The Essex Sisters I loved this series as a whole. You could take the story line and plop it down in any timeline. The issues the sisters faced were struggles that women, and men, go through every day. Self image, alcoholism, grief. Individually, each story was great in its own right, but together the four of them create a really great series. The sisters were much like real sisters treat each other. They fought, the cried, they screamed, they cussed and they made up and loved each other still. The orphaned, Scottish Essex sisters descend upon their ward, Rafe, the Duke of Holbrook, who is expecting four young girls, not four fully grown, beautiful women. Each of them was dowried, not with funds, but a horse from their father’s stables. To the men of the racing circuit this, combined with their beauty, makes them quite desirable. These books can be read out of order, but together, they’re truly wonderful. Much Ado About You (book 1)Tess and Lucius wed amid the scandal of her younger sister Imogene’s elopement and her own fiasco of a near wedding. Left at the altar, Tess agrees to marry Lucius in hopes it will quiet any rumors that might spread. The first thing that came to my mind when I finished this book was how sweet it was. Not sickly, nauseating sweet, but the sweet that makes your heart a little lighter. The first book in a new series is always a bit difficult for me. I feel like the author is trying to introduce us to everyone and it’s hard to really get an in-depth idea of who the main characters are. There are nine main characters introduced in this first book and, while I enjoyed getting to know all of them, I wanted to know Tess and Lucius more. Kiss Me, Annabel (book 2)Again, an Essex sister has to wed amid scandal. Annabel has a list of virtues that she requires for her husband, none of which is that of the Scottish Earl of Ardmore. Ewan has come down from the Scottish highlands to London to find a bride and quickly decides that Annabel Essex is the one for him. Because he has come to London for a bride Annabel believes him to be impoverished and, while she finds him very attractive, decides that he will not do for her. She kept the household accounts for her horse mad father and years of penny pinching have closed her mind off to love. I loved Annabel and Ewan. They felt real, tangible. I especially loved that Annabel allowed herself to begin developing feelings for Ewan before she realized that he was quite rich. Ewan was not a “normal” hero for the time period. He came to Annabel with little knowledge of sex and how to pleasure a man. They learned together, and it made it oh so much nicer. The Taming of the Duke (book 3)Imogen, Lady Maitland, was widowed just two short weeks after her elopement. As a result she’s become mean and hateful to all around her. Poor Rafe, who is still clinging to his duty as guardian, catches a huge brunt of it. Imogen has decided to take a lover and chooses Rafe’s newly found brother, Gabe, as her first. Gabe, however, has no interest in Imogen. He agrees to a meeting where they’re both in disguise, but Rafe goes instead. Rafe is an alcoholic who decides that it’s time to get clean. He has a young niece to bring into society and he’s realized he has a strong hankering for Imogen, who has great disdain for his love of drink. I loved watching Rafe come from an overweight, drunk, uncaring man to the sexy, loveable Duke. There were heart wrenching parts on his path to sobriety. Imogen was there and helped without her previous derision and antagonistic tendencies. I didn’t really like her at first. She was selfish and thoughtless unless it gave her what she was after. She grew up in this story and became my second favorite of the four sisters. The one thing that bothered me was that we never learned just when or how Imogen learned that Rafe was the man she was sneaking out and about with. Pleasure for Pleasure (book 4)I really like how Josie’s lack of self-esteem is written. Again, it is so real and relevant to what a woman goes through. Josie is my favorite of the sisters. As the baby, she’s watched all of her sisters wed and believes that her only hope of marriage lies in scandal. She’s been given an awful nickname by the ton and a fear there’s no way to overcome it. Garrett, Lord Mayne, has a reputation as a rake. He slept with nearly all the married women in London before deciding that he’d had enough. He’s engaged and professes great love for his fiancé but he can’t help feeling attracted to Josie who is 17 years his junior. His engagement ends on the same day that he believes Josie has been raped and he rushes for a special license so they can wed immediately. I really loved the way Garrett showed Josie that she was a beautiful woman. It is so hard to overcome body images and how we view ourselves. Even Garrett has his own issues of inadequacy. Together, they work through their issues and fall ever so sweetly in love.What I loved about the series:]•Feisty, independent heroines who aren't afraid to go after what they want.•Real, common issues that span time.•Sexy, alpha men. •The sex scenes were descriptive enough to be interesting without falling over into porn. What I didn't really like:There wasn't really anything I didn't like about the series as a whole. Individually, there were little things that bothered me about each character, but it was more of a personal thing rather than literary.
