There’s a good selection of new romance, mystery and women’s fiction titles due for release in March, and the AAR team has once again been hard at work choosing the ones we think are most likely to be good bets. We’ll be reviewing quite a few of these, so don’t forget to check back near the release dates to share your thoughts!
As always, this is nowhere near a comprehensive list – so if there’s an author whose books you’d like to see included on future Coming Soon lists, please don’t hestitate to let us know.
Releasing week of 27th Feb 2023
Releasing week of 6th Mar 2023
Releasing week of 13th Mar 2023
Releasing week of 20th Mar 2023
Releasing week of 27th Mar 2023
Deanna Raybourn’s A Sinister Revenge is coming out on March 7. I’m still loving the Veronica Speedwell mysteries.
On the other hand, I am less excited about the new Lady Sherlock. The series is meandering with no place to go.
Note that Fate’s Arrow (The Rising Wave #3) by Michelle Diener (FR) was supposed to be released end-January but is expected to be released on February 28, 2023 instead.
March 7 – A Most Intriguing Lady (Buccleuch family) by Sarah Ferguson (HF/HR/Mystery). Caught my eye…I enjoy the occasional historical romance with a bit of mystery, so I may give this one a go. Another reader on AAR recommended Jeannie Lin’s Lotus Palace/Pingkang Li Mysteries…wondering now why I waited so long to start reading this series!
March 10 – When He’s Torn (The Olympus Pride #5) by Suzanne Wright (PR)
March 14 – Dawnmaker (Endeavor, #3) by Amanda Bouchet (SFR). There is currently no cover so not sure if March 14 is the hard release date. Finding publication dates change more often than not lately.
March 28 – Glory and the Master of Shadows (Lady Charlotte’s Society of Angels, #4) by Grace Callaway (HR)
I can’t wait for the new K.J. Charles! March is always dreary here, so this will be a delightful respite. Thanks for the list!
I think it’s probably a given that I’m going to like everything KJC writes – she ‘s so bloody good, how could I not? – but I really enjoyed the new one; review coming soon!
I’m also looking forward to Kristen Ashley’s The Girl in the Pines (Misted Pines Series Book 2). Your March list looks really great. I’ve read at least three books from the list and enjoyed them all. I see a few more I want to check out. Thanks for putting the list together.
Not much that grabs me here, except K.J. Charles, of course. I’m interested in seeing a review of Gregory Ashe’s new book since it deals with younger protagonist. I like his writing, I just can’t deal with the level of relationship angst he usually writes. I wonder if this book might avoid some of that. :-)
Um… well, I think its safe to say there’s a slow burn going on.
I can’t wait for KJ Charles’ take on smugglers!
Is the Ashe a YA, paranormal? I can’t work out if it’s one I’ll like or not.
It’s… it’s a Gregory Ashe book! Seriously, the two leads are 16, but it’s not what I’d call YA. It’s a contemporary mystery with lots of UST. Watch this space for my review :) I really liked it.
What is UST? Sorry for not knowing..
Unresolved Sexual Tension (an acronym I recall from my X Files fanfic days!!)
Thx!
Thanks, I’ll probably give it a try. ‘Lots of UST’ fits with 16 year olds.
I think it’s the other series he’s currently writing that is paranormal, then – Flint and Tinder?
Yes – Flint and Tinder is a spin off from the Hollow Folk series – which I haven’t read yet. That also features pretty young protagonists, but is again, far from what I’d call YA. (And yes, it’s PNR)
I only have a few books on my March TBR, but that’s just as well, seeing as I still have a pile of February releases to get around to reading. (I have seven books on my TBR scheduled to be published between tomorrow and the last day of February.) As for March–
OFF THE MAP (March 7) by Trish Doller is a road-trip romance between a woman who has been traveling on the open road for the past decade and a man who makes maps. Have we had a cartographer hero before? I loved Doller’s FLOAT PLAN and enjoyed THE SUITE SPOT, but her books do tend to be pricy. The Kindle edition of OFF THE MAP is $11.99—a little too rich for my blood. I’ll be waiting for the library copy or a price drop.
TROPICAL STORM (March 9) is the third book in Skye Warren & Amelia Wilde’s Deserted Island trilogy, an MMF romance about a couple stranded on an island after a plane crash and the man who lives a solitary life there. The previous book (NATURAL DISASTER) ended on a cliff-hanger, and I’m expecting TROPICAL STORM to pick up right where it left off.
A SECRET HEIR TO SECURE HIS THRONE (March 28) is Caitlin Crews’s latest offering for Harlequin Presents. The title gives you the basic plot outline: a king who has spent years plotting revenge against the murderers of his parents discovers he has a child from a long-ago liaison. He wants to marry the heroine and legitimize their child, but will the heroine agree to be a pawn in a political game?
ECHO (March 28) is the next in Sybil Bartel’s long-running Alpha Elite romantic-suspense series. The books hew very closely to a template that includes a woman in trouble through no fault of her own, good guys using technology and massive amounts of fire power to their advantage, and plenty of D/s sex.
LOVE THY BROTHER (March 29) is the fourth in Garrett Leigh’s Rebel Kings series of motorcycle club romances. This book features the “brother’s best friend” trope with one MC being the brother of the Rebel Kings club president and the other MC being the president’s best friend. I’ve liked the previous books in the series, but they’re all extremely angsty with quite a bit of violence.
