One Moonlit Night / Duke of Scandal by Gaelen Foley-reviews

5 out of 5 for this reader folks!

OH how I love me a great historical romance! 🙂 Oh how I adore Gaelen Foley and her writing! Oh how I am looking forward to more books in the this series to be released. OH … well you get the picture! LOL

The Moonlight series by Gaelen Foley is about a neighbourhood of rakes, spinsters, sassy ladies, pompous men and love matches left right and centre that all happen to surround a gated garden park that is open to the public during the day and only accessed by the residents with a key after hours. In the middle stands a gazebo that has seen it’s share of scandal.

Intrigued are you?? Read on and let’s see if this review can light your historical romance fire! 😉

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BOOK 0.5 – One Moonlit Night
Moonight Square .5
Release Date: September 11, 2015
Genre: adult, historical romance

Amazon.com / Amazon.ca / B&N / KOBO /

WELCOME TO MOONLIGHT SQUARE ~ REGENCY LONDON’S MOST EXCLUSIVE ADDRESS!

At the ripe old age of two-and-twenty, Lady Katrina Glendon just can’t seem to snare a husband. Whether her frank tongue or slightly eccentric ways bear the blame, she faces a houseful of younger sisters clamoring for her, the eldest, to marry and move aside before they all end up as spinsters. When her latest suitor defects and proposes to another girl, Trinny throws up her hands in despair of ever finding a fiancé. But sometimes destiny waits just around the corner…and love lives right across the square!

Gable Winston-McCray, the charming, understated Viscount Roland saunters through life as a wealthy, sophisticated rakehell and man-about-town. Heir to an earldom, the handsome hedonist would rather dally with bored Society wives than acquire a bride of his own, much to his father’s dismay. Until, one moonlit night, fate strikes! Unsuspecting neighbors meet and become flirtatious allies. So when Gable receives his father’s ultimatum to wed or go penniless, he offers Trinny a marriage of convenience. Alas, the pretty redhead cannot possibly accept such an unfeeling proposal—even if her dear “Lord Sweet Cheeks” might be the man of her dreams…

REVIEW

This is a prequel to the series that gives us a good storyline to fall in love with and introduce us to characters that I am hoping will receive their own story.

Lady Katrina feels hopeless when it comes to landing a husband. Insanely awkward, and the eldest daughter of many she is left to feel like she is holding up her sisters’s futures by not being able to land her own. Once again losing another chance at marriage, she finds herself sobbing away at night in the infamous gazebo when she is interrupted by the notorious rake Viscount Roland (who is there on his own scandalous mission), something strange happens. An easy friendship blooms. Katrina does not become tongue tied with this man and certainly feels she can just be herself. After much conversation and a shared moment, Roland gives advice that changes Katrina’s life.

Viscount Roland is a a naughty naughty man. Happy to live his life of debauchery, he takes nothing too seriously. Nothing until an ultimatum from his father makes him realize that he has no choice but to marry and settle down. Having come to the conclusion that Katrina just may be his perfect mate he suddenly remembers the advice he gave her and how now, that piece of advice is the one thing that stands in the way of his own future.

These two are a riot together. A true friendship, brutal honesty and a potential love that completely blind sides both of them. I loved everything about these two, but it was her banter that actually made me giggle at times.

Wonderful set up for the first novel of the series.

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BOOK 1 – Duke of Scandal
Moonlight Square #1
Release Date: October 13, 2015
Genre: adult, historical romance

Amazon.com / Amazon.ca / B&N / KOBO /

DESCRIPTION

Romance is in the air at Moonlight Square ~ Regency London’s most exclusive address!

Jason Hawthorne, the Duke of Netherford, made it clear to the young, lovesick Felicity Carvel long ago that nothing could ever happen between them. He has earned his reputation as the Duke of Scandal–and she’s his best friend’s little sister. For honor’s sake, he vows to stay away from the lovely innocent. But six years of the wealthy libertine’s life have left Jason empty and jaded, while Felicity has blossomed into a strong, beautiful woman, ripe for love and marriage.

When a sudden windfall makes her one of the most sought-after heiresses in London, chased all over Town by fortune-hunters, Jason knows he must keep the rogues at bay until her brother returns from his dangerous mission abroad. Unfortunately, the scandalous attraction between them has only grown to a searing intensity. Deep down, Felicity still wants Jason for her own. But after getting her heart broken once before by Naughty Netherford, does she dare attempt to play with fire again–and this time, can Jason resist?

REVIEW

We first meet our leading couple in the prequel of this series and you know something big is brewing. Well, brewing was putting it mildly .. LOL

Felicity Carvel has been in love with her brother’s best friend Jason Hawthorne since she was a little girl. One bold move at a young age goes horribly wrong and she decides that it is best to let it be before she is certain to humiliate herself once again. Many years go by and Jason is now a Duke and a scandalous one at that. After Felicity comes into an inheritance, she turns to Jason for advice on how to handle her future knowing that she is stirring a hornets nest .. EXCEPT .. Felicity is no longer a little girl and it’s time she sets HER Duke straight about who he belongs to.

Jason Hawthorne is tiring of living like a rake. He has everything at the tip of his fingers but never feels complete. Always aware of Felicity through the years but too damn stubborn to face what he knows to be true, he is completely surprised when she turns to him for advice. This Felicity is frisky, beautiful, honest and in a whole new league of her own and quite frankly it scares the &%% out of him. When Felicity boldly starts the clock on his chance with her, Jason is completely panicked knowing that he may lose her completely.

Oh my heart … these two were incredible together. I have to say though, it was Felicity that I adored. I wanted to high 5 her a few times while reading this book. The banter, laughable moments and utter surrender was so well timed and written. So well matched, but it is Felicity’s utter acceptance of Jason and his scandalous past that really pulled my heart strings. What an incredible woman she is.

Both these books were an absolute treasure to read. When a historical romance authors hits so many marks that I covet in this genre, it makes me so happy. Not only can I say that all those marks were hit, but that Gaelen Foley has now moved onto my list of authors that I want to read everything that they have ever written, and no questions asked when a new release is on it’s way, I just want it. LOL

HAPPY READING! 🙂

Copy supplied by the publisher

Goodreads/Website/Facebook

Gaelen Foley is the New York Times, USA Today, and Publisher’s Weekly bestselling author of twenty historical romances set in the glittering world of Regency England. Her books are available in sixteen languages and have won numerous genre awards, such as the Bookseller’s Best, the NJRW Golden Leaf (three times), the CRW Award of Excellence, the National Reader’s Choice Award, the Beacon, and the Holt Medallion.

A Pennsylvania native, Gaelen holds a B.A. in English literature with a minor in Philosophy from the State University of New York, College at Fredonia, a quaint lakeside village where Mark Twain once owned a home. It was here, while studying the Romantic poets, such as Wordsworth, Byron, and Keats that she first fell in love with the Regency period in which her novels are set. Gaelen lives in western Pennsylvania with her college-sweetheart husband, Eric, a schoolteacher, with whom she co-writes middle grade fantasy adventure novels under the pen-name, E.G. Foley.