Genre: Historical: European
Book Review

Marry Me By Midnight by Felicia Grossman

Marry Me By Midnight

I adored this book. What was supposed to be a quick 30 minutes of reading before my day carried on turned into an absolutely lost day. I could not put this book down. Isabelle Lira is a very rich Jewish woman living in Victorian London. She has inherited her father’s portion of a surety business, but her business partners are putting pressure on her to marry, preferably one of them. Isabelle is young, still grieving, … Continue reading Marry Me By Midnight by Felicia Grossman

Book Review

How to Tame a Wild Rogue by Julie Anne Long

How to Tame a Wild Rogue

This book made me swoon IRL. Reading it was a fever dream and not just because of the sex scenes. I was so immersed in it that the real world and its troubles didn’t even occur to me for the duration of the book. (I am anxious by nature, so this is a feat.) Lorcan St Leger had a rough start in life in St Giles, but through illegal (and now legal) means, he has … Continue reading How to Tame a Wild Rogue by Julie Anne Long

Lightning Review

Death in Soho by Emily Organ

Death in Soho

This was an excellent airplane book. I found it on Kindle Unlimited in the airport, and read it on a two hour flight. It held my attention, but was light enough that I could read quickly and not feel like I was taxing my tired brain. There is a lot of dialogue and in just about any other circumstance that would make me very happy. I love dialogue. But the characters do a lot of … Continue reading Death in Soho by Emily Organ

Book Review

A Most Agreeable Murder by Julia Seales

A Most Agreeable Murder

I mentioned this book in a recent edition of Whatcha Reading? and said, I have started A Most Agreeable Murder and it is extremely silly and absurd and I’m turning pages. Or pressing a button to do so, whatever. There are glowing, I presume bioluminescent, frogs. Their glowy slime is likely used for face cream to create a similarly glowy complexion. These frogs are unique to the town and make a lot of noise. I … Continue reading A Most Agreeable Murder by Julia Seales

Lightning Review

A Dreadful Splendour by B.R. Myers

A Dreadful Splendor

Sometimes a blurb is so horribly misleading that it does a book a disservice. Certainly the blurb for this book is unhelpful at best. By describing things as ‘ghoulishly fun’ and ‘wickedly whimsical’, it’s clear that the person who wrote the blurb did not, in fact, read the book. There was no ‘whimsical fun’ for me in this book. But there was a lot of absolute brilliance though. This Gothic tale feels fresh and real … Continue reading A Dreadful Splendour by B.R. Myers

Lightning Review

The Belle of Belgrave Square by Mimi Matthews

The Belle of Belgrave Square

You know, I love a series that’s connected enough to be rewarding, but separate enough to be dipped into at any point. I did not enjoy the first book in Mimi Matthews’ Belles of London series, but I decided to give book 2 a try and I’m so glad that I did. As with so many of my reading kinks, they are so different from my real life preferences in human companionship. And as it … Continue reading The Belle of Belgrave Square by Mimi Matthews

Lightning Review

Spear by Nicola Griffith

Spear

While I wouldn’t call Spear a romance novel specifically, it is an amazing, detailed historical novel that includes a f/f romance. This book retells the Percival legend from the King Arthur mythos as a feminist queer fantasy story set in sixth-century Britain with elements of Welsh mythology. Nicola Griffith is known for her meticulous research, as seen in her novel Hild as well as in this story. This research lends Spear a grounded feel that … Continue reading Spear by Nicola Griffith

Lightning Review

Hither, Page by Cat Sebastian

Hither Page

I started reading Hither, Page, finished it too quickly, immediately hunted down the sequel, The Missing Page, and read that too quickly as well. One tagline I’ve seen reads, “​​cozy mystery like Agatha Christie but make it gay.” It’s not so cozy that the dead have about as much impact as a dissolving dead NPC in a video game; the cozy has sharp edges. For example, there’s the bucolic setting, but around the borders are … Continue reading Hither, Page by Cat Sebastian

Book Review

A Most Unusual Duke by Susanna Allen

A Most Unusual Duke

You know how sometimes you pick up a book because it looks like fun, and then it turns out to be clever and funny and tender and tropey and still somehow unique, and you read it all in one sitting and hop straight onto the Kobo site after midnight to order the previous book in the series? Yeah, that was A Most Unusual Duke for me. This story worked so, so well for me. It’s … Continue reading A Most Unusual Duke by Susanna Allen

Book Review

After Dark with the Duke by Julie Anne Long

After Dark with the Duke

CW: discussions of sexual harrassment and an instance of non-graphic sexual assault. Friends, I stayed up all night reading this book. And this was no ordinary night…I had just had surgery (with great results!) but the after effects of anesthesia (which usually leaves me super sleepy) were powerless in the face of this tremendous romance. Two foolish peers have fought a duel over an opera singer. The outcome? The object of the duel, our rising-star … Continue reading After Dark with the Duke by Julie Anne Long

Book Review

The Duke Who Loved Me by Jane Ashford

The Duke Who Loved Me

The Duke Who Loved Me is a friends to lovers romance between James Cantrell, the new Duke of Tereford, and Miss Cecelia Vainsmede, the daughter of the man who acted as his guardian during his minority. It has some fun and interesting things going on in the background to the story, but it missed the mark for me for two reasons. The first was James’s insufferable self-centredness, and the second was the failure to resolve … Continue reading The Duke Who Loved Me by Jane Ashford

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