Acquired Book By: I started hosting for Rachel’s Random Resources at the end of [2017] booking several guest features for [2018] whilst noting I had a lovely opportunity to review a novel for one of the New Year’s tours. This blog tour marks my second with this touring company, as Rachel and I met through my chat #ChocLitSaturday which has since been renewed @SatBookChat! I look forward to spotlighting her authors, conversing with them and seeing how they respond to my guest topics. I may review a book here or there, but as most of her authors are in the UK / Europe market, I mostly was excited to cheer for their stories whilst awaiting to gather their stories stateside in print or audio.
I received a complimentary copy of “The Captain’s Disgraced Lady” direct from the author Catherine Tinley in exchange for an honest review. I did not receive compensation for my opinions or thoughts shared herein.
Hallo, Hallo dear hearts!
Initially, I thought The Captain’s Disgraced Lady was the first novel in the Chadcombe Marriages series – I even checked the series list on Fantastic Fiction – however, wherever the glitch was in my research, the answer was found in the Author’s Note of this novel. Apparently, the series began with Waltzing with the Earl and it is a story I look forward to reading one day – if only to see how the stage was originally set within this series which focuses on one family’s legacy in the 19th Century where the backdrop of the Regency is countered against the wars raging in Europe and other century specific events which lead in and out of the dramas within the series itself.
I grew up reading Regencies and Victorian Romances – they were my first foray into the Romance genre itself and remain to this day my favourite entreaties therein. There is just something about the Regency itself – from the time-line of it’s era to what was occurring in the background of where the stories are set. This is why when I first learnt of this blog tour, I knew I wanted to become a part of it – the blessing of being able to read the novel was not lost on me! Especially as this also marked the first novel I’ve read by Mills & Boon! I’ve had my eye on their novels for a long time – though trying to sort out an easy way of acquiring the stories has been a bit tricky over the years as I remember it used to be a bit easier to purchase novels by UK and European authors pre-2000. I am finding a bit of renewed hope in certain online book shoppes which are giving us new opportunities to read the stories we’re interested in but evenso, I do wish it would be a bit more streamlined.
Mills & Boon is part of Harlequin Books – of whom I’ve known about for most of my life, as Harlequin made quite a name for itself back in the ‘80s. In the ‘90s and 2000s, I found myself drawn into reading Harlequin titles and even had joined a few of their mail-order book clubs, such as Mira which allowed you to new releases each month. More recently, as I started to host for Prism Book Tours, I’ve had a renewed interest in reading Harlequin releases as Prism hosts a number of their authors each year which is why I talked about why I enjoy the publisher. This time round, I was elated Rachel’s touring company was featuring the other side of Harlequin’s releases – a Mills & Boon novelist who focuses on Regency Historicals!
Speaking about the ‘changes’ in cover art design and the brand changes as well – I started to notice the changes in the book stores already before I saw them online via Mills & Boon’s webpage and Twitter account. Their not the only ones changing as I saw evidence the cover art for American Harlequin titles are different now as well. Their a bit harder to credit which title goes with which imprint as the front of the books are focused more on the cover art for the title than for disclosing the imprint’s name – which ironically is why I liked them prior to these changes as you knew what you were picking up based on the imprint you were familiar with – now however, they all have the tendency of ‘blurring’ into the recent batch of releases on the shelf. I’m unsure what prompted the changes – but I wager it will take time getting used too.
In regards to reading a series out of order – (le sigh) – yes, this is something I strive to avoid, but in this particular case, I had misleading information about the order of sequence – so I am unsure how I could have prevented reading this particular series out of order ahead of reading the second for review. One thing I liked about the note the author left for us inside her novel is there seemed to be leeway to read these out of context of the previous installments – it seems each of the installments focuses on one couple or one character in particular who has weight in the series itself of being important to see how their lives move forward in this time-line. Having said that – I still want to seek out the first and then re-read The Captain’s Disgraced Lady to see if I can pick up the nuances of the first through continuity revelations in the second.
The Captain's Disgraced Lady
by Catherine Tinley
Source: Author via Rachel's Random Resources
Who is Captain Harry Fanton?
When Juliana Milford first encounters Captain Harry Fanton, she finds him arrogant and rude. There’s no way she’ll fall for his dazzling smile! Her visit to Chadcombe House was always going to prompt questions over her scandalous family, so she’s touched when Harry defends her reputation. She’s discovering there’s more to Harry than she’d first thought...
