Jennie Klassel describes her debut novel as a medieval comedy. Though it was a winner of the New Historical Voice Contest sponsored by Leisure Books and Romantic Times, that description was worrisome. Humor is such a subjective thing. Telling the reader a book is supposed to be funny can make or break a reading experience….
I love medieval romances. A great medieval romance combines interesting historical details with a compelling romance. Since I struggled with By Starlight for over two weeks, I’d say it fell far short of great. While the author did her historical homework (for the most part), her characters drove me crazy. By the time I was…
Though I enjoy medieval romance, I’d never read Betina Krahn before. The possibility of reading a complete unknown (to me) is an exciting prospect. A whole world of possibilities awaits. Once I had the book in hand I became a little wary. The description on the back of the book suggested a too good to…
Celine Fontaine, a panic-attack-prone American heiress, is whisked away from her family’s ancestral French chateau and back in time by a lunar eclipse on New Year’s Eve, 1993. Winding up in the Artois Region of France in the year 1300, she immediately encounters Sir Gaston de Varennes. To be more specific, she encounters him in…
Sometimes I’m tempted to come up with a Letterman-type top ten list when I’m reading a book for review. Something like “You know it’s a bad sign when…” I’m sure you could fill in the blank with any number of romance clichés. Maybe because I had hoped for something else, Mary Reed McCall’s latest surprised…
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,…
Oddly enough, Falcon’s Desire is a throwback to the historical romance novels of yesteryear – I say “oddly enough” because it’s the debut romance for a new author. It’s as if all the in-between progress in terms of nuanced plots and character development have been forgotten and we’re left with a derivative amalgam of Woodiwiss…
Once He Loves has nearly as many flaws as it has strong points, but the scale tips in favor of the book. Its premise reverses gender roles, which was a nice change of pace, and the hero and heroine were likable enough throughout the book. But there were some annoying features as well, such as…
Reading Impostress was like taking a lukewarm bath: not particularly enjoyable, but not exactly painful, either. And like a lukewarm bath, it was hard to get too excited about it, or even really remember much about it afterward. This book is one of the most generic romances I’ve ever read, despite being set in both…
I have always read romance novels and the Medieval period of history has fascinated me for as long as I can remember. When I realized there was an entire sub-genre of romance novels set in this period, I was truly in heaven. I have followed the genre faithfully through the years, and have been pleased…
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