I had a hard time getting through Cheryl Howe’s The Pirate and the Puritan. It has an interesting pre-Revolutionary setting and a lot of action, but a pair of aggravating protagonists and some historical inaccuracies ruined it for me. The year is 1721. Felicity Kendall is a 29-year-old spinster who flees to the British West…
Writing a trilogy can be a tricky proposition. Some authors seem to start very strongly and then lose steam – and, unfortunately, that seems to be the case with A Wedding Story, the conclusion to Susan Kay Law’s Marrying Miss Bright trilogy. While I enjoyed the thoroughly charming The Bad Man’s Bride very much, this…
As widowed Alexandra Alastair compiles a listing of possible second husbands, she wonders whether she should add the new Viscount Stoke to her list. When she hears, through a connecting wall, a villain attempting to hang him, Alexandra races to the rescue and begins an adventure that will turn her staid life upside down. Alex…
You’ve read this story before. Older, more experienced hero exploits innocent young woman, using her as an unknowing pawn in a ruthless quest for vengeance. But even though the plot holds few surprises, in Madeline Hunter’s hands, a familiar story gains an altogether unexpected depth and dimension. Ms. Hunter, fellow readers, is good. Very good….
The back cover blurb for Laurens’ latest has a list of bold print Headings: The Author, The Series, The Hero, The Heroine, and The Outcome, each followed by a brief, supposedly descriptive sentence. Though I’m sure the author and publisher intended the bullet points to grab their audience quickly, what it actually did was define…
I had a wonderful time reading Widow in Scarlet. The interaction between Lucy and Nicholas was marvelous. They discuss, they plan, they listen to each other. Even so, the plot requires too much suspension of belief for the time period to totally succeed; there’s a definite Cinderella air to the plot that is at times…
A 5th Avenue Christmas didn’t work for me. At all. Though the premise is interesting, the actual execution falls short. Part of the problem is that the book itself is short, but it’s also crippled by characters who would be annoying in a book of any length. Meryl Carrington is the youngest daughter of a…
If many European Historicals are set against a backdrop of wallpaper history – enough history to make the book of a certain time, but not so much as to overwhelm the reader – then Ever Yours is a flat, white latex paint model. Except for the date in the front, a few mentions of crinolines…
My aunt and I once made a cake without eggs. We were talking to each other and got distracted, but when we pulled the cake out of the oven and tried to cut it we knew what we’d done wrong. It had no cohesiveness to it, no structure binding it together. Amazingly enough, another one…
Don’t you love it when you pick up a book, and it turns out to be an unexpectedly delightful surprise? That was my experience with Taming the Scotsman. Eleanor (Nora) ingen Alexander is desperate. Betrothed to Ryan MacAren, a man she doesn’t love, she seeks out Ewan MacAllister, a man universally feared. When Nora finds…
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