On the Scent is a thoroughly original and wonderfully different romantic mystery. It features M.J. Rodgers’s trademark intelligent characters and creative touches. Most of all, it’s just a lot of fun. Diann Torrey is the head chemist for the American perfume company Man to Woman. While in Paris for the International Fragrance Fraternity’s annual symposium,…
If you’re not familiar with Emma Holly’s name, you should be aware that her books are a bit different from other romance novels. Before moving into the historical romance arena, she wrote straight erotica for Black Lace, among other publishers. Classifying this book is difficult as it is more sexually explicit than just about anything…
In the France of olde, Diane de Poitiers returns to the court of Francois I after an informal exile of five years. The two were involved in a scandalous relationship then, and though he’d like to start it up again, she wants to begin anew. She is thirtyone, beautiful, and clever. She is also strong,…
Celine Fontaine, a panic-attack-prone American heiress, is whisked away from her family’s ancestral French chateau and back in time by a lunar eclipse on New Year’s Eve, 1993. Winding up in the Artois Region of France in the year 1300, she immediately encounters Sir Gaston de Varennes. To be more specific, she encounters him in…
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…
Beast by Judith Ivory is one of my two all-time favorite romance books and also simply one of the best books I have ever read. When I read books or watch movies, afterwards I have a certain feel for them, a textural sensation. Beast has left me with one of the richest, most voluptuous “feels”…
The Protector begins during a chaotic time in Brittany, when the country was trying to maintain its independence in the midst of a civil war. Two factions warred for control. One faction was led by Jean Comte de Montfort, half brother of the Duke who controlled the country. The other contender was Jeanne de Penthievre,…
The first time I read Bliss, I was absolutely intoxicated by it. It absorbed me and kept me completely in its power. For a whole two days all I did was eat, sleep, dream, breathe Bliss. I read it over and over, wondering each time that it should so affect me. Because by any measure…
The French Revolution was, arguably, one of the most frightening national tragedies in history. Its excesses and corruption shocked contemporary observers around the world, including those who initially applauded the spirit of the Revolution. Surrender to a Stranger is the riveting story of a man who makes it his business to free victims of the…
If you demand a book that neatly ends with everyone living happily ever don’t waste your time by reading any more of this review. If, however, you’re in the mood to take a walk on the darker side of fiction please read on because do I ever have a great book for you! The Passion…