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
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
Bed of Flowers is a historical that has a lot of things going for it: it’s got a loveably grumpy hero, it depicts female friendships, and it features secondary characters of color. I appreciated all of those elements, and I liked the vaguely gothic feel it had. I really, really enjoyed this book, but I have to admit the ending was a little weak. That said, I was willing to overlook it because my experience … Continue reading Bed of Flowers by Erin Satie
Someone to Wed somehow manages to both be a feel-good read and full of emotional catharsis. It hurts so good, you guys. I had all the feelings. So many feelings. Like a number of Balogh’s books, it’s a romance about healing – especially creating the space in which to heal – and that’s a plotline that works so well for me. At the age of twenty-nine, Wren Heyden is firmly on the shelf. Up until … Continue reading Someone to Wed by Mary Balogh
Beauty Like the Night is the first book by Joanna Bourne that I’ve read, but it definitely won’t be the last. (Somewhere, in Scotland, Redheadedgirl just sat up and went “what?” and isn’t sure why). This book was so good. It’s got a bad-ass heroine, a richly developed world, an element of mystery, and a delicious slow-burn romance. For me, hands down, the best part of this story was the heroine, Severine de Cabrillac. She … Continue reading Beauty Like the Night by Joanna Bourne
Before I ever read a romance novel, I devoured Gothics by Phyllis Whitney and Victoria Holt. When I was probably around twelve I found them on a bookshelf in our basement, and I think over the course of one summer I read everything both authors had written. Gothic romances were and are the perfect blend of the creepy and the sexy. Usually set on a crumbling estate, the innocent heroine shows up (sometimes as a … Continue reading His Dark Kiss by Eve Silver
The past month has been kind of rough in terms of the number of books I’ve DNF’d. I’ve put down two brand-new historicals in a week, so while I wasn’t thrilled with The Laird Takes a Bride, I was determined to power through it just to finish something. The problem with The Laird Takes a Bride is that it’s an incredibly uneven novel. The first half of the book is frustrating, and while it improved considerably by … Continue reading The Laird Takes a Bride by Lisa Berne
The Dark Affair is a dark historical that doesn’t involve ballrooms or ratafia, and features themes of addiction and madness. I’d say it’s what would happen if Bellatrix Lestrange started writing a historical romance and then Hermione finished it for her. Margaret Cassidy is a former noblewoman, now impoverished due to the Irish famine. Her parents are dead, her brother has fallen onto the wrong side of the law, and her world is collapsing. When … Continue reading The Dark Affair by Maire Claremont
Stealing the Rogue’s Heart is the fourth book in the Rookery Rogues series. I loved the first book in the series, A Dangerous Invitation super hard. The series is set in London’s East End and follows the lives of people who—gasp!—are not in the aristocracy. I so want more historicals that don’t follow only the upper classes. You don’t have to read the series in order, but a lot of the characters from previous books … Continue reading Stealing the Rogue’s Heart by Erica Monroe
Oh, how I loved The Devil’s Submission. I wished it were longer than just a novella. First of all, it’s one of the few erotic romances, let alone historicals, that I’ve read that features a submissive hero. And this is how that submissive hero is described: “I mean look at you: disheveled, ink-spotted, spectacles…like an absentminded clerk. But you are the coldest of bastards. Reyburn is well rid of you. As is your runaway wife.” … Continue reading The Devil’s Submission by Nicola Davidson
I really, really like Theresa Romain’s writing. She does this thing with tiny moments and actions that don’t seem significant until later, when after a few pages they become the type of detail that makes me press my hand to my chest, lest my heart be attempting to slide out through my ribs. Words are not wasted, characters are carefully, finely developed, and there’s a buffet of dialogue, too. An all-you-can-read style buffet of dialogue, with layers … Continue reading Passion Favors the Bold by Theresa Romain
