Of all her novels, Friday’s Child was Georgette Heyer’s favorite and I can certainly see why. The dialogue is delicious, the characters are loveable, and the plot is fast and funny. I fell in love with the book before I turned the first page. Anthony Verelst, Viscount Sheringham is not at all happy with his…
Improper Relations is a delightful book, one I enjoyed from start to finish. Told from the first person point of view – of both the hero and the heroine, alternately – it has a plot that is familiar enough. The hero and heroine are caught in a compromising position and forced to marry, and eventually…
I found Miss Winthorpe’s Elopement somewhat tough to grade. It’s an original story with flawed, memorable characters, and much of the time it worked for me. Perhaps that’s why when I got to the end and discovered a common but unwelcome plot device, I was disappointed. Penelope Winthorpe is a printer’s daughter and a cit,…
I picked up my copy of A Christmas Promise at a library book sale a couple of months ago for a dime. My experience in the past with Mary Balogh has been spotty, but I thought there was a chance this might have resale value and my initial investment was hardly steep, so decision made….
Are you sick of Regencies where characters treat servants like their best buddies or where class distinctions are ignored? The Bachelor’s Bargain might be just the tonic you need. Be aware, however, that the heroine’s faith is a strong element in this book. This is, after all, a marriage of convenience story where the heroine…
As a final addition to her lengthy legacy, the author couldn’t have done much better than this. Everyone acknowledges that Pippa Carstairs is beautiful. But, living a cloistered existence with her grandparents in Bath, no one has ever bothered to look beneath the surface – including herself. So when Noel Nicholson begins to pay her…
I collect Jane Austen sequels. There are a lot out there, and honest to tell, very few are well-written enough to warrant reviewing in a non-Austen context. However, sometimes I stumble across a gem, and this is what happened with Monica Fairview’s The Other Mr. Darcy. The novel starts on the wedding day of Pride…
Lost in Almack’s by Lesley-Anne McLeod is a very short story published in ebook format – the publishing house calls it “A Regency Romance Byte”. It’s not without promise, albeit a bit uneven, but what really shocked me was the price when I looked it up after I’d read my ARC. To shell out three…
Good prose is the one thing that can elevate a book from greatness to splendor, so when I want a real Regency I turn to Georgette Heyer. However, The Quiet Gentleman is proof positive that excellent prose alone does not an excellent book make. Gervase Frant, newly minted Earl of St. Erth, has finally come…
With the demise of the traditional regency lines at Signet and Zebra/Kensington, it is smaller publishing houses that offer most of the trads coming out at present. I was very interested therefore to review Mr. Malcolm’s List, subtitled A Farce of Historic Proportions, by Suzanne Allain. I found it a pleasant read overall, but too…