The Devil Comes Courting is the third full-length novel book in the Worth Saga, and it follows a new heroine as well as the continuing adventures of the Worth siblings and the Hunter family. Captain Grayson Hunter is looking for a genius, specifically, someone to code Chinese characters for his telegraph line. His longtime dream…
Although Tales from the Gunpowder Chronicles features three separate steampunk novellas, I only read and reviewed the third novella, Love in the Time of Engines. The other two novellas are standalone stories; LitToE is a prequel to Gunpowder Alchemy, published in 2014. LitToE is tough to grade. Not because I didn’t enjoy it. I did. …
My experience with books set in China has not been stellar – I’ve read too many authors who seem only interested in transplanting characters with western attitudes to a more exotic setting. Janie Chang’s Dragon Springs Road, I am happy to say, does not fall in this category. If anything, by adhering so strictly to…
So, here’s where I make my confession that this is my first book by Ms. Thomas. It’s a literary crime that it took me this long to pick up one of her spellbinding stories, but I’m paying my penance by devouring her back catalogue, I promise. Regarding this work, while I really liked a lot…
I have to state upfront, that I’m a Sherry Thomas fangirl of immense proportions. I’ve loved each and every one of her books (including her recent YA titles) and take delight in her skillful storytelling, her wonderful prose, the complexity of her characterisations, the angst and ultimately, the superb way her romances unfold and the…
When one reads a lot and in a specific genre, after a while, there is seems to be a sameness about books that makes one almost indistinguishable from another. So when I picked up Sherry Thomas’ My Beautiful Enemy, I immediately knew this book was out of the ordinary. Think Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon meets…
I have been deeply fascinated with China and Chinese history ever since reading Wild Swans many years ago, and I was delighted to discover that Harlequin Blaze were publishing a historical romance set in imperial China. I found The Concubine by Jade Lee a very pleasant and unusual read. In 1851, the young Emperor must…
If you’re looking for something different in historical romance, Jade Lee’s Tempted Tigress is certainly that. Set during the Boxer movement at the very end of the Qing Dynasty, the story features the romance between a white drug runner and the Emperor’s Enforcer. It is a gritty story that does not gloss over the turbulent,…
All through my reading Burning Tigress I shook my head at this missed opportunity. Author Jade Lee is a good writer with a strong knowledge of 19th century Shanghai. When she’s describing the Chinese scolding each other and struggling with life among English people whom they detest, she is marvelous. In this fourth book in…
I’ve not read the first two books in this series, but I applaud Jade Lee for writing Desperate Tigress, a book far removed from the typical romantic ideal and setting. The book’s unique quality alone makes it worth reading, and I plan to pick up the series’ earlier titles to make this a more complete…