Laura Lee Guhrke

Evie Harlow runs a run-down bookshop in London. When Max, Duke of Westbourne, makes her an offer to turn her into a society lady, she refuses but is forced to reconsider when disaster strikes her shop.
This is more of a My Fair Lady story than Cinderella; Max only makes his offer because of a bet. Evie is turned into a diamond, and like Henry Higgins, Max is the one who falls in love. It's a great retelling with interesting characters, both main and side. Max is divorced, which adds some scandal to his efforts. Evie is shy but willing to follow her dreams despite her anxieties. It's a fun story as the pair work through the complications and disasters of their joint endeavors. Another great story from Ms. Guhrke.… (mais)

Guilty Pleasures is a historical, Regency romance and the first in Laura Lee Guhrke’s Guilty series. Daphne had spent all her life in the Middle East and Northern Africa with her archaeologist father and she learned everything she knows about antiquities from him. When her father died, leaving her destitute, her only option was to use the ticket Anthony, the Duke of Tremore, had sent her father and travel to his country estate. Anthony had wanted to hire Daphne's father to restore and catalog all the Roman artifacts he’d been digging up on his property, but when Daphne showed up instead, he took a chance and hired her for the job. Over the last several months she’s been working for Anthony, she’s developed an infatuation for the handsome, fit duke and fancies herself in love with him, but when she overhears him saying unflattering—even cruel—things about her, any affection she’d felt for him instantly dies. She tries to tender her resignation, but he won’t have it. The museum Anthony has been building in London to house all the artifacts is nearing completion and he can’t afford to lose someone as talented as Daphne, so he bargains with her to gain a few more months of her service. As they spend more personal time together, Anthony begins to eat his words as Daphne gradually becomes more and more attractive to him, while Daphne’s feelings for Anthony start to resurface. However, Anthony refuses to give his heart to anyone, and Daphne refuses to marry without love. But a game in the language of flowers may prove to be exactly what their relationship needs to truly blossom.

Daphne’s mother was the daughter of a Baron, but when she eloped with Daphne’s father, who was a mere knight, her own father disowned her. She later died, leaving Daphne alone with her sire, who was a renowned archaeologist. At her father’s knee, Daphne became an expert on antiquities, and his equal in knowledge of the ancient world. So when her father also died and her grandfather refused to acknowledge her, she had no other option but to use the ticket Anthony had sent her father and return to England. There she convinced Anthony to hire her and she’s been working at the dig site on his property for several months. In her down time, her “guilty pleasure” is watching a shirtless Anthony through her spyglass as he unearths new artifacts and she’s developed quite an attraction for him, even believing herself to be in love with him. But when she overhears him talking to his sister and calling her as “invisible as a stick bug on a stick,” she’s heartbroken. Daphne immediately tries to tender her resignation, but not wanting to lose her so close to the museum’s grand opening and used to getting what he wants, Anthony twists her arm to get her to stay on a few more months. As she gets to know him a little better and spends time close to him, learning to dance, she can’t help but start to warm up to him again, but knowing that he doesn’t wish to give his heart to anyone, she can’t really trust that anything he says to her is real even when he starts sending her affectionate messages with flowers.

I’m a big fan of heroines who are smart and bookish, and/or shy and plain, and Daphne fits that bill in almost all those ways. She’s clearly very intelligent, learning all she knows about antiquities from her father. Although acquiring prettier clothes, wearing her hair differently and not wearing her spectacles improves her appearance, she’s still not a great beauty, which I could appreciate as well. The only thing that was a bit off was that she goes from being so shy that she’s barely able to string two words together in Anthony’s presence to confidently defending herself after hearing his unvarnished opinion of her. Not that I would have wanted her to allow him to walk all over her, and I suppose that perhaps she was tongue-tied around him because her attraction to him made her nervous, but it did seem like a rather abrupt turnaround. The other thing that bugged me a little is that after Daphne and Anthony make love for the first time and he offers marriage as a matter of duty, she turns him down cold because she refuses to marry without love. While as a modern woman I understand and support this sentiment, I feel that it’s an overused trope in historical romances, where society of the era most certainly wouldn’t have been kind to a woman who became pregnant out of wedlock. Daphne had planned to leave Anthony’s employ and try to become a governess, not even taking this potential complication into account. So her blasé attitude over what should have been a matter of practicality was a bit irksome. Otherwise, I really liked Daphne and thought she was a good heroine.

