It’s 1896, and in San Francisco, successful, hard-working attorney Margaret Huntington Smith has been urged by her father, a judge, to take a well-deserved vacation. Knowing she won’t go unless given a push (in the best way) he’s brought her a first class ticket for a cruise to “French Oceania – Tahiti, the Cook Islands…
Uncovering the Merchant’s Secret is a lot more tough-minded than the last two Hobbes novels I’ve read – and a lot darker. It’s also very entertaining, with the most fascinating heroine I’ve read about recently, and is set in a period I’ve not often come across in historical romance. While I didn’t quite feel the…
It would be hard to choose the worst problem facing Lieutenant Charles Dance in his new peacetime posting, a scientific expedition on board the HMS Tenacious. Is it the ship’s state of disrepair and leaks? The drunken captain? The vicious bosun? The purser who ran off with the entire budget? Or is it J.E. Burke,…
Imagine is the story of a wide variety of characters, all bottlenecked onto an island thanks to a shipwreck just before the turn of the 19th century. First of all there’s our hero and heroine – Margaret “Smitty” Smith, a hard-working attorney who was hoping to take a refreshing cruise in the South Seas, and…
Today, AAR reviewers Maggie Boyd and Caz Owens discuss The Sheikh’s Mail Order Bride, the second book in Marguerite Kaye’s Hot Arabian Nights series. Here is Maggie’s summary of the novel: Constance Montgomery is a dutiful daughter. When her family encounters severe financial trouble, she agrees to be sent off to India to marry a…
I felt emotionally exhausted by the time I’d finished reading this book. There’s no way to do it justice in couple of paragraphs, but there’s no question that in Sheridan Drake, Ms Kinsale has created one of the most complex, compelling heroes – should that be anti-heroes? – I’ve ever read. A decorated naval officer,…
As I read On the Island, I found myself growing ever more addicted to the story. This teacher-student romance set on a desert island is one of those books that really shouldn’t work. Yet, it does. It really does. Though not without flaws, there’s just something about this book that makes for fun, compelling reading….
Carla Kelly is back at last! It’s been far too long since her last release, but this book makes up for the wait. Kelly’s tale of two tortured survivors finding love and comfort together is beautiful, touching, and often very funny. As always, she creates endearing characters and stories that go places far deeper than…
The best thing about being a reviewer for AAR is that it leads me to read books I wouldn’t otherwise have picked up. The Sea Wife is a one I probably would not have discovered on my own: not only have I never heard of this author, but the horrid cover art depicts the hero…
What a find! The Wildest Shore is really different from anything else I’ve read lately. The pirate is not a handsome, devil-may-care swashbuckler. The ladies’ maid is not bosom friends with her sweet-tempered employer. The tropical island paradise features leeches, headhunters, and bugs the size of your fist. Different is good. Anne Hazlett is a…