NB: Today, we have a guest review from Reader Claudia on the latest release by Meredith Duran. Here’s Claudia’s bio: At sixteen, I found my older cousin’s stash of Barbara Cartlands and other assorted Harlequin-type romance housed in an old sewing cabinet and life was never the same! I took a long break from romance but rediscovered it about four years ago. I love history, so I mostly read historical romance. I really like when … Continue reading Guest Review: The Sins of Lord Lockwood by Meredith Duran →
I’m a huge fan of Kristen Callihan’s contemporary romances. So when I saw Firelight sitting on the shelf at my local library right before I left for a reading retreat, I just knew it was fate. And hot damn, why did I wait so long to start The Darkest London series? Normally, I don’t reach for historical romances. But with the added elements of magic, curses, and demons, it felt like a decent compromise for a … Continue reading Firelight by Kristen Callihan →
UPDATE: An updated version of Hello Stranger has been released digitally to all retailers, and updated copies should have appeared in digital libraries. The scene in question described below has been removed entirely from the book. … I had been waiting so impatiently for Hello Stranger to come, mostly because the heroine is inspired by the first female British physician, Elizabeth Garrett Anderson. And I was so mad that it let me down. Why did it let me … Continue reading Hello Stranger by Lisa Kleypas →
NB: We have a guest squee from Castiron, who has a series that might be of interest to many of you. It’s epistolary-esque in nature and sounds all sorts of fun. When not data-wrangling or family-wrangling, Castiron divides her time between textile crafts, reading, and genealogy. She says of this series: The Comfortable Courtesan series is the memoir of Clorinda Cathcart, a (fictional) courtesan in Regency London who eventually moves up in the world. Originally … Continue reading Guest Squee: The Comfortable Courtesan series by L. A. Hall →
This is described in the cover copy as an “Elizabethan romp” which…is sort of true. It’s a little less rompy than the blurb implies, but it’s full of delightful research tidbits. It’s also a second chance romance (sort of) of two people who figure out that life together is better than life apart, and that sex can be fun. Frances and Henry have been married for ten years, and they have several children together, but … Continue reading Courtly Pleasures by Erin Kane Spock →
The Trouble With True Love is a historical romance that combines the ‘rake meets wallflower’ plot device with the ‘pretend dating’ plot device and the ‘advice columnist gets characters into trouble’ plot device. There’s nothing new here but it’s all quite delightful due to excellent characterization and use of language. Clara is a newcomer to Society and is shy. All her life she’s been overshadowed by her older sister (they mutually adore each other – … Continue reading The Trouble With True Love by Laura Lee Guhrke →
I really wanted to like this book. The description made it sound like a battle of wits would occur, which I love due to the intellectual tension and often coded dialogue present in such stories. Alas, the first chapter was infuriating and the hero even more so, and I stopped reading a few pages into chapter two. I think DNF reviews are very illuminating as they can highlight what makes a reader stop, or keep … Continue reading To the Duke, With Love by Amelia Grey →
Beauty Like the Night is the first book by Joanna Bourne that I’ve read, but it definitely won’t be the last. (Somewhere, in Scotland, Redheadedgirl just sat up and went “what?” and isn’t sure why). This book was so good. It’s got a bad-ass heroine, a richly developed world, an element of mystery, and a delicious slow-burn romance. For me, hands down, the best part of this story was the heroine, Severine de Cabrillac. She … Continue reading Beauty Like the Night by Joanna Bourne →
Warning that the book does include violence and harsh language against women both on and off the page. Did Amanda just read and enjoy a historical romance? Hell yes, she did. For readers who have been around the Bitchery for while, you might know that I’ve had a complicated relationship with historical romances. I just can’t get into them much anymore. It’s not historical romance’s fault! However, every so often, I’ll pick one up, and … Continue reading Highland Promise by Alyson McLayne →
Mild trigger warning for deeply negative, damaging descriptions of mental illness common during WWI. I love epistolary novels, especially those with a solid thread of romance, so Last Christmas in Paris was a hefty dose of my catnip. While I was entirely absorbed by this novel when I was reading it, I found the ending and the finale of the emotional journey way too rushed, and not as finely wrought as the first 85% of … Continue reading Last Christmas in Paris by Hazel Gaynor and Heather Webb →
The past month has been kind of rough in terms of the number of books I’ve DNF’d. I’ve put down two brand-new historicals in a week, so while I wasn’t thrilled with The Laird Takes a Bride, I was determined to power through it just to finish something. The problem with The Laird Takes a Bride is that it’s an incredibly uneven novel. The first half of the book is frustrating, and while it improved considerably by … Continue reading The Laird Takes a Bride by Lisa Berne →
