We thought this one was stellar. 

Circa 1810, Sydney society is in transition. The new governor Lachlan Macquarie is raising the status of freed convicts (‘emancipists’), much to the wrath of exclusives who arrived from the United Kingdom freely and, often, temporarily. Sarah Langley, wealthy gentlewoman newly arrived in the city is clearly an exclusive. So how could she possibly be interested in an ex-con emancipist like Dr. Alan Kerr? An Australia-set historical that truly transports (if you’ll pardon the convict-linked expression!) the reader to the social and historical setting? Yes, please!

It’s such a pleasure to watch Sarah transform from haughty gentlewoman to practical, open-minded Australian. She struggles to learn to sew and do some cooking, skills she never had to master as an English lady. She learns to be thoughtful in her speech patterns, realizing that she can get further with careful statements than her old autocratic declarations. A turning point is when her servant goes into labor – something Sarah realizes she would not even have known about in England – and only Sarah is there to help. Alan has less growing to do, but he’s a good, hard-working man, with historically accurate pride.

It’s on sale for 1.99 here.

This cozy mystery got a DIK.

Kent ramps the suspense level up slowly, very slowly – you’ll go from being plunged into a sense of perfect ease as you’re given a French travelogue to worrying for Penelope as the danger grows ever so much closer. The pace is even, the mild scares delightful, and otherwise it’s a nicely cozy experience.  And you absolutely won’t be able to guess who ended up doing the killing here, though the eventual revelation of the criminal is completely believable.  Penelope’s friendship with her good friend Frankie and friendly rivalry with her nosy neighbour Clemence are delightfully done.

Penelope is a fine heroine; very smart, very ambitious, very relatable.  You want to buy her a glass of wine after everything she ends up going through in this book, and watching her develop a whole fresh life for herself within St. Merlot between death threats, break-ins and kidnappings is pretty satisfying.

Kent’s depictions of Southern France are beautifully handled, and you definitely get a feeling through Penelope’s British eyes of what life is like in this beautiful, sun-drenched, open hearted yet secretive part of the world.

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This hockey romance is sexy, fun, and free!

You have to love a Cinderella fantasy to really lose yourself in Play to Win,  but there’s a lot bubbling along under the surface besides that to keep readers engaged.

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This too is a DIK. 

When you’re longing to read a book with memorable characters and dialogue that can be light without insulting the reader’s intelligence, Venetia is the perfect read. Of Heyer’s Regencies, this is definitely one of my favorites. Though the tale of the rake falling for the sweet, innocent virgin is no new innovation, this version is one of the best.

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There are more! You can see them all here.