Much as I loved Almost a Gentleman, I was almost afraid to sit down and write the review. Pam Rosenthal’s romance debut is a masterful mix of bold and subtle writing elements. Knowing that, I knew anything I write will hardly do the book justice. But since this is a review site and I’ve offered…
Heart of the Tiger is a book that started strongly, muddled through its middle, and finished with a flourish. I can almost recommend it. Unfortunately, I can’t ignore the fact that somewhere in that muddled middle I set it aside for about a week and had no real inclination to pick it up again. Miranda…
The time is ripe for a reminder about how subjective the reading experience can be. It is probable that many Balogh fans will greatly enjoy Slightly Wicked. As for me, despite being a long-time fan of Balogh, I found the generally well-loved A Summer to Remember surprisingly mediocre and clichéd, and I liked Slightly Wicked…
Recently I read a mystery by Sarah Smith called The Vanished Child. Though written in 1992 the novel reads as though it were written at the turn of the 20th century – the period in which it is set. Her use of language works to draw the reader into that time and place so well,…
I’ve always liked Cinderella stories. A young, lower-class woman improves herself and wins the prince of her dreams in the process… what a wonderful fantasy. Cinderella stories, however, can be less than believable if the woman transforms herself too rapidly, and that’s part of the trouble with A A Scandalous Lady. Add to that characters…
Normally, a book like this would be way too sweet for me. I’m not that sentimental, but I can get all teary-eyed over a basket of puppies, and Song From The Sea was the book equivalent of a big-eyed puppy. Callista Melbourne’s father has promised her to Harold Carlyle, the son of a friend. Callie…
Is it fair to Mary Balogh that she’s just so ridiculously good? At her best she is able to convey her characters’ overwhelming anguish of despair coupled with the deep determination of love when they love but believe their love is not returned. At her less than best, you still feel the anguish and love,…
A sweet story with an unusual setting that’s mostly a pleasure to read, Adam’s Promise unfortunately hits a groan-inducing plot development that nearly capsizes it. Madeline Oxley is stunned when her father informs her that Adam Coates sent him a letter asking for her hand in marriage. When she was a girl, she had a…
Back in the 90’s Stella Cameron used to be an author on my auto-buy list. I was a big fan of both her historical and contemporary novels and the unique voice that was very different in style from other authors I was reading at the time. That’s really changed in the past five years or…
Lily features an odd combination of negative traits. There were many times during the course of the book when I shook my head and wondered how on earth it was published, and who the target audience could possibly be. One thing’s for sure: it doesn’t include me. When Lord Rand Nesbitt sees Lily Ashcroft at…
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