Rachel Grant’s recent Flashpoint series of romantic suspense novels set in and around the Horn of Africa is one of my favourites in the genre; fast-paced, action-packed, sexy and incredibly politically astute and informative, they’ve pretty much ruined me for all other romantic suspense stories! So I may just have squeeed a little when I…
Whenever I read a lesbian romance novel, my heart expands by two sizes. As a queer girl, back in my youth I used to long for books featuring heroines who liked girls the same way I did, and that the publishing industry is beginning to open up and publish more queer romance gladdens me. Once…
Amy Andrews writes fun, sexy contemporary romances and I’ve enjoyed several of her offerings in the past, including her Sydney Smoke Rugby series. In her latest steamy novella titled The D.I.L.F (Doctor I’d Like to… um… fornicate with), she tackles both workplace romance and sibling’s best friend tropes in a story that is more about…
In this absolutely charming holiday novella from Jenny Holiday, Jay and Elise are looking forward to their first Christmas together as a married couple. The joy is paused, however, when Elise finds out she’s pregnant – against all of their plans and previously stated desires – and the turmoil is no small thing. I was…
Erica Ridley’s story about astronomy, fear, and flirtation, Wish Upon a Duke, has a few charming points but subjects us to a hero who thinks that the heroine is a hopeless ninny. Gloria Goodwin, daughter of a the Royal Navy captain, runs a stargazing lecture at Marlowe Castle called sky-walking – the best way for…
I love novellas at Christmas – the length is just right for one evening, when you steal a couple hours away from holiday madness to breathe and remember what you’re in the season for. I try new ones every year, but only the chosen few make it to my annual re-read list. Patience for Christmas…
The Shop Around the Corner is one of my favourite films. Set around Christmas time, it tells the story of two co-workers who don’t get on and bicker all the time in spite of the attraction that sparks between them – and which they ignore. He thinks she’s stuck-up, she thinks he’s crass and in…
Ella Quinn’s sprightly novella, I’ll Always Love You provides a charming early winter distraction for fans of her Worthingtons series. Lady Lucinda Hughlot is struggling to find proper sponsorship for her first Season in the wake of her father’s death. Her mother, hoping to dispense with her guardianship duties and return quickly to their country…
Diamond Fire by Ilona Andrews is book 3.5 in the Hidden Legacy series and moves the focus of the narrative from Nevada Baylor to her younger sister, Catalina. On the verge of graduating from high school and having just come out to the magical families of Texas as a considerable talent known as a Prime,…
Mrs. Brodie’s Academy for Exceptional Young Ladies contains two novellas from the pens of top historical romance authors Theresa Romain and Shana Galen, set in an unusual school at which young ladies are taught forgery, self-defence and pick-pocketing alongside the more usual french, music and painting! It’s an interesting idea, although I couldn’t quite see…