I picked up Jenni Fletcher’s Reclaimed by Her Rebel Knight because of the setting (1215, amidst the uprisings by the barons to force King John into signing the Magna Carta). Ultimately, while there are some absolutely wonderful and refreshing rejections of tropes in this book, the setting itself – and more to the point, the…
Since we ran our feature on Seasoned Romances a few weeks back, I’ve been keeping an eye out for romances featuring more mature heroines, who seem to crop up less frequently in historical romances than in other sub-genres. I was pleased to learn that Laurie Benson’s Mrs. Sommersby – eponymous heroine of the final book…
When we first meet our hero and heroine, there is a distinct power imbalance between them. Miss Helen Grey, the titular heroine, is a patient at Blackwell, an old manor home converted to an asylum for ‘insane’ women of the late 19th century in Yorkshire, England. William Carter, our hero, is her doctor. The Madness…
I flew through Duchess by Design, the first book in Maya Rodale’s Gilded Age Girls’ Club series, a couple of months ago, and was super excited to pick up this second installment. Some Like it Scandalous is a delightful enemies-to-lovers romance, filled with all the sparkling wit and sizzling chemistry a romance reader could ask…
He is the last duke standing . . . the sole remaining bachelor of the three self-proclaimed Decadent Dukes. Yet Davina MacCallum’s reasons for searching out the handsome Duke of Brentworth have nothing to do with marriage. Scottish lands were unfairly confiscated from her family by the Crown and given to his. A reasonable man…
It would be hard to choose the worst problem facing Lieutenant Charles Dance in his new peacetime posting, a scientific expedition on board the HMS Tenacious. Is it the ship’s state of disrepair and leaks? The drunken captain? The vicious bosun? The purser who ran off with the entire budget? Or is it J.E. Burke,…
Janice Preston gets the Lochmore Legacy series off to a solid start with His Convenient Highland Wedding, even though the title is a bit of a misnomer. While the wedding in question no doubt serves a convenient purpose for the groom, this book starts with the heroine and in many ways, it is her character…
Antigone Preston’s father has barely been laid to rest when her mother announces Antigone’s betrothal to their older and creepy neighbor, Lord Aldridge. This will offer the chance for Antigone’s stunningly beautiful older sister to move in more rarefied circles and snare a financially secure husband. But as to what Aldridge gets out of the…
The Welsh Blades series is darker and significantly more complex than most of the historical fare I read; its heroines are strong and powerful – far from cookie cutter in every way. Clever, complicated and thought-provoking, each of the novels in the series has engaged my heart and mind in equal measure, staying with me…
As a fan of medieval romances, I’m so, so excited to have discovered this buried treasure. Venetian nobleman Dante Chiaveri’s parents were murdered by his grasping uncle, so Dante and his sister fled to England, where Dante grew up to fill the role of the King’s Assassin. Everything is in place for Dante to return…
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