Mystery writer Agatha Christie was a legend in her own time. When she became the center of her own mystery – disappearing in December of 1926 after her husband Archie requested a divorce – she made worldwide headlines. Christie was eventually found eleven days later, hiding out in a hotel and using the surname of…
Historical mystery with a strong side of romance is my catnip so I was happy to pick up The Gentleman’s Daughter by Bianca Schwarz. It’s a well-written, if somewhat slow, dark mystery with an emphasis on romance. This is book two in the series, The Gentleman Spy Mysteries, and I had no trouble catching up…
A Retro Review originally published on December 30, 1999 I was never much of a history student. Dry textbooks just didn’t hold my interest. Because of my love for adventure, intrigue and romance, much of what I’ve learned about medieval England has been gleaned from historical romances. I believe Roberta Gellis is one of the…
Fans of historical fiction are in for a treat with Wild Women and the Blues, a dual timeline novel about Jazz Age Chicago with its beautiful, fun but dark and dangerous world of juice joints, dance girls and racketeering, and a young man searching for redemption in twenty-first century America. Sawyer Hayes’ life changed in…
Pride and Premeditation hits a lot of notes that tempt me – it’s a Jane Austen retelling, a murder mystery, and an historical romance. This novel sets Elizabeth Bennett in London as the daughter of a barrister striving to prove her worth. She is the second of five sisters, and while Lizzie wants nothing more…
To anyone who wants to read A Lady’s Guide to Mischief and Mayhem after this review, I hereby issue a warning to ‘mind the gap’ as they say, the gap being the logic gap that pervades much of this disgruntled-acquaintances-to-lovers tale. Lady Katherine – Kate – Bascomb is a blue-blooded widow who owns The London…
Note: The Will Darling Adventures is a trilogy with overarching storylines and in which character and relationship development takes place throughout, so it’s advisable to read the books in order. There are spoilers for book one, Slippery Creatures, in this review. K.J. Charles’ trilogy of Will Darling Adventures continues with book two, The Sugared Game,…
There’s a captivating sense of gothic tension filling Finding Lady Enderly, a romance that mixes suspense, a rags-to-riches Cinderella story, elements of faith and class division all in one fascinating wrapper. Raina Bretton is miserably poor working as a rag picker in London’s East End. She’s on her nightly rounds when a man approaches her…
New York’s infamous Chelsea Hotel has been the scene of a lot of scandals, triumphs, joys and heartbreak over the years. Hazel Ripley and Maxine Mead are just two of the women who’ve passed through its iconic red brick façade, and they have problems bigger than the ghosts haunting the hotel’s walls to contend with….
Please note that this review was originally published in October 2018 upon the UK publication of this novel. The book’s original title is The Corset. Laura Purcell first came to my attention as the author of a couple of very fine pieces of historical fiction, and earlier this year, I awarded her fabulous, spooky supernatural/gothic…