Ohhh – those evil stepmothers of romance land. They are always looking for ways to punish, ruin, or abuse their stepdaughters, who by the way, everyone else loves but they, without reason, hate. I could most definitely do without this premise in my romance reading, but I guess it can provide the hero with an…
When a debut book begins with a first sentence as finely crafted as this one, you get hopeful: “Nothing in Anthony’s upbringing or experience had taught him the proper etiquette for taking delivery of a woman won in a card game.” But, following this cracking start, it’s all downhill after that. Sadly, an intriguing prologue…
Love with the Perfect Scoundrel began well and I settled down to what I thought would be an enjoyable read. However the book had just about the saggiest middle I have seen in some time and I got very bored with it. Grace Sheffey, Countess of Sheffield, is an object of gossip for the ton….
I’ve been sitting here looking at my computer monitor for five minutes trying to come up with a pithy introduction to sum up Vexing the Viscount. I got nothing. It’s a C. That’s about it. Daisy Drake had a crush on the half-Italian Lucian Beaumont, the Vexed Viscount, when they were children and spent some…
Back in the original Saturday Night Live days, I remember a spoof called “Married in a Minute” that took on in goofy fashion those 1950s-era Single-Girls-Find-Romance-and-Heartache-in-the-Big-City movies. As you can guess, Jane Curtin and pals were …well, married in a minute. Truth is, if Stephanie Laurens’ characters aren’t married quite so expeditiously, they do manage…
Tempting Fate is Alissa Johnson’s second book and has one of my favorite storylines: the childhood friends to lovers relationship. Though I had a few problems with it, I liked it well enough to order Johnson’s first book, As Luck Would Have It. Whittaker Cole, the Earl of Thurston, and Mirabelle Browning have known –…
I like adventure stories. Sometimes, however, I want something gentle, sentimental, and sweet. In The Marshal Takes a Bride, Renee Ryan introduces readers to the residents of Charity House, an orphanage set up to care for the children of Denver prostitutes. Though the story gets a little too sweet every now and then, it’s still…
In my mind, Madeline Hunter stands for excellence in Medieval romance first and foremost. I faithfully (and a bit unenthusiastically) followed her through her subsequent Regency-set Seducer series, all the while debating if she should remain on my auto-buy list. Then along came the Rothwell series and from its first installment, Rules of Seduction to…
Where does Medallion Press find its debut authors? This is the second time in a fortnight I have read a debut novel published by this house, and each time I have been overwhelmed by the quality of the writing, by the fascinating characters, and by the authors’ happy disregard of the usual formulas of historical…
I picked up A View to a Kiss by Caroline Linden because I was expecting something like James Bond in the Regency. I like the dry humor of the (old) James Bond movies, and this sounded like it could be a fun read. Harry Sinclair is a working spy, not simply an aristocrat taking off…
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