His Bonnie Bride, originally released in 1988 under the title Amber Flame, is a good read in many respects. The plot and characters are strong and likable for the most part – particularly the heroine – and it is a very absorbing tale. The fast pace of the story ensures that boredom never sets in…
Catherine Coulter is what I call a “best of times, worst of times” kind of author. You never know what you are going to get when reading one of her books; it is like a tale of two authors. One book can be absolutely wonderful and the next wretched. Readers tend to either love her…
Sometimes it’s hard to predict whether any single element in a story is going to be a deal-breaker or a deal-maker; you just have to read the book to find out. The intense, almost violent, nature of the sexual relationship between the hero and heroine almost ruined this one for me, but Kinsale managed to…
I enjoyed reading Shady Lady by Elizabeth Thornton; it has likable characters and is written in a style that keeps the pages turning nicely. But once I closed it and thought back on the plot, all I could see were the book’s shortcomings. In the prologue, a woman named Chloe is about to be attacked…
I like Cathy Maxwell’s books. I liked 2002’s The Wedding Wager, in spite of its all-too-obvious flaws. With all the appeal and fewer flaws, I like The Seduction of an English Lady even more. Lady Rosalyn Wellborne lost her parents when she was a young girl; afterwards, she was shuttled around from one uncaring relative…
I’m always up for a fairy tale, but this one leaves a lot to be desired. With a plot that never quite made sense and characters who do a lot of “telling”, there’s nothing here that comes even remotely to life. It’s not terrible, mind you, just…well, lackluster. When Nicolas Argyle, fifth viscount of Newbern,…
I had high hopes for Wedded Bliss, Barbara Metzger’s first full length Regency-set historical romance. I have enjoyed her traditional Regencies in the past, chuckling at her humorous asides and her self-aware characters. But this one was too long and too chock full of melodrama for my taste. And the hero was a big minus….
Deeper than Desire is my first book by Cheryl Holt, and while I wasn’t blown away, I can see why she’s developing a readership. Readers who think sweet and hot shouldn’t be romance antonyms might do well to check her out. Lady Olivia Hopkins is on the prowl for a husband. Her father’s death left…
Normally, I love big, gritty historical sagas since they are just the sort of stories that make me want to suspend disbelief and fall into the twists and turns of a larger-than-life epic plot. Crosswinds opens with the promise of just such a story, but, unfortunately, it failed to hold up. As Crosswinds opens it…
Clearly, Gabriella Anderson knows how to write a page-turning story. Unfortunately, however, the story that she chooses to tell here features one of the most obnoxious of romance novel stereotypes: The hero who immediately jumps to all the wrong conclusions about the heroine (or as LLB named him in an ATBF segment early this year,…
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