Elizabeth Lowell and I sort of have a win-some, lose-some relationship. When she’s hot, she’s hot (and how!), and when she’s not, well, you get Fire and Rain. I’ve read several of the books in the Western Man series (since they are mostly reissues, I have no idea which came first or in what order…
In every Elizabeth Lowell I’ve ever read, the hero has always pinned a nickname on the heroine – “little cat,” “sunshine,” “schoolgirl,” “city girl” among them – that serve to emphasize the hero’s adult-ness and the heroine’s youth and assumed helplessness (and indeed, this has sometimes been the case). In Warrior, it’s “fairy-tale girl.” These…
Have you ever wished for something to be true so much that you convinced yourself it was, even though all signs pointed to the contrary? This is what happens to the heroine in Julia London’s The Devil’s Love. Abbey Carrington has convinced herself that Michael Ingram, Marquis of Darfield, has been waiting years to marry…
If I could distill what it is that makes some heroines come across as warm, lovable and kind while others with very similar characteristics come across as fluffy girls, I’d bottle and sell it. Abigail Carrington in The Devil’s Love is the kind of heroine I love and she is the best thing in the…
This is the first book in the Damaron series I’ve read, and if they’re all this good, I’m going to go back and find more. This book is a winning blend of romance and humor, and only a slight misstep in the heroine’s thinking process prevented it from being a true keeper. Nathan Damaron is…
Raised in the Colonies, Caroline Richmond’s first significant act upon her return to England is to single-handedly come to the rescue of a dandy who has been set upon by thugs. She shoots two of the bandits while the injured gentleman whimpers and whines inside his carriage – he has been wounded in an anatomically…
The Lion trilogy, a Scots medieval trilogy Suzanne Barclay published in 1995 and 1996 as part of a larger series, was riveting, exciting, and romantic. Knight’s Rebellion, the final installment of the second Sommerville trilogy, falls somewhat short of a the B level grades I awarded to each of the Lion stories. Suzanne Barclay crafts…
The second book in this trilogy, Love Me Not, earned a B- from me and had one of the best endings I’d ever read. Deceive Me Not does not live up to its predecessor. There’s some good stuff going on here, but the behavior of the heroine is so difficult that the author simply lost…
Lord Sin is a captivating Victorian tale of a jaded gentleman and a vicar’s daughter. As with two of the other Catherine Archer books I have read and enjoyed (Velvet Bond being my favorite Medieval), enjoyment in this book is found in the strongly-written characterizations of the hero and heroine. Readers who like a bit…
In White Heather, author Jaclyn Reding has brought together many elements beloved by readers of historical romance. There is the beautiful and rugged Highlands of Scotland, peopled by simple folk who love the land. There is England during the Regency era, and those cynical, wealthy members of the ton who all too easily will believe…
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