I want to tell you I loved this middle novel in The Talk of the Beau Monde series, I really do. Unfortunately, after an excellent start, the story loses focus. The author introduces two lovely principal characters – he’s often mistaken for a pirate; she’s a buxom redhead with a sharp mind and an even sharper…
I didn’t realise until I took a close look that Annabelle Costa’s The Boy Next Door was first published in 2012. But then again, I have not read much contemporary romance until the last year or so, and started picking it up because so much historical romance (my first love) has not made me very…
Kate Clayborn’s Love at First is one of those books that you immediately feel has wrapped you up in a warm hug, and in which the characters and their story creep gradually and unobtrusively under your skin and wind around your heartstrings. Ms. Clayborn is one of my few go-to contemporary romance authors, and this…
Let me say this right up front. I’m not fond of practical jokes. I don’t see the humor in going out of your way to annoy someone, and it’s not a style of humor that I enjoy. But if you like pranks and love watching inventiveness play out between two worthy opponents, The Cul-de-Sac War…
I first learned about the writing of Romanceclass in the Philippines when I interviewed Bianca Mori for the Tropical Romance Book Club. Both Mori’s novella One Night at the Palace Hotel and another #romanceclass novel by Mina V. Esguerra, Kiss and Cry, have been DIKs for me, so I was quite excited to try the…
Readers of Sandhya Menon’s Dimple and Rishi series are likely familiar with funny, spunky Pinky Kumar, an activist who backs hundreds of causes and feistily fights for every one of them. She finally gets her own book in 10 Things I Hate About Pinky, which involves fake dating, summer vacations and a whole lot of…
When I read Powder & Pavlova, book one in Jay Hogan’s Southern Lights series, I was intrigued by the character of Adrian Powell, the handsome, enigmatic and tight-lipped barista who worked in the café owned by Ethan Sharpe and who, by the end of the book, had joined him in setting up a coffee roasting…
The Write Escape combines the fantasy escapism of falling in love in a charming small foreign town with very real problems, including self-empowerment, racism and generational cycles of alcohol abuse. It’s mostly successful and very dreamy on all counts, with a couple of flaws in its conclusion keeping it from a flat out A. Antonia…
In this delightful book from Sara Rider, Nora is having trouble adjusting to her new life as a chemistry professor at a small college in Washington State. Newly divorced and far away from everyone she knows, she’s having trouble making friends and decides to join a bookclub full of hateful women out of sheer desperation….
One of the pleasures of reviewing books for All About Romance is the opportunity to interact with readers. Recently, one of them recommended Melt for You by J.T. Geissinger. I’m familiar with the author – I’ve read two of her earlier books, including the Slow Burn novel that precedes it. I liked, but didn’t love,…