Something strange and unexpected happened about two thirds of the way through this book. It started to get interesting. This was a direct contrast to the seemingly never-ending tediousness of the first section and took me by surprise. But it still wasn’t enough to save the plot that had dragged out two hundred pages into…
My local bookstore owner recommended that I try Beverly Jenkins, so when I got the chance to review her latest book, Before the Dawn, I took it. And while I did the find the historical and ethnic angles in this book to be interesting, I also thought it had some problems that kept it from…
I liked the heroine of The Wedding Wager, even though she acted like an idiot 90 percent of the time. Cathy Maxwell must be a good writer. The first thing Mary Gates does in this novel is buy a stallion at auction for a thousand pounds. The only problem is that she doesn’t have a…
I was very, very impressed with the beginning of this book. It’s set in 1839, and the country in general was reeling from the Panic of 1837. I can’t recall many books set in America during this time, and I’ve never seen one that discussed this particular economic disaster, which was huge at the time…
The Outlaw and the Lady opens with Angela Bainbridge, a heroine who manages to be at the wrong place at the wrong time. She walks right into notorious bank robber Lee Raven just as he’s leaving the scene of his latest crime. He kidnaps her and takes her with him, because no one else has…
For those who have been griping that all romances are cookie cutter with the same settings and time periods, I highly recommend picking up this little gem by Martha Schroeder. It is part two of her Angels of Mercy trilogy about three Englishwomen, from varying backgrounds, who follow Florence Nightingale to the front during the…
Believe in Me picks up soon after the first book leaves off. This second volume’s plot is similar to the first an alliance is to be formed between the Saxons and the Norse Vikings. Again paranormal elements are utilized, but they continue to be less then fully realized. Lord Hawk is the hero of this…
In a novel that is supposed to involve spies, secret missions, and a faux mistress for the hero, there is remarkably little to intrigue the reader. What starts out as a very promising premise quickly falls flat. And, perhaps understandably enough, flat is the word that first comes to mind in describing this book. The…
I volunteered to take a second look at In My Wildest Dreams when Robin asked the other AAR reviewers how we might feel about the Sabrina-style plot. I adore romances like Judith Ivory’s Sleeping Beauty that re-imagine fairy tales, and saw similar potential in Sabrina’s story. As a fan of both Christina Dodd and the…
This book has a really great story in it, not a good story, a great one. So why the grade? Unfortunately the book has a big problem. I’m going to tell you the story and you can guess what the problem is. Celeste, a tomboyish gardener’s daughter grows up on a wealthy estate. There are…
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