My Darling Kate is one big misunderstanding on top of itself, and yet it is a thoroughly engaging read. It all begins when Katherine Shaw arrives at Chesapeake Bay to marry Nicholas Talbot. Unfortunately, Nicholas thinks it is his sweet Alyssa who will be arriving – Katherine is her older sister. While the reality is…
I’m warning you, Patterns of Love is the worst kind of Romance. What, you say? Why, you ask? To begin with, there’s not one arrogant rogue, no heaving bosoms, no dysfunctional lust-crazed step-cousins lurking in the shadows bent on ravaging our feisty heroine, no forced seductions (ok, my favorite kind), nor any characters named Quirt…
At the age of four, Decker Thorne was separated from his two brothers when he was adopted from a London orphanage by a pair of engaging pickpockets. Handsome and charming, roguish Decker has learned his con-artist tricks well, and because of these talents is inadvertently reunited with his long-lost older brother. (Colin’s story, My Steadfast…
I wanted to like Texas Lucky by Maggie James. The cover of the book alone is sublime. Also, it sounded like my kind of story. Cowboy romances are among my favorites, and this one seemed to fit the bill. Set in the Southwest and Texas sometime vaguely after the Civil War, it is about a…
Merry Patricia Wilding was sitting on a cobblestone wall, sketching three rutabagas and daydreaming about the unicorn.” So begins one of the most beloved historical romances and my personal favorite. When it was first released in 1984, The Windflower was a revelation to me – a many-layered, multi-textured leap forward that set a new standard…
The Book that Inspired Me to be a Writer* You don’t so much read The Williamsburg series aka “The Women of Williamsburg” as become a member of the family – the extended Day-Sprague-Campion family. The books follow family members through almost every significant event between the Revolutionary War and World War II. They are a…
I reviewed Lynna Banning’s debut romance, Western Rose, last year. I enjoyed it and found the author was able to interest me in a sub-genre that generally is not my forte, the Western. I also enjoyed the social issues that Ms. Banning was able to weave throughout that book without seeming at all preachy. Ms….
Too much of the world figures those with special needs and challenges are of no earthly good to humanity. If we simply ignore them, they will go away. That’s how it was with Jess Best; everybody in town had written him off as simple. My best friend’s parents have adopted two Down’s Syndrome children who…
Wild Dream is a romantic comedy of some charm, set in a mythical New Mexico town shortly after the Civil War. Alice Duncan’s flair for slapstick and clever comedy comes on too strong for the first part of the book, but then settles down to create some delightful romance between Adelaide Blewitt (pronounce her last…
Bogus Bride breaks my record of giving Harlequin Historicals at least least a passing grade. This one is an F. It takes an interesting premise and mucks it up quite badly. It is 1842. Ten years before, Englishman Sam Jardine left home for the New World after failing to live up to his father’s wishes…