I like how this book started out with describing the Essex sisters and how they are all different. Series which have lead ladies with different personalities are always fun reads for me. (Wallflowers anyone?) I don't mind when it becomes apparent right off the bat who the heroine is going to fall in love with, in fact I kind of enjoy how giddy I get when they are about to meet or are meeting for the first time. When Lucius is about to walk into the dining room and meet a slightly tipsy Tess the smile on my face was unstoppable. The discourse between Derwent, Lucius's manservant, and Lucius is hilarious. I definitely hope Derwent sticks around in this story. I love how Derwent's eye twitching means to him calamity in the worse form, or to him marriage and just wants to escape the house while everyone is still a bachelor. I'm quite enjoying the feistiness between Lucius and Tess, especially when Tess responds with "Much ado about nothing.." in regards to their kiss and Lucius's marriage proposal because of it. I love when author's work in the title of the book into the story somehow, adds a little something for me. Such a plethora of characters that the main ones, Lucius and Tess, get lost in the mix at times. There is not much interaction between the two, but boy howdy when there is action it is intense. This is the first book in a series, the cast of characters are just getting introduce which is why Tess's other sisters get so much attention. Usually I get annoyed when the author gets to busy pimping her other characters for future books but the characters here are so interesting and intriguing as to where they could possible end up that I didn't mind…..at times. I don’t know, after I finished reading the book I felt like Lucius and Tess's story was unfinished somehow. I felt like this couple had so much more to give! I would have also liked to have had more of Lucius and his thoughts and feelings throughout the book. The whole deal with Lucius and his parents felt completely unsettled, in fact the whole ending felt unsettled. There was a cutesy epilogue but it didn't satisfy me. This was a really good book but like I said before Lucius and Tess were pushed to the back by everyone else's drama. (My God Tess's sister Imogen certainly stole the show towards the end of the book for sure). Lucius was such an intriguing sexy character that for him not to be rewarded with a bulk of the spotlight, in his own book no less, was a shame. I would have loved to have read the conversation between Lucius and the Earl of Mayne on Tess's wedding day; at the end of the book we learn Lucius told the Earl of Mayne "to leave" but I still would have liked to read that scene! This was once again sooo close to being a keeper for me; if only Tess and Lucius had spent more time together! I am excited to read the next book in this series, it's Annabel's story. Hopefully, with one sister out of the way that book will be less crowed and there will be more focus on who are suppose to be the main characters. Oh, I almost forgot! What the hell happened to Derwent!?! I hate when authors introduce characters, get you interested in them, but never mention them again. Derwent and Lucius needed to have many more witty misogynist slanted conversations!
What do You think about Much Ado About You (2004)?
First of all, I have to take my hat off to Susan Duerden for pulling off something which, to my mind, would have been quite a daunting task. In Much Ado About You, there are four (possibly five) principal female characters and four principal male characters as well as various servants and other secondary characters. She managed to voice them all reasonably distinctly and clearly. Almost all those eight principals will appear in the other three entries to the series too, so I imagine a lot of thought had to go into keeping the voices consistent across all the books, although I have yet to listen to any of the others.As this isthe first in the Essex Sisters quartet, it has to set the scene. With the death of their horse-mad father, four girls have been left in the guardianship of Rafe, Duke of Holbrook. He has never met them and, in fact, wasn’t all that close to their father, agreeing to his request that he undertake their care on his demise as a matter of honour rather than any expression of friendship. Rafe is expecting girls young enough to want to play with toys and is naturally surprised when four young ladies arrive, aged twenty-two (Tess, the eldest) to fifteen (Josie).Here is the first of Ms. Duerden’s herculean tasks – to enable the listener to differentiate between four female characters who are quite close in age. But she makes it sound easy. Tess is given a slightly deep tone with a soft edge that fits her character perfectly. As the eldest, she is the caretaker, and has clearly become accustomed to adapting herself to the others’ needs. Annabel, the next in age, is the beauty of the family and is determined to make a spectacular marriage so that she can find good husbands for all her sisters. Her voice has an undercurrent of good humor, the tone slightly sharper than her older sister’s. Imogen’s voice has a much harder edge to it – she can be rather a hard character to like at times while Josie is still in the schoolroom and clearly has a well-developed sense of irony. If anything, the voices are easier to differentiate when all the girls are in a scene together. When it’s just one or two of them, it sometimes took me a second or two to figure out who was speaking as there were fewer other female voices around for comparison.You can read the rest of this review over at AudioGals.
