This anthology contains 4 novellas linked by Lady Whistledown's Society Papers (introduced by Julia Quinn in her Bridgerton series). There's also an ongoing mystery connecting the stories, as all the H/h are more or less involved in the disappearance of a ruby bracelet. The mystery starts in the 1st story and is only solved in the last story, so it's better to read these novellas in order if you want to "savor" the mystery. Other than that, you can read them out of order without a problem. It is...

When I told a friend of mine that I was interested in writing historical romance, she lent me Lady Whistledown Strikes Back, which she had recently read and enjoyed. I’m afraid she was a little hurt by my reaction, as I was disgusted by the book. It wasn’t just the American idiom, shallow characterisation and sloppy plotting. Call me a prude, but what upset me the most was the sex. Not only was it tasteless, but it was completely anachronistic. The very awfulness of this book has put me off the

Like the first Lady W. collection, this is a set of four overlapping stories, each by a different author. The coordination is well-done, and so are each of the stories. The solution to the mystery is fairly obvious to any mystery reader, and really only a central point to the first and last tale. It's a mere blip in the other two.As a way of expanding the Bridgerton universe (as it were) and introducing me to three additional authors, both books succeed quite well. Nothing deep, but all 8 storie...

An anthology of short stories that cover the same period, beginning with Lady Neeley's dinner party in which a bracelet is stolen and very little dinner is served, and ending just after a reenactment of Waterloo at Vauxhall Gardens. The stories connect at various points, and are tied together by society columns from the infamous "Lady Whistledown." Overall, I liked the format, and it worked much better for me than the "Lady Most..." Julia Quinn collaborations I've read. Ultimately, though, any a...

Four laughing stars. Whoever edited this book did a wonderful job. The transitions between novellas are seamless. I like that scenes are repeated from one book to another in order to tie them together better. If I have to choose, I'd say Mia Ryan's The Last Temptation is the best of the four because I liked that Bella has a strong personality and Roxbury supported her independence. The weakest for me was Suzanne Enoch's The Best of Both Worlds. I didn't like the way her parents treated Charlotte...

Most of the stories were just ok. Had hard time getting into these.

Julia Quinn's 'The First Kiss' - acceptable. It jogs along a bit slowly because the characters are sort of 'anticipating' the conflict, so they don't move as fast, if you get me? The thing about Tillie's dead brother is a bit awkwardly done; the plot wavers between grief/acceptance and romance and never marries the two in a way that is suitably angsty. I had bad experiences with all three other writers in 'Further Observations', so I might abandon this now.UPDATE 15/1/18: As a part of a New Year...

The First Kiss, Quinn - I've read all of the Bridgerton books where Lady W. first appears, and I remember who she is. So I'm very uncomfortable with the fact that in this story she's using her paper to destroy the reputation of a good man, for no reason. She knows that implying he's a thief can damage him with society, but she does it anyway. It bothered me throughout this story, which was otherwise just OK. Quinn can do much better. 2 starsThe Last Temptation, Ryan - Bella Martin was not your t...

In this novel, Lady Whistledown (from Julia Quinn’s Bridgertons series) appears as a character in four separate short stories (by four romance authors) about four different couples that are connected by (1) Lady Neeley’s dinner party and her missing (stolen?) bracelet; (2) the Hargreaves' Grand Ball; and (3) the reenactment of the battle of Waterloo at Vauxhall. It is cleverly done how each author not only wrote her story about her protagonists but also wove into the story the appearance of the

Lady Whistledown Strikes Back is a storybook. In it we have 4 tales that happen in the same universe of the Bridgertons, the famous series of Julia Quinn. They are period tales, presented by authors dedicated to the genre. In all of them we will have the notorious figure of Lady Whistledown, the famous columnist who always left society in a dusty and hairless way. There are 352 pages that flowed deliciously fast and that left me satisfied and very homesick. I recommend

I don't often enjoy short stories. But all of these stories were well-developed and I felt connected to the characters in each one. Especially liked the last one, very emotional. It helped that they all occurred at the same time and place. Glad I read it.

Fine, though a bit rushed and it seems terribly unfair to start a book with Quinn’s story because she is so good.

The First Kiss by Julia QuinnLady Mathilda "Tillie" Howard's brother, Harry, died in the war, and Peter Thompson (second son of a Baron) was his best friend in the army. Peter doesn't have any money, so he needs to marry someone with a bit of a dowry, but not much... just enough to buy some land somewhere so he can settle down and become a gentleman farmer. Tillie is greatly sought after, because she is both beautiful AND has the largest dowry on the market. And did I mention that Harry specific...

While I enjoyed the short story from Julia Quinn, the remaining three really didn't do it for me. You could clearly tell the voice was different, which led to feeling like I was taken out of the story. I would have preferred to have read stories exclusively written by Julia Quinn since she is the original author. Overall, it wasn't horrible, just not the best.

It was a very so-so read. Lady Whistledown Strikes Back is an anthology of short stories set around Lady Neeley's bracelet, that goes missing after she hosts a dinner party. The four stories included are:The First Kiss - Julia QuinnJulia Quinn has the task of mentioning all of the characters to be involved in later parts of the anthology as well as pull off a story with aplomb. She introduces "Tillie", a female with an impressionable dowry who has learnt of her brother's death in the Army. Her b...

