Holland has had a crush on Subway Station Musician for … let’s say a while. When he prevents her being shoved onto the tracks one night and saves her life, she pays him back by getting him an audition with her uncle, a Broadway bigwig. Subway Station Musician – whose name is Calvin – stuns…
An AAR Top 100 Romance originally published on April 15, 1998 Beauty and the Beast stories are favorites with many readers of romance novels. There is just something about the whole premise that lends itself to romance and resonates with readers in a way that other fairy tale archetypes do not. Ravished is a touching…
I’ve been looking for a good place to jump into Tessa Dare’s books, but I was reluctant to start in the middle of an already established series. So The Duchess Deal, the first book in her new Girl Meets Duke series, was just what I needed to give her work a try, and I’m really…
Joan Aiken is renowned for The Wolves of Willoughby Chase series and her Jane Austen sequel novels. The Five-Minute Marriage is not as well known, and so I came upon it completely by chance when a fellow blogger recommended it. The book proved to be a rather lucky find. Miss Philadelphia (Delphie) Carteret and her…
The Temporary Wife is one of those perfect romances, where the emphasis is on romance rather than a lot of extracurricular activity. And within the scope of the category-sized story, Balogh delivers a master class on how to write a Marriage of Convenience plot. Anthony Earheart, the Marquess of Staunton looks for a wife under…
It’s no secret that the Marriage of Convenience is my favourite trope when it comes to historical romance. But it’s a plotline that is less easy to pull off in a contemporary, so I was keen to read Black Tie Optional – the first in Ann Marie Walker’s Wild Wedding series – to see whether it…
I have a feeling that people who know history better than I do will take umbrage with this book. It’s one of those that just doesn’t feel completely historically accurate and I kept wondering how much of my “fantasy” brain I should engage. I was charmed by it, especially by the heroine and by the…
In this, the third book in Rose Lerner’s series of books set in the fictional Sussex town of Lively St. Lemeston, the author has once again penned a thoroughly enjoyable and emotionally complex romance with nary a duke or debutante in sight. Our protagonists are a pair of servants, John Toogood, a very correct ‘gentleman’s…
I’m a sucker for a good marriage-of-convenience story, and this one is very good indeed: In fact, Strangers at the Altar is one of the best historicals I’ve read this year. The book features a pair of very likeable protagonists who come across as two ordinary people trying to deal with events which have caused…
Harlequin romances are full of tycoons – Greeks, Italians, Spaniards – all of them with interesting problems such as pregnant mistresses, temporary babies, and secret affairs. In this latest Harlequin tycoon offering our tycoon finds himself in need of a bride. Within the next ten minutes. Preferably one who is both beautiful and has an…