A Notorious Woman begins in grand fashion. Set during Carnival in 16th century Venice, it is obvious from the outset that this story will be full of intrigue, and that readers will have to pay attention to the various twists and turns of the plot. Perfumer Julietta Bassano has been summoned to the home of…
How would I describe The Wedding Officer? In a word – beautiful. I so enjoyed this book that I wanted more of the wonderful characters and setting. Anthony Capella does an amazing job of describing wartime Italy, the seductive beauty of the Southern part of the country, the richness of Italian food, the horror of…
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…
For those of us bemoaning the many juvenile and distressingly formulaic historical romances littering bookstores these days, Lydia Joyce gives us reason to celebrate. The Music of the Night, the author’s second novel, is an intelligent and refreshingly different romance between two intelligent and refreshingly different people. It is – these days, at any rate…
For those who didn’t make it to Italy on their summer vacation, The Food of Love offers a first-class getaway to the country. It’s another variation on the classic Cyrano de Bergerac, this time with a culinary twist. With a perfect sense of place, wonderful food and a warm storytelling style, Anthony Capella delivers a…
The Next Best Thing is part of Arabesque’s Ports of Call series. Each book centers around an exotic locale, in this case Venice. While I do enjoy books with interesting settings, they have to be more than a travelogue to hold my attention, and, unfortunately, this one didn’t amount to much more than that. April…
Having written traditional Regencies and one Super Regency, Amanda McCabe makes a solid debut in her first full length Regency historical, Lady Midnight. Katerina Bruni, the daughter of the most famous courtesan in Venice, is at a party on a yacht with her potential first protector, her mother, and her mother’s protector when a sudden…
How many authors could write a mystery series featuring a madam running a brothel and paying rent to the Catholic Church in 12th century London? And how many of those could turn around and begin a new series starring Lucrezia Borgia? And in both cases make those characters sympathetic and their stories intriguing? One of…
I was excited to be assigned The Italian for review; I enjoyed Coffman’s historicals years ago, when I first started reading romance, and I looked forward to a pleasant reacquaintance with her work. While the book turned out to be decent, it also turned out to have a far less romantic component than an historical…
Remember all those Spencer Tracy/Katharine Hepburn movies? Charismatic characters speaking intelligent, witty, funny lines? Of if you can’t remember that far back and haven’t seen the videos, maybe you’ve caught a recent episode of West Wing. In both cases just about every conversation sparkles and the writers treat the viewers like they’re smart enough to…