A man so plagued by the demons of war, he’s sworn he’ll never marry, no matter how tempted...
Places to find the book:
ISBN: 9780263932591
Genres: Historical Fiction, Historical Romance, Romance Fiction
Published by Mills & Boon
on 28th December, 2017
Format: UK Edition Paperback
Pages: 368
Published By: Mills & Boon (@MillsandBoon)
an imprint of HarperCollins UK + Harlequin Enterprises Ltd.
Chadcombe Marriage series
Waltzing with the Earl | Book One
The Captain’s Disgraced Lady | Book Two
Yet to be Revealled Title (Olivia’s story, Harry’s younger sister!) | Book Three
Formats Available: Mills & Boon Historical paperback and Ebook
Converse via: #HistFict + #HistRom or #MillsAndBoon #Historical
About Catherine Tinley
Catherine Tinley writes witty, heartwarming Regency love stories. She has loved reading and writing since childhood, and has a particular fondness for love, romance, and happy endings. After a career encompassing speech and language therapy, NHS management, maternity campaigning and being President of a charity, she now works for Sure Start. She lives in Ireland with her husband, children, and dog.
my review of the captain’s disgraced lady:
Rain. The kind which makes you chilled to the bone if your standing in it too long is something I can relate too. Finding Juliana and her mother waylaid after disembarking from their ship whilst earnestly hopeful to find a warm respite indoors felt quite fitting. Her mother’s anxieties surprised me but like most daughters who are attentive to their parents’ needs, I could tell Juliana was capable of getting her mother what she needed from the keeper of the establishment they had ducked inside. A fire in the hearth is a blessing on any day where the cold can wick out your body temperature and tea is such a warming balm of strength to your soul – I could definitely find myself in their shoes and felt their desire to feel warmer.
As soon as they were settled in the parlour all was not as it would seem – despite Juliana’s intentions of getting back onto the road as soon as a carriage could be fetched was not in the cards. Her mother’s health was declining right before her eyes, from the pale pallor of her face and skin to the lack of energy in her feet whenever she tried to move rooms. Adding to the distress of the situation was a certain Captain (ie. Harry) who was insisting on stepping on Juliana’s toes! The banterment going on between them was wicked hilarious on one hand and downright infuriating on the other! They bested each other for being able to hold their own against a person you hadn’t expected to get into a row with at a local Inn! He was infringing on Juliana’s right to best understand her mother’s needs but Harry was flummoxed by how Juliana didn’t act like others he knew of her same age. She was a puzzle to him; one he found quite astonishingly curious to understand better.
Whilst we find mother and daughter waylaid from their travels, we get the chance to understand their relationship through a series of flashbacks – they own to how hard Juliana has tried to stand by her mother’s side as her guardian as her mother has one particular fault in her character which puts her at risk: she is too trusting of others’ motives. We quickly recognise how Juliana had to step into adulthood as a young girl if only to safeguard her mother from those who sought to take advantage of her kind deposition.
Despite the awkwardness Juliana and Harry felt in their exchanges, each of them were smitten over the other from afar; without feeling circumvent about having noticed each others’ features when the other was not aware. By the time Juliana was ensconced at her best friend’s new estate, her thoughts were still plaguing her about Harry; she just couldn’t shake him from her conscience. Charlotte on the other hand reminded me of the girls’ in stories and films who was the best kind of girlhood mate to have in one’s life – of where you could having daring adventures and hugged-to-your-soul confidences with a trusted friend. (ie. the Mandie series, Anne of Green Gables, Little Women, etc.)
It’s hard not to laugh at the irony of it all! Harry is Adam’s brother! I should have seen this coming but I was caught up in the goings-on of Juliana’s days, not trying to connect the dots and enjoying the narrative as it was written – but when I first suspected there might be a connection to Harry is when Juliana first saw a bloke trying to sneak into the Orangery! Mind, as soon as I learnt about what an Orangery is from another story I read last year, the more I fell in love with the idea of them! Imagine!? Having the ability to grow fresh citrus and specific fruits in a special room which blooms with it’s own kind of aromatherapy that is altogether refreshingly beneficial? Charlotte is married to Adam you see, and thereby, Harry is her new ‘brother-in-law’ and the bane of Juliana’s existence. Although, part of me wonders if a lot of what irks the ire of those two might be unexpected flirtation with someone who can challenge them? In love like in life, the people you are meant to be with are not always the ones you think you’d draw favour – sometimes it’s the person who sees you yet challenges you past logic and reason all the same.
