all book related reviews
Readers who pine for the old days of sweeping romances with larger than life characters who undergo tortures galore before the final happily ever after will love Veiled Promises, Tracy MacNish’s debut. This is neo old-school romance done well. Camille Bradburn is the only daughter of the Duke and Duchess of Eton. She is beautiful,…
Okay, I knew that by reading Surrender to a Wicked Spy I was obviously subjecting myself to yet another spy story, a premise I usually find tedious at best. Determined to enjoy this book with no preconceptions, I soon discovered that the spy aspect of the story was the least of my concerns and that…
Harlequin Blaze’s Do Not Disturb miniseries suffers its first misfire with Debbi Rawlins’s Hot Spot. For a book that takes place at a sex-themed hotel, it’s strangely lacking in heat. Even worse, it’s really boring much of the time. The story not only continues the mini-series, it’s also a sequel to a previous Rawlins title,…
In Reflected Pleasures, the second book of Linda Conrad’s Gypsy Inheritance series, a magic hand-mirror is given to the reluctant Ty Steele by Passionata, the daughter of the King of Gypsies. His cousin told him of the gypsy and her magic, but Ty cannot believe in it. The gypsy promises Ty that at the right…
The gothic Mists of Fernhaven series comes to an unimpressive conclusion in Joanna Wayne’s The Amulet. It starts with the potential to be the moodiest, most atmospheric installment yet, only to have its promising story fall victim to lackluster execution. One winter night, Deputy Bart Finnegan responds to an emergency call at the Fernhaven Hotel,…
Eve Silver’s debut tale of a damsel in distress and the mysterious doctor who rescues her draws the reader in with a deliciously dark, Gothic atmosphere that sets it apart from the light and fluffy historicals of recent years. Silver does an excellent job of evoking a dark and spooky mood and, while the organization…
The recent ATBF column on African American romances motivated me to read one for review, and the fact that Any Rich Man Will Do had an intriguing premise didn’t hurt, either. Bad Girl gets her comeuppance. That would make anyone gleeful, except when that comeuppance becomes desperate, terrifying, and hungry. Jana Franklin, the man-hunting, man-stealing,…
Ever watch an episode of Charmed on tv? It’s a show about three sisters (at least initially, I think they’ve added a cousin or two) who find out their mother was a witch and they’ve inherited her abilities. The three of them live together and fight evil wherever it appears. Sounds interesting, and it was…
After reading a score or two of European set historical romances, Written On The Wind, set in 1860 Texas, looked like a welcome change of pace. But after slogging through it, I finished it with a sigh of relief – seldom have I seen a couple with less chemistry than Matt Conway and White Fawn….
I’ve read countless category romances just like Nothing Personal by Elisa Adams, which is, at heart, yet another variation of the older-woman-younger-man theme – same arguments, same development of story, same twists and turns. However, Elisa Adams’s take on this well-trodden path held my interest and was a pleasure to read. Carla Michaels, a self-assured…
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