I understand the challenges facing authors of English Historicals today and the need to make their latest book different without modifying the setting so many of us adore. But in an attempt to offer yet another variation in theme or feature an even more unconventional character, many of these historicals slip beyond the implausible and…
Apart from being incredibly annoyed back when I first read Reading the Romance, Janice Radway’s iconic look at romance novels and their readers, I was quite struck by the sheer number of readers who stated that they read romance because of the things they learned. Now, this is not one of the reasons I read…
What a Gentleman Wants has a good, interesting premise and an exciting finish. However, it suffers from the dreaded Sagging Middle. This one sags so much it’s scraping the floorboards. Marcus Reece, the Duke of Exeter, is always bailing out of trouble his twin brother David. He longs for his sister’s debut next year –…
Something Sinful is the third book in a series. Somehow I’ve missed the other two books, Sin and Sensibility and An Invitation to Sin, so the family members involved were a tad confusing at first. However, after the initial who’s who, I figured it all out, then sat back and enjoyed myself. Charlemagne (Shay) Griffin…
I loved Margo Maguire’s novels when she wrote for Harlequin and when I heard she was going over to Avon, I was curious to see how she would do with the longer historicals. I enjoyed her first Avon release and this one was also a fun read. I wish that Maguire would use the extended…
Three pages into How To Seduce A Duke, I groaned. The opening scene: three girls (triplets, no less) are posing as garden statuary in order to spy on the man who has caught the attention of one of the sisters. They are covered in powder, wearing togas, and hiding behind a hedge. Better yet, we…
There’s something so thrilling about reading a really good debut novel and, while Michelle Styles’ debut is not perfect, there is something quite compelling about it. The setting is one not often seen in historical romance and she manages to create characters who are strong without coming off like 21st century people in fancy dress….
No Man’s Bride is the first book in a new series called Misadventures in Matrimony. It features four friends who form the “Spinsters’ Club” and swear never to marry. They all have different reasons for this. Some are strong willed. One wants to be a pirate (yes, really). The heroine of this book, Catherine Fullbright,…
Can we call a halt to that cover? You know the one I mean, the one with the shirtless man standing in an inappropriate setting with a woman clinging to his leg with her dress about to fall off. Robyn DeHart’s Deliciously Wicked has a particularly bad version of this cover redeemed only by the…
Elaine of Corbenic has a crumbling castle, an insane father, a crippled brother, and a slew of poor villagers who all depend on her. (Making her, thus far, your pretty typical romance novel heroine.) Lancelot du Lac is the greatest knight in the world, gifted by the magical Lady of the Lake with inhuman, invincible…
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