The Ice Swan is a slow-burn and rather tender romance about two people building a relationship after their worlds have crumbled around them. It is set in the Russian emigré community in Paris during the final months of the Great War, and then in rural Scotland in the War’s aftermath, and it manages to be both angsty and gentle. I thoroughly enjoyed it. Princess Svetlana Dalsky fled the Bolshevik uprising in Russia with her mother … Continue reading The Ice Swan by J’nell Ciesielski →
TW: Sexual assault Joanna Shupe is one of my auto-buy authors, so I was bummed when The Heiress Hunt fell flat for me. This first book in her Fifth Avenue Rebels series promised a friends-to-lovers romance, which I adore, but the hero’s inability to grow or change left me lukewarm at the end. Harrison Archer is the second son to a tycoon and grew up in a pretty awful household. While his older brother, Teddy, … Continue reading The Heiress Hunt by Joanna Shupe →
An Inconvenient Marriage by Susanna Malcolm is a Regency marriage of convenience novel, which is normally my jam. Unfortunately the hero spends so much time with his head up his own ass that I can only assume it would take a team of highly trained medical professionals to get it back out again (Paging Dr. Nips, Dr. Nips to Proctology….). Honora Botham is an heiress of no small fortune, which means she can marry pretty much … Continue reading An Inconvenient Match by Susanna Malcolm →
In terms of books that I sneak off to the bathroom to read, this one was “a normal amount of hydrating” and not “over hydrating” book. This story has a marriage of convenience between a heroine whose family has a ridiculous amount of money that’s so new it still has that new-money smell, and a hero from an ancient and respected family with no money. Kate wants to get away from her social climbing parents, … Continue reading The Bride Takes a Groom by Lisa Berne →
The Princess Trap by Talia Hibbert made me feel really good. It was the read I needed for a crappy day and it went down like a hot cup of tea followed by a cookie. The pacing was a little off at the end, but my appreciation for an emotionally-fluent hero let me overlook that. Also the heroine wears a Dolly Parton tee shirt to bed and fuck yea, Dolly Parton. I do want to add … Continue reading The Princess Trap by Talia Hibbert →
Tempest by Beverly Jenkins is a mail order bride historical romance that’s light on internal conflict but heavy on awesome heroines and world-building. If you want a romance that doesn’t have a ton of emotional angst, but does have a heroine who accidentally (kind of) shoots her intended the first time she meets him, this is all your catnip. It’s also the third book in the Old West series, but can easily be read as a … Continue reading Tempest by Beverly Jenkins →
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 →
Edited 14 December 2017: This review has been revised and the grade has been changed. Please see note at the bottom of this review for amended grade information. This week, while hanging out with the residents of my local cat café, I read my first Joanna Shupe historical. Shupe is known for writing American historicals set in the Gilded Age, and the first book of The Four Hundred Series, A Daring Arrangement, sticks to that theme. … Continue reading A Daring Arrangement by Joanna Shupe →
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 →
NB: Welcome to Flashback Friday! If you didn’t catch it, Carrie had a disappointing experience reading Mary Balogh’s latest release, Someone to Love, due to racist stereotypes. But, if you’re hoping to read Balogh without DNF-ing, Elyse wrote a glowing review of Only a Promise. This review was originally published June 10, 2015. Only a Promise was the first book I read by Mary Balogh, and I rectified that situation pretty damn quick. It was so so amazingly good that … Continue reading Only a Promise by Mary Balogh →
I think we all know by now that I’m a big Eloisa James fangirl. I finished Four Nights with the Duke in a single sitting, and while it’s not her best book, it enjoyed it immensely. The thing I really loved about this book is that it’s happening in layers. The heroine writes over-the-top gothic romance under a pen name, and so this book is a romance novel that tackles the stigma on romance novels. It’s … Continue reading Four Nights with the Duke by Eloisa James →
