It is the 1540s. Suleiman the Magnificent is the sultan of the Ottoman Empire. The tsar of Russia is a man who will someday be known as Ivan the Terrible. England is ruled by the boy-king Edward VI. Mary Queen of Scots is four, and she will be used as a pawn in the high-stakes…
While I enjoy mysteries and love Elizabethan history and politics, I have to say that The Twylight Tower never really got off the ground for me. It manages to be interesting without being engaging, and the pacing is entirely too slow for a story involving multiple mysterious murders that seem to be pointing to an…
To put it kindly, the novels of Michele Jaffe have not done well with my fellow AAR reviewers. Either she’s gotten better, or my sense of humor is in sync with hers, because I think Lady Killer is a hoot. The plot is complex and openly ridiculous. The heroine is Lady Clio Thornton, a female…
A Knight in Shining Armor by Jude Deveraux is truly the definition of a Desert Isle keeper for me. If I could only have ten books to read for the rest of my life, I would want this to be one of them. I knew this book was something special when I read it for…
Luscious Corinna Huntington is the youngest and prettiest of all the ladies at Queen Elizabeth’s court. Elizabeth is a great statesman, a hardened ruler with nerves of steel – but she is also an embittered, lonely woman. Proud Elizabeth knows all about lying men. As a result, the queen is strict and watchful, always keeping…
Having enjoyed several of Susan Wiggs’ recent books (especially The Charm School) I’ve been picking up her older works whenever I find them. And in Lord of the Night, I found a real treat. Sandro Cavalli is a Lord of the Night, one of the aristocratic aids to the doge of Venice who investigate crime…
A Love For All Time is arguably one of the last good Bertrice Small books out there. A re-release of one of the early novels in the famous Skye O’Malley series (falling chronologically between All The Sweet Tomorrows and This Heart Of Mine), it falls into the “golden era” for Small fans, just before she…
Despite plot problems, character inconsistencies, and a carload of anachronistic language, I ended up liking His Betrothed more than I thought. The quote on the cover vaunts this as a riveting emotional read. While it’s neither riveting nor emotional, it’s a quick read with a hero and heroine who really are a perfect match. Lady…
Many books (some of them mysteries) are set in Elizabethan England but there aren’t any others that can claim to have Queen Elizabeth herself doing the investigating. What amazed me in Karen Harper’s first historical mystery, The Poyson Garden and this one, is that Elizabeth’s sleuthing actually makes sense. She has formed a Privy Plot…
I was almost disappointed that I enjoyed this book so much because it means that I have yet another series to follow! This is the fourth book featuring Elizabethan spy Ursula Blanchard as the heroine, but not having read the first three books did not present a problem for me, other than making me want…