How to Beguile a Beauty

by Kasey Michaels

Book Overview

When her beloved dies in battle, Lady Lydia Daughtry assumes she'll never love again. Until a deliciously handsome duke awakens a part of her she never knew existed. But how can she have such feelings for Tanner Blake, who is a constant reminder of all she has lost? Tanner Blake, duke of Malvern, promised his dying friend he'd take care of his "dearest Lyddie." So how dare he covet the lush, lovely young woman for himself--especially since he is all...

• Format: Mass Market Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0373774338
• ISBN13: 9780373774333
• Release Date: May 2010
• Publisher: Hqn
• Length: 384 Pages
• Weight: 0.45 lbs.
• Dimensions: 1.0" x 4.2" x 6.6"

Customer Reviews

A delightful story for a delightful character!

How to Beguile a Beauty is a tender, sweet, regency romance, tinged with a hint of mystery. A year later, Lady Lydia is still mourning the lose of her beloved Captain (Fitz), after the war violently took him from her. Tanner, who swore on the Captain's deathbed to watch over, protect and take care of Lydia, is starting to develop deep and ever growing feelings for her, that reach far beyond those of protector. How can he convince Lydia that his feelings for her, far outreach those of his promise to his dear friend? Lydia knows that Tanner is every bit the gentleman and will uphold his promise, no matter what. However, she is tired of feeling like a burden and falling into the slot of "poor Lydia", especially now that her sister has left with her betrothed. When the companionable looks from Tanner hint at more than friendship, how can she be assured the feelings are from Tanner's heart, rather from his sense of duty? Enter, Tanner's good friend Baron Justin Wilde, who has an anything but innocent background, and whose eyes have been caught by Lydia's beauty and sauciness. Toss in Tanner's supposed intended, Jasmine, and you have the ingredients for a rather interesting tryst. During a visit with Justin, Tanner realizes that his family's jewels have been replaced with glass and paste. He now knows there is a betrayer swarming around. Tanner has an idea who is behind this wretched deceit, but he cannot be positive. To see just how far this travesty has gone, Tanner invites Justin to travel to his home, to decide the authenticity of his additional jewels in the family collection. It is decided that a week in the country, at Tanner's, estate is exactly what is needed for everyone. With that, Lydia, Tanner, Jasmine, Justin and their servants make their way to Melvern Hall. Along the journey, Lydia makes some shocking discoveries about Jasmine, a near scuffle takes place, and a dead body is discovered. An intriguing story? Yes, by all means. Kasey Michaels is well known for her contemporary romances, chocked full of humor and mischief, her historicals are no different. Heroine, Lydia, is a delightful character that I adored. She may have began on the reserved side, but as the story progresses, watch out! Strength and sassiness soon weave tightly with beauty and intelligence, making for a most magnanimous character! The story flows rather well and is a quick and engrossing read. Let it be known that this is part of a series, following How to Tempt a Duke and How to Tame a Lady. To be honest, while I have read Ms. Michaels' contemporary work, this is my first historical by her. With that being said, I never felt lost or as though I was missing part of the story by not having read the previous books in this series. From the way Ms. Michaels writes How to Beguile a Beauty, one can completely enjoy it as a stand alone, or part of the series. The romance between Tanner and Lydia is sweet and gentle, befitting their personalities perfectly. Readers will

EXCITING HISTORICAL REGENCY ROMANCE! How to Beguile a Beauty by Kasey Michaels

HOW TO BEGUILE A BEAUTY by Kasey Michaels is a delightful Regency historical romance/mystery set in 1816 England.It is well written with details and depth. It has mystery, wit, betrayal, romance, sensuality, murder and forgiveness. The heroine is devastated when her fiance dies in the war, she is quiet, reserved, well mattered, the she realizes there is more to life and learns to enjoy life and falls in love again. She is strong,determined and charming. The hero is handsome, strong, just as determined as the heroine, he is after all the one who brings our heroine the bad news of her fiance's demise. Her fiance is his friend and is asked to take care of her on his friend's death bed, and as things progress he falls in love with her and the adventure begins. Everyone it seems know they are in love except for them of course. They can/t seem to believe this could for true, for our heroe also believes herself to be sly and undesirable. Our hero believes his dead friend will always be between them. This is an exciting, fast paced, page turning story. I would recommend this book. This book was received for review from Net Gallery and details can be found at My Book Addiction and More and HQN.

beguiling Regency romance

Everyone knows that Lady Nicole is the extroverted twin while her sister Lady Lydia is the introvert. Lydia likes the quiet cocoon and felt anchored and safe until her beloved Captain Swain Fitzgerald died at Quatre Bras last year. On the battlefield, the Duke of Malvern Tanner Blake promised his best friend Swain that he would take care of Lyddie. He now plans to keep his death battlefield pledge by finding her a suitable spouse. However, the problem he has is he wants to be that suitable spouse but also feels guilty that he is betraying his late friend. Meanwhile Lydia realizes she loves Tanner, but to get him to realize that Swain will be smiling in heaven if they marry in love seems difficult for him to grasp. Following up on older brother Rafe's story (see How to Tame a Duke) and twin sister Nicole's tale (see How To Tame a Lady) with the third sibling's romance, Kasey Michaels beguiles her Regency romance readers with an amusing yet poignant novel. Lydia is terrific as her preference is not to be the life of the party or even a wallflower, but to not attend the gala. Tanner is a bit more typical of the historical as he fights falling in love because he feels that emotion betrays his honor and pledge to his late friend. Although straightforward with a theme used frequently before, the refreshing mouse that roared turns this into another superb historical Daughtry family saga. Harriet Klausner

Too high of expectations

I did really like this book, but I was so looking forward to Lydia's story that I was not totally thrilled with the end result. Lydia had been struggling to get over the death of her first love for a year, he died at Waterloo. Now she is falling for the man who had promised her fiancee to watch out for her. At first she hates him for reminding her of her love's death, but she eventually deals with her grief properly. Their friendship progresses into love in a sweet way. I guess I just didn't think there was enough passion. It was sweet. That is a great word to describe their love. I like sweet romances but I love smoldering romances. That being said, I do think this is my favorite of the series. The mystery was pretty good, but the resolution was hastily tied up. How to Beguile a Beauty is definitely worth buying and is a nice light read. It would certainly be more enjoyable to those who have read the previous two books, How To Tempt A Duke, How To Tame a Lady. Both books are good, but the first book is not as light of a read as the last two.

Best of the Series

I have been long anticipating Lydia's story and let me tell you, I wasn't disappointed. I enjoyed the first two books tremendously, but Lydia and Tanner's story was by far my favorite. Watching Lydia come out of her shell had me sometimes laughing out loud and I loved the gently growing love between the two of them. On one hand, I couldn't wait to see how the book ended, but on the other, I wanted their story to keep going on and on. I am hoping that there is a book in the future for Justin, as he was an abolutely wonderful secondary character and would love for him to find that perfect someone.