Eloisa James is normally a hit or miss author for me, and I’m happy to say that When the Duke Returns is one of her hits. The vivacious heroine, reserved hero, and sympathetic secondary characters ratchet up a familiar plot. Isidore married Simenon, Duke of Conway, by proxy when she was twelve. After eleven years…
Fans of old school romance a la Kathleen Woodiwiss will take Veiled Passions to their hearts. Unlike Woodiwisses’s tomes though, this book is not overwritten although it is lush. It features larger than life characters and one of the most romantic, wounded heroes I have ever encountered. If only the heroine hadn’t been such a…
Jo Beverley’s classic Malloren series is one that I’m slowly working my way through…completely out of order. My Lady Notorious, the first in the series, is a road romance set in a delightful time period in which the author excels featuring two ladies in distress and the soldier who comes to the rescue. What more…
I’m not certain I can put into words how To Taste Temptation, the first installation of Elizabeth Hoyt’s new Legend of the Four Soldiers series made me feel. I’ve never read the author before and I don’t know how this book stands up next to the others she’s written. I only know that I loved…
A Lady’s Secret, Jo Beverley’s newest, is a fun, “nun on the run” road romance set in her Georgian Malloren world. And yes, Rothgar makes an appearance. Robin Fitzvitry, the Earl of Huntersdown, is returning to England after a visit to Versailles, when he sees a beautiful woman in a nun’s habit swearing up a…
Favorite books are funny things. Much like relationships, they are never perfect – they just have to be perfect for you. Shana Abé works for me. I recognize the problems in her books, but, for the most part, I just don’t mind. Take Queen of Dragons, for instance, the third and latest book in her…
The Parfit Knight by Stella Riley (writing as Juliet Blyth) is an old favorite. Rereading it for this review, I was delighted to find it as charming as I did twenty years ago when it was published. In the prologue, the author describes an accident: a girl plays catch with her brother in a country…
Such is Diana Gabaldon’s talent for characterization, that even when her plots meander, she still holds my interest. When I first started readingLord John and the Brotherhood of the Blade, I was completely caught up in the story and quickly rushed through almost half the book. Unfortunately, it was a few days before I managed…
Sin Incarnate by Isobel Carr is a typical example of the misleading packaging peddled by romance publishing houses with the goal, one assumes, to attract more readers. The title is so bland as to contain no valid information about the book whatsoever (Oooh, there must be a man in it! And sex!) and winds up being…
Miranda Jarrett is an author I’d forgotten about. Years ago, I read a few of her books and then glommed a bunch more, but they got lost in the bottomless tbr pile. Then I came across The Adventurous Bride and thought I’d give it a go. It’s a road romance full of unusual settings (like…