Dark Sapphire, Lisa Jackson’s new medieval romance, has a good sense of its time period and a memorable villain. Sadly, those are the only good things I can say about it. Bland characters and bad writing made this book a chore to finish. Sheena and Keegan met as adolescents when their fathers, who loved the…
I will say this for Nan Ryan – she knows how to keep a plot moving along. The characters may all be paper-thin, and even the ostensible hero and heroine are disturbingly amoral; the villains may be ludicrous stereotypes who mostly serve to have the kinky sex that the hero and heroine don’t engage in;…
It seems that every time I read a humorous romance, I end up wincing instead of laughing. So many romances rely on clumsy characters and painful slapstick to create humor. Luckily, in A Little Scandal, Patricia Cabot avoids those devices. Her humor comes from her characters and their reactions to the world around them. For…
When I started this book, I thought I had never before read anything by Bertrice Small. But with each new plot development I became convinced that many years ago I had read one. That book, I believe, was A Love For All Time, third in the Skye O’Malley series. I remember it so clearly because…
How do you feel about romance novels where one of the parties is in disguise? Stephanie Lauren’s A Secret Love has two distinct parts. In the first part, which lasts for about two hundred pages, hero, Gabriel Bar Cynster falls in love with a mysterious disguised woman, who is, in reality, an old friend, Lady…
Midnight Pleasures starts out with a rather cute plot about a woman who is in love with one man but engaged to another. Unfortunately, that plot fizzles out in about a hundred pages, leaving two hundred sixty pages of deliberate misunderstandings and depressing tedium. What a disappointment! Lady Sophie York knows that she has a…
Anne Davis, heiress to a Tidewater plantation, is having a disastrous day – first her lover abandons her despite her pregnancy, and then ruffians attack her on the docks of Philadelphia. Then, lo and behold, a handsome stranger rushes to her rescue. She reveals her secret to her sympathetic savior, Irish immigrant Michael O’Ryan, and…
Edith Wharton once said that people want a sad story with a happy ending. I love these kinds of stories which explains why I enjoyed this book. The Major’s Mistake is nothing short of gut-wrenching and I mean that in the best way possible. The book opens with an awful scene of sexual molestation. Newly…
Emmaline Alcott runs a marriage brokerage using the last name of Stanhope and pretending to be a widow. When the Royal Mail coach outside her door runs down a Mr. Burwell, life takes an unexpected turn. Burwell worked in the war office and was being investigated for treason. After his death, a flyer linking him…
I was very excited to review Lynsay Sands’ newest release. Her novel The Key is one of my favorite funnies, and I also enjoyed her anthology piece in Five Gold Rings. But despite a promising start, Always falters under the weight of too-familiar characters and plot developments. Aric of Burkhart has just discovered his fiancee…
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