Member Reviews
Thomas is described as ‘profoundly attractive’ and does not like his amazing good looks, but Ms. Frampton indicates that is all he has to offer in a marriage. That, and an erotic good time. Jane wants to experience everything a protected lady of that time period should not. The two bargain and it leads to all kinds of sexual gratification, including voyeurism.
I liked this book but struggled a bit. It did not feel as though the relationship was as developed as Ms. Frampton generally does with her characters. The Hazards of Dukes series varies from excellent writing and characters to not so great characters, but still really good writing. I will never give up on Ms. Frampton and her romances, so many of them are amazing with a few ‘eh’ thrown in occasionally.
Without a spoiler, I loved the ending. No ‘fairy godmother’ but personal ingenuity and hard work to solve problems. Nice!
Thank you for the ARC book. I really enjoyed this Victorian romance.
Thomas needs a wife and Jane is going to help him find one. He is going to help Jane experience life not normally seen by single females.
I have not read any other in the series and I didn't need to to enjoy this book.
I really enjoyed this! It was a quick read, but that doesn't mean it was any less enjoyable. The romance wasn't particularly compelling, but I really enjoyed all of the characters on their own.
I haven't read the other books in this series, but I feel like this read well as a standalone. I would consider revisiting this series if Percy or Alice get a book, but I'm not compelled to read the prior books.
I didn't love the romance as I never felt the chemistry. I'm growing to realize that I don't like the naive heroine trope, and this relied on it heavily. It wasn't unbearable, but it did lesson my enjoyment slightly.
Putting that aside, I really loved our side characters. Miss Grosvenor, Alice, and Percy were all super interesting. I wish they were explored more in this one, as they could've played a much larger part.
I don't typically read historical fiction, but I really enjoyed this one! I loved the atmosphere, and I really enjoyed the characters.
Thanks to Megan Frampton and Netgalley for providing a free copy in exchange for an honest review
This is such an entertaining story! I love that Jane finally figures out that she wants to experience life and charges ahead even if she plows over Thomas's honor. The characters were well developed and you could almost feel Jane's excitement. Poor Thomas just wants to do what is right by his family, friends, and Jane; even if it is killing him inside. I am definitely not disappointed that I picked up this book!
I voluntarily read and reviewed an advanced copy of this book. All thoughts and opinions are my own.
Gentleman Seeks a Bride follows Jane, a woman who was left at the alter 2 years before and then outcasted by her family, and Thomas, a man who's family lost everything on a risky investment. Now he must find a wealthy woman to marry in order to care for his family.
I have not read the other books in this series, and while I don't think it's necessary to, this book was just fine on its own, there are a few things that would probably be clarified I I had read the others. Like what exactly happened with Jane's former fiancé,
I enjoyed the story, very ~spicy~. Well written with enjoyable characters.
*Thank you to the publisher for this eARC.
I thoroughly enjoyed this book. I have not read the previous books in the series so I was not familiar with the characters featured in this story but it did make me want to read the previous ones. Very steamy, lots of chemistry. A fun, sexy read.
Gentlemen Seeks Bride was an okay book, I have read the first two books of the series and I enjoyed those better than this one.
Jane is a lady who was left at the altar. She has been disinherited by her parents but her brother has stood by her and supports her emotionally and financially. She wants to experience ‘life’ and that is where Thomas comes into our story.
Thomas is Jane’s brother’s best friend of many years but his family is in dire financial straits. He needs to marry a heiress to save his sister from destitution. The problem is that he has morals. He won’t marry a woman unless she wants to marry him regardless of the desires of her family.
Jane offers to help him find a bride in exchange for helping her experience things she would never be able to experience otherwise. Thomas knows it is the end of his friendship with Percy, Jane’s brother, but family comes first to him.