Anthony lost both of his parents at a young age and became the duke at a mere twelve-years-old, so he had to grow up fast. Lately he’s taken to digging up Roman artifacts from his country estate, and needing someone to restore and catalog them for the museum he plans to open, he had been courting Daphne’s father for the position. When Daphne showed up in his stead, Anthony was skeptical at first, but now that he’s gotten several months to feel out her expertise in this area, he’s convinced there’s no one better for the job. However, she’s nothing more than an employee to him. After meeting Daphne, though, Anthony’s sister starts making plans to help her get in touch with her family and bring her out to society, a move that Anthony selfishly refuses because of his need for her services. It’s at this point that he makes his mean comments about Daphne that she accidentally overhears, leading to her trying to tender her resignation. Being used to getting his way, he won’t accept it, and starts to bargain with Daphne, offering dance lessons and other enticements in exchange for her staying longer. As he spends more time in closer proximity to her, he can’t help starting to see the beauty beneath the plain exterior and desire begins to blossom. But even though he can’t stop thinking of her, he stubbornly refuses to give her his heart. Initially I didn’t really like Anthony much because the things he says about Daphne were pretty cruel, and also because early in the story, he comes off as very entitled. He has no real interest in his servants or employees beyond what they do for him and won’t even accept Daphne’s resignation because of his own selfish needs. Then he mostly just tries to throw money at the problem. While I admit that my opinion of him improved as the story went on, it didn’t really happen until he starting courting Daphne in earnest. Also, his reasons for not wanting to fall in love, while sympathetic, weren’t revealed until the final pages of the book, which didn’t really allow much time to resolve them.

Guilty Pleasures has been on my TBR pile for quite some time, and I seem to recall it garnering a spot there because of favorable things I’d heard about it. I also can never seem to resist stories with intelligent heroines. The story got off to a pretty good start with Anthony wanting to protect his sister whose errant husband has been causing a scandal. That seemed to show him in a chivalrous light, but his later arrogant behavior and the things he said about Daphne rubbed me the wrong way. Until the nicer side of him emerged toward the end, I had a hard time liking him or understanding what Daphne saw in him beyond his good looks. I also thought that when Anthony’s sister was appalled by his choice of a wife, a woman she adamantly believed would bore him to tears, that there would be some sort of “meeting of the minds” between him and Daphne. He clearly had a interest for preserving antiquities and so did she, so it seemed like it would have been an easy and obvious thing for them to connect over their shared passion for history, but that never really happened. Instead it was difficult for me to say exactly why and when they did start falling in love, as it all seemed rather superficial to me. I think their little game with the language of flowers at the end was one of the best parts of the story, because they were both putting some thought into it.

I don’t want my critique to make it sound like I didn’t like the book at all, though. I did find enjoyment within its pages and I kind of waffled a little on how to rate it, but ultimately I felt it had a few too many weaknesses for me to bump it up to a full four stars. Even though it wasn’t a stellar read for me, I’d be open to continuing the series. I found Anthony’s best friend, Dylan, to be a rather intriguing character, and he becomes the hero of the next book, His Every Kiss. I really liked Anthony’s sister, Viola, as well, who becomes the heroine of the third book, The Marriage Bed, although I’m a little less interested in that story as it’s apparently about her reconciling with her husband, which is something I’m a little uncertain about given his appalling behavior in this book. In any case, I may give them a try at some point, although I might not be in a hurry to do so.… (mais)