I had mixed feelings about The Sinful Sinclairs series. I didn’t finish the first book, and I gave the final book (which Return of the Rogues jumps off from), a not very enthusiastic C-. But I have good news for fellow Temple fans. The Return of the Disappearing Duke is a delightful surprise and a…
This second instalment of Lara Temple’s three-book Sinful Sinclairs series focuses on Charles – known as Chase – Sinclair, whom readers met briefly in the first book, The Earl’s Irresistible Challenge. Rather like his older brother Lucas, Chase is handsome, witty and charmingly self-deprecating, but behind the nonchalant, rakish façade he shows to society lies…
If you were a fan of the old AAR Purple Prose Parody contests, with their send-ups of genre tropes and in-jokes, then have I got a book for you. My Lady’s Choosing is a mature-audience’s romance version of the Choose-Your-Own-Adventure stories of ‘80s childhoods, and I highly recommend it for the romance megafan who’s read…
An AAR Top 100 Romance originally published on February 16, 2005 While last year’s Miss Wonderful was an appropriately wonderful book, I have to admit that it felt somewhat mannered to me – almost as if the author kept a deliberate distance between herself and her characters. I learned a great deal about canal construction…
The Mummy movies starring Brendan Fraser and Rachel Weisz have always been guilty pleasures for me. Granted, the story line isn’t brilliant nor the acting critically acclaimed. The history undoubtedly has its flaws. But the story is so fun, the characters so charming that I can’t help but love them. This book captures the spirit…
As I read Ms. Brockway’s much anticipated The Other Guy’s Bride, I was reminded of one of my favorite featherweight films, the 1999 romantic comedy caper “The Mummy.” The novel, like that delirious movie, stars a strong willed, smart tongued English lass and a sexy, cynical swashbuckler traveling together across early 20th century Egypt, escaping…
I really like the title of this book: The Cobra and the Concubine. The cover illustration is nice, too, and the book is action-packed and never dull. And if you’re a person who only likes to read positive things in reviews, you might want to stop there. It is the 1890s in Egypt, where the…
Lawrence of Arabia meets Sylvia Pankhurst? Though this is the Victorian rather than the Edwardian era, the idea of a be-robed English soldier and fiery suffragist falling in love in Egypt is undoubtedly an intriguing one, and one ably executed by Melody Thomas. Brianna Donally, a photographer, and her sister-in-law, Lady Alexandra, a renowned archeologist,…
The word these days is that publishers of romance are rather leery of putting out books that occur in uncommon periods or places. Since The Barbarian takes place in ancient Alexandria, one can only conclude that Leisure either likes to take risks or Judith French is good enough to merit one. I’m not particularly familiar…
If you like those Indian romances – you know the ones, where the chieftan hero captures and falls for the beautiful blonde heroine who then proceeds to bring the light of progress to his backward tribe – then you’re sure to love this book, which is the exact same plot, transplanted on another continent and…