The Study of Seduction is set in the spring of 1830 and begins with the hero, Edwin Barlow, the Earl of Blakeborough, being asked to watch over Lady Clarissa Lindsey, who is related to his best (and very nearly only) friend, as the Season unfolds. The book is the second in a series but stands well on its own. Clarissa is being pursued by a French nobleman and diplomat who is accosting her in increasingly … Continue reading The Study of Seduction by Sabrina Jeffries →
Historicals, man. Like many a romance reader, historicals were my gateway drug. And like many a romance reader, the historicals of my youth are, in retrospect, very slightly wince-inducing. Violet eyes! Sixteen-year-old virgin heroines with improbably located hymens/no hymen due to an anachronistic fondness for riding astride! Masterful manly dudes with magic manly parts capable of bestowing multiple orgasms on said virgin heroines! Frequent use of the term “hoyden”! I wish I could say that, … Continue reading Duke of Sin by Elizabeth Hoyt →
I had a hard time getting into Her Every Wish, and I know that it’s not about HEW, it’s about me. We all have tropes we dislike—also attitudes, characters, and tone. None of these things was a major issue, yet some shade of each made the novella a slog for me at times, particularly in the opening chapters. Needless to say, my reaction made grading problematic as well. I really love Courtney Milan’s writing. Her … Continue reading Her Every Wish by Courtney Milan →
OH MY FLIM-FLAMMING-FLIPPING-FLOPPING-FRICKING-FRACKING GOD! I got 99 fangirl emotions right now and 0 chill, because daaaaamn this book was a firecracker of fun! On the surface it ain’t nothing new; girl meets boy, boy needs to arrest girl, girl & boy have pants-feelings that lead to heart-boners that result in all the things. Mr Shady-As-Fuck orphanage owner hires our swoony-pants hero, Thomas, to catch a bad guy. The thing is though, the bad guy ain’t … Continue reading How I Married a Marquess by Anna Harrington →
Susana and the Scot is utterly adequate. It has a beginning, middle and end. I finished it last night and had to go back and look at the book this morning to remember the hero’s name (it’s Andrew). The writing is perfectly acceptable, even if it does stray into purplish prose on occasion. The plot is relatively easy to remember because there were few surprises. This is a second book in a series, although it … Continue reading Susana and the Scot by Sabrina York →
The Highlander is a wackadoodle crazysauce “historical” romance. You can totally judge this book by its cover, which features a kilt, a partially unbuttoned shirt, a dress from the antebellum South, and the kind of sunset you only get after nuclear weapons have been discharged. I loved it to bits. The book has an extremely high squick factor, especially in the first two chapters. The prologue involves a disposable sex worker being disposed of. (Hello, … Continue reading The Highlander by Kerrigan Byrne →
Wanted: A Gentleman is a pure delight. It is a m/m Regency historical in which one of the two heroes is black and of the well-to-do merchant class, while the other hero is a white working class man – a lovely change from the Regency romance norm of rich white people. It manages to be realistic about the backgrounds and hardships of both men while still providing for a happy ending, or at least the … Continue reading Wanted: A Gentleman by K.J. Charles →
The difficulty of playing with the Pygmalion/My Fair Lady trope is that in its original form, it’s inherently mean. Making bets on whether you can change a person to pass for gentry, even if the author is doing it to make fun of the ridiculousness of the British class system, is still making someone the butt of a joke. Happily, Frampton seems to understand this, and made a conscious choice not to make anyone the … Continue reading My Fair Duchess by Megan Frampton →
Two years ago, I reviewed the first book in this series, The Bedding Proposal and mentioned that I was planning on reading the SHIT out of the next book with the sequel hook twin brother. That was some time ago, and then the sequel arrived at my door and reader, I devoured it. Rosamund Carrow is the daughter of a barrister, and the sister of a barrister. She learned legal theory and legal argument at her father’s … Continue reading Bedchamber Games by Tracy Anne Warren →
I really, really like Theresa Romain’s writing. She does this thing with tiny moments and actions that don’t seem significant until later, when after a few pages they become the type of detail that makes me press my hand to my chest, lest my heart be attempting to slide out through my ribs. Words are not wasted, characters are carefully, finely developed, and there’s a buffet of dialogue, too. An all-you-can-read style buffet of dialogue, with layers … Continue reading Passion Favors the Bold by Theresa Romain →
Devil in Spring was so delightful that I read it slowly because I had to take frequent squee breaks. I truly cannot sufficiently express how overjoyed this book made me. That said, I don’t think it will be everyone’s catnip, because the main character sometimes seems overly young and naïve, even given her character quirks (more on those later). Additionally, there is a huge gaping issue that I simply must address AT ONCE. Here’s the … Continue reading Devil in Spring by Lisa Kleypas →
