The Tucker Springs, Colorado, series, of which this is the latest title, has been surprise after surprise as far as plots are concerned. This one is no exception, connecting an atheist tattoo artist and a Christian youth minister. Seth Wheeler is immediately smitten with the man who moves into the apartment across from him above…
I’ve read romances about former courtesans (too many to count), and I’ve read romances about ministers (not as numerous as ex-courtesans), but I’d be hard pressed to think of one I liked as much as I liked this one. A Notorious Countess Confesses may sound like the type of title you see all the time…
Where does Medallion Press find its debut authors? This is the second time in a fortnight I have read a debut novel published by this house, and each time I have been overwhelmed by the quality of the writing, by the fascinating characters, and by the authors’ happy disregard of the usual formulas of historical…
Glittering Images is about British clergymen. How not-exciting does that sound? And yet it is one of the most suspenseful, riveting books I’ve ever had the pleasure to read. The novel centers around the institution of marriage, an institution that was undergoing change in England in the 1930s, when the book takes place. A bill…
Mortal Sin is one of the best books I’ve read in 2004. However, I know as I write this that not everyone will like it as much as I did. Containing a myriad of hot-button issues such as the state of the Catholic church, a priest hero undergoing a crisis of self, teen runaways, porn…
Many books feature characters who remind us of ourselves or of people we know. They think like us (even if they are, in fact, wearing the garb of another era) and they act much like us. Every now and again, though, an author does a truly excellent job of creating a different world and filling…
Crossing The Line tells the story of a strong woman who has been able (out of both choice and necessity) to cross the line in a variety of ways: race, sex, education and age. Thea Morgan, the heroine, is an intricately drawn portrait of a woman forced to deal with her past, and thus prepare…
Uncommon Vows is my favorite among Mary Jo Putney’s books, more romantic to me than even the wonderful Shattered Rainbows. Putney’s only medieval begins under the omen of an eclipse of the moon whose light is devoured by shadow on the night of a Christmas tragedy. Fifteen year old Adrian de Lancey, a nobleman’s youngest…
With French Leave, Sheri Cobb South wins, places and shows. She makes the hat trick, achieves the trifecta, threepeats. This book brings her Weaver trilogy to a delightful close, and I was charmed from the very first word. Lord Waverly (the villain in The Weaver Takes A Wife) has fallen on hard times. His debts…
Sir Richard has a problem. Everything about Isabel’s too blatant desire for him had been wrong – wrong in God’s eyes the world’s. She had been betrothed to his brother; therefore, she was his sister by marriage, her attraction for him both incestuous and adulterous. She had become a stone thrown against his honor and…