Like many a fan of Deanna Raybourn’s series of Victorian-set historical mysteries starring the intrepid lady lepidopterist, Veronica Speedwell, I’m as much drawn to the complicated relationship established between Veronica and her delicious partner-in-crime, Revelstoke Templeton-Vane (Stoker), as I am to the mysteries the pair is called upon to solve in each book. We’ve watched…
Mellie Smithson is a chemist whose discoveries have helped her father and uncle’s textile production boom, bringing the family to new wealth. However, her reward for this is that the men want to keep that money in the family by marrying Mellie off to her cousin Ronald. Too rich for local boys and too provincial…
Twentieth century historical romances are much less common than their regency or medieval counterparts so the sky’s the limit (or not in this case) for co-authors Emma Barry and Genevieve Turner to tackle the post-World War Two space-race era. Earth Bound is the second full-length novel in the Fly Me To the Moon series. The…
Erica Ridley’s story about astronomy, fear, and flirtation, Wish Upon a Duke, has a few charming points but subjects us to a hero who thinks that the heroine is a hopeless ninny. Gloria Goodwin, daughter of a the Royal Navy captain, runs a stargazing lecture at Marlowe Castle called sky-walking – the best way for…
In this delightful book from Sara Rider, Nora is having trouble adjusting to her new life as a chemistry professor at a small college in Washington State. Newly divorced and far away from everyone she knows, she’s having trouble making friends and decides to join a bookclub full of hateful women out of sheer desperation….
Coming at a timely juncture, Liz Lincoln’s new contemporary sports romance Swagger, book two in the Milwaukee Dragons series, covers a lot of territory. Just like in real life, in this story about a football player and a PhD student, football and college are both in full swing for fall and the novel combines both…
As we all know, début novels are notoriously hit-or-miss, so I’m delighted to tell you The Duke I Tempted fits squarely in the ‘hit’ column. Deeply moving, tender, and romantic, this is the first novel in Scarlett Peckham’s Secrets of Charlotte Street series. Charlotte Street is home to an exclusive, secret club where – if they’re…
One for the Rogue is the fourth and final installment in Manda Collins’ Studies In Scandal series, which features a group of four gifted young woman chosen by the enigmatic Celeste Beauchamp to live in her house for a year after her death and perfect their fields of study. This is the story of geologist,…
Fabulous historical tales can be hard to come by which is why I treasure the work of Elizabeth Camden. Able to combine real history with sweet romance, she is a master of her craft. Her latest novel, A Daring Venture, continues the story of the history of clean water in New York begun in A…
If you’ve been dialed into Romancelandia over the last few months, then I’m sure you’ve been hearing a lot of buzz around début author Helen Hoang’s The Kiss Quotient – and I’m here to tell you the book lives up to the hype. It feels a bit like a gender-swapped take on Pretty Woman, but in addition to…