I’m a bit of a self-loathing historical romance reader. Some (Flowers From the Storm, The Grand Sophy, Outlander, Lord of Scoundrels) are really great but the vast majority can best be described as disappointing. In fact if you use Mrs. Julien’s infamous tally (and really, why wouldn’t you) as a guidepost, a meager 10 out of 75 historical romance novels read in 2014 warrant her coveted recommendation. Many of the characters and plotlines are relatively homogeneous because there are only so many variants of “wealthy […]