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My Sweet Folly
My Sweet Folly by Laura Kinsale is $2.99! This book sounds absolutely bananas. Readers really loved the heroine and how witty she was. However, given the bananas quality of the book, some said the pacing is a bit all over the place. Have you read this one?
An innocent long-distance correspondence leads to complications in this Regency romance by the New York Times–bestselling author of For My Lady’s Heart.
Married to an elderly man, Folie Hamilton finds her lonely days brightened by light-hearted letters from her husband’s cousin, Lt. Robert Cambourne, stationed in Calcutta for the British East India Company. Robert calls her his princess, and she dubs him her knight errant. Unbidden love blossoms, yet upon the death of her husband, Robert’s last letter shatters her heart with three words: I am married.
Four years later, Robert summons Folie and her stepdaughter to his estate in England. The girl is his ward, so they must go. The man who greets them, however, is nothing like the charming lieutenant of his letters. This Robert is demented. Screaming at ghosts in demonic rage, he is paranoid and frightening. Yet her body longs to caress his perfect features, to hold his tall, angular body, to find the man who once captured her heart . . .
Someone is poisoning him, spinning his brain into madness, of that Robert is sure, but who—and why? Haunted by his dead wife, the one thing his tortured mind understands is that he must keep Folie safe. Folie, with her beautiful expressive eyes, the only warmth in his nightmare world . . .
Nominated for a RITA award, My Sweet Folly is another unforgettable love story filled with passion and suspense from the author of Flowers From the Storm, whose work has been praised by Julia Quinn as “unfailingly brilliant and beautiful.”
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Wicked Designs
Wicked Designs by Lauren Smith is FREE! This book is the first in The League of Rogues series. If you already own this one, a couple more books in the series are also priced at 99c! Some readers mentioned being wary because of the kidnapping element of the plot, but many were won over by Smith’s writing.
The League of Rogues takes what they want—but have they taken on too much?
For too long Miss Emily Parr has been subject to the whims of her indebted uncle and the lecherous advances of his repulsive business partner. Her plan to be done with dominating men forever is simple—find herself a kind husband who will leave her to her books.
It seems an easy enough plan, until she is unexpectedly abducted by an incorrigible duke who hides a wounded spirit behind flashing green eyes.
Godric St. Laurent, Duke of Essex, spends countless nights at the club with his four best friends, and relishes the rakish reputation society has branded him with. He has no plans to marry anytime soon—if ever. But when he kidnaps an embezzler’s niece, the difficult debutante’s blend of sweetness and sharp tongue make him desperate for the one thing he swears he never wanted: love.
Yet as they surrender to passion, danger lurks in Godric’s shadowed past, waiting for him to drop his guard—and rob him of the woman he can’t live without.
Warning: This novel includes a lady who refuses to stay kidnapped, a devilish duke with a dark past, and an assortment of charming rogues who have no idea what they’ve gotten themselves into.
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A Kiss at Midnight
A Kiss at Midnight by Eloisa James is $2.99! This is the first book in the Fairy Tale series, and it has a 3.8-star average. I love the dreamy quality of this cover! Readers noted that because of the “fairy tale” elements, don’t expect a ton of historical accuracy in this one. Do you agree?
Miss Kate Daltry doesn’t believe in fairy tales . . . or happily ever after.
Forced by her stepmother to attend a ball, Kate meets a prince . . . and decides he’s anything but charming. A clash of wits and wills ensues, but they both know their irresistible attraction will lead nowhere. For Gabriel is promised to another woman—a princess whose hand in marriage will fulfill his ruthless ambitions.
Gabriel likes his fiancĂ©e, which is a welcome turn of events, but he doesn’t love her. Obviously, he should be wooing his bride-to-be, not the witty, impoverished beauty who refuses to fawn over him.
Godmothers and glass slippers notwithstanding, this is one fairy tale in which destiny conspires to destroy any chance that Kate and Gabriel might have a happily ever after.
Unless a prince throws away everything that makes him noble . . .
Unless a dowry of an unruly heart trumps a fortune . . .
Unless one kiss at the stroke of midnight changes everything.
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Grease Monkey Jive
Grease Monkey Jive by Ainslie Paton is $3.99! It has an opposites attract romance between a ballroom teacher and a mechanic hero. The book comes from a Harlequin Australia imprint and Sarah interviewed managing editor, Kate Cuthbert, who described it as:
A big, thick, meaty, long, ensemble-cast peopled contemporary romance that reminded me of the best things of early Susan Elizabeth Phillips (without the 80s fashions).
