The Scandalous, Dissolute, No-Good Mr. Wright is a gem. A delightful Regency romance pared down to its bare bones, this quick read is a perfect of example of what a novella can be and why I love them. There are no machinations, diversions, or distractions. Tessa Dare provides a witty, bright, engaging love story focused entirely on the winning main characters. Owing to a pubescent scandal, Eliza Cade has been sentenced to wait to enter society until her older sisters are married. Hers is an […]
Another Historical Romance, But Really a Romp
Road trip! I first read A Week to Be Wicked about two years ago when I started devouring every historical romance I could get my hands on. It is a wonderful romp and an entertaining read. It hits on all of Tessa Dare’s best aspects as a writer: Smolder. Really, really, good smolder. Lisa Kleypas level smolder. Funny of the laugh out loud variety. Witty, too. Sincere emotion successfully balanced against the aforementioned humour. At least one hysterical turn of phrase describing a man’s specific […]
Another Historical Romance, But with Tartan
There is an entire historical romance sub-genre based around Scottish Highland lairds and the tartans that love them. You can recognize the books instantly by the swathe of kilt and bare, muscular chest on the cover. I don’t read them because I get preoccupied with how cold everyone must be in Northern Scotland. Hitting on two genre quadrants, the new Scandalous Highlanders series from historical romance novelist Suzanne Enoch features members of a Scottish Highland family looking for love in Regency London. It’s kind of […]
Another Historical Romance. I Have Some Notes.
As Compromising Miss Tisdale is Jessica Jefferson’s only entry on Amazon, I am guessing she is a new author just getting started. Congratulations to her on an excellent first novel. Her website lists three upcoming publications which will feature the eponymous Miss Tisdale’s sisters. They are introduced in this first effort and sound like they will be fun. The novel starts well with Ambrosia Tisdale beginning her fourth season in/on the market for a husband. There is nothing wrong with her other than a desire […]
Sex and Dessert and Control Freak Perfectionists
The Chocolate Heart is book five in Laura Florand’s Amour et Chocolat series. The conceit of each novel is that an American woman is thrown into close proximity with a French chocolatier/pastry god. They fall in love quickly, get busy, and are engaged in short order. Florand provides consistently enjoyable escapism with romantic locations. The Chocolate Heart is not best of the series, that’s The Chocolate Touch, but The Chocolate Heart was certainly an absorbing and mostly entertaining read. Summer Corey has been told all her […]
Another Historical Romance, But with Agita
Nothing to Commend Her by Jo Barrett February 5, 2014 Leave a comment If Pride and Prejudice is the ultimate You Are Everything I Never Knew I Always Wanted romance, Daphne du Maurier’s Rebecca is the perfect illustration of what the romancerati refer to as The Big Misunderstanding. If at some point during their courtship or honeymoon, Maxim de Winter had managed to blurt out, “My wife was a vain, inconstant shrew and I loathed her, you little fool”, everyone would have been spared a lot […]