Midway through A Lady for a Duke, I started to panic. I was so in love with this historical romance and I worried that something would come along and ruin it. So I sighed with relief at the end of the last page. This book is pretty damn close to perfection, bitches. It works on so many levels. This is an exceptionally satisfying friends to lovers story, a queer fairy tale filled with longing and … Continue reading A Lady for a Duke by Alexis Hall
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 Worst Duke is not deep. It didn’t change my world. However, it does have a pig, a pug, a cat, and a lot of discussion about the many uses of vinegar so color me satisfied. If you like historical romances that are low angst, and made of silly, feel-good fun, you may like this. Anthony Farr, Duke of Radcliffe, had a terrible marriage. His wife died many years ago and his sister, Margaret, wants … Continue reading The Worst Duke in the World by Lisa Berne
Triggers: Minerva is the survivor of an abusive relationship, and while there are no flashbacks, her trauma is well drawn. One character also witnessed/was complicit in a suicide and it’s fairly disturbing to read about. There is also attempted sexual assault of the heroine. Heiress for Hire is, on the face of it, a proper Regency romp. We have two lively and intelligent protagonists, a large quantity of plot, plenty of humour, Dark Secrets, and … Continue reading Heiress for Hire by Madeline Hunter
The Duke’s Stolen Bride by Sophie Jordan is about a young woman who wants to be a courtesan in order to support her siblings and needs a foxy duke to give her sex lessons. It’s not erotic, per say se, although I will say it’s hotter than a fair amount of historicals, and while I felt the hero and heroine had a ton of chemistry, I also thought the book relied too much on external … Continue reading The Duke’s Stolen Bride by Sophie Jordan
Right now my brain is very, very tired. My brain doesn’t want puzzles to solve; it wants a nap, a cat to cuddle, and possibly a glass of wine. Rogue Most Wanted worked really well for my brain-fatigue; it’s a fake-engagement romance that features the heroine being welcomed into a warm and loving family. The black moment and resolution were pretty predictable, but predictable worked for me perfectly in this moment. I already guessed what … Continue reading Rogue Most Wanted by Janna MacGregor
Devil’s Daughter by Lisa Kleypas is the romance novel equivalent of visiting an old friend and immediately feeling cozy and welcomed and nostalgic. It’s got witty dialogue, a self-aware and charming hero, a heroine is who slightly too pure for this world (but not so much as to be irritating), and cameos from Kleypas’s original Wallflowers. It’s not a perfect book; the conflict is weak and inconsistent, but I felt so happy and warm reading … Continue reading Devil’s Daughter by Lisa Kleypas
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
The first book in the Debutante Diaries series felt underwhelming and, at times, aggravating. This Regency engagement-of-convenience story did have elements that could have made it stand out: the heroine proposes to the hero, the heroine is a talented artist, and the hero has a warm, close relationship to his grandmother and values her intelligence and wisdom. Unfortunately all of that is lost to some uneven plotting, a lack of internal conflict, and a dash … Continue reading First Earl I See Tonight by Anna Bennett
How to Forget a Duke is a delightfully tropey Regency featuring a hero who goes from loveable curmudgeon to joyfully in love. It was a lovely departure from some of the truly awful heroes I’ve been encountering lately. So how tropey is it, you ask? We’ve got enemies-to-lovers, forced proximity, matchmaking, and–hell yeah–amnesia. All of it works, and honestly, this romance is just so fun that it made my day. Jacinda Bourne and her sisters … Continue reading How to Forget a Duke by Vivienne Lorret
I read Beyond Scandal and Desire while I was on vacation, and while it may have worked really well for me five years ago, current Elyse is really frustrated with heroes who use the heroine as a device for their revenge. As much as I appreciated other aspects of the novel, my frustration with the overall plotline carried through the whole book. It did, however, teach me about the language of parasols. Lady Aslyn Hastings is … Continue reading Beyond Scandal and Desire by Lorraine Heath
