Heroines with a scientific bent seem a dime a dozen in historical romance at the moment; some of them are credible, others less so. One of the earliest and most convincing heroines of this kind that I know of is Lady Elizabeth Conway in Sheila Simonson’s Lady Elizabeth’s Comet, which was first published in 1986….
What would happen if you could suddenly appear in one of your favorite novels? That’s the interesting premise of Seducing Mr. Darcy, a mix of chick lit, time travel, and alternate reality. Unfortunately, a weak hero left me with mixed feelings about the book. Flip, our heroine, is a research ornithologist at a university in…
I thoroughly enjoyed this book to the point where I could not put it down to attend to such routine things like eating. I was riveted from the first page to the last. This second book in Quinn’s Ivory Nation trilogy should go on everyone’s must buy list. Botanist Laura Clark and her history professor…
Jan Coffey is a pseudonym for a writing couple who’ve both had experience building submarines (their romance aka is May McGoldrick). That experience is apparent in every page of their latest suspense novel. Recreating the highly technical and claustrophobic world of a modern submarine isn’t something the lay author could do, and it’s their expertise…
Occasionally I like to dip into Women’s Fiction, where the stories have sharper depictions of today’s real problems and less fairy tale-like resolutions than straight contemporary romances. Lisa Wingate’s Over the Moon at the Big Lizard Diner was an angst-filled read, but warmth and great comic relief tempered the angst. Single mother Lindsey is a…
In a genre often accused of being too focused on small-town sheriffs, secret babies, and cowboys, the first novel in Kristin Hardy’s Holiday Hearts series is a breath of fresh air. Her protagonists – a captain in the Boston Fire Department and an engineer – are mature, intelligent, and quite likable. As the story opens,…
Crazy Hot is the first book in a new Brockmann-esque series, and I found it pretty interesting. It’s essentially about a bunch of guys who work for a top-secret quasi-government agency affiliated with a garage. But not just any garage; the place they refer to as “Steele Street” has top-notch security and dozens of souped…
On the Scent is a thoroughly original and wonderfully different romantic mystery. It features M.J. Rodgers’s trademark intelligent characters and creative touches. Most of all, it’s just a lot of fun. Diann Torrey is the head chemist for the American perfume company Man to Woman. While in Paris for the International Fragrance Fraternity’s annual symposium,…
Bodyguard Rescue is one of the more impressive series debuts I’ve read in some time. This may be Donna Young’s first release, but you’d never know it from the book itself, which outshines what many veteran authors are delivering these days. Roman D’Amato is an operative working for a top-secret, ultra-elite branch of the CIA….
A thirty-something widow goes in search of herself and finds the love she’s always deserved in Nancy Herkness’ debut novel. A Bridge to Love is a fast-paced, sexy, and sometimes humorous read in which the hero and heroine both learn that mutual attraction cannot be ignored. A widow with two adolescent children, Kate Chilton had…