The historical romances of Mary Jo Putney are usually peopled with eminently civilized and sensible characters, who know that passion is destructive if it is not governed by reason, friendship, and respect. They often find themselves in exotic locales and impossible situations, but love – and a stiff upper lip – always prevails. The Bartered…
Tracy Cozzens’ latest release kicks off a new series called American Heiresses, which is about four sisters looking for husbands in the late 19th Century. Unfortunately, it could hardly have gotten off to a worse start. Flight Of Fancy features a plot driven entirely by inconsistency and misunderstanding, peopled by not-particularly-likable characters, and set against…
We all know those writers who recycle their heroes. And our opinions of those writers are almost solely based on whether we like – or don’t like – her particular trademark guy. Lisa Kleypas is a different kind of writer, one with an amazing ability to create achingly real heroes who virtually all vary dramatically…
How many books have you read where the hero is calling the heroine “dearest” and “my love” at one point, and then a hundred pages later is swearing, “So help me God, I never want to see you again”? And how many times have you found either the deep love or deep hate hard to…
Yes, I like historical accuracy. No, there isn’t much accuracy in Miss Woodley’s Experiment. Yes, I normally would grouse about that. No, I’m not going to in this case. Why, because this is a comedy, and a darn funny one too. If a book is a comedy, a good comedy but it’s history lite, I…
I was a little worried when Julia Justiss introduced her main characters in the first chapter of My Lady’s Pleasure. They are very familiar types: the handsome rake and the widowed virgin. This is one of those books, though, that manages to take familiar elements and transform them into something wonderful. Valeria is the nearly-penniless…
Will Falcon is a ship’s captain with a mission. He’s in search of the pirates and thieves who’ve been luring ships onto reefs, and then collecting the booty from the wrecks. Unfortunately, he’s tossed overboard during a storm and would surely drown if it weren’t for Angel, who lives with a ragtag band calling themselves…
Having just read and loved this author’s Young Adult novel, Princess in Love, I was very excited to have the chance to review Kiss the Bride. I hadn’t read any of Cabot’s historical backlist, but based on my experience with her YA novels, I was fully prepared to glom her romance books. Unfortunately, I discovered…
Having read Reavis’s new historical The Bride Fair, I was curious about its relationship to the author’s other historicals. I did a little digging and found out that the The Prisoner is a prequel of sorts, so I searched out a copy of the older book, hoping that it would be as good, but not…
What is it about some romance novels that make them stick in my mind? For me, it’s the characters who make a novel unforgettable. Wolf Mackenzie, Eve Dallas, Lord Ragsdale, Jamie and Claire Fraser – they are the reasons I remember their stories. So what about the characters in Shirl Henke’s Wanton Angel? She is…
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