governess
I’ve got a bit of a soft spot for master/governess romances – probably a result of my long-time love for Jane Eyre – so the synopsis of Julia Justiss’ The Temptation of the Governess caught my eye. It proved to be a charming, character-driven romance featuring two likeable characters forced ...
FINALLY, my beloved Jane Eyre gets the adaptation it deserves. I enjoyed this graphic novel so much that I picked it for my best read of 2016.
The pacing of this long (324 page) novel is excellent. Jane Eyre is much bigger than the love story, a fact which seems to escape most adapters. Certainly ...
Originally published in 1990, Mrs McVinnie’s London Season tells the story of a young, Scottish war widow who, rather like a Regency Mary Poppins, joins the household of a troubled family and, with her very individual blend of kindness, practicality and backbone, improves the lot of each of its me ...
Just to let you know: It was really, really close.
Sophia Hathaway is a spoiled, selfish, pampered heiress to social-climbing parents. At the beginning of the book she has abandoned her aristocratic fiance at the altar and, with her art supplies in one trunk and four dresses in another, she board ...
Murder in the North End is the fifth book in P.B. Ryan's Nell Sweeney mystery series set in post-Civil War Boston. While this series has been generally quite enjoyable overall, this new installment is weaker than the others, and the lack of romantic denouement feels forced.
Nell Sweeney is still ...
Jane Eyre is not a pure romance novel. It's a complex work combing elements of the coming-of-age story, the roman à clef, the gothic novel, and more. Despite its complexity, though, the heart and soul of Jane Eyre is the passionate love between Jane and her employer, Edward Rochester, and it's thei ...
Before writing this review, I spent some time considering my view of wastrels as heroes. Is it necessary for one to be entirely redeemed and a pillar of society by the book’s end or can a hero remain largely unchanged if he becomes immensely lovable? Well, the hero of One Little Sin challenged my ...
I have always been a sucker for the old-fashioned governess-finds-love-with-her employer plot. Nothing fancy, you mind. Give me a plain governess, some kind of troubled aristocrat, a bit of forbidden love and chances are, I am a happily engaged reader (personally, I blame it all on Charlotte Brontë ...
I am not a very big mystery reader, mostly because the journey is more important to me than the end result. But Still Life with Murder, the first of a new historical mystery series by romance author Patricia Ryan, managed to engage me as a mystery and as a character study. The mystery unfolds as the ...
Valentine Wharton was last seen in Captain Cupid Calls the Shots, when he was struggling with drink and more than a little in love with the heroine. Now he's sobered up and starring in a book of his own with a Jane Eyre-ish vibe; he's a sardonic, enigmatic employer in love with his daughter's quiet ...