OVERALL: 4 starsOverall I like how the stories were connected by the Neely braclet mystery, it was quite intriguing. The First Kiss - Julia Quinn - 5 starsTillie's brother, Henry, died in the war and Peter had promised to look after his sister. He didn't however expect to want to marry her himself, especially when he had no prospects and she has a substantial dowry. Peter, a man of upstanding honor, doesn't want to be labeled as a fortune hunter but neither does he want to ignore his growing des...

This was another entertaining anthology where all four novellas in the book were connected together with common scenes and plot. The main connection in this particular book is a mystery of a ruby bracelet that went missing at a dinner party.This was a good read, but I think in the end I enjoyed The Further Observations of Lady Whistledown (FOLW) more.There are allusions to the Bridgertons in this book, but you don't have to read Julia Quinn's Bridgerton series to read this book, nor do you have

THE FIRST KISS3/5 THE LAST TEMPTATIONIsabella and Anthony's story started off great and sweet. It had potential..but then at about chapter 7 of 8, events started to become too freaking hurried! It feels like, in less than two pages, she says both No and Yes to a marriage proposal given several days apart! Aside from that, there are also too many unrealistic things that happened in this story. I know it's fictional and all but honestly I really think the writer made everything fall together too e...

Collection of novellas with Suzanne Enoch, Karen Hawkins, and Mia Ryan. Julia Quinn's story is called "The First Kiss".I can't remember all the particulars, but Tillie's (Lady Mathilda, daughter of an Earl) brother Harry died in the war, and his closest friend was Peter Thompson. The two meet at Lady Neely's party, where her ruby bracelet is stolen (the search for the person who took it continues through all four stories). Peter promised Harry that he'd take care of Tillie, but he wasn't expecti...

Sequel of sorts to "The Further Adventures of Lady Whistledown." I picked this one off my shelves to as a reread since I have so little time to read for fun, anthologies are my favorite thing at the moment. The stories in this book are entwined because the people in them all show up in Lady Whistledown's gossip column. I would love to meet this Regency gossip hound she seems like she would be fun to hang around with. She has a great sense of humor with a sarcastic edge to it. She seems like my k...

can I admit to reading romance novels? apparently I just did!Julia Quinn is one of my favorite romance writers: her books feature engaging characters and engrossing story lines. Seriously, they're funny books, and well-worth reading.

This was a really cute anthology. I loved the overlapping scenes, it made for a fun and quick read. I've always enjoyed Julia Quinn's work and I was worried about other authors joining into her world, but it read pretty seamlessly and I was pleased with the book.

I thought these short novelas were cute. Although the book is rated warm, the last one is a bit warmer!!!I wonder how they wrote them since them seem to intertwine so well for being the product of four separate authors!

A simple read. It took me a long time to finish reading it. I think I started reading it two months ago. I don't think short stories work well for me. Some of them were nice, but it ended way before I could get to love them.

DNF. A rare miss from Julia Quinn for me. Couldn't get into her story and just lost interest in the whole thing. I think I need full length Quinn novels to enjoy the slow buildup between the H/h.

This book is made up of four romance novellas, and as a cooperative story there are definitely a great deal of common threads shared throughout the story. This particular book is thanks to the popularity of sequels and requels, where the popularity of a particular character, in this case the sharp and witty Lady Whistledown, encouraged the creation of a series of novels that are united by the waspish commentary of the titular character, even if each of the couples involved are focused on by diff...

I enjoyed Julia Quinn's novella, The First Kiss, the most, but I'm not sure if that is because I've read her books and this novella was in the Bridgerton world. I enjoyed the other novellas as well but I don't think they nailed the getting everything summed up in a novella. I love that Peter can't help but fall in love with Tillie even though she is exactly the type of woman he was trying to not marry so he wasn't labeled a gold digger. But luckily her brother had already vouched for him and saw...

The Lady Whistledown novellas taking place all over the course of the same events works much better with the addition of a little mystery, a missing bracelet, to tie them all together. Though I didn't like the individual stories as well as the first collection, I do think the set of stories hang together better than the first set. *shrugs*"The First Kiss" by Julia Quinn: At the party where the bracelet goes missing, Tillie meets friends of her brother's, back from the war. Her brother perished a...

I should first note that I under writing a short story that feels while and complete is hard. You need to build up the characters, capture the interest of your audience in supporting their decisions or goals, cause some form of tension, and then resolve in, all within a scant few chapters. For romance shorts you have to add in the fact of doing all of this with the added challenge of having a realistic romantic development. It's hard to do. But, I've read great shorts before so it is possible. B...

A dinner party, invitations coveted because of the quality of the host’s chef, is abbreviated after only the soup course by the disappearance of an extremely valuable ruby bracelet. What happened to and by whom is explored by four different authors: Julia Quinn, Suzanne Enoch, Karen Hawkins, and Mia Ryan. The novellas reflect four different romances with introductory comments on each chapter from the infamous Lady Whistledown.This delightful anthology includes delectable men, spunky women, humor...