Yay! Who will they cast to play Kate Sheffield, the future Viscountess Bridgerton and able wielder of the Mallet of Death? I’ve wondered if one of the Sheffields would inherit the Featherington estates. Or, perhaps, one of the Penwood family?
Can’t wait to see. Also, I love that Queen Charlotte has such a prominent role in the show, but, this is a Regency series. Where’s the Regent? Why hasn’t Prinny made an appearance?
I watched the whole series, only stopping long enough to prepare dinner. It is awesome! Can’t wait for the second season!
Author Julia Quinn “cordially” invites us “to the event of the season… BRIDGERTON, from Shondaland, premieres December 25, only on Netflix.” Merry Christmas, indeed!
“Miss Sheffield!” came Colin’s impatient holler from up the hill. “It’s your turn!”
“So it is,” Kate said, analyzing her possible shots. She could aim for the next wicket or she could attempt to sabotage Anthony even further. Unfortunately, his ball wasn’t touching hers, so she couldn’t attempt the foot-on-the-ball maneuver he’d used on her earlier in the game. Which was probably for the best. With her luck, she’d end up missing the ball entirely and instead breaking her foot.
“Decisions, decisions,” she murmured.
Anthony crossed his arms. ‘The only way you’re going to ruin my game is to ruin yours as well.”
“True,” she acceded. If she wanted to send him into oblivion, she’d have to send herself there as well, since she’d have to hit hers with all she was worth just to get his to move. And since she couldn’t hold hers in place, heaven only knew where she’d end up.
“But,” she said, looking up at him and smiling innocently, “I really have no chance of winning the game, anyway.”
“You could come in second or third,” he tried.
She shook her head. “Unlikely, don’t you think? I’m so far behind as it is, and we are nearing the end of play.”
“You don’t want to do this, Miss Sheffield,” he warned.
“Oh,” she said with great feeling, “I do. I really, really do.” And then, with quite the most evil grin her lips had ever formed, she drew back her mallet and smacked her ball with every ounce of every single emotion within her. It knocked into his with stunning force, sending it hurtling even farther down the hill.
Farther…
Farther.
Right into the lake.
Openmouthed with delight, Kate just stared for a moment as the pink ball sank into the lake. Then something rose up within her, some strange and primitive emotion, and before she knew what she was about, she was jumping about like a crazy woman, yelling, “Yes! Yes! I win!”
“You don’t win,” Anthony snapped.
“Oh, it feels like I’ve won,” she reveled.
Colin and Daphne, who had come dashing down the hill, skidded to a halt before them. “Well done, Miss Sheffield!” Colin exclaimed. “I knew you were worthy of the mallet of death.”
“Brilliant,” Daphne agreed. “Absolutely brilliant.”
Anthony, of course, had no choice but to cross his arms and scowl mightily.
Colin gave her a congenial pat on the back. “Are you certain you’re not a Bridgerton in disguise? You have truly lived up to the spirit of the game.”
“I couldn’t have done it without you,” Kate said graciously. “If you hadn’t hit his ball down the hill…”
“I had been hoping you would pick up the reins of his destruction,” Colin said.
The duke finally approached, Edwina at his side. “A rather stunning conclusion to the game,” he commented.
“It’s not over yet,” Daphne said.
Her husband gave her a faintly amused glance. ‘To continue the play now seems rather anticlimactic, don’t you think?”
Surprisingly, even Colin agreed. “I certainly can’t imagine anything topping it.”
Kate beamed.
The duke glanced up at the sky. “Furthermore, it’s starting to cloud over. I want to get Daphne in before it starts to rain. Delicate condition and all, you know.”
Kate looked in surprise at Daphne, who had started to blush. She didn’t look the least bit pregnant.
“Very well,” Colin said. “I move we end the game and declare Miss Sheffield the winner.”
“I was two wickets behind the rest of you,” Kate demurred.
“Nevertheless,” Colin said, “any true aficionado of Bridgerton Pall Mall understands that sending Anthony into the lake is far more important than actually sending one’s ball through all the wickets. Which makes you our winner, Miss Sheffield.” He looked about, then straight at Anthony. “Does anyone disagree?”
No one did, although Anthony looked close to violence.
“Excellent,” Colin said. “In that case, Miss Sheffield is our winner, and Anthony, you are our loser.”
The Viscount Who Loved Me by Julia Quinn
A Sleight of Shadows by Kat Howard
Release Date: June 2020
Since there is no cover or pre-order link for this book, I have my doubts about this date. But I really hope it comes out soon. Can’t wait to find out what happens to Sydney. And where did Miles Merlin scuttle off to?
Alpha Night by Nalini Singh
Release Date: June 9, 2020
Just because. 🙂
Daring and the Duke by Sarah Maclean
Release Date: June 30, 2020
At last, Grace and Ewan. I’m not even sure I like Ewan, so I’m very interested to see just how MacLean redeems him.
The Heir Affair by Heather Cocks and Jessica Morgan
Release Date: July 7, 2020
I adored The Royal We. It was both hilarious and poignant. I’ve been hoping Cocks and Morgan would write a sequel.