Jane and Thomas spend time together. Jane keeps her promise and introduces Thomas to Miss Grosvenor, a suitable heiress. One of my favorite scenes is when Miss Grosvenor asks Thomas for help finding a tailor for her father and Thomas says he will send over his tailor’s card and write a note to his tailor. This is the male equivalent of socially vouching for the Grosvenor family. It is an example of the kindness of Thomas.
Thomas and Mr. Grosvenor end up on a train together and Mr. Grosvenor is very impressed with Thomas. Thomas is a very charming and persuasive man. He is simply not into charming women who are not interested in him into marrying him but Jane is very much interested in him.
The two of them both promise Percy they won’t fall in love but of course they do. I loved the pacing of their courtship and I loved the fact that they were intellectual and emotional equals.
This is my new favorite Megan Frampton novel. It is the book I needed to read after 2020. It is hopeful without being corny or false. It is well paced and full of the delights and optimism of the Victorian era in London. It is a love story about Thomas and Jane, yes, but also about a nation that has not yet seen WWI and a time in history where England believed progress was unlimited.
It is also a story about Miss Grosvenor who gets to travel to Italy with her aunt instead of marry and Thomas who supports his family through meaningful and well compensated work. It is a novel of an idealized past, yes, but one that reflects the values we have lost in my lifetime. Respect. Humanity. Dignity. Service. Freedom.
This book is a romance and also, for this student of history, a reminder of all we could be but not just for England but for all of the world.
I thoroughly enjoyed myself reading this book. It was light and full of tropes which is always fun. I have read two of the previous books in the series, including the previous book which is about Jane’s sister Lavinia, so I was already familiar with a lot of the characters featured in this story.
I loved both Thomas and Jane. I really liked that Megan wrote most of the story from Tomas’s perspective (honestly it might be fairly evenly split between the two, but the book started with Thomas and the title clearly places him at the center of the story), which was a nice change from the historicals that center the heroine. I really enjoyed that throughout the book emphasis was placed on the fact that the two were equals and that they actually treated each other that way.
As I noted above, this book is full of tropes. including educational kissing, one helping the other to get married to someone else, etc., but the main trope is best friend’s little sister. I actually laughed out loud when Percy (Thomas’s best friend and Jane’s half-brother) told them he was fine with them spending time together as long as they don’t fall in love. Speaking of Percy I was thrilled that he found his person in this book, but I still want a novella or short story about him.
I will absolutely read whatever Megan writes next. Thank you to NetGalley and Avon and Harper Voyager for the ARC in exchange for an honest review.
The story is a role reversal situation. Thomas Sharpe is handsome and charming. Seriously those are his attributes. Because of poor investments by his father it is up to him to find a wife with enough money/dowry to save and support his family. He has been actively seeking an heiress for two years. Lady Jane Capel is the sister of his best friend. Society has been looking down on her because of a broken engagement two years before.
Lady Jane proposes that she will promote Thomas in securing a wealthy wife if he will help her experience life. It is a fun set up and I like the idea of going to a gambling den or circus. The book turns sensual very quickly and I didn't love the voyeurism scene. But it was typical historical romance steaminess. This is the kind of book I usually really enjoy but for whatever reason I liked but didn't love it. Lady Jane had a dowry and it was taken away by her family but after she made peace with her mother I didn't understand why it couldn't have been restored. I did like the creative ending and especially brother Percy.
This is for historical romance readers. And I enjoyed the book enough to look for other books by Megan Frampton. Thank you to NetGalley and Avon and Harper Voyager for an ARC ebook in exchange for an honest review.
This was a fabulous book. I loved the characters. I though they were well developed and just a delight to read on the page. The story was enjoyable and I would read this author again.
Fun, quick story. Very hot. Definitely worth a lazy afternoon of reading. Not quite as funny as Lisa Keypad.
