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 →
I came close to crying more than once when reading A Delicate Deception. Sometimes I think of myself as a jaded reader; many books entertain me, but few impress me, and even fewer really move me. But then I read a book like this one and it turns me into a giant mush-ball and I think maybe my book-reading heart and brain are not so hardened as all that. A Delicate Deception is about Amelia … Continue reading A Delicate Deception by Cat Sebastian →
This book is kind of a weird read. I don’t mean that in a bad way. I think I mean it in a good way? It’s mostly charmingly bizarre. This book puts a lot of plates spinning in the air, and while some of them end up crashing to the ground and breaking, the show is fun while it lasts. The basic premise is that Grace and Sebastian are two scholarly nerds who are friends. … Continue reading My Fake Rake by Eva Leigh →
The Beast of Beswick is what you get when you put Beauty and the Beast and The Taming of the Shrew into a blender with a whole lot of feminism and drink the results. The heroine, Astrid, is beautiful, bookish and prickly; full of feminist rage; and determined to protect her sweet, pretty, but surprisingly shrewd younger sister, Isobel. The hero, Thane, is horribly scarred; very brooding and moody; and rather inclined to embrace the … Continue reading The Beast of Beswick by Amalie Howard →
Content warning: Heroine has history of torture, attempted rape, traumatic death of parents. None of this is described in detail, but it is there, and I do discuss it in the review I picked up the ARC of A Lady’s Past purely based on the cover, which really is a thing of beauty, somewhere between impressionist and pre-Raphaelite. It is the fourth book in the Everton Domestic Society series, but it stands alone reasonably well. … Continue reading A Lady’s Past by A.S. Fenichel →
Marry in Secret is the third book in Anne Gracie’s Marriage of Convenience series. The series follows the Rutherford family, and this is the story of Rose, the eldest sister. This novel works as a standalone, but it’s definitely better read in context – Gracie writes lovely, complex webs of characters and families, and it’s a shame to miss out on that. In the prior books, Rose has been characterised as beautiful, very headstrong, and … Continue reading Marry in Secret by Anne Gracie →
I am not in the mood for Christmas yet. Generally speaking, I’m not in the mood for Christmas on December 23rd even, but mid-fall is WAY too early. That said, my brain has been pretty tired lately and some Regency novellas sounded like the perfect way to unwind without investing in a full length novel. Since How the Duke Stole Christmas includes novellas by some of my favorite authors, I was willing to set aside … Continue reading How the Dukes Stole Christmas by Tessa Dare, Sarah MacLean, Sophie Jordan and Joanna Shupe →
A Lily Among Thorns is a standalone Regency romance from Rose Lerner following Solomon Hathaway, a chemist and fabric dyer, and Lady Serena Ravenshaw, a former sex worker who’s now a hotel owner and terror to all who cross her. Many years ago, he gave her the money she needed to start a new life, and now he’s come to seek her help in finding stolen family heirlooms. Unfortunately, he’s arrived during one of the worst … Continue reading A Lily Among Thorns by Rose Lerner →
This book was like a warm hug. The characters were people I would love to know in real life, the relationships (romantic and otherwise) were tender, and gentle emotional healing was a major theme. In other words, my crops are watered, my skin is clear, my checkbook is balanced, etc., etc., etc. Let us start with our protagonists, Verity and Ash, who felt very real and immediate. Verity is clever, ambitious, and practical, and these … Continue reading A Duke in Disguise by Cat Sebastian →
