In all honesty, I was never able to lose myself in this book. Why that was, I just don’t know. Perhaps it began with the cover – a slick looking guy with a poufy perm. Perhaps there were simply too many characters in the story (brothers and cousins and sons, oh my!). Perhaps the premise…
Pinkerton agents are a fascinating part of American history, and yet they appear only rarely in historical fiction. Imagine my pleasure when I picked up Almost a Lady and found that the heroine is a Pinkerton agent who isn’t afraid to use her pistol and pearl-handled stiletto. Willow Hastings, as her name would suggest, is…
While I’ve not read Jodi Thomas before, I have read reviews of her other books, including those in the related McClain series. All the reviews have been good (some have been great), giving me a pleasant sense of anticipation for Twilight in Texas. So it’s with no small amount of confusion that as I write…
You really have to give Zebra credit for their willingness to publish books with unique settings. I’ve seen ones recently set in late nineteenth century South Carolina, the battlefields of the Crimean War, and the French Revolution. I picked up Loving Lily in particular because it set in Williamsburg right before the Revolutionary War –…
When I came back to romance in the early ’90’s, finding a good read was something of a hit-or-miss proposition for me. Back then, there was nothing like this site to help me find a well-written romance, so I spent a lot of time in used-book stores, picking up anything that looked remotely interesting. Needless…
The Merry Widow reminded me of a vaudeville act, a dozen plates kept spinning magically in the air when by rights, every one should crash and shatter on the ground. Again and again, I found myself thinking “This shouldn’t work, but it does.” A Greek chorus of Arctic explorers? Flowery, purplish prose? A hero who…
Much of the action of the War of 1812 took place around the Straits of Mackinac between Lakes Michigan and Huron, where a small fortified island was seized by the British. In 1814, the Americans attempted to take it back. Various Indian tribes sought to better their lot by siding with one or the other…
Sometimes a book is just plain average. Neither good nor bad. It’s just sort of there, you read the story and then move on. Reilly’s Gold is definitely one of those books. Devin Reilly has come to America to seek his fortune in the gold mines of California. Unfortunately he gets waylaid just off the…
Some books may look ordinary, but hold special surprises. If you love Westerns, you really ought to do yourself a favor and check out The Colonel’s Widow. Amanda Green, a nurse for the Union, was widowed in the Civil War, and soon after her husband’s death she is confronted by angry townspeople. Amanda’s late husband,…
I loved the central conflict in this book: the hero and heroine, who once loved each other deeply, have now come to hate each other just as deeply, and not because of any big misunderstandings. She was a Southern Belle and he was a Union spy. The met, fell in love, and got married in…