A Midnight Dance by Lila DiPasqua is complete ridonkadonk historical crazy sauce. The cover and title suggest that it’s a Cinderella story, but I’m not sure it really qualifies. The story takes place after The Fronde in France. The heroine, Sabine Laurent, is suffering: her father (a once successful playwright/ theater owner) is dead, her sister is missing, the theater is gone, and she owes more in taxes than she can ever hope to pay. … Continue reading A Midnight Dance by Lila DiPasqua →
I’ll read any Beauty and The Beast themed book; y’all know that. And this one had promise- Bella is the daughter of a archeologist-adventurer, and Miles is a duke that’s turned his back on the world because ~reasons~ and spends all his time and energy with his house full of precious Egyptian artifacts. With the help of a fairy godmother of sorts and some magic shoes, will Bella melt his heart? I have not read … Continue reading Bella and the Beast by Olivia Drake →
Confession time: I have never read a Lorraine Heath book until Falling Into Bed With a Duke. Clearly this was a mistake on my part. When I picked up this book, I wanted something that would pull me out of crappy day and the dead mouse smell that we couldn’t pinpoint in the office. So I took this book to the coffee shop, grabbed a cup of English breakfast, and proceeded to get lost in the … Continue reading Falling Into Bed With a Duke by Lorraine Heath →
Everybody calm down. Calm down. I know you’re all losing your shit because Lisa Kleypas released her first historical in five years. My shit, too, has been lost. I am here to answer all your questions, which I suspect are: Is it good? Yes, it is very, very good. I stayed up all night reading it even though I was so tired that I’d been craving sleep all day the way an addict craves heroin. When I … Continue reading Cold-Hearted Rake by Lisa Kleypas →
Zoe Archer has been one of my favorite authors since that one time she basically saved my sanity (even if she was also the indirect cause of one of the worst reading experiences of my life). No matter what, I can always count on her for strong, determined heroines with all sorts of agency, and heroes that also were strong and worthy and respectful of the women that chose them. While I like the adventure … Continue reading Forever Your Earl by Eva Leigh →
I love Elizabeth Hoyt. Everything she writes is Elyse Crack. True story, at RT, I showed up at the awards after-party in my pajamas just to have her sign my book and fangirl at her for awhile. I even snagged a glass of champagne from a waiter who was deeply confused as to why I was attending in my PJ bottoms, space cat tee shirt, and no bra. I am from Smart Bitches, sir. This … Continue reading Dearest Rogue by Elizabeth Hoyt →
I read A Lady’s Guide to Skirting Scandal at the dentist while waiting for two fillings. I’m horribly phobic about the dentist so when I say that this story was comforting, it’s high praise indeed. It’s too rushed to go down in literary history as the best story ever, but if you need a quick comfort read you can’t possibly do better than this tale of a social climber who falls madly and inconveniently in … Continue reading Lady’s Guide to Skirting Scandal by Kelly Bowen →
Remember back back back in May when we were all at RT and on the podcast we talked about this book we scored at the Rodeo and we all said that it was basically a shot of pure crack and it was basically the best thing ever? Yeah, you can get this delightful catnip crackalicious angst fest for your very own now! In the 1850s, in Scotland, a small orphan boy, Dougan Mackenzie, meets a small orphan … Continue reading The Highwayman by Kerrigan Byrne →
This is a biased review in the sense that this book appears to have been written specifically for me. Seriously. Look at the title page under a microscope, and you’ll find, “Written specifically for CarrieS” in tiny aquamarine-colored cursive metallic type. A Week to be Wicked is one of Tessa Dare’s “Spindle Cove” books. In this Regency romance, Minerva needs a favor – she needs Colin Sandhurst, AKA Lord Payne, to fake an elopement with … Continue reading A Week To Be Wicked by Tessa Dare →
So a friend of mine on Twitter read Season for Scandal upon my recommendation and FLIPPED OUT (well, for her she flipped out) and put it on her “Wow” shelf on GoodReads. I, being a nosy sort, wanted to know what else was on that shelf, and happily seeing it didn’t require me to remember my GR password (seriously I have no idea what it is), I had a look. Anyway, one of the eight books on … Continue reading Delicious by Sherry Thomas →
Miss Austen Regrets is a BBC movie about the last years of Jane Austen’s life. It’s beautifully cast, with wonderful dialogue, much of which comes straight from Jane Austen herself, and Olivia Williams is a fantastic Jane – very human, funny, smart, and fun loving. But the movie tries to do three things at once. It tries to show the consequences for a woman of Austen’s time being single, it tries to show Jane as a … Continue reading Movie Review: Miss Austen Regrets →
