Tessa Dare is just a gem. I was very slightly underwhelmed by her Stud Club series, having preferred the more recent books of hers that I’ve read, but here I am back at her first novel, and I feel like it’s a perfect representation of what readers should expect from her current oeuvre. Goddess of the Hunt has several delicious — if implausible — romantic encounters, a tomboy heroine, an Unfortunate Misunderstanding, and a really entertaining side plot that sets up the next book in the most […]
No Alex and Still Not Olivia’s Book, But a Pleasant Historical Romance
Having just finished a book in which the main characters were rarely in the same country, it was a pleasant change to read a book in which the hero and heroine are almost always in the same room, and by one of my favourite authors as well. Julie Anne Long’s new, potentially penultimate, Pennyroyal Green novel, It Started with a Scandal, includes small visits from previous stories’ characters and the return of one of her most charming men, the displaced French aristocrat and raffish rogue […]
Curiosity quelled; expectations exceeded
I’ve heard vague murmurs from various corners that Courtney Milan’s Carhart series, being Courtney Milan, is very good; however, being early Courtney Milan, they aren’t as good as the classics she later produced. That’s possibly true, but the two novels and novella that comprise the series do have a rough charm to them that actually really worked for me, and furthermore, I daresay that they’re a bit more brazen than her later works as well. Let’s get into it! This Wicked Gift (3 stars) is a prequel novella […]
Long on the Historical, Short on the Romance
This novel came to me through a recommendation on my list of books sorted by author when a commenter wrote that she/he thought someone was missing from my reading list: Sheila Simonson. Always willing to look into a suggestion, I found one of this new-to-me author’s books available on e-loan from my library. Bar Sinister surely had the most authentic feeling historical elements of any romance I have read. (I say feeling because I am not a historian, just a pretentious reviewer.) I wasn’t expecting […]
“Someone wants to kill you? Well, I want to make love to you… With two such compelling alternatives, however will you choose?”
I’ve gotta hand it to Tessa Dare: I was not really sure how I was going to end up liking Julian Bellamy. In the first two books in the Stud Club trilogy, he’s very much that annoying friend in your group that you kind of put up with because he’s always been around, but you don’t really like him all that much. He’s whiny and has the worst case of tunnel-vision about the murder of his friend Leo — blinded by guilt and remorse, he […]
Historical Romance with High Hopes and Uneven Tone
As a romance reader, I rely on recommendations since it’s a genre full of authors of wildly varying quality. Like any other group, there are a few greats that land on one’s autobuy list, then the excellent, very good, reliable, guilty pleasures, desperate measures, and so on. Finding good new-to-me authors always feels like a coup. My romance spirit guide, Malin, has pointed me in many the right direction, as has emmalita and others. Writer Courtney Milan suggested this author on her blog and who […]
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