The Deed was Lynsay Sands’ first published romance, and marked the start of a prolific career, albeit one that for me has been characterized by uneven writing. What’s best about her books – the humor and a certain naive sweetness in her heroes and heroines – reminds me in some ways of vintage Julie Garwood….
After a much-too-long absence, Deborah Simmons returns with The Dark Viscount, a Regency-set tale with a gothic feel to it. I had very, very high hopes for this book since I count several of Simmons’ tales, especially The Devil Earl and The Last Rogue, some of best historical romances ever. Alas, a hero and heroine…
Earlier this year I granted DIK status to Dawn’s Awakening, the previous single title release in Lora Leigh’s Breeds series, and just last month gave her Breeds short story in the Shifter anthology a B-. It’s clear I’m a fan of this series, but since my review of another of her recent single titles –…
Mr. Cavendish, I Presume is part of a literary experiment: It and its companion novel, The Lost Duke of Wyndham, published in June of this year, depict the same few weeks and even partly the same scenes, but each book has as its focus a different couple. I came to this novel with high expectations….
Thread of Fear features a forensic artist, whose gift is both a blessing and curse to her. Though the book’s premise intrigued me, its execution was muddled mainly by pacing problems. It’s a classic “C” level read. Artist Fiona Glass never depicts faces in her own paintings because of the work she does for law…
I’ve reviewed many a Christmas anthology in my time, but Halloween anthologies are not as plentiful. Given my generally favorable stance on holiday stories, I was eager to give Hallowe’en Husbands a shot, and for the most part I wasn’t disappointed. One story was a bust, but the other two were quick and enjoyable –…
The erotic romance The Pleasure of His Bed did not arouse, titillate, or otherwise excite. It took me a week to read two of the three short stories, mostly because I couldn’t tolerate more than a few pages at a time. My eyes rolled so often while enduring most of this book that I feared…
I adore stories in which lovers get a second chance at finding their way to one another. With that in mind, I gladly picked up The Dove expecting a wonderful story of young lovers separated and then given a second chance together. Unfortunately, the petulant behavior of the hero and a heroine far too modern…
Loose and Easy is tied to Tara Janzen’s Steele Street series. Readers who have more closely followed the series will get a lot more out of it than I did, but it was a fun and fast reading experience for me, and I’ve only read one – Crazy Wild – of the Crazy books. Johnny…
An important thing for authors to know is when to end a series. Even when fans clamor for more, writers should know not to continue by adding unnecessary conflict. The same is true of spin-offs. Francis Ray crossed this line with The Way You Love Me, the first in her Grayson Friends spin-off series, which…
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