Cannonball Read 17

Sticking It to Cancer One Book at a Time

… In for a Pound

In for a Penny by Rose Lerner

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When Nev’s father dies unexpectedly, he leaves the family mired in debt, so he decides to make a convenient marriage to Penny, the fabulously wealthy but low-born daughter of a brewer. This is the second book I’ve read by Lerner (the first being the fabulous A Lily Among Thorns), but it has many of the same hallmarks – an unconventional, rather unsentimental romance, a strong grounding in history, and plenty of intrigue and action. I enjoyed the plot about the tenant rebellion, even if I […]

The 1813 Wallflower Club

How to Woo a Wallflower by Virginia Heath

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Finally making her debut after a long recovery from a horse-riding accident, Hattie is relegated to the wallflower chairs – but at least her brother’s rakish best friend, Jasper, is there to keep her company. This might have been the oldest remnant on my NetGalley shelf that I’ve yet swept off – while I like this genre and this author, I never seemed to get into the mood for it. I had the idea that this would be a straightforward Regency romance, and the book […]

To Be a Diplomat’s Wife

An Unusual Courtship by Lynne Connolly

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Juliet is enamored of diplomat Val, but she believes that her scandalous family and poor prospects would make a poor political wife. But when Val’s fiancée reveals that she’s in love with another man, she supposes it wouldn’t be too bad to pretend to be engaged to him for the length of a state dinner. This is the second book in the Brazen Burrells series, about a trio of sisters who take Regency-era London with their beauty, wits, and little else. This is the story of Juliet, […]

“I didn’t smuggle the dog into the country; I merely caused him to be smuggled out of Baluchistan.”

Frederica by Georgette Heyer

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CBR15 Passport Challenge: Different (sub)genres #2 The Marquis of Alverstoke, wealthy, vain, and immensely bored, sees no reason why he must put himself to any trouble for anyone at all. But when he agrees to sponsor a beautiful young woman’s debut in society, he can’t help but become tangled up with her managing older sister. I read Georgette Heyer’s romances sparingly. Not because I dislike them, but indeed the opposite – I adore their sharp humor, hijinks, and immersive historical setting – and I don’t […]

The Duke and the Opera Diva

After Dark with the Duke by Julie Anne Long

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Mariana Wylde arrives at the Grand Palace at the Thames only seconds after curfew, dripping wet and terrified, since she escaped her own lodgings because a literal angry mob blocked her residence. The talented opera singer, dubbed “the Harlot of Haywood Street” by the press after two rich, young noblemen fought a duel for her favour (something she very much didn’t want them to) and one of them nearly died. Her reputation is in tatters and she’s almost broke but begs the proprietresses of the […]

The Most Noble of Ladies… and the Gunmaker’s Grandson

The Regal by Kate Archer

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The duchess has finally settled on a young lady to sponsor, and in true duchess fashion this young lady is quite a noble one, with the blood of the Plantagenets running in her veins. Now if only she wouldn’t insist on entangling herself with a recent baron! This is