We all know the current trend: romance author hits the big time and scores a hardcover deal. Of course we’re thrilled that our favorite writer is finally garnering the attention she deserves, but secretly we cringe because we fear we’ve lost yet “another one” to mainstream fiction or gritty suspense. I’m sure most of you…
Winter Garden by Adele Ashworth is the sequel to Stolen Charms. Heroine Madeleine DuMais is a Mata Hari-type Frenchwoman spying for the English. Winter Garden brings her together with another English spy, Thomas Blackwood. Thomas has had Madeleine summoned to England ostensibly to help him with a smuggling investigation, but it is quickly obvious that…
The Reilly family was blessed by Druids with the ability to recognize moments of life-altering destiny. Bryan Reilly experiences the Blessing when a beautiful woman flings herself into his arms on the Limerick wharves and begs him to pretend to be her husband and save her and her children from danger. Bryan agrees, and collects…
With a title like Once Wicked, I was expecting something along the lines of a Susan Johnson historical. Luckily, it didn’t turn out to be that kind of a book, but I still found it a disappointing read. This is another historical that sounds and feels too much like a contemporary at a costume party,…
Connie Brockway provides a strong finish to her trilogy about the children of Ronald Merrick, the despicable Earl of Carr. This final installment centers on Carr’s daughter Fia, who has spent the last few years doing everything she can to escape her father’s influence, but fearing deep in her bones that she can never escape…
Unlike most authors today, Eloisa James gets a lot out of the omniscient point of view. She uses it to provide irony and wit without confusing the reader. Also, she had the guts to rewrite her book prior to paperback publication to make it more accurate. Too bad a couple of big misunderstandings dragged the…
Danelle Harmon’s newest, The Defiant One, is a lot of fun. I sat down with it on a Saturday afternoon and finished it on the same day. It’s a delightful romantic comedy with compelling characters and a crazy “mad scientist” plot. Believable? It’s about as believable as Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde or Frankenstein’s Monster…
Ah … who doesn’t like a tale of adventure and the high seas and of pirates and fair damsels? Generally, I do and I had high hopes for Capturing Annie but for me, it didn’t hit the mark. Annie Bonny, the heroine of the book, was born and raised on a pirate ship. The daughter…
There were many things to like about this book, including the suffragette heroine who wants to be a lawyer and the interesting subplot involving the legal system circa 1874. Unfortunately, seriously unrealistic behavior between the main characters overshadowed the better aspects of the book, rendering it a so-so read in the end. Winifred Appleton has…
Jan Cox Speas’s writing is like a wondrous time machine. If you accept the invitation to step in, she will pick you up, whirl you away and set you gently down in another time and another place, and when your journey has ended, you’ll know you’ve visited somewhere out of the ordinary. In Bride of…
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