A romance about changing the game, finding the truth, and fancy footwork.
When ballroom teacher Alex Gibson dances with Dan Maddox she’s reminded of the time she stuck a knife in the toaster, gave herself an electric shock, and saw stars. He’s precisely the type of man Alex’s mother warned her off – a player, like the father who abandoned her.
Dan Maddox comes from a long line of men who were hiding under the hood of a beat-up car when the ‘successful relationship’ gene was given out, but he was first in the queue for an extra jolt of chick-pulling power.
The chicks in Dan’s life are universally gorgeous, random, and disposable, until one drunken night when he picks the wrong girl, hurts a good friend, and realises that unless he does something to change, he’ll end up like his violent, unstable father.
It’s Pimp My Ride meets Dancing With The Stars as Alex and Dan come together to compete in a ballroom dancing competition that changes the way they both feel about relationships and love.
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Back when I was reading a lot of HR, I loved MY SWEET FOLLY. Not sure how it would hold up today—for a variety of reasons, not the least being, iirc, the exotification of Indian people and practices. I know from personal experience that sometimes it’s best not to revisit old favorites, especially one originally published before my youngest kids were born.
Eloisa James is hit or miss but I really liked A Kiss at Midnight, but yes it is definitely more “fairy tale romance with historical trappings” than “historical romance.” I feel like there was a real focus on the main characters and not too many side plots about other characters which sometimes pull me out of her books. The main characters also felt well rounded and individual (sometimes fairy tale retellings can come off a little too flat and tropey for my taste.)
Nobody does bananas better than Laura Kinsale when she is in the mood. I sure wish she would publish something new. I am not even getting her newsletter anymore.
I’m with DDD – I read Sieze the Fire by Kinsale last year (for the first time) and the racism was so violent and horrific that I was left physically shaking and couldn’t pick up anything by her ever again.
Amazon US has Michael Gruber’s THE GOOD SON on sale for $1.99. I read the book in 2010, then read it again not long after. The premise is still timely–a symposium on peace held in Pakistan results in its participants being taken hostage. The leader of the symposium, a religious psychologist named Sonia Laghari, tries to hold everything and everyone together without bloodshed, while her former-soldier son works his connections to rescue them.
On the surface, this might seem to be just another thriller, and that’s OK. Where Gruber always makes his mark is in the morality, consequences and motives that guide his characters. In case it isn’t obvious, I have continued to think about this book all these years.
I loved the idea of My Sweet Folly. Kinsale took a heroine who’d fit right into a Jane Austen novel, and matched her up with a hero who’d be at home in a story by one of the Brontes.
The resulting novel…. well, I’ve read that she was under pressure to get the story written. That’s probably why the heroine ended up doing TSTL moves that didn’t fit in with her original character.
But I do love the prologue.
@Darlynne, I love Michael Gruber. The layers to his stories are intense. The Jimmy Paz trilogy is fantastic. His stuff stays with me too.
@Evelyn M. Hill It’s been a while since I’ve read it, but the moment I saw what you wrote my brain went: YES, EXACTLY THIS. Definitely not the best Kinsale, for me personally. I wouldn’t start with My Sweet Folly. Then again, at that price–maybe??
Oh dear… the Kinsale would have been complete total catnip to me until recently (at least going by the blurb!), but I veered off into m/m romance last year and haven’t found the way back *lol*.
I liked ‘My Sweet Folly’ back in the day but suspect I would read it differently now. 🙂
Did, however, zap over to get ‘Grease Monkey Jive’ because I’m still looking for the ballroom-dance romance of my dreams that I haven’t written myself. 🙂
Sarina Bowen’s Falling From the Sky is currently free on Amazon (I don’t know about other platforms. I haven’t read this one is quite a while but I remember liking it a lot, and Sarina Bowen is a favourite author of mine.
I liked the first part of My Sweet Folly years ago, but I was disappointed by the second half of the book.
Given how good this site is about other kinds of discrimination, isn’t it past time to replace vague terms like “bananas” which are intended to mock mental illness with more precise terms like: unbelievable, ridiculous, chaotic, disorganized, fantastical….
Grease Monkey Jive is good. It has serious elements but is a lot of fun as well.
Wicked Designs is OK. Plot-wise it’s ridiculous and so over the top I couldn’t put it down. It’s worth reading if you don’t mind that.
I gave Wicked Designs a try and, ugh! Stopped at about page 10. Truly despicable “hero” and the threat of rape throughout the kidnap scene turned my stomach. Would not recommend!!