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 […]
Letting Others Love You
The fault in our stars is the story of Hazel who meets Augustus. Now Hazel may be a cancer patient and Augustus may be an amputee (as Wikipedia succinctly puts it), but this is not a book about cancer, cancer patients or “overcoming life with cancer”. This is a book about Hazel and Augustus who meet, have something in common and fall in love. I don’t mean to sound ignorant, the book does deal with the emotional consequences of having cancer, both in regards to […]
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 […]
Another Historical Romance, But with Henry Cavill
Author Maya Rodale, who has previously inspired me to a lengthy defense of romance novels, is currently balancing two series. The contemporary group (Billionaire Bad Boys) features a character who is writing her first historical romance. The Wicked Wallflower, from the historical group, is that romance. I purchased The Bad Boy Billionaire’s Wicked Arrangement for the low, low price of 99 cents on my Kindle thinking it was a novella when it was actually just an installment in the novel. It made for interesting reading […]
Another Historical Romance, But with Whimsy
[stunned silence followed by vociferous string of profanity-laden expostulations] That was a change of pace. Well written. It seems historical romance author Tessa Dare is going in a new direction, one more whimsiquirkilicious than I had anticipated. I have never given my Kindle the side-eye before. And I did, in fact, resist the temptation to throw it across the room. That counts as a victory. And that was certainly the most expletives I have ever let loose while reading a love story. A lot of […]
Castles, and ermines and dukes, oh my!
4.5 stars Miss Isolde Ophelia Goodnight, or Izzy, is the orphaned daughter of the author of a beloved series of adventure stories. She has barely a penny to her name, so when she is told that her recently deceased godfather has left her Gostley Castle, it seems too good to be true. Of course, her castle is a filthy ruin, currently inhabited by the scarred, bitter and extremely rude Duke of Rothbury, who’s adamant that he didn’t sell any castle, and it therefore can’t belong […]

