The Secret Diary is a pleasant enough Regency Romance with lots and lots of local color, nice characters, a totally transparent mystery, and some rather tepid sexual attraction between the hero and heroine. It started off very slowly, but finally picked up speed and moved along very nicely. Kirkland’s latest lacks originality or distinctiveness, but…
Abducting Amy is the story of a beautiful, hapless heroine who gets abducted repeatedly during her season. Mad with desire, her would-be bridegrooms just can’t help trying to run off with her. It’s a cute premise, and the book has some interesting moments, but neither the hero or the heroine is all that compelling –…
I thought I had a real winner when I began One Touch Of Magic. The heroine is an intelligent woman, an antiquarian. Good! The hero is a former soldier, now a marquess with a social conscience. Good again! The book has a nice cast of secondary characters who actually play a part in the story…
After having read several series romances, none of which were very good, I swiched genres and picked up some traditional Regencies. I got lucky and hit a trifecta: Barbara Metzger’s The Diamond Key, Donna Simpson’s Rachel’s Change of Heart, and this one, Prospero’s Daughter. Wonderful books, all three of them (look for our review of…
A Hint of Scandal is unlikely to create any strong emotions either way. It’s not the type of book one raves about, but neither is it one that causes the reader to recoil in horror. The main feeling it evokes is one of sameness; you’ve likely seen every plot point in the book many times…
Recently someone suggested that Minerva by Marion Chesney was a good title to add to one of the Special Title Listings. Having read Minerva a long time ago, my curiosity was piqued, and I went digging through some boxes to find my copy of the book. I vaguely remembered liking the story, and, upon reading…
I had to put The Diamond Key down several times to wipe away tears of laughter. If you are feeling down, and I was when I began reading this book, you will feel much better when you’ve finished it. Metzger’s new Regency is a frontrunner for my pick as Favorite Funny of 2003. It goes…
Years ago, Miranda and Evan were passionately in love and planned to marry. But Miranda’s father was in debt, as heroine’s fathers so frequently are, and Miranda jilted Evan in order to marry the wealthy Lord Crandall. Seven years later, Miranda is now the widowed Lady Crandall. She has come to stay at the country…
Mary Balogh’s traditional Regencies are, as often as not, not “traditional” as Regencies are usually defined: kisses only, mannered, well-behaved ladies and gentlemen falling in love under mildly titillating situations. Instead, Balogh’s Regencies are traditional only in that they are shorter than the average historical. Although its plot is a well-used one, The Ungrateful Governess…
As I was reading Lavender Blue, I couldn’t help thinking that a good novel was like a puppet show, with the author expertly maneuvering the strings behind the scenes. You know the puppets aren’t moving across the stage on their own, but the manipulation is so seamless you hardly know there’s a puppeteer. This book…
End of content
End of content