Historical Romance

A-
The Fossil Hunter

The Fossil Hunter splits its point of view between two different timelines and characters connected by a fossil. Cooper manages to keep this deft balancing act going, creating three very interesting and worthwhile heroines.  Dark and engrossing and with dual timelines that are expertly captured in ...

B+
The Wedding Dress Sewing Circle

The Wedding Dress Sewing Circle is a captivating tale about reconnecting with your past in order to have a better future.   When renowned designer Cressida Westcott left her childhood home, she vowed never to return. Her parents had died, her brother Eustace subsequently treated her abominably, ...

B
Reputation

Lex Croucher’s YA look at cliquiness and social mores mixes the modern sensibility of an episode of Bridgerton with the fancy parties and social hobnobbing one expects… from an episode of Bridgerton and throws some Mean Girls in on top. Reputation is definitely not period accurate, but I’ll be ...

B
The Spark of Love

Amanda Cabot’s The Spark of Love is a pretty faith-based romance with a sweet and resourceful heroine and a solid hero.  While it’s storyline is not especially unique, it’s still well told and a perfectly nice novel to spend an afternoon with. Debutante Alexandra Tarkington plans to leave ...

D
The Viking's Stolen Princess

Oh, friends.  It’s been a long time since I penned a full-length review.  Life.  Amiright?  As many of you know, I like Viking romances.  A lot.  I like to read about marauding men and women who travel the sea.  I like the descriptions of body tattoos and crazy shaved hairstyles.  Braids. ...

B
Until Leaves Fall in Paris

As the Nazis march toward Paris in 1940, American ballerina Lucie Girard buys her favorite English-language bookstore to allow the Jewish owners to escape. Lucie struggles to run Green Leaf Books due to oppressive German laws and harsh conditions, but she finds a way to aid the resistance by passing ...

B+
Redeeming Love

Redeeming Love is a classic in the Christian market and straddles the genres of romance and Christian fiction. The story, first published in 1991, is based on selected chapters from Hosea, a biblical book from a minor prophet, in which God asks the prophet to marry a prostitute, a marriage that symb ...

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Proper Scoundrels

Allie Therin’s Magic and Manhattan series concluded earlier this year with Wonderstruck, leaving Rory and Arthur in a good place, disposing of the evil Baron Zeppler and nicely tying up the major plotlines.  Despite a few quibbles, I enjoyed all three books, so I was pleased to learn the author w ...

B+
A Marvellous Light

Freya Marske’s inventive and impressive début, A Marvellous Light, is an enchanting blend of magic, mystery and romance set in England in 1908, in which a newly-appointed civil servant finds himself suddenly part of a mysterious and fantastical world of deadly curses, spells and secrets.   It†...

B
The Brightest Star in Paris

The Brightest Star in Paris is the follow up to Diana Biller’s 2019 début, The Widow of Rose House.  I haven’t got around to reading that one, but I gather that the books are linked by virtue of the fact that the hero of Brightest Star – Doctor Benedict Moore – is the brother of Sam from R ...