When I want to be introduced to a writer I’ve never encountered, I like to read anthologies. If the compilation has a story I enjoy by a new author, it’s like an extra cherry on a sundae. Fortunately, that sums up this anthology for me. Most Wanted by DeWanna Pace I’d never read anything by…
As both a former resident of Washington, D.C. and a European Historical enthusiast, I was excited by the contents of Redeeming the Rogue, being set in both London and Washington. Luckily, the book did not disappoint in any respect. Lady Arianne Chambers is a consummate socialite; she is the master of etiquette and polite society,…
When it comes to historical romance, I generally stick to Europe. However, stories like Kissing Comfort remind me why I like to venture into American Historical sometimes. Comfort Kennedy was named after a lozenge. When she was just about five years old, her entire family was massacred while traveling West, and she was the sole…
By the hundredth page, I was cursing myself. Why oh why oh why did I ask for this book? Because it’s an American book set in 1799, that’s why, and they’re pretty rare on the ground. And because it’s Jude Deveraux, the author who wrote one of the biggest and most successful tearjerkers of all…
Most of the present crop of steampunk romances can be divided into two subgroups: Steampunk set in a pseudo-Victorian England and steampunk using the American frontier experience as a backdrop. Badlands belongs to the second group, and the novella’s world-building is clearly one of its strengths. The second is a delectable hero. In this version…
Women have never had it easy when they strike out on their own in a society dominated by men. Titan-haired Lillian who’s saved up her hard-earned money to buy her own store finds this out the hard way, having been shut out of mining towns previously. She isn’t going to make the same mistake in…
Kaki Warner proved how adept she was at telling sweeping tales of the Western United States with her Blood Rose trilogy in 2010. Now the first of her avidly awaited new series is finally here and Warner not only doesn’t disappoint, but proves that she’s the new go-to writer for Western romances. Southern belle and…
That’s right. $23.95 for a novel of 186 pages. For that price, the book ought to be pretty darn good, right? Well, it’ll be up to the marketplace to decide, but it’s not looking good to this reader. Fairlee Lavalle is about to get married when her family has her kidnapped by Isaac Burnet the…
Like many other readers, I long for books that have unique settings. While small town USA in 1918 is not an exotic location, it is a most under-utilized one. When I saw that Alexis Harrington’s Home by Morning was written around World War I and the influenza epidemic of 1918, I knew I had to…
I love early 20th century history. The world was such a changing place then, with modern technology just taking its first hesitant steps onto the stage and women beginning to find their place in the world beyond being a wife and mother. The changes these years saw had to be some of the most astounding…