Readers who are getting tired of the ubiquitous history lite Regency-set historical romance will want to read Deeanne Gist’s A Bride Most Begrudging. It’s set in the Virginia Colony in 1643 and tells the tale of a gently born woman kidnapped to be sold to a colonist as his wife In true feisty heroine fashion,…
I’m a history geek – I’ll admit it. I can be jerked out of a story by anachronisms that a non-geek would not even notice. But I get no respect from my nearest and dearest. I read The Wedding Night of an English Rogue while my daughter watched television and complained that Heath Boscastle rode…
Long separations, an immature self-sacrificing heroine, and the big misunderstanding are all plot elements I try to avoid when reading romance. And then there is the register somewhere in my head that counts the number of times I roll my eyes in frustration as I read a particular book, gradually reducing the grade as the…
In the middle of Too Hot to Handle I had a startling revelation. Though she has a reputation (a deserved one) as one of romance’s steamier mainstream authors, Cheryl Holt really writes just like Barbara Cartland. Only with sex. Think I’m exaggerating? In this book, a virtuous young woman flees an arranged marriage and lands…
Still in My Heart wraps up Kathryn Smith’s Ryland Brothers series. I’ve read two of the three preceding books with drastically different degrees of enjoyment, and so was a tad bit leery of this one, but it has as its theme one I particularly enjoy: Second Chance at Love. I am pleased to say that…
Julianne MacLean holds the prize as author of the only book I have ever reread almost as soon as I finished it. An Affair Most Wicked clicked on all of the right levels for me, but sadly set my sights high for her future books. Love According to Lily pales by comparison and just manages…
There is just something about a sturdy ship, the salt air, and a privateer that sparks the romantic imagination. In LeClaire’s debut novel, her love of the sea and its stories shines through. Still, even though her tale of high adventure and romance is a homage to the pirate romances of old, there is an…
In the past I have lamented what I see as a disturbing sort of sameness in recent historical romance releases. Lately I have been craving something a little less light and fluffy, a little more dark or unusual. In Helen Kirkman’s latest romance, I think I have found it. Though parts of the middle of…
From the blurb on the back of the ACR of The Devil’s Necklace, I was expecting the story of a feisty beauty and her pirate captor. Happily, it turned out to be much better than the blurb, and I ended up enjoying this book quite a bit. The Devil’s Necklace is the second book in…
Having written traditional Regencies and one Super Regency, Amanda McCabe makes a solid debut in her first full length Regency historical, Lady Midnight. Katerina Bruni, the daughter of the most famous courtesan in Venice, is at a party on a yacht with her potential first protector, her mother, and her mother’s protector when a sudden…
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