I love unique settings and the fictional island of Mirabelle is brought to life so successfully that it almost seemed like an additional character in First Come Twins. More importantly, the book features a likeable and realistic tortured hero and a troubled heroine. It is the best category romance I’ve read this year. Fifteen years…
What to do with a book that makes you laugh at the top of the page and want to hurl it into the nearest wall at the bottom? Such is A Hoboken Hipster in Sherwood Forest. Chrissie, said Hoboken Hipster, finds herself a photographic assignment in a Medieval re-enactment faire. Somewhere along the way her…
Those of you who have been complaining of cookie cutter romances – run out and get Hope Tarr’s Vanquished. It may be set in England during the Victorian period, but it’s very far from the usual historical romance. This is a serious and sometimes gritty book with a most unusual hero and heroine. Harry Stone…
Three things about me that readers should know: I live in Australia I work in a Children’s Hospital I absolutely adore Best Friend Romances Three major plot points about Photo Opportunity: It’s set in Sydney The hero decides to change his life after spending time in a children’s cancer ward by: Seducing his best friend…
Lawrence of Arabia meets Sylvia Pankhurst? Though this is the Victorian rather than the Edwardian era, the idea of a be-robed English soldier and fiery suffragist falling in love in Egypt is undoubtedly an intriguing one, and one ably executed by Melody Thomas. Brianna Donally, a photographer, and her sister-in-law, Lady Alexandra, a renowned archeologist,…
Terri Harrington’s Flashback may not be the best-written time travel romance I’ve ever read or the deepest, but it is my favorite. It’s a simple story, one which takes a different approach to the material than many others. It’s not concerned with the mechanics and complications of time travel. It doesn’t spend time showing how…
I’ve not read this author before, but my understanding is that she writes a more mainstream style romance – stories that have a lot more going on than just the relationship between the hero and heroine. In this manner, Painted by the Sun is no exception. Irish emigrant Shea Waterston is a lady photographer. Her…
Picture Perfect has a serious issue at the center of its plot: the sickle cell anemia disease that afflicts far too many African Americans. The central question at the center of this book is, should a young woman in love push aside a chance at happiness because of the disease? Photographer Cassidy Adams leaves Mobile,…
Michelle Jerott won the Romance Writers of America’s Golden Heart Award for her first book, Absolute Trouble. I thoroughly enjoyed that one and wondered if she could do as well on her next book. Well, as good as Absolute Trouble was, All Night Long is even better and it is my candidate for one of…
I enjoy a good amnesia story – it’s interesting to see how an author serves up a fresh twist on an old cliché. Images in Scarlet uses amnesia to create a hero with a lot of vulnerability and sweetness, which is nice. Unfortunately, the the book doesn’t live up to its promise. Allison Caine encounters…