In the Valley: Stories and a Novella Based on Serena by Ron Rash
Release Date: August 4, 2020
Yes, a Serena novella. In which Serena, apparently, comes back to North Carolina in a final attempt to kill Jacob. I really can’t wait to read this.
War Lord by Bernard Cornwell
Release Date: November 24, 2020 (October 15 in the UK)
Finally, the last book. The saga comes to a dramatic close with the much anticipated showdown at Brunanburh.
Archangel’s Sun by Nalini Singh
Release Date: November 24, 2020
OMG, the Hummingbird! And she’s with Titus, one of my favorite of the other Archangels. This will be epic! And I hope something really, really nasty happens to Aegaeon!
What coming titles have got your inner biblioholic jonesing for a fix?
“I fell in love with you,” he said, “and married you. And suddenly I was filled to the brim and to the innermost depths with love. Love of you and love of everyone and everything. But then I doubted and I stumbled. I doubted the power of love and happiness to last. I doubted your feelings; I doubted my worthiness to be loved. And then and at last it occurred to me that I had to bring you here, that I had to bring you fully and completely into myself and trust that you would not simply laugh or–worse–not understand at all. Oh, you cannot know how vulnerable I am still feeling, Anna, mouthing such absurdities. But if I do not say them now I never will and I may have lost the missing part of myself forever.”
“But you are always mouthing absurdities,” she said.
Someone to Love by Mary Balogh, p. 297
Silver Silence by Nalini Singh. I loved this book! Hope we get to see a whole lot more of StoneWater. And add my vote for an Arwen/Pasha novella. Pretty please! Lots of other story possibilities here. Stasya and someone from BlackEdge, for instance. Tanique and Leila. I don’t think it’s time for Bo, because I really think he’s going to be paired with Miane. And, of course, poor Lily.
About the Architect. Shoshona would be way too easy. But I have no doubt she’s involved, and no doubt thinks she’s the Architect!
Lady Susan by Jane Austen. I very much enjoyed this early Austen work and don’t see why anyone thinks it needed a rewrite. It didn’t take very long at all for me to have a serious hate on for Lady Susan Vernon.
The Most Dangerous Duke in London by Madeline Hunter. Typical historical romance with an angry hero bent on revenge on the heroine’s family. Enjoyable while I was reading, but not much stuck with me afterwards. The heroine, Lady Clara, was a little unusual in that she was aware of this possible/probable motive for seduction.
Mansfield Park by Jane Austen. After reading and loving Lady Susan, I decided to read another Jane Austen work I hadn’t yet read. I didn’t like it nearly as much. Mostly, I think, because I didn’t warm to any of the characters. No one stood out or inspired much emotion in me at all. Very un-Austen. The exception on the emotion front was Mr. Crawford. I wanted to smack him.
The Last Neanderthal by Claire Cameron. This was an enjoyable, imaginative read, but I think I would have enjoyed this book more without the trips into the modern world. I realize that the comparison between Girl and Rose, between a Neanderthal and a modern human female, was one of the main themes of the books, but I would have preferred knowing how Girl interacted with the female who was and was not part of the families she meets at the end of the novel.
The Chosen by J. R. Ward. The only thing of interest here, for me, was Lassiter’s change in station. Layla and X’cor hold no interest for me, and, frankly, I’m getting a little tired of Qhuinn being an ass and Blay tragically suffering for it. I think this marks the end of the BDB for me. I’m even less interested in Assail than I was in Layla and X’cor.
The Tiger and Wolf by Adrian Tchaikovsky turned out to be an interesting read, if a bit long. The revelation about Maniye’s mother, the Tiger Queen, I saw coming a mile away, the one about her father, however, shocked the hell out of me. Still didn’t like him. At first, I rooted fervently for the Tigers to make a come back and kick some serious Wolf ass, but, after I met the Tigers, I hoped someone would show up and defeat them both. I think I’d prefer to be a Serpent, a Bear, or a Horse. I don’t know if I’ll follow Maniye and her companions to the Sun River Nation in The Bear and the Serpent or not.
Next was Once a Soldier, the first book in Mary Jo Putney’s Rogue’s Redeemed series. This is a spin-off of her Lost Lords. I didn’t enjoy it as much as I thought I would. The secondary romance in this book was more interesting the primary one. The tiny kingdom of San Gabriel, between Portugal and Spain, fictitious though it is, does sound like a place I’d like to visit.
After that, I read the first three books in Stephanie Rowe’s Order of the Blade series. In this series, the Order is a group of elite, immortal warriors of the Caledon people (I’m still not entirely clear on what a Caledon is) formed to combat rogue Caledons. See, Caledons are fated to go rogue when they meet their fated mates, so the Order kills either them or, if it’s a member of the Order, their mate. Not sure if I’ll continue with this series.
Lisa Kleypas’s Marrying Winterbourne, book two of the Ravenels, was fun. I’ll go back and read the first one Cold-Hearted Rake, sometime before the third book, Devil in Spring comes out in February.
