Tag Archives: Victorian Era
Lightning Review

Shadow of the Swan by Nicola M. Cameron

Shadow of the Swan

Hoo boy, was this book a mixed bag. Here are my main takeaways for potential readers, sorted into the good, the bad, and the meh: The good: The premise and world-building are intriguing and fun once things get going, and the third-act action is genuinely a nail-biter (after an otherwise slow-ish plot). There are several very engaging lady secondary characters of supernatural origin. Also, most of the major secondary characters are queer. Finally, I love … Continue reading Shadow of the Swan by Nicola M. Cameron

Book Review

The Duke Undone by Joanna Lowell

The Duke Undone

I seem to be on a bit of a roll reading romances between noble dukes and heroines who are impoverished commoners. The Duke Undone took this trope to some clever (and unexpectedly gothic) places. I enjoyed it quite a bit until the last quarter of the book, when the tone shifted substantially. Lucy Coover is a talented and aspiring artist, but as a woman, she is forbidden access to life drawing classes. So when she … Continue reading The Duke Undone by Joanna Lowell

Book Review

A Lady’s Formula for Love by Elizabeth Everett

A Lady’s Formula for Love

Content warning: Discussion of a trans character who isn’t treated very well by the narrative. A Lady’s Formula for Love is a story about love, politics, science and the frustrations and difficulties of being a woman in 1840s England. It’s also a story about second chances, and reclaiming yourself after years of needing to be – or believing yourself to be – someone else. Perhaps most of all, it’s a story about claiming the right … Continue reading A Lady’s Formula for Love by Elizabeth Everett

Book Review

Ten Things I Hate About The Duke by Loretta Chase

Ten Things I Hate About the Duke

Ten Things I Hate About You is one of my favourite films and a truly great reimagining of a classic play. It takes Shakespeare’s Taming of the Shrew and strips out the misogyny, the violence, and the straight up gaslighting and abuse, while keeping the banter and the chemistry between Kate and Petrucchio. Ten Things I Hate About the Duke takes Shrew in one hand and Ten Things in the other, stirs them together, adds … Continue reading Ten Things I Hate About The Duke by Loretta Chase

Book Review

A Convenient Fiction by Mimi Matthews

A Convenient Fiction

It’s meet-disaster for Laura Hayes and Alex Archer: Fascinated by water, Laura is at the local pond practicing her diving skills. Alex thinks she’s drowning and tries to “save” her, much to her indignation. Little does Laura know that wading into the pond to save her was an act of sheer courage on Alex’s part, connected to a past he’d rather forget. A Convenient Fiction is the third book in the author’s Parish Orphans of … Continue reading A Convenient Fiction by Mimi Matthews

Book Review

A Holiday by Gaslight by Mimi Matthews

A Holiday by Gaslight

Sophie Appersett is engaged to Edward (Ned) Sharpe. She’s the daughter of a baron; he’s a very wealthy merchant, and their alliance is built over a massive class chasm, one that she’s trying to cross with continued conversation, while he remains silent and withdrawn in all of their outings together. Sophie decides she’s not willing to continue the engagement because they don’t suit. She wants more for herself, and from his behavior she’s pretty sure … Continue reading A Holiday by Gaslight by Mimi Matthews

Book Review

Victorian Ghost Stories By Eminent Women Writers: Edited by Richard Dalby

Victorian Ghost Stories by Eminent Women Writers

Victorian Ghost Stories by Eminent Women Writers is an anthology that contains twenty-one stories of crypts, brain fevers, meditations on the meaning of God, enormous crumbling houses, obsessive artists, creepy children, and moors. So, you know, pretty much everything I cherish in life. While most of the stories were published firmly within the Victorian Era, a few were published just before or just after it. As is, unfortunately, often the case with older books, I … Continue reading Victorian Ghost Stories By Eminent Women Writers: Edited by Richard Dalby

Book Review

Carmilla by Joseph Sheridan Le Fanu

Carmilla

Carmilla is an early vampire novel (it heavily influenced Dracula, which was written twenty-six years later). More specifically, it is Victorian Lesbian Vampire Erotica. People who think the Victorians were prudes clearly haven’t read Carmilla, in which a lesbian vampire seduces her victim night after night and day after day with “languid” movements and many “caresses.” To be honest, I pretty much just summed up the plot for you in the paragraph above. The narrator, Laura, is … Continue reading Carmilla by Joseph Sheridan Le Fanu

Book Review

Falling Into Bed With a Duke by Lorraine Heath

Falling into Bed with a Duke

Confession time: I have never read a Lorraine Heath book until Falling Into Bed With a Duke. Clearly this was a mistake on my part. When I picked up this book, I wanted something that would pull me out of crappy day and the dead mouse smell that we couldn’t pinpoint in the office. So I took this book to the coffee shop, grabbed a cup of English breakfast, and proceeded to get lost in the … Continue reading Falling Into Bed With a Duke by Lorraine Heath