Not So Innocent takes place in London and its environs in 1897, the year of Queen Victoria’s Jubilee. Mick Dunbar, a detective with Scotland Yard, is celebrating his 36th birthday when he meets Sophie Haversham. Sophie is psychic, and she comes to Scotland Yard to tell the police that she’s had a premonition of a…
Admittedly, Untie My Heart is not for everyone. But those of you who love sensuous romance tinged ever so delicately with a hint of decadence – and you know who you are – should plan right now to settle down under your favorite blanket and surrender yourself to this incredible writer. If you haven’t read…
Let me state that it is difficult to summarize Black Silk without doing it an injustice, because this book, this story, these characters and their interpersonal relations are so unusual, so remarkable, and so complex that the whole is near nigh irreducible. I mean, is it possible to admire the Mona Lisa a square inch…
After reading romance for a few years now, I have realized that it is truly rare to find a book that so completely manages to fulfill all of its “duties.” Is the writing smart enough to assume the reader can comprehend subtleties, yet accessible enough to keep the reading pace fluid? Does the author know…
Letters from an Age Of Reason is a big (648 pages), sprawling literary novel set mostly in England but featuring American characters. Protagonists Arabella and Aubrey do not conform to society’s expectations, like Edith Wharton’s character, Lily Bart. The novel is told through a combination of Arabella’s journal entries and Aubrey’s letters like Samuel Richardson’s…
Every once in a while the tried and true is set slightly askew to great effect. Carla Kelly is famed for her ability to take oft-used regency characters/settings and make them fresh and thought provoking. She’s able to make you think of the people and the times they lived in a different light. Yvonne Jocks…
Someone Irresistible was an interesting and very sensual read. I suspect that Ashworth fans will not be disappointed in this latest offering. Professor Nathan Price suffered an extremely humiliating setback to his career two and a half years ago. An up-and-coming paleontologist, Nathan expected that he would receive accolades and a cushy scientific appointment after…
Now that Scotland’s been done to death, it looks as if it’s time to read romances set in Ireland. A Bright Idea takes place in Victorian Dublin, and while I commend Cindy Harris for not overdoing the setting to the point of caricature, or going to the other extreme by pretending that the setting doesn’t…
What a good writer Judith Ivory is! The Indiscretion neatly divides into two parts, and if I could have graded simply the first part, it would have been an A+. It is in this part of the book that main characters Sam Cody and Lydia Bedford-Browne are forced to spend time on the moors in…
This was the first romance starring a Mountie that I’ve read, and I liked it enough to wish there was much more of it. The historical setting is well-depicted, and the characterizations range from good to exceptionally fine. A fairly standard gentleman-meets-wild-child setup is enlivened by unusual details and a fresh outlook. The story is…