Originally written in 1992 and now reissued digitally, To Kiss a Thief is a well-told, well-researched historical romance which moves – unexpectedly – from the English countryside to war-torn Portugal. Margaret Somerley has embarked upon her first London season but has so far met with little notice or success, facts her mother bemoans both loudly…
It’s stories like this one, in which the author takes a big risk with one of her principal characters, which serves to remind me just why it is that Mary Balogh became such a renowned author of historical romances and has remained at the top of the tree for so many years. Because she’s been…
I’m not someone who specifically seeks out Christmas-themed books to read around this time of year, but I’ve had this on my TBR pile for a while now, and it caught my eye when I was scrolling through my Kindle looking for my next read – so I thought, “why not?” A Christmas Promise pushes two…
Sarah Mallory’s A Kiss to Stop a Wedding is a charming, character-driven Regency romance featuring likeable, sensible leads in a slow-burn love story filled with longing and denial as they try to fight the impossible attraction growing between them. It’s well-written, engaging and very readable, with strongly characterised principals and secondary cast, and some lovely…
This review originally appeared in 2013. Fallen Angel tells the story of Verity Jollife, rather plain, twenty-six and unmarried, and Gabriel, Earl of Sherington. She is almost a generation younger than her older siblings and is regarded by them as a source of unpaid labour and generally treated as the poor relation. Gabriel has a…
This third book in Alexis Hall’s Something Fabulous series of (faux) Regency romps is very much a love story – but not a genre romance. Rather, it celebrates platonic love – and does it incredibly well – and tells the story of two dear friends who, as the synopsis indicates, prove that a bumpy road…
This month’s theme – It Came From the 1990s – prompted me to trawl through my collection of nineties Signet Regencies. Gayle Buck’s A Chance Encounter dates from 1991, but unfortunately, it doesn’t hold up as well as some of the other traditional regencies I’ve read dating from that period. On reaching his majority –…
Jo Goodman hasn’t published a historical romance in over five years and more’s the pity. Her work, often dark, always smart, and peopled with leads that feel vividly real, has garnered ten DIKs at AAR as well as a slew of Bs. One Forbidden Evening, first published in 2006 (Goodman has republished much her earlier…
Well, this is a load of fun. All’s Fair in Love and War is a promising start to Virginia Heath’s latest series which revolves around Miss Prentice’s School for Girls, which ‘finishes’ young ladies in respectable ways for jobs in the real world. It’s got mischievous kids, a lovable but impossible dog (NORBERT!), a hero…
There is something extremely moving – as a queer woman – to sit with a Mills and Boon/Harlequin historical romance involving two women in my hand. A Liaison with Her Leading Lady is romantic and touched with theatrical warmth. It’s not wholly perfect but it reigns as Lotte R. James’ best book yet. Actress Ruth…
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