—Caz
Much Ado About You3 StarsFollowing the death of their father, the four Essex sisters become the wards of the Duke of Holbrook who soon realizes that they re not the demure children he was expecting. The eldest, Tess, has her hands full keeping exquisite man-magnet Annabel, foolishly romantic Imogen and highly intelligent Josie under control, so it comes to as no surprise when all hell breaks loose and Tess finds herself married to someone completely unsuitable in order to save her family from disgrace. However, Lucius Felton, a man disowned by his own mother, may just be exactly what Tess really needs …Tess and Lucius are exceedingly likable characters and their romance is sweet and steamy. They have some really wonderful banter going. Unfortunately, the rest of the cast leaves much to be desired. Annabel is a mercenary wench, Imogen an ungrateful and obnoxious cow and Josie a sulky brat. The male characters don’t fare much better as Rafe is drunken sot and Garret a womanizing adulterer. Both seem to care more about their horses than their fellow human beings. It is difficult to see how these characters can possibly redeem themselves but as I have the rest of the series on hand, I will probably be finding out.
—Lauren
If I could've called it, this book would've been titled Something Wanton. You'll see why in a bit.The Essex sisters are orphans. Their mother died years ago, and their father, an avid horseman, took a fall and died a rather more lingering death. His madness for horse racing has left the young ladies penniless—their only dowry is his stable—each of them has a prize-winning Thoroughbred as her portion. And their guardian is Rafe, the Duke of Holbrook, who agreed to take them on in exchange for (what else) a prize horse. Rafe is a dedicated bachelor, as are his friends, Garrett, Earl of Mayne (Mane, get it?), and Lucius Fenton (a mere mister, but bloody rich). They're all also quite fond of horses and racing. But their passion for horseflesh doesn't hold a candle to that of Lord Draven Maitland, whose lands adjoin Rafe's. When Rafe's friends learn about the girls' dowries, Garrett immediately decides to court Tessa, the oldest sister, whose dowry is a horse he's always coveted—Something Wanton. Now, don't you think that'd be a great title for the book—a lot more grabby than Much Ado? Just sayin'. Anyhoo, marrying Garrett would solve a lot of problems. His widowed sister, Grissie, has agreed to chaperone the girls, and she has the connections to bring them out. Marrying Mayne would give them the means to dress well and make good come-outs. And he's handsome enough, even if his effusive flattery leaves Tessa a bit cold. The problem is Lucius. See, he doesn't flatter. He just grabs her every so often and tickles her uvula (not what you're thinking!) with his tongue. The first time, he offered marriage, but his reluctance was so obvious that Tessa told him to stubble it. Problem is, he keeps doing it (snogging her, that is). Then he tells her she's better off with Garrett. She's kind of getting whiplash, but she's put off enough by his apparent emotional disinterest, that she accepts Garrett's proposal.Then her younger sister (whose book I may not want to read because she is such a shallow, selfish, vindictive snot) goes and elopes. She's always had the hots for Lord Maitland (he of the horse fetish, and she doesn't care who she stomps on to get him. He would probably choose her (since he can't marry a horse), but his mommy has threatened to stop funding his stable if he doesn't marry the woman she's chosen for him (she, poor thing, was also extorted into the union). He isn't exactly the Mr. Wonderful Imogen thinks he is, but she refuses to listen to anyone who might be wiser, smarter, more experienced, and generally more mentally sound than she is. Anyway, the elopement and the scandal caused by it might completely destroy any chance their other two sisters have on the marriage market if Tessa doesn't marry Garrett and sweep the girls off to London and away from Imogen immediately.If you missed the fact that Garrett is marrying her for a horse, you're not alone. Tessa doesn't seem to get it either. Then again, she's not exactly marrying for love, is she? Long story short, all's well that ends well—except that the relationships between the sisters are forever changed by events late in the book. And that's when I really decided that I hated Imogen—I pretty much disliked her all along and kept waiting for someone to smack some sense into her, but by the end, I really kind of wanted to see one of those ubiquitous horses kick her in the head.There are a lot of loose ends left untied in this one—I assume they'll be knotted off in the following books. On the whole, this is a solid 3. I like James's more recent books much, much better, but these are OK.
—Elis Madison
