THE DESPERATE DAUGHTERS
ALINA K. FIELD, ELLA QUINN, MARY LANCASTER, MEARA PLATT, CAROLINE WARFIELD, ELIZABETH ELLEN CARTER, JUDE KNIGHT, RUE ALLYN, AND SHERRY EWING
ASIN: B09LTHWR3B
May 2022
The Bluestocking Belles
Bluestockingbelles.net
E-Book
$0.99
868 pages
Historical Romance/Regency
Rating: 4 Cups
The Earl of Seahaven had five wives and ten daughters. When he died almost everything went to a distant cousin and the Bigglesworth women were forced to fend for themselves. After many years of scraping by, they are able to pool their funds and their talents for a single season in York, when Patience, the Dowager Lady Seahaven is offered her aunt’s home for the season.
Lady Dorothea’s Curate by Caroline Warfield
Lady Dorothea Bigglesworth may be the daughter of an earl but she is penniless and helps to support her family by working in a hotel as the catering manager.
Ben Carter is a lowly curate working with the poor of the city, although he is also the son of a viscount.
Two people raised among the aristocracy and later forced to earn their own livings meet and fall in love while trying to better the world around them.
This is a charming Regency full of twists and turns and romance. Dorothea is one of the most practical of a practical family, and I was happy to see things turn out well for her.
Concerto, by Mary Lancaster
Lady Barbara Bigglesworth helps support the family by teaching music to children of the families in the area.
Jack Sutton is a world renowned composer and musician, and most recently Lord Allbury upon the death of his estranged father.
Lady Barbara is helping her stepmother and sisters chaperone her young sisters in the York season. She is intrigued by the dashing Jack Sutton, who is avoiding his responsibilities as the new Lord Allbury. Meanwhile his distant cousin is presenting himself as Lord Allbury and is determined to keep the title by all means necessary.
The Butler and the Bluestocking, by Rue Allyn
Lady Elizabeth Bigglesworth is a scholar and quite well known in scholarly circles for her interpretation of the Rosetta Stone, though all of her work is published under a pseudonym.
The Honorable Malcolm K. Marr has travelled to York for a conference of scholars of ancient studies. He is distressed to find that his godmother, with whom he planned to stay, was off travelling abroad.
Lady Bess was reluctant to leave her studies to accompany her young stepmother and her sisters to York for the season. She manages to continue her work with the assistance of the very odd and handsome butler who is far too young and unknowledgeable for the job. Neither one of them is who they seem to be.
The Four-to-One Fancy by Elizabeth Ellen Carter
Ladies Ivy and Iris Bigglesworth are two of the three beauties of the Season. They have always been together and help support the family by painting miniatures and on china. They cannot stand the idea of living apart and hope to marry brothers.
Captain John Bentley, Viscount Tyrell and his cousin Captain James Tyrell are as close as brothers and have always been together. John has inherited a small estate from a distant relative along with the title, and the cousins have great plans to turn it into a state of the art racehorse training facility.
The Bigglesworth twins have fallen in love with the Bentley cousins by lucky chance. Hopefully that luck will hold and the Bentley’s horse will win and provide the necessary fund to make all of their dreams come true. Hopefully the current Earl of Seahaven will not ruin everything.
Lord Cuckoo Comes Home, by Jude Knight
Chloe Tavistock feels she is too old for the marriage mart and that her figure does not conform to fashionable standards, she is short and curvy rather than tall and willowy, and her opinions about social justice and the world in general are not the norm for unmarried misses.
Lord Dom Finchley is known as Lord Cuckoo. He is the product of his mother’s affair with another man who was unable to officially acknowledge him much to the chagrin and resentment of her husband, a duke. He made a career in the army and has only recently sold out.
A jaded war veteran meets his match in an unconventional miss, and both find their true worth after dispelling the lies they were told during their childhood.
I’ll Always be Yours, by Ella Quinn
Miss Harriet Staunton has always been told that she is the natural daughter of an earl. She has a modest income and has resigned herself to never marrying.
Lord Sextus Trevor is the son of an overbearing duke who is determined to marry him off to acquire a piece of land. Sextus is not cooperating.
To avoid an awful arranged marriage Sextus’ sister arranges for him to travel to York to stay with friends and avoid his father. While there, he meets Harriet. Unfortunately the circumstances of her birth make her ineligible for the son of a duke, but things are not always as they seem.
Lady Twisden’s Picture Perfect Match, Alina K. Field
Lady Twisdon married young and was widowed young. She did her duty towards her mother in law and stepson and has decided to move to York and paint.
Major August Kellborn has inherited an estate and has decided to marry. He is also the image of one of the more intimidating of the Twisden ancestral portraits.
Honoria is finally free. She has raised her stepson to adulthood and finally has a life of her own in York. She is free to paint and visit museums, or so she thought. Her stepson has invited a distant relative and himself to stay without asking first, followed by her mother in law. It is an end to her freedom, but the Major has a very strong resemblance to the portrait in the family gallery that has always fascinated her.
A Duke for Josefina, by Meara Platt
Lady Josefina Bigglesworth studies the healing power of plants and is very talented in making potions and salves using her knowledge. She is also one of the great beauties of the York season and impoverished as her family is, she must make a good match.
Gareth Hollings is the Duke of Bourne, he is handsome and wealthy and single. He is not interested in marrying, but is desperate to find a cure for his young sister.
A chance meeting in an apothecary leads to an unusual offer. If she agrees to be his fake fiancée and find a cure for his sister, he will give her access to his conservatory and greenhouses for her plants, and time for her research. Josefina soon falls in love with Cumbe Grange, Lady Clarissa, and Gareth.
A Countess to Remember, by Sherry Ewing
Patience, the Dowager Lady Seahaven, is actually younger than some of her stepdaughters, being the last of Lord Seahaven’s five wives, yet she has taken responsibility for all of them, moving them into her family home when they were evicted from Seahaven after the death of her husband. The season in York is for the benefit of her stepdaughters, not herself.
Richard, Viscount Cranfield is wealthy and the heir to an earldom. He has just extricated himself from a grasping mistress and has not desire to be entrapped into marriage by his parents.
Richard has been sent to York to find his sister a suitable marriage on the orders of his parents. They want him to find a match for himself also. He finds Lady Seahaven entrancing, but she is responsible for her stepdaughters, never dreaming of finding love for herself. Her path to happiness will not be easy.
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Maura
Reviewer for Coffee Time Romance & More
