I could practically hear Luisa’s song from Encanto (Surface Pressure) playing in my head as I read this book about an older sister who shoulders all of her family’s burdens. Mercy Kittinger raised her younger sister, Grace, after their mother’s death fifteen years ago. She’s managed the family farm, the household staff, and kept her family afloat even though that job was supposed to fall to her older brother, Bede. Bede is more interested in … Continue reading The Rake Gets Ravished by Sophie Jordan→
Someone Perfect is a slow burn, slowly paced romance that offers a highly emotional secondary conflict. Aside from the plethora of secondary characters who I couldn’t always keep track of, I really enjoyed this book, but you definitely need to be in the mood for a romance that takes time to build. Justin Wiley assumed the role of Earl of Brandon six years ago. In that time his stepsister, Maria, has been living at one … Continue reading Someone Perfect by Mary Balogh→
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→
The Wrong Marquess is a Regency-set romance between sought-after bachelor Brandon, the Marquess of Hullworth, and Elodie Parrish, a 25-year old spinster who is waiting for her childhood friend, George, to propose to her. While the story managed to use some of my least favourite tropes in some very clever ways, it also contained an incredibly frustrating love triangle that extended so far into the book that I really questioned Elodie’s judgment. Brandon is the … Continue reading The Wrong Marquess by Vivienne Lorret→
Content warning: Kidnapping, rape, violence against women. All off-screen, but you do see the results of it. Also, the heroine’s past contains, essentially, forced seduction by someone to whom she went for help. Earl’s Well that Ends Well is a romance with a fair bit of adventure and melodrama – it reminds me a little of some of Heyer’s early works in both good and frustrating ways. I liked the fact that both Arthur and … Continue reading Earl’s Well That Ends Well by Jane Ashford→
The Virgin and the Rogue is the sequel to The Duke’s Stolen Bride, a book I enjoyed immensely. Unfortunately I had a few issues with this novel, in part because the hero and heroine don’t spend as much of the book together as I would expect, and also because I doubted the heroine’s ability to consent the first time she engages in sexual activity with the hero. Charlotte Langely has spent her entire life making … Continue reading The Virgin and the Rogue by Sophie Jordan→
Who’s That Earl is a light, fun, Regency romance that felt like snuggling down under a warm blanket. It is gleefully tropey. Jane Quayle, cast out by her family, makes her living writing wickedly erotic novels under a pseudonym. As if one pseudonym wasn’t enough, she also pretends to be her own secretary under a second pseudonym. She does all of this in a neglected Scottish castle in the company of two neurotic dogs and … Continue reading Who’s That Earl by Susanna Craig→
I love a good heist story: Ocean’s Eleven, Ocean’s 8, (we’re pretending the other Oceans in between don’t exist), The Italian Job, the TV show The Catch, all of them are my catnip. It’s no wonder I absolutely loved To Catch an Earl since it’s a love story about a thief and the man charged with catching her. It’s a heist story, and a game of cat and mouse all in one. It’s just wonderfully, … Continue reading To Catch an Earl by Kate Bateman→
Content Warning: Child abuse, sexual abuse, attempted suicide, torture (all off the page) Every moment of this book made me feel better. I’m in an ocean of chaos at the moment (as many of us are*) and this book was the door to which I clung in these frigid waters. Did it magically solve my problems? No. But as with all the best escapist fiction, it made me feel like things would be okay again … Continue reading Two Rogues Make a Right by Cat Sebastian→
In Chasing Cassandra, the sixth book in the Ravenels series, railway magnate Tom Severin finally gets his turn to be the hero. I have been hoping for a book about Tom since he was introduced in the first book in the Ravenels series. After all, I love to read about a Sad Historical Businessman brought low by love! Unfortunately, while I enjoyed this book, it also pained me because I felt like it could have … Continue reading Chasing Cassandra by Lisa Kleypas→
Romancelandia is awash in dukes behaving badly, and the hero in Never Kiss a Duke by Megan Frampton, Sebastian de Silva, was a wonderful departure from that trope. Sebastian handles conflict with maturity and faces adversity with a sense of positivity. It was such a relief to see a duke wearing his grownup breeches for once. Even with a hero I adored, the conflict fizzled at the end and I struggled with the heroine, affecting … Continue reading Never Kiss a Duke by Megan Frampton→
Content warning: Attempted rape Much Ado About A Widow starts with Georgie, two years widowed, returning to her father’s house to marry a man she loathes on pain of being disowned. On the way, she is kidnapped by unsavoury persons; she escapes them only to collide with Robin, Lord St Just, a friend of her brother’s, who rescues her… by kidnapping her again, this time onto his boat. To do him justice, this is probably … Continue reading Much Ado About A Widow by Jenna Jaxon→
