CW/TW: domestic violence, violence against sex workers, depression, child neglect, and of course, murder, since it’s a murder mystery. I mentioned in my review for Murder on Astor Place, book one in the Gaslight Mystery series, that I tapped out after this book. In this installment, Sarah Brandt is called to what she thinks is a birth, but turns out to be a call to help Agnes, a pregnant mother whose younger sister, Gerda, has just … Continue reading Murder on St. Mark’s Place by Victoria Thompson →
CW/TW: in this book there is child assault, child sexual assault, incest, murder, more murder, and history of sexual assault revealed but not depicted on the page. I described the plot of this book to Elyse, and she, who reads all kinds of things that would scare me sleepless, said, “Holy mother of god. That is a PLOT.” Oh, yes. Yes, it is. Now, I can hear you thinking, “Sarah. Whoa. Why did you read this?” … Continue reading Murder on Astor Place by Victoria Thompson →
The Lady’s Guide To Petticoats and Piracy is so much fun. It’s a sequel to The Gentleman’s Guide to Vice and Virtue but it works on its own. The Gentleman’s Guide to Vice and Virtue was an adventure story as well as a romance. The Lady’s Guide To Petticoats and Piracy keeps the adventure but is not a romance, although romance is discussed. Set in the mid-1700s, it features Felicity Montague, who wants to be a … Continue reading The Lady’s Guide To Petticoats and Piracy by Mackenzi Lee →
The sinking of the RMS Lusitania might not sound like a great setting for a sweeping historical adventure and romance, but I cut my young romance-loving teeth on the Titanic movie, and I am here to challenge your shipwreck tragedy notions. As historical fiction The Glass Ocean works beautifully. It had espionage, intrigue, a love-triangle and a truly horrifying talent show. That said, my romance-reader heart wasn’t entirely satisfied with how the romance played out, and craved a … Continue reading The Glass Ocean by Beatriz Williams, Lauren Willig and Karen White →
Oh, boy. This book wrecked me, from giving me twitchy tense reading in the beginning to requiring that I ignore everything around me and read in a parking lot so I could finish it at the end. First, yes, you should read the prior two books in the series, A Study in Scarlet Women , and A Conspiracy in Belgravia . It might be possible to drop into book three and follow the majority of the story, but the slow … Continue reading The Hollow of Fear by Sherry Thomas →
CW/TW for rape, coercion, child abuse, child murder, and general horribleness of Nazis and WWII. The Paris Seamstress is told in parallel storylines between two women, Estella and her granddaughter Fabienne. Estella escapes Paris prior to the Nazi invasion, bringing with her a sewing machine and not much else. She arrives in New York having newly learned that she is a dual citizen of France and the US because her father was American – but … Continue reading The Paris Seamstress by Natasha Lester →
Sarah and I both read and enjoyed The Phantom Tree by Nicola Cornick, which is interesting as our reading tastes are fairly divergent. I finished the book in one day, and I was super excited to talk to her about it later. Sarah: I finished it in a day and a half and shamelessly bothered Elyse for a week or more to ask if she’d read it yet, had she? Huh? Had she read it? (FINALLY SHE … Continue reading The Phantom Tree by Nicola Cornick →
There’s such a wonderful feeling in discovering a new author that works for you and realizing they have this whole backlist to dive into. It’s like when you treat yourself to a fancy coffee on a frigid day and the first blast of heat and caffeine and sugar hits you, and you’re just warm and happy. That happened to me this weekend with Sarah Maine. I picked up Women of the Dunes because it featured an … Continue reading Women of the Dunes by Sarah Maine →
The Mermaid is a lyrical, dream-like story about a mermaid who falls in love with a fisherman and, many decades later, agrees to perform in P.T. Barnum’s Museum in New York City. Although this is not a romance novel, there are two love stories in the book, and I enjoyed the differences between them. I also enjoyed the relationships between women and the use of different settings to create atmospheres of claustrophobia versus expansiveness. The … Continue reading The Mermaid by Christina Henry →
The Unconventional Governess is a funny, touching Regency romance. Set in England in 1814, it involves a woman who wants to be a doctor and a man who finds himself with an estate to run, a niece to raise, and a case of epilepsy to manage. The book is short, the emotions feel true, and the characters are lovely. Our heroine, Henrietta, is an orphan. Her uncle, a doctor, raised her and he took her … Continue reading The Unconventional Governess by Jessica Nelson →
This book moves very quickly, and while a lot happens, the plot doesn’t venture too deeply in any one direction: not into the history, not into the setting, not into the characters’ motivations. I dove into this book because it was about a Dutch widow in 1654 who travels from her very small hometown to Delft and becomes a pottery painter. Obviously, that’s exactly like Regency England and every other historical I’ve read. (Ha. Not.) … Continue reading Midnight Blue by Simone van der Vlugt →
