Genre: Historical: Other
Book Review

The Lotus Palace by Jeannie Lin

The Lotus Palace

The Lotus Palace is a historical romance/mystery set in Tang Dynasty China. It is the first in the short but fantastic Pingkang Li Mysteries Series. I adore the setting, the characters, and the delicate way that the issue of consent is handled given the many forms of inequality within the society in which our characters live. This is a slow-paced book, but one that allows a relationship to mature over time in a believable way … Continue reading The Lotus Palace by Jeannie Lin

Book Review

Her Royal Spyness by Rhys Bowen

Her Royal Spyness

This review is for both the narrative and the audiobook performance of Her Royal Spyness. I’m continuing my streak of listening to historical mysteries while I walk the dogs each day, and I’m switching between series so I don’t burn out on the patterns and familiarity of a particular author or character. Her Royal Spyness was recommended to me most vociferously after Amanda’s and my recent podcast (episode 292) about audiobooks when I asked for advice … Continue reading Her Royal Spyness by Rhys Bowen

Book Review

My Lady’s Choosing by Kitty Curran and Larissa Zageris

My Lady’s Choosing

My Lady’s Choosing: An Interactive Romance Novel is silly fun. If you are in the right mood for it, this Choose-Your-Own-Adventure-style romance is addictive. It’s an affectionate parody of historical romance with pen and ink illustrations and a tendency towards intentionally terrible similes and metaphors that are deployed during sex scenes in such a way to inspire many a spit take. In this book: You are you. The plucky, penniless, Regency-era London version. For a lass … Continue reading My Lady’s Choosing by Kitty Curran and Larissa Zageris

Book Review

The Hanover Square Affair by Ashley Gardner

The Hanover Square Affair

This review is for both the narrative and the audiobook of The Hanover Square Affair. I listened to this book after learning about the series during our SBTB Book Club Chat for Death Below Stairs, also by Jennifer Ashley/Ashley Gardner. This is the first book in the Captain Lacey mystery series: Captain Lacey is living a pale, uncertain existence following the Napoleonic wars. He’s not financially doing well, he suffers from depression and from the pain of … Continue reading The Hanover Square Affair by Ashley Gardner

Book Review

Starlight by Carrie Lofty

Starlight

Starlight by Carrie Lofty, is full of CarrieS bait. The hero is an astronomy teacher. The heroine is a union leader in a mill. The novel is set in Glasgow in 1880, and it manages to present the possibility of a mill being run fairly without glamorizing what was grueling work under even ideal conditions. The biggest problem with the story is that the protagonists are so much at odds that it’s hard to believe in … Continue reading Starlight by Carrie Lofty

Book Review

Listen to the Moon by Rose Lerner

Listen to the Moon

Listen to the Moon (Book 3 in the Lively St. Lemeston series) is a romance between two servants – a rare find in historicals. In real life, Regency Era servants had incredibly exhausting lives, but many of them still found time to court each other, marry, and have families. This book gives a happy ending to a maid and an unemployed valet. Regency romances are full of people marrying against the will of their parents … Continue reading Listen to the Moon by Rose Lerner

Lightning Review

By the Currawong’s Call by Welton B. Marsland

By the Currawong’s Call

I so very much wanted to like this book, and am so very disappointed that I did not. The setting – very rural Victoria, Australia, in the 1890s – was fascinating, and I think the initial chapters do a marvelous job of not only introducing the characters but also the place. The descriptions of the trees, the birds, the desolation and the beauty of the landscape surrounding the main characters were absorbing in a way … Continue reading By the Currawong’s Call by Welton B. Marsland

Book Review

City of Lies by Victoria Thompson

City of Lies

Content warning for this book: threats of rape and scenes of brutality that include forced feeding and assault, with a side order of legal manipulation and cruelty that seems crushingly too familiar. This is a difficult book for me to review. There were a number of things that frustrated me, the development of the characters is very uneven, and to me, there didn’t seem to be a whole lot of mystery. The marketing and cover … Continue reading City of Lies by Victoria Thompson

Book Review

Highland Dragon Warrior by Isabel Cooper

Highland Dragon Warrior

This series was recommended by so many people on Twitter and in my inbox, I grabbed it immediately and skipped it to the top of my TBR spreadsheet. This was a good decision on my part. Cathal MacAlasdair is running his family’s castle in remote Scotland, though he’s much better suited to running around doing soldiery things. He’s also a dragon shifter, something the people who live in his castle know about, but not a … Continue reading Highland Dragon Warrior by Isabel Cooper

Book Review

Last Christmas in Paris by Hazel Gaynor and Heather Webb

Last Christmas in Paris

Mild trigger warning for deeply negative, damaging descriptions of mental illness common during WWI. I love epistolary novels, especially those with a solid thread of romance, so Last Christmas in Paris was a hefty dose of my catnip. While I was entirely absorbed by this novel when I was reading it, I found the ending and the finale of the emotional journey way too rushed, and not as finely wrought as the first 85% of … Continue reading Last Christmas in Paris by Hazel Gaynor and Heather Webb

Book Review

A Conspiracy in Belgravia by Sherry Thomas

A Conspiracy in Belgravia

I was so absorbed in this novel, I read it in one long, very lovely day, the kind of weekend day where you look back with a sort of awed gratitude that you spent most of the daylight hours reading happily. Everything that I found so enthralling about the first book in this series, A Study in Scarlet Women, I found here: layers of meaning, thoughtful scenes and pieces of dialogue, multi-faceted examinations of simple but … Continue reading A Conspiracy in Belgravia by Sherry Thomas

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