When Charlotte, Harry and Juliana went visiting to one of the neighbours who had a clear lack of tact and decorum in their bones (they had been at the Public Day Charlotte & Adam had hosted) – it took every ounce of personal resolve for these three friends-in-arms to hold back the discontent they had felt in the presence of their hosts. If anything, it was their disregard for their general staff and their mannerisms overall which was most distasteful. Plus, too, as Juliana suspected upon hearing the woman’s tale about how she was ‘inheriting’ her assets, I smelt something rather fowl in regards to her ‘husband’. There was a layer of shrouded woe afflicting through this passage where you nearly wanted to find a solution for the servants and extract the ‘owners’ from their prideful ownership.
Ah, ha! So, dear Harry has a cleverly guarded secret he wishes Juliana will not ferret out of him! Ha! I knew he was holding back something but this? This is far more than I was expecting! He doesn’t deem himself worthy of the affections of a woman he truly admires himself!? He has put this wall up inside his heart and has refused to draw any person close enough to his being to find his truer nature – but as we all know in retrospect, the further you attempt to have people held at a distance from you, the only person you hurt is yourself. I ached to know the origins of his deceit – of feeling the need to mask his truer heart to those he wished only to keep in his life on a superficial layer of insight into who he was beyond his outward persona? What was he so afraid of revealling?
Counter to Harry’s indifference towards his own heart’s feelings was Juliana’s mother – who refused to explain why she had a growing sense of distrust and unease staying in England. The only bits Juliana could gain from her mother were not enough to piece together what would allow her mother to turn quite frail and emotionally dissolve right before her eyes. She was keeping secrets but they were the kind which went against her very soul. It was gutting to watch – as Juliana was an attentive daughter, but she knew as we all do – unless someone reached out for help or the solace of confiding what was troubling them, there was little which could be done.
Harry and Juliana were constantly being placed in each others’ path – from the ball to the estate Charlotte and Adam oversaw for the family. In each instance, you saw how hard they fought to be civil with each other but there was something else, too. For as much pride as he exhumed publicly, he was not as confidence in private settings. Juliana on the other hand held a high prejudice against those of her peerage who wanted something of her she was not willing to give herself – in this, portions of the story brokered the reasons why I love Pride and Prejudice as much as I do. They were each others’ worst enemy and best match overall – they fuelled each others’ passion but they had no idea what to do with the attraction they felt either. It was almost as if they each had tabled the hope for true romance and love to touch their lives and now found it was at their feet; how to tackle that reality was unknown to each of them in turn!
And, this was only the beginning of how Ms Tinley layered her story as she would continue to knit out their back-stories – of finding out what truly made each of them hide portions of themselves from each other. Each step along the way, Harry, Juliana and Juliana’s mother were not just humbled by the raw emotions they had to greet as hidden truths surfaced but they had to decide if they would allow themselves to be emotionally vulnerable to each other if they were to be honest with each other in their relationships and connections. It is one thing to be self-assured about one’s own approach to living but when certain secrets seek to destroy the fragility of how you connect to others, it becomes a make or break choice against your own heart and the time you have to make amends with those you love.
What was most compelling to me is how everything knits together in the end – how Harry’s guilty conscience stemmed back to war as explored through his PTSD and the nightmares therein which exposed a truth he was trying to suppress; how Juliana’s own origin of birth and the emotional collapse of her mother were interlinked in ways none of us could have suspected whilst through everything interconnecting to these story-lines remained an interior glimpse of how one family linked to Chadcombe found inner strength, common bonds and an integrity of family fortitude to stand against society and supposition to live true to their accounts come what may. It’s the kind of family you can rally behind because they don’t allow others to dictate their path nor do they allow society the edge they feel they can assert on others through rumours and innuendo. This cleverly crafted Historical Romance is full of the depth and beauty of the romantic sagas I love to become immersed inside – where each installment draws you closer to the heart of the family and the dramatic way in which their lives are set behind history.
on the historical styling of catherine tinley:
I love how Ms Tinley has paced this novel – of how she chose to reveal their behaviour quirks and they try to hold back a bit of themselves at the same time. Rather than reveal a lot about the setting in the beginning, she found a way to break-down the introductions to the main characters by placing them in a setting which would befit close quarters and companionable space – where they would have to sit and converse amongst each other for a specific period of time before departing company. In this, you get to see where their confidences lie and where their insecurities start to bubble to the surface; you also see them caught off-guard either by being outwitted or simply heard something unexpected they hadn’t thought they would hear at all. In this, it’s quite a refreshing way to entreat into a story because your stranded with the characters, seeing how they react to each other and what can be observed through their interactions. If anything, it’s a great study in human behaviour!
