The first book in Deborah Simmons’ Regency Quartet, The Vicar’s Daughter is one of those ‘stuffed-shirt meets wild-child’ romances (although the heroine isn’t really a wild-child as such), and while it’s fairly predictable, it’s a light-hearted, fun read and the two central characters are well-drawn and endearing. Maximillian Fortescue, Earl of Wycliffe has just inherited Casterleigh,…
An AAR Top 100 Romance review originally published on April 07, 1999 If you want to read a book that comes as close to perfection as any historical romance, then pick up Flowers from the Storm. The story, the language, the emotional intensity: this book has everything. It’s Laura Kinsale at the top of her game…
There are books I read once and there are books I read again and again. Having Her is one of the latter. I read it for the first time two months ago and, since then, have read it again… and again. It’s sexy, unexpected, romantic, smart, and, in places, achingly sad. The novel meets my…
Who doesn’t love a good opposites attract romance? It’s one of my favorite tropes in fiction, so it’s a good possibility I was predestined to like this book. With a hero who is as comfortable throwing punches in the ring as he is behind a desk and a neurosurgeon heroine, I snatched it up and enjoyed it immensely….
Isn’t it nice when a book surprises you? I try not to judge books by their covers, but I mostly avoided reading Muscling Through because I hated the cover. After finishing it, I’ve decided it’s perfect for this gem of a novella. The model is both menacing and off-putting… when in reality, the character he…
I fell in love with the Middle of Somewhere series from the start – but if I’m honest, by the end of book one, In the Middle of Somewhere, I just wanted to know more about secondary characters Leo and Will. Ms. Parrish instead opted to redeem a much hated character in Out of Nowhere…
I’ll admit it. I picked this book up almost entirely because of its setting. I grew up in the rolling hills outside Charlottesville, Virginia, and it’s still one of my favorite places. Thankfully, it’s obvious in this book that the author did her research and she does get a lot of the details of the…
Marrying Winterborne the second book in Lisa Kleypas’s dearly anticipated Ravenels series, begins with Lady Helen Ravenel calling on Rhys Winterborne, a man to whom she was briefly engaged. As almost anyone who read the first book, A Cold Hearted Rake, will tell you, Rhys and his passion for Helen utterly upstaged that story’s lovers and…
Strong Signal is the first novel from authors Megan Erickson & Santino Hassell, and this collaboration is damn good. Happily, this is also the first in a series by the pair called Cyberlove. Writing in collaboration seems to mellow Santino’s usual gritty, cynical angle on love and sex somewhat, while adding a little raunch to…
The second book in K.J Charles’ Society of Gentlemen trilogy, A Seditious Affair contains all the ingredients I enjoyed so much in A Fashionable Indulgence, which I read in the summer. I was so impressed by Ms Charles’ writing and the wonderful way she wove the romantic relationship through a gripping story of social and…