a scientist and the two start to keep in touch via Twitter and What’sApp for a few months. Simon flies out to visit Tessa on one of her book singing tours to spend some time with her. One thing leads to another and these two have great chemistry and begin a long distance fling, but each is trying to not get too attached.

“Every goodbye served only to increase the intensity of his feelings for her.”
-p. 173, Eight Goodbyes by Christine Brae

Sunset in Central Park (From Manhattan with Love #2) by Sarah Morgan

I am an Amazon affiliate.
source: Free copy via AmazonVine
title: Sunset in Central Park (From Manhattan with Love #2)
author: Sarah Morgan Twitter
first line: She’d expected hearts, flowers and smiles.
published: 2016
pages: 375
rated: 3 1/2 out of 5

blurb:
In the chaos of New York, true love can be hard to find, even when it’s been right under your nose all along…

Love has never been a priority for garden designer Frankie Cole. After witnessing the fallout of her parents’ divorce, she’s seen the devastation an overload of emotion can cause. The only man she feels comfortable with is her friend Matt—but that’s strictly platonic. If only she found it easier to ignore the way he makes her heart race…

Matt Walker has loved Frankie for years but, sensing how fragile she is beneath her feisty exterior, has always played it cool. But then he uncovers new depths to the girl he’s known forever and doesn’t want to wait a moment longer. He knows Frankie has secrets and has buried them deep, but can Matt persuade her to trust him with her heart and kiss him under the Manhattan sunset?

my thoughts:
I have a tendency to read books that are not first in series, I did it again with Sunset in Central Park (From Manhattan with Love #2). I do it unintentionally. Thankfully Sunset in Central Park is a stand alone read in author Sara Morgan’s From Manhattan With Love series. I love New York and romance is one of my favorite if not favorite genres, so this one grabbed my attention.

Frankie Cole and her two girlfriends Paige and Eva run their own event planning business called Urban Genie. Frankie specializes in floral arrangements. This second book centers around close friends Frankie and Matt. I liked Frankie’s character from the start. She’s bookish really bookish, like you and I if you’re reading this right now.

The Duchess War by Courtney Milan

source: purchased
title: The Duchess War (The Brothers Sinister)
author: Courtney Milan
published: September 10, 2013
pages: 283
genre: historical romance
first line: Robert Blaisdell, the ninth Duke of Clermont was not hiding.
rated: totally worth it

blurb:
Miss Minerva Lane is a quiet, bespectacled wallflower, and she wants to keep it that way. After all, the last time she was the center of attention, it ended badly—so badly that she changed her name to escape her scandalous past. Wallflowers may not be the prettiest of blooms, but at least they don’t get trampled. So when a handsome duke comes to town, the last thing she wants is his attention. But that is precisely what she gets. Because Robert Blaisdell, the Duke of Clermont, is not fooled. When Minnie figures out what he’s up to, he realizes there is more to her than her spectacles and her quiet ways. And he’s determined to lay her every secret bare before she can discover his. But this time, one shy miss may prove to be more than his match…

my thoughts:
I have had The Duchess War sitting in my Nook for a little while now after purchasing it on recommendation from SBTB. They are fans of Courtney Milan over there and it is one of my “go to” blogs for romance recommendations and great reviews.

The Duchess War is my first time reading this author and this is book 1 in The Brothers Sinister series.
For some reason, it took me forever to get through this book. I refused to give up on it and read it over the course of a few weeks in between other reads. I can’t pinpoint why it took me that long, I may just have not been in the mood for it.It is actually a good historical romance, nicely written too. It is smart and sexy. Smexy. Some of these characters are having discussions about science and Darwinism.