Married once to a Baron who needed a young bride to bear him an heir, Cordelia Astley found herself in an untenable situation after his death until Philip Stanley, the Marquess of Dunbury, asked her to be his bride. She knows he didn’t marry her for love, but he was her white knight and, once they’re married, she finds herself falling in love with him. It would be a fairy tale ending if it wasn’t … wasn’t for her stepdaughter Gabrielle.
Having observed his cousins Hugh and Eleanor find happiness in their respective marriages, Philip doesn’t see why his marriage should be any different. Especially since he managed to find a giving, submissive, delightful woman that drew him like no woman had ever done before. Everything would be perfect, except that she allows her stepdaughter to denigrate her and manipulate her. His method of correction for both Cordelia and Gabrielle isn’t what either lady expected, but Cordelia finds confidence in his support and care of her… if only she would put him first instead of Gabrielle, Philip’s life would be everything he’d hoped.
A character driven, steamy domestic discipline romance of desire, passion and love, Philip’s Rules is the first of a new series spin-off of the Domestic Discipline Quartet (you do not need to read the quartet to read this book).
Philip’s Rules is an 80,000 word standalone novel set in Victorian times with a HEA and contains a very serious Head of Household, corrective discipline, and steamy love scenes.
1. Philip’s Rules
1.5 Undisciplined
2. Gabrielle’s Discipline
3. Lydia’s Penance
4. Benedict’s Commands
5. Arabella’s Taming (Coming 2018)
more
I wasn’t a fan of the spanking scenes. Other than that I liked the book. That charters were a little thin in personality but it was a good before bed read.
I was bored with no true story to it. To detailed sex.
Too weird sexually
Too much sex! Story would of been good if she’d followed it and not try to write sex scenes so much- was totally disappointed!
This is the first book in the Bridal Discipline Series, a title that gives you more than a little clue that there is some domestic discipline in the story. And there is actually a real story involved! Cordelia is only 23 and she’s already a widow, having been married to a nasty man much older than herself. After she is widowed, she’s left with responsibility of her teenaged stepdaughter. Her late husband didn’t provide for them at all, and she ends up in a very difficult situation. She manages to make a match with Phillip, a Marquess known as a serious, honorable man.
The scenes involving domestic discipline are integrated into the plot in such a way that they do not seem salacious. The story is written with a dual POV, which is very helpful because you understand the motivations and conflicted feelings of both characters, and why each of them behave as they do. Cordelia and Phillip are both likable characters and the HEA is satisfying.
There are a lot of good secondary characters in this story. The most important of them is Gabrielle, who is Cordelia’s difficult stepdaughter. It appears the next book in the series is about her, and I am intrigued to get a more thorough understanding of Gabrielle’s motivation for her obnoxious behavior.
Goes beyond steamy and into pornography with no redeeming features I could discern
It’s just a sex book. There was no story line. I never would choose this book to read.
Didn’t like the simpering main female. Did’t like the abusive main male. Didn’t like the selfish daughter. The only likeable character was BBF Felix, wom the author lefy hanging as a CLIFFHANGER. And that’s the GOOD news.
Philip Stanley, Marquess of Dunbury wants to be happily married and he wants to marry someone who can be his wife and his mistress at the same time and fulfill all of his needs. His friends talked after drinks with him about how they spanked their wives and it had appealed to him. Philip made his choice and settled on Cordelia a young widow of 23 and he is quite enamoured of Cordelia. For her part, while not in love with Philip, Cordelia very much enjoys his kisses and is glad to be marrying him. Philip is not in love with Cordelia, but he is certainly looking forward to having sex with her.
In their bed after the wedding is over, the first thing Philip does is use his fingers and bring Cordelia off to her first orgasm and then he continues and has sex with her to another orgasm.
The next night Philip takes Cordelia over his lap and gives her a spanking just for fun with his hand. Then he uses his mouth on her and makes her come hard. Naturally he has sex with her after she finishes and makes her come again.
A day or so later after Cordelia and Gabrielle, Cordelia’s stepdaughter, went shopping for clothes and Cordelia allowed Gabriells to over the limit and in addition Cordelia compounded it by limiting her own purchases in a failed attempt to compensate, Philip gives them both a disciplinary spanking. After her spanking over his knee, Philip bends Cordelia over his desk and has sex with her.
There is a lot of sex in the story, all of it hot and a bit more spanking since Gabrielle wants to misbehave.
Eventually we come to the end and there is a nice HEA, then there is an Epilogue and we get a teaser for the next book with Gabrielle.
There is butt stuff in the story.
Needs a different narrator.
Like the first series the writing is superb.
The narrator doesn’t pull off the English aristocracy. He doesn’t have any accent and just sounds wrong. There also were some places where I didn’t know what he said, mispronounced words. I think he would have done better with American characterizations. He was for the most part listenable. But he was wrong for this book.
I’ll probably still listening to this again but probably not as much as the first series to this second series.
This audio book was given to me for free at my request from the publisher or author or narrator and I provided this unbiased voluntary review.
This one intrigued me. Philip’s Rules absolutely has disciplinary spanking within the storyline. It also has a plot running through the storyline and characters you will love or love to hate. I thoroughly enjoyed meeting Cordelia and Philip. I’m not sure about Gabrielle but being as I’ve lived through the teenage years with my own, I’m reserving judgement hoping there’s more to the story. I would recommend this book and am proud to give it a 5 star rating.
Great read! The characters are relatable and the story flows. Definite page turner. Can’t wait to read Felix and Gabrielle’s story. I would recommend this book and author.
Philip’s Rules is no starcrossed fairytale. It’s an uphill battle. What begins as a marriage of convenience becomes a lesson in patience, passion and pleasure. Angel puts all her cards on the table in a way that only she can.
This is my first book by this author and I enjoyed this book very much. I love historical romance novels. .
It has some great characters. I loved how Philip helps Cordelia to stand up to her step daughter and explore a side of herself she wasn’t aware of. She really blossomed in her marriage.
I look forward to reading more of this series.