This is a book you can TOTALLY judge by it’s cover. It is exactly as crazysauce as it promises. You got your brooding marquis, you have a deul gone weird, you have a cross-dressing kidnapping plot, you have a Plot Moppet, and SURPRISE PREGNANCY. It’s a classical Old Skool romance. I kind of loved it, even as I was rolling my eyes super hard. We open with Alison, who is dressed as a ragamuffin … Continue reading Silken Chains by Cate Brandt
I have been looking forward to this book for weeks – possibly months – but was a bit hesitant to read it because I loved the last two Dare novels, A Lady by Midnight and Any Duchess Will Do, so much that I was afraid this one wouldn’t measure up. This is a really silly thing to worry about – it’s a book, get on with it – but I was trepidacious. I loved the … Continue reading Review: Romancing the Duke by Tessa Dare
Courtney Milan is a masterful writer who never disappoints. The Countess Conspiracy is not my favorite of her books but I think it will make many romance readers very happy indeed. The plot is this: Sebastian is the kind of rake we find in romance all the time – one who is not a jerk. That is to say: he does not despoil virgins, he does not string his lovers along with emotional promises, and … Continue reading The Countess Conspiracy by Courtney Milan
A few weeks back, Sue emailed me to ask if I'd discovered a wonderful anime called Emma: A Victorian Romance. I hadn't seen it before, so Sue was kind enough to write a guest review of what she loved about it, and what she found troublesome. Sue's examination includes some plot points from the series as a whole, and examines elements of the story that might bug the hell out of you, but also discusses why she … Continue reading Emma: A Victorian Romance – A Guest Review by Sue
It’s hard to believe that Pride and Prejudice is 200 years old this year. P&P is one of the best known romances, and in particular it is to P&P that we owe historical romance’s fantasy with the Regency. Longbourn is a heartbreaking, beautifully written, challenging novel that attempt to show what the Regency might have been like for the servants of the Bennets and the Darcys. Longbourn is a story about the servants who live … Continue reading Longbourn by Jo Baker
Winter’s Heat is a Christmas-themed novella from Zoe Archer, set in the world of her Nemesis Unlimited series in Victorian England. It’s a book that starts off well, but has some strange holes in it. It’s fun if you can turn off your analytical brain – but I could not turn that part of my brain off, so I found it to be frustrating. First of all, I haven’t read the previous book in the … Continue reading Winter’s Heat by Zoe Archer - A Nemesis Unlimited Novella
I received this review via email from Shari, who started reading romance, she tells me, in Dutch translations and now reads them in English. She also says that it's “also kind of fun that I now know more different types of carriages and names of garments than my husband, who is a scholar of Victorian literature.” I have just read 'The Luckiest Lady in London' by Sherry Thomas and as this book not only gave … Continue reading The Luckiest Lady in London by Sherry Thomas: A Guest Review from Shari
The Luckiest Lady in London is a frustrating book, but not because it’s bad. Sherry Thomas is an almost ridiculously good writer. The book is frustrating because the conflict takes over the book. I didn’t feel warm and fuzzy while I was reading it, or when it was over. I felt distressed, and frustrated and worried, and I never did believe the happy ending. Felix, a Marquess, has made himself into a paragon of all … Continue reading The Luckiest Lady in London by Sherry Thomas
I read this book on my way to Arizona last week, and when I arrived, I had lunch with the RWA chapter president, Amylynn Bright. She asked me what I was reading and how I liked it. We're both Julia Quinn fans (Good Book Noise® was made repeatedly) but I found myself describing the book in a way that made it sound as if I didn't like it. I did like it. But when I … Continue reading The Sum of All Kisses by Julia Quinn
At one point in The Sum of All Kisses, our characters eat wedding cake that is frosted with beautiful lavender flowers. This book is like really, really good cake, the kind that is beautiful to look at and delicious to taste and not too sweet and wonderfully filling. I loved every tiny crumb. The Sum of All Kisses is the third book in the Regency period Smythe-Smith quartet. It’s fine as a standalone. I say … Continue reading The Sum of All Kisses, by Julia Quinn
I really thought I might have an F book on my hands when I was reading Lady in Red: A Novel of Mad Passions by Maire Claremont. It may well have been an F book, but I couldn’t push myself past the casual violence it contained to finish it. Basically if you gave Tim Burton the plot for a Victorian romance novel and a bottle of absinthe, you’d have Lady in Red. It’s a dark, … Continue reading Lady in Red by Maire Claremont