I tried to read Against the Wind by Kat Martin, but only got a couple of chapters in before I tossed it. Boring. Same with Cathy Maxwell’s The Fairest of Them All. That one was just plain stupid.
Next up, Rock Wedding. This is not my favorite of Nalini Singh’s series, but they don’t completely such. However, this one left something to be desired. It just didn’t have the charisma, that’s the best word I can think of to describe it, of Singh’s other novels.
Things improved with Eloisa James’s My American Duchess. I’m hoping for a sequel about Cedric. I also had fun with the first two books of Isabella Bradford’s Breconridge Brothers trilogy, A Wicked Pursuit and A Sinful Deception.
When I find the time, I’ll start Amulya Malladi’s new book, A House for Happy Mothers which will, probably, be followed by Amy E. Reichert’s Luck, Love & Lemon Pie.
How about y’all. Anything good?
This month has, mostly, been occupied by my Psy-Changeling reread and am more than ready for Allegiance of Honor. Even after this third time reading Tangle of Need, I still think Adria got gypped. That one continues to irritate me.
Between visits with the leopards, the wolves, and the Psy (oh my!), I read a few other things. I really enjoyed the latest in Lorraine Heath’s Hellions of Havisham series, The Earl Takes All. Although, I do think Julia was way less pissed than she should have been. She forgave Edward too easily. 
Only Beloved, the last book in Mary Balogh’s Survivors Club, was another good one, and I also enjoyed her novella, Another Dream, in Once Upon a Dream. Wulfric Bedwyn continues to be one of my favorite fictional gentlemen. Less enjoyable was Eva Leigh’s The Temptations of a Wallflower, the third installment in her Wicked Quills of London series. I almost choked on some of the purple prose spouted by The Lady of Dubious Quality.
Next was Eligible by Curtis Sittenfeld. It didn’t take two chapters before things started going down hill. Sittenfeld’s Lizzie Bennett is, obviously an idiot, a condition to which I vehemently object in that character. I managed to stick it out until chapter 38 when Jasper’s last name was revealed. It kind of dashed my last hopes for Liz’s intelligence. However, on the bright side, Sittenfeld’s Mr. Bennett made me laugh every bit as much as his Austenian counterpart, but, alas, this was not enough to induce me to continue.
I picked up the much anticipated by me Britt-Marie Was Here by Fredrik Backman and the very interesting sounding Daughter of Albion by Ilka Tampke, but I haven’t found the time to dive into them, yet. That’s for June.
What have y’all been reading and loving lately?
After finishing Because of Miss Bridgerton last month, I entered a Regency groove. Lord knows I have enough of them on my TBR pile/USB. First, I did a quick re-read of Quinn’s The Viscount Who Loved Me for no other reason than Pal Mal and the Mallet of Death. Then, with breaks for The Beast and The Obsession, I devoured the following series: Sophie Jordan’s Debutante Files, Lorraine Heath’s Hellions of Havisham and her Scandalous Gentlemen of St. James, Eva Leigh’s Wicked Quills of London. 
They were all great fun.
Then I started on Sabrina Jeffries’ Sinful Suitors series. The first book and the follow-up novella were pretty good, but I did not finish the second book, The Study of Seduction. Ethan and Clarissa were discussing their fake “secret” engagement after she was accosted by that French guy, and I just could not make myself read any further. Such convoluted idiocy. And, with that, my historical romance spree was broken.
The Beast was surprisingly good. Assail didn’t bore me, for once. For the last several books, I’ve done a lot of skimming over his scenes. Especially Lover At Last. He got way too much page time in that book, and Quinn and Blay not nearly enough. But Assail’s scenes in this one. OMG! For one shining moment, I had hope that the whole Assail/Sola thing was dead and we could move on to something more interesting. But, then, came the Cincinnati signing and all my hopes on that score were dashed. Unless the Warden plans on writing a menage HEA. I would be okay with that if it fit the story, but I know many would not. And, with what she revealed about Lassiter at the signing, the next book, The Chosen immediately went on my most anticipated list for 2017.
The Obsession was okay, but not awesome. The identity of the copy-cat killer was rather obvious. I’d pegged him for what he was shortly after he made his appearance earlier in the book. When he made that lame attempt at blackmail.
After the romance, I was still in the mood for something historical, so I dug around/scrolled and found A Day of Fire: A Novel of Pompeii by Stephanie Dray, Ben Kane, E. Knight, Sophie Perinot, Kate Quinn, and Vicky Alvear Shecter. It provided a nice visit with Quinn’s Diana Cornelia and Senator Norbanus. I also really enjoyed Shecter’s contribution, “The Son,” from the point-of-view of Pliny the Younger and Knight’s “The Mother” almost made me cry it was so sad.
The end of the month saw the beginning of my Psy-Changeling re-read. And I started the new Eva Leigh, Temptations of a Wallflower, and Lorraine Heath, The Earl Takes All.
Unapologetically Nerdy 