One of the weaknesses of the romance genre is its tendency toward recycled plots – secret babies and Big Misunderstandings being two major examples. For this reason, good stories need a freshness to make them stand out. Unfortunately, The Scarlet Spy by Andrea Pickens lacked in this regard. An orphan raised by prostitutes, Sofia is…
I’ve been wanting to read this book since I first noticed gypsy Merripen’s silent adoration of Winifred in Kleypas’s previous book, and Seduce Me at Sunrise did not disappoint with its tale of longing and hopeless love. Kev Merripen has lived with Winifred Hathaway’s family since they found him on the brink of death, beaten…
The Lady Flees Her Lord reads rather like a traditional Regency writ large, which is quite appropriate since the heroine is a plus sized woman. I enjoyed the first part of the book and found the hero and heroine to be very likable, but it fell apart at the end when the author tossed in…
Passion and Pleasure in London features a Victorian female Robin Hood whose Merry Men give the new (but good) Sheriff of Nottingham a run for his money, while the evil King John hovers threateningly over all. However, we spend next to no time in London. Just saying. Since Winter Ashburn’s father died, her uncle Baron…
The Deed was Lynsay Sands’ first published romance, and marked the start of a prolific career, albeit one that for me has been characterized by uneven writing. What’s best about her books – the humor and a certain naive sweetness in her heroes and heroines – reminds me in some ways of vintage Julie Garwood….
I’ve had a string of bad reading luck lately. Three of the five books I last reviewed were Ds, with more mediocre stories in between. However, my luck turned when I picked Secret Diaries of a Gentleman, the third in Laura Lee Guhrke’s popular Girl Bachelors series. Like many other readers, I loved the first…
After a much-too-long absence, Deborah Simmons returns with The Dark Viscount, a Regency-set tale with a gothic feel to it. I had very, very high hopes for this book since I count several of Simmons’ tales, especially The Devil Earl and The Last Rogue, some of best historical romances ever. Alas, a hero and heroine…
Mr. Cavendish, I Presume is part of a literary experiment: It and its companion novel, The Lost Duke of Wyndham, published in June of this year, depict the same few weeks and even partly the same scenes, but each book has as its focus a different couple. I came to this novel with high expectations….
War romances have a tension and urgency to them not generally found in other settings. Something about the passion of the fight and the very real chance that events may separate the lovers can give a love story an unusally vivid quality. Though filled with hardship and grim events, at their best these stories also…
Although Anne Gracie’s first installment in the Devil Riders series, The Stolen Princess, rather disappointed me, I decided to give the series a second chance with His Captive Lady. I am glad I did because this book lacks the silliness of its predecessor and instead features a strong, likable couple with whom I could sympathize…
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