Women of the Dunes made me want to visit Scotland. Old legends, ancient ruins, and sprawling estates—it seems very different from what I find in my own American backyard. Archaeologist Libby Snow grew up an ocean away from Ullaness, but her grandmother in Newfoundland raised her on tales of the area. These stories were carried…
I love a good meet cute/meet crazy and Alyssa Cole offers up a delectable new favorite in her latest novel, A Duke by Default. Funny, poignant and sweet this is a truly fantastic summer read. This is book two of the Reluctant Royals series by this author but you don’t have to read the first…
The Highlander’s Promise is a Beauty and the Beast story between a laird and a gently-born lady. While the premise is not uncommon – an amnesiac heroine discovers love and passion with a strong alpha hero – the execution is poor. The characters are uninspiring and unimaginative and the interesting actions of the story are…
Katharine Ashe hits only high notes in this memorable fourth book in the Devil’s Duke series. The Prince elevates two previously minor secondary characters – and my friends, the pairing is brilliant. He’s an exiled prince of a fictional Mediterranean realm, hidden away in Scotland and biding his time until he can return home; she’s…
Jenny Colgan returns to the Scottish island of Mure, location of her book The Café By The Sea and one of the novellas from A Very Distant Shore, to give us another atmospheric, pretty, cozy (and sometimes a bit stereotypical) tale about life in the tiny summer town. The Endless Beach continues to chronicle the…
If you were a fan of the old AAR Purple Prose Parody contests, with their send-ups of genre tropes and in-jokes, then have I got a book for you. My Lady’s Choosing is a mature-audience’s romance version of the Choose-Your-Own-Adventure stories of ‘80s childhoods, and I highly recommend it for the romance megafan who’s read…
Calling Outlander a time travel romance is like calling a Dove Bar ice cream on a stick. Mere labels can’t possibly prepare you for the totally engrossing and sensual experience of either one. If you are ready for 850 pages packed with action, sex, life and death, then take the plunge. But then be prepared…
Lynsay Sands’ popular Highlanders series about the nine men of the rowdy Buchanan clan continues apace with Edith and Niels’ tale, Surrender to the Highlander. Niels’ band of brothers is in a quandary. Their only sister Saidh, (heroine of book #3, The Highlander Takes a Bride) is extremely pregnant and her husband, Greer, is very…
I think most aspiring historical romance writers would like to be Julie Garwood when they grow up. I know I would. Her stories always give me a smile, a laugh and a tear. I love them all, but my favorite Garwood book has always been The Secret. This book grabs you from the first page…
When I read A Most Extraordinary Pursuit, the first of Juliana Gray’s historical mystery series featuring the intrepid Emmeline Truelove, I wasn’t – at first – quite sure what to think. There’s a mystery, yes, and a bit of romance… but I wasn’t expecting the time travel element or the fact that the heroine has…