This one unfortunately didn’t do it for me. I should have kept a tally how many times the two MCs referred to themselves as pretty/handsome or visa versa. I like some vanity, it works in Historical Romance, but it was every page and it caused the characters’ developing relationship to seem weak and superficial. The thing about characters who have set out to change themselves and their reputation...there are growing pains. Embarrassment, shyness, humility, as they try and navigate the newness. The heroine had none of this and just *snap* was fearless and brazen and none of the characteristics that we are told about how she was before this change are never glimpsed, there was no transition or hesitating. The hero, well, he was all over the place too. Their relationship wasn’t sold to me at all and their bargain was unrealistically struck.
Not a good installment for me. But the writing itself was as fresh and easy to read as all Frampton books are, so I did breeze through it and will never not enjoy the details she puts into certain aspects such as the clothing! 👌
This book is a fun spin on falling for your brother's friend mixed with the odd situation of the hero needing to marry for money to save his family but still trying his hardest to be honorable while doing so. I loved this spin on the story and have to say that brother best friends books are not my style at all. This one does it really well though. The whole situation between Thomas and Lady Jane is fast pace off the bat with plenty of steam/ chemistry that feels believable and not rushed/ put there for no reason.
Megan Frampton is hit or miss for me, though her covers are gorgeous. I have read the other books in this series and hated #2, I was ambivalent about #1, but I loved this one (#4). It had the right combination of steam, tension, and high stakes.
Mr. Thomas Sharpe needs to find a rich society wife to save his landowning parents from poverty. After being jilted, Lady Jane has left her previous life, lost her dowry, and moved in with her bachelor brother Percy. Jane wants to find herself and experience life; Thomas desperately needs help finding a wife he can tolerate, if not love. They strike a bargain to help each other.
The first chapter of this book isn't great; I actually thought Thomas was really full of himself. So I jumped around a bit, and once you make it past the initial introductions, the book picks up, and the characters develop more depth.
There's a lot of steam in this book - kissing, touching, oral, and some voyeurism. It was an exciting book, and you get some of it before the 50% mark, so she throws you right into it. I loved that aspect. I also really enjoyed the characters; while I loved Thomas's inner monologue in the first chapter - he improved.
I also love that the entire book didn't take place in the ton. They made their own way - going to dance halls, circus exhibitions, a sex club, etc. I also loved the ending and how everything was resolved. It was different and refreshing. This is the kind of writing I expect when I pick up a Frampton book - so happy the series is really finding its stride.
I recieved a free copy if this book in exchange for an honest review. To be completely honest, I did not finish this book. It is a decent book and if you like historical romance you should enjoy this; I was just bored. The book isn't bad by any means it just isn't anything new, if you are new to historical romance I recomwnd giving this one a try.
Lady Jane is a well bred lady that called off an engagement and is now destined to be an old maid. Thomas's family is destitute. The have a commonality with a brother/friend. Thomas is going to show Jane the side of life she has never been able to experience. Things take a different path than they both planned. What was supposed to be a friendship develops into more. A love affair of the heart develops.
This was the fourth in the series but I think works well as a standalone story.
I loved Lady Jane from the very start! Her enthusiasm for life was absolutely contagious and it was a joy to experience daring new things through her eyes.
I loved the role reversal the typical romance plot --- featuring a man who must marry for money to support his family instead of a woman. Seeing Thomas realize his own desires for his destiny unfold as he guides Jane through new experiences was simply a delight.
I really enjoyed this and look forward to going back to the beginning of the series for more!
I enjoyed seeing Lady Jane Capel find her happy ending with Thomas Sharpe in this fourth book in the Hazards of Dukes series. Thomas needs to find a wealthy heiress to marry to support his parents and fragile sister after his father lost their family fortune, while Jane wishes to overcome her naivety in all matters of romance, intimacy, and life in general. Their determination not to fall in love with each other seems a simple bargain to make and keep, but their obvious attraction to each other is evident from the start and has a life of its own. Recommended.
I haven't read any other books in this series, so it was confusing when I was trying to understand Jane's back story. Other than that I liked the book, but would suggest reading the prior books in the series to enjoy it fully.