The Governess Game: Girl Meets Duke Book Review

Sometimes, when we are desperate, we take a chance that we would not have taken if we were not desperate.

Tessa Dare’s new novel, The Governess Game: Girl Meets Duke, was published this year.

Alexandra Mountbatten is desperate. She needs an income, fast. Enter Chase Reynaud, the heir to a dukedom who is saddled with the care of two rebellious young girls. Chase’s reputation in society is less than stellar, especially when it comes to his romantic life.

He offers her a job as a governess, hoping that she will have the magic touch.

It’s nearly love at first sight for Alexandra, but she has to keep her emotions in check as she tries to deny her attraction to Chase.

From Chase’s perspective, his love life has been strictly physical. Then Alexandra comes into his life. She tries to reform him, but he responds by teaching her the art of love. He thinks that trying to deny the attraction on his end will be just as easy. But Alexandra is one tough cookie and Chase will discover that pushing her away will not be so easy.

I’m not usually a fan of this genre, but Tessa Dare is an excellent writer. Her characters are alive, human, flawed and kept me asking if Chase and Alexandra would have their happy ending.  I especially appreciated that Alexandra had a brain, a will of iron and had interests beyond marriage.

I recommend it.

 

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Thoughts On The 20th Season Of Law & Order: SVU

On September 20th, 1999, a new crime drama was added to the NBC lineup. It’s name was Law & Order SVU.

It was an offshoot of Law & Order. But instead of focusing on crime in general, the focus of the show are victims of sexual crimes.

On Thursday, SVU will start off its 20th season, making it the longest running drama in television history.

I’ve been a fan of SVU from nearly the beginning of the run of the show. Most shows, if they are lucky, run out of steam perhaps five or six years after their premiere. The fact that SVU is still going strong 19 years later says something. Not only is the writing and acting absolutely still fantastic after all of these years, but it still speaks to audiences. The show has broken barriers, created conversations and allowed us as a culture to talk about topics that must be discussed, but are often avoided.

After all of these years, nothing gives me a high like the opening theme song.

Here is the 20th season and many more seasons to come.

The new season of Law & Order: SVU premieres this Thursday, September 27th and 9PM. 

Bill Cosby Has Been Found Guilty

For multiple generations of television viewers, Bill Cosby is like an old friend. Whether you watched The Cosby Show, eat Jello because of him or adored the Fat Albert cartoon, there is no doubt that he is a giant of American culture.

As of today, he is now a convicted felon and will potentially spend the next three to ten years in jail after drugging and sexually assaulting Andrea Constand in 2004.

This is a victory not just for the women who were brave enough to speak up against Dr. Cosby. This is a victory for all women who have been raped, sexually assaulted or spoken to in an unwanted sexual manner by a male. If you do this, you will be punished in one form or another. No one is above the law and neither money or fame can hide the truth forever.

While the guilty verdict cannot take away what Dr. Cosby did to these women, at least they have peace of mind that he will never do this again.

Manifest Review

The hope is that when we go on vacation, getting to and from our destination will be painless. But like many things, hope often springs eternal

In the new television series, Manifest, the Stone family are an average American family on their way home from a Caribbean vacation. While waiting to board their flight, the airport staff announce that the flight is overbooked and asks if some passengers would be willing to change their flight.

Ben (Josh Dallas), his son Cal (Josh Messina) and his sister Michaela (Melissa Roxburgh) agree to go on the later flight. Ben’s wife, Grace (Athena (Karkanis), their daughter Olive (Luna Blaise) return home on the scheduled flight with his parents. On the rescheduled flight, that carries Ben, Cal and Michaela, there is some unexpected turbulence.  When the plane lands, the passengers discover that their flight has been missing for five and half years and they have been presumed to be dead. What starts out as a simple question as to what happened to the passengers and why opens the door to a mystery that no one can solve.

I really liked this show. It almost reminds me of Lost in terms of an ordinary even that leads to extraordinary questions. It was well written, well acted and I am looking forward to the next episode.

I recommend it.

Manifest airs at 10pm Monday night on NBC.