OK, how do you legitimize an illegitimate child so that the child is in line to inherit the title? I read an old Regency years ago where the hero, an earl, thought he was sterile because he had had mumps as an adult. When he discovered that he’d fathered a son shortly before his illness, he found a woman to marry (the mother had died) and faked the wedding date to imply that the child was theirs and that they’d been married at the time. It was actually rather well done, but I’m not sure how one would pull this off otherwise.
In the context of the book you mention – my understanding is that if a woman was pregnant and married at the time of a child’s birth, the child was legitimate regardless of who provided the sperm. So legally, in the scenario you describe, the child is illegitimate, hence the need to fake documentation. AFAIK, there was no way to legally legitimise a child so they could inherit titles or property in the kind of situation you describe at the time the book is set.
Wiki tells me that in 1926 in England, a law was passed that meant children born to two people who weren’t married would be legitimate once the parents married.
And today, many of the inheritance rights of illegitimate children have changed so they’re no different to legitimate children and they can inherit property, even if it’s entailed.
Given most HPs featuring royals are set in made-up vaguely European places, I’d think the couple in the Crews book wouldn’t actually have to get married at all for their child to have the same rights as a legitimate child!! I expect there’s some law that dictates they have to ;)
That is still true today in many countries.
If a woman is married, there is an assumption of legitimacy as in the husband is the father. Including a certain number of days after his death. You actually have to do a lot of paperwork if you do not want your husband to be registered as the father – still today, in most countries.
There are still some complications when the parents are not married, in most legal systems, as in having to prove more, or maybe getting a smaller share than the legitimate children – though they are mostly small by now, as you said.
I’m guessing that Crews—and any other HP author who uses a similar plot point—will basically hand-wave away the pesky legal details regarding legitimization of children born out of wedlock. (As I always assert, the ability to suspend disbelief is a key proponent in one’s ability to enjoy HPs.) But this has been a most interesting and instructive discussion.
Oh, of course – that’s what i meant about there probably being a law or something that will mean they have to get married :) These books are never set in real places, so the author can make up whatever she likes!
I have to share an amusing coda: I just downloaded Jackie Ashenden’s latest HP, WED FOR THEIR ROYAL HEIR (yet another illegitimate child about to be legitimized by his parents getting married). Ashenden’s dedication reads as follows: “To all those who will never pick up a Harlequin Presents. So long, suckers! All the more for us!”
Completely agree – I do not think of it most of the times, when I pick up an HP – and once I start, I probably need to let that book go – it does not work its HP fantasy magic on me ;-)
I think the book was A Natural Attachment by Katherine Kingsley, on of my all time favorite funny historical books – I just love it for the humor that works so well for me.
Every country has different laws on this, historically:
In some countries, a subsequent marriage might legitimize the child of the couple. Or a common law marriage might be recognized under certain circumstances with the Church’s blessing – there are many variations and they always get interesting when there is a mess related to who should or cannot inherit a big name or fortune. It is much more varied than just the UK approach in the Regency.So who knows what is in play in the HP.
To add complexity:
In some countries, a legal marriage that is a not recognized (usually by Head of the family, or family council) may bring legitimate children, but they are not entitled to inherit their father’s position – Franz Ferdinand, the Habsburg heir to the Austro Hungarian Empire who was shot in 1914 leading to WWI, was married like that (in a so called morganatic marriage) = his children were banned from inheriting after him, which is why a remote cousin, Karl, took the throne in 1916 as the last Emperor.
And, more complexity, for ruling families, there can be such a thing as their FAMILY LAW, or similar, which regulates inheritance for them, independent of the laws of the land – usually more restrictive than just legitimacy, as above.
(Example valid today:
The Liechtenstein family law is public in the legal register of Liechtenstein, and it says that only marriages sanctioned by the head of the family – Prince of L. – can lead to recognized heirs for inheriting the Principality, or something like that – I read it out of curiosity years back, so I cannot give you details, I just know that most of the top tier aristocratic families had such family laws, regulating marriage and inheritance.
I suppose that the Windsors have something like it, too – I never was that interested to research this arcane topic further).
Yes, in England, the Royal Marriages act of 1772 meant basically that any member of the family had to get permission from the monarch to marry. The Succession of the Crown Act of 2013 changed that slightly in that only the first six in line to the throne have to “seek” the sovereign’s permission to marry – it also altered the rule of premogeniture so that the first born child of a monarch will inherit, rather than the first born son. (It also removed the bar to a monarch or future monarch marrying a Roman Catholic.)
Thx, I learned something :-)
This is fun – I like this totally useless knowledge I sometimes pick up.
Lovely!
I know, right? I came here for the new books, and stayed for a fascinating discussion of marriage and inheritance laws! :-)
I think I have read a book in which children born before their parents married were legitimated by a subsequent marriage, and I think it was set in Scotland. I never got around to investigating whether such a policy was the law in that time period (1700s through 1800s).
Not important, I just noticed:
I suppose you mean March, in the headers…
Do you mean it’s missing a comma?
The first header is 27th Feb simply because it’s the beginning of a week which also includes dates in March – there are books coming out on 1st and 2nd March that would have been missed out otherwise. Sorry for any confusion!
Maybe we could just do first week…..
no worries, it is all clear now.