all book related reviews
Don¹t let the Red Dress Ink label fool you. A Clean Slate isn’t a hip Chick Lit novel filled with sardonic humor and ditzy characters. Instead it’s a fascinating, compelling, thought-provoking book about one woman’s efforts to find five missing months of her life, and what she learns about herself and what she wants in…
I’m starting to develop a theory about writers who excel at books on the lighter side: Because those books are funny, fast-paced, and, therefore, easy to read, people assume that they’re just as easy to write. My guess is that the exact opposite must sometimes be true. For example, in The Lady in Question, Victoria…
Brenda Joyce’s latest novel is a strangely compelling blend of mystery and melodrama. This is the kind of book where analyzing its pros and cons wouldn’t really describe the overall effect of reading it. For all its flaws – and there are plenty of them – it remains a compulsively readable story. Deadly Promise is…
If the thought of one more Aye canna ken spoken by a man in a skirt to a red-headed, feisty female makes you groan, but you still love Scottish historicals, give the latest from Sara Bennett a try. There are clichés (the accent, the skirt, the red hair), but also plenty of new twists on…
A Stroke of Luck is Andrea Pickens’ last traditional Regency. She closes this part of her career with an enjoyable story that pairs a very proper Duke with a free-spirited woman, both of whom eventually discover they are not so different after all. When we first meet Deverill, the Duke of Prestwick, he is a…
It’s not often that I finish a story with multiple primary characters and feel satisfied that I know each of them as well as I’d like, but Jodi Thomas more than delivers the goods in The Widows of Wichita County. When an oil rig explosion in Clifton Creek, Texas, leaves only one survivor, too badly…
The Wedding Diaries sounded like a book that could be kind of fun. A poor little rich girl suddenly loses her fortune and her fiancé, becomes a nanny for a sexy real estate mogul, and antics (both sexual and otherwise) ensue. It was fun up to a point; it was quick, light reading, and I…
I haven’t read all that many books by Jodi Thomas, but she seems to do a couple of things admirably. Her romances have a sweet, touching feel to them, and she conveys loneliness and longing very well. When a Texan Gambles ably illustrates both of these strengths. Sarah Andrews has always had a dearth of…
Spenceworth Bride is the second in a duo of time-travel romances in which the respective heroines trade bodies and experiences. I had not read Sixpence Bride, the first of the two, before reading this one, but it didn’t make any difference since Spenceworth Bride stood on its own as a light, entertaining way to while…
I wanted to like Karen Harbaugh’s first single title, but had a hard time warming up to the characters. Circumstances force both protagonists to hide their true identities and to keep secrets, which keeps the reader from getting to know them. Plus I was confused about the heroine’s background, and certain aspects about her nature…
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