I hate to say this, but fond as I am of a nice long historical romance, Once A Rake would have been so much better had it been a lot shorter. The characters were very nice, very likable, and I always enjoy a Beauty and the Beast story, but it rambled on and on and…
I almost passed on reviewing The Spymaster’s Lady. The cheesy cover (open ruffle-shirted hunk – yawn) and even cheesier title (oh, no – not another spymaster!) led me to believe that it would be yet another boring, cookie-cutter, Regency super-spy romance. I could not have been more wrong. Joanna Bourne hasn’t had a book published…
As a long time romance reader, sometimes I find myself forgetting why I love this genre so much. At times titles, plots, and characters all blend together until all I can say is “love prevails in the end”. But at other times I read a book that refreshingly, uniquely, and unequivocally reminds me just why…
Despite some tried and true cliches that normally annoy me, I enjoyed A Reckless Beauty, the latest installment of the Romney Marsh series. The majority of the story takes place in one of my favorite settings for romance novels: Belgium, right before the Battle of Waterloo. Fanny Becket, one of Ainsley Becket’s many adopted children,…
Jo Beverley’s books have always been comfort reads to me. Lady Beware, the latest in her Company of Rogues series, fits nicely into this category. Lord Darien returns a hero from the Napoleonic Wars to claim a title that is blemished, to say the least. Because of his wastrel ancestors, lecherous father, and insanely murderous…
After reading a string of light romances, it was a definite turn in the opposite direction to read The Code of Love, a somber story of intrigue set in both France and England. The Napoleonic conflict is its central theme, with Napoleon as an actual character and the unease and misery of the French as…
His Majesty’s Dragon is straight fantasy, no romance whatsoever, but it does have, at its heart, a very lovely and emotionally rich relationship between a man and his newly hatched dragon. Captain Will Laurence and his naval crew capture a French frigate in what Laurence assumes to be a routine skirmish. What’s hardly routine is…
This book tied to win as Best Series Novel in AAR’s 2005 reader poll, and got much buzz last year, so I looked forward to reading it. But it’s much the same fare as found in most historical romances, even if the set-up is more novel. The story starts out with Madeleine, a very young…
Like many new writers, Diane Gaston suffered years of rejection before Harlequin’s Mills & Boon published her first novel, The Mysterious Miss M, for the U.K. market in 2004. What is remarkable about that is Gaston isn’t a British romance writer; she’s an American living in Virginia (who now writes under the name Diane Perkins…
There are some key adjectives to describe this book: Dark, very dark, and did I mention dark? Seriously, anyone with an aversion to rape, torture, blood, violence and evil will need to avoid this book. I have a pretty high tolerance for violence, etc., and even I was a bit taken aback by some of…
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