Her Perfect Earl is a very good debut Regency Romance with strong parallels to Charlotte Brontë’s Jane Eyre, complete with a plain-Jane governess, a broody – though nicer – Rochester-like widower with first wife problems, a manipulative would-be next wife Blanche Ingram-type, and a whole host of estranged Adeles/children. I’m a sucker for governess stories,…
Okay, unquestionably, the “heroine as thief” thing has been done before. Ditto the guilt-ridden nobleman determined to drown his troubles in sex and alcohol. But, despite their undeniable familiarity, these tried-and-true characters spring to new and entertaining life in The Devil to Pay, the newest release from an author I believe is one of the…
A long-time fan of Karen Ranney’s romances, I looked forward to reading this latest offering. It didn’t disappoint, with as well portrayed a hero and heroine as I have read in a long time, a memorably original plot and exquisite prose. Although a powerfully written novel, some problems kept it from being the keeper I’d…
A wonderful, lush, intelligently written novel that came this close to DIK status for me, His Every Kiss is an absolutely not-to-be-missed treat for those less than pleased with the vast majority of today’s European Historical Romances. There is life out there, people, and Laura Lee Guhrke’s latest is proof of it. Readers of Guilty…
My only DIK, romance or otherwise, thus far for 2004 (it’s now September) is A Family for Gillian, which I bought shortly after reading Jane’s B+ review of it. Jane and I often laugh about being “separated at birth” in that many of our tastes are similar – and not only where reading is concerned….
Unexpected plot twists and a wonderfully appealing hero and hero elevate All I Ever Needed from other popular Regency-era historicals featuring men involved in secret work for the government. It’s the third in a series about the Compass Club, an organization started by four boys who met at school. Each boy had some family connection…
I am not a very big mystery reader, mostly because the journey is more important to me than the end result. But Still Life with Murder, the first of a new historical mystery series by romance author Patricia Ryan, managed to engage me as a mystery and as a character study. The mystery unfolds as…
I think I’ve found something new in Shirley Kennedy: a guilty-pleasure Regency author. Three Wishes for Miss Winthrop is like Pride and Prejudice meets The Young and the Restless. One minute everyone is behaving in normal, Regency-like ways, and the next minute raging hormones are circling like a swarm of bees. I’ve never seen anything…
After several angsty reads, I was really in the mood for a pick-me-up, and Diane Farr’s Under the Wishing Star fit the bill perfectly. This is a funny, sweet, uncomplicated, and touching love story. <!– var browName = navigator.appName; var SiteID = 1; var ZoneID = 4; var browDateTime = (new Date()).getTime(); if (browName=='Netscape') {…
Mary Balogh’s traditional Regencies are, as often as not, not “traditional” as Regencies are usually defined: kisses only, mannered, well-behaved ladies and gentlemen falling in love under mildly titillating situations. Instead, Balogh’s Regencies are traditional only in that they are shorter than the average historical. Although its plot is a well-used one, The Ungrateful Governess…