The Secret Swan by Shana Abé contains several elements frequently found in those old-fashioned bodice-ripper-style romances: an innocent child bride, a tormented alpha hero who wrongs her, an adversarial relationship, a couple of Big Secrets. Abé magically weaves these not-so-promising threads together to create a story that’s both original and lovely. We first meet Lady…
The romance between a Scottish warrior and an English lady can always make for intriguing storytelling. There is just so much possibility for external and internal conflict and at times the history can overwhelm the characters, if they’re not that well delineated. Unfortunately, this is what happens with the hero and heroine in Seize the…
Master of Desire is a book that really grew on me as I read it. I opened it expecting an ultra-cheesy medieval (I mean, come on, look at the title) and it is pretty cheesy, especially at first. But while no one is going to confuse it with a Madeline Hunter medieval, it’s not a…
In Claire Delacroix’s latest offering, The Beauty, we find both a wounded hero and a wounded heroine whose experiences have shaped them into bitter, frightened people. Jacqueline De Crevy has been frightened of men ever since she was almost raped by her former fiancé. She is a beautiful woman who is tired of men not…
On his way to fight in the Crusades, fifteen-year-old squire Royce de Warrene finds a young girl hiding after the brutal murder of everyone on a French estate. Calling herself Ana and saying nothing more, Royce assumes she’s the peasant daughter of the miller slain nearby. He therefore gives her over to the care of…
One day I was in the bookstore staring at the shelf containing the JD Robb books. It’s almost as though, if I stood there long enough and stared hard enough, an Eve and Roarke adventure I hadn’t read would magically appear. No such luck. Fortunately, there was a series of books next to them with…
In By Design, the sequel to By Possession, Madeline Hunter tells the story of the freemason, Rhys and an indentured servant, Joan. Their story is set amidst the turmoil of Medieval England’s political wars, where the sides can change quickly. Rhys and Joan are quickly caught in webs spun by others. Rhys takes Joan into…
When Elspeth Murray was nine, she discovered a bleeding teenager hiding on her family’s Scottish holdings, fleeing from a crime he didn’t commit. Elspeth has never forgotten handsome young Cormac Armstrong, the young man her family nursed back to health. Ten years later, Cormac returns the favor by saving Elspeth, now a stunning young healer,…
“Richness” is the word that comes to mind when I think of By Design. This is what happens when an author comes along and takes something familiar – the medieval setting – and brings it to the next level. A proud young woman stands selling her crafted pottery and statues, her poise setting her apart…
I don’t know how many female entrepreneurs there were in medieval England, but I bet they were smarter than Linet de Montfort, the wool merchant heroine of My Champion by Glynnis Campbell. The first thing Linet does is publicly humiliate an evil Spanish pirate. Duncan de Ware, a nobleman, sees the incident and instantly vows…
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