I truly read this novel in one sitting – much to my delight! I was happily surprised to find this did not follow the same pattern as Harlequin novels on this side of the Pond; in fact, it had it’s own voice, style and disclosure like I would expect from any Historical Romance; something which surprised me as Harlequin Historicals (as I know them here) have the tendency to follow suit after each other; most Harlequin stories have a ‘trademark’ so to speak and what I found wicked refreshing is this felt wholly original of Ms Tinley without the ‘signature Harlequin mark’ on it!!
Perhaps I am a Mills & Boon girl!?
Don’t get me wrong, I do appreciate Harlequin for what Harlequin provides — but ooh. There was something wicked lovely about this author’s spin on this particular story-line… I was so glued to her words, especially the turns of phrases she used and the ways in which she revealled the character’s truer thoughts about one another. You get privy to both the action of the scenes but also, what each lead character is contemplating privately; the balance between the two was delightful but also, it was how it was spaced out and evenly divided to where you never felt one was sacrificed for the other.
I know one thing is for certain – I must hunt down which online book shoppe has the Mills & Boon edition of Waltzing with the Earl and hopefully it shall be the same which will carry the third novel where Olivia’s story is known! The reason I love the elements inside this novel is because they bring back the Regency of my youth with the Regency I know as an adult – the kind of stories I gravitate towards but also, it speaks to the voice I seek out in these kinds of Regencies. Not every writer who writes Regency Romance has this style nor this comprehension of how to curate this kind of voice for the historic period in question. Thereby, the best part of finding this novel #unputdownable was how wicked happy I was to be reading it!
This blog tour is courtesy of: Rachel’s Random Resources
Remember to click-through the banner to reach the rest of the bloggers participating!
Rachel & I first crossed paths whilst celebrating our mutual love of ChocLitUK novels – this blog tour marks the second I’ve been able to host for her after discovering recently she has a blog touring company! You’ve might have seen her badge in my sidebar!? I am looking forward to bringing Guest Author Features, Book Spotlights w/ Notes & Reviews to Jorie Loves A Story hosted by Rachel! It’s quite lovely when someone you know in the twitterverse has started their own company & has followed their passion for helping others. I look forward to working with Rachel more often now in 2018!
You will next see me hosting her blog tours on the following dates:
- the 30th of January, 2018 : The Magic of Stars by Jackie Ladbury
- the 12th of February, 2018 : Andorra Pett & the Ourt Cloud Cafe by Richard Dee
- the 27th of February, 2018 : Lord Ravenscar’s Inconvenient Betrothal by Lara Temple
- the 16th of March, 2018 : The Best Boomerville Hotel by Caroline James
{SOURCES: Book cover for “The Captain’s Disgraced Lady”, author biography and photo for Catherine Tinley, the blog tour banners and book synopsis were provided by Rachel’s Random Resources and are used with permission. Post dividers by Fun Stuff for Your Blog via Pure Imagination. Tweets were embedded due to codes provided by Twitter. Blog graphics created by Jorie via Canva: Book Review Banner using Unsplash.com (Creative Commons Zero) Photography by Frank McKenna, 2018 Historical Fiction Reading Challenge banner and the Comment Box Banner.}
Copyright © Jorie Loves A Story, 2018.
I’m a social reader | I tweet my reading life
#JorieReads her 1st #MillsAndBoon #Regency #HistRom#unputdownable + beautifully dramatic!
So glued to @CatherineTinley's words, esp turns of phrases & ways in which she revealled the character’s truer thoughts
📚#BookReview https://t.co/lMc607j0cY@MillsandBoon @rararesources pic.twitter.com/DYpIRIDDj1
— Jorie, the Joyful Tweeter 📚👩💻 (@joriestory) January 5, 2018
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