On finishing this book, I was terribly tempted to send it back to the author, pleading her to rewrite it and publish it as a historical instead. It’s not that I did not like the book she had written, it’s just that I couldn’t keep from seeing the gem of a story hiding behind the…
“The summer of 1806 was to end uproariously, with among many other things, a talking wren, a demon duck, and ancient druidic magic gone very wrong indeed, but it began on a somber note that gave no hint of the amazing events ahead.” Thus begins Sandra Heath’s latest unconventional Regency, and despite an intriguing opening…
The Rake’s Retreat is a lively romp made special by two wonderfully matched and humorous main characters, plus a couple of secondary characters who are almost as entertaining. Lovely Lovelace Wellesley, leading lady of her parents’ theatre troupe, Wellesley’s Wandering Minstrels, wanders where she shouldn’t in the Kent countryside and is witness to a murder….
When I closed this book I asked myself, But why did they fall in love? and that, I’m afraid, summarizes the main problem I had with this read. Frederica MacKivern is a widow with a young son, Stu. Together with his best friend Matt, Stu devises a prank that introduces his mother to Matt’s father,…
The Unrepentant Rake features many elements of the classic Regency – there’s a noble hero and heroine and a house party setting of sorts. It also has a strong mystery subplot – the type that’s more commonly found in regency historicals. It’s a lot for one short book to handle, but for the most part,…
Crossed Quills is a delightful Regency Romance – while it is light, its hero and heroine are far from the ordinary run of High London Society, in their shared interests in politics and writing. The reversal of traditional roles is also refreshing. Wynn Selworth has unexpectedly inherited a title from a distant relative. As a…
Ah, the Regency period. When men were dandified fops or brave redcoats. When ladies were trim and prim and bonneted. When the gossips and tattle-mongers never slept. When the power of love campaigned against the necessity of rich marriages. Or, as in this case, against a desire to return to the battlefield. Captain Alexander Logan…
This is a Regency romp, including a madcap heroine and a clueless hero who cannot keep up with her. It features eight sisters who sprout nursery rhymes, a whistling horse called Precious, and donkey rides. Now, how could you go wrong with elements like that? All to easily, when the hero and heroine experience a…
It is not my fault – the back-blurb made me do it! It tempted me with the story of two archeologists in a Regency setting, and what good is a temptation if you don’t fall for it? I settled down for a cozy read, but was mired in a plot device that infringed upon the…
This book proudly declares itself to be a Regency Romantic Mystery. There was a Regency setting, I agree to that. Romantic? Not to me. Mystery? If mystery means the hero and heroine run about trying to solve a murder, a mystery it was. It is said that two out of three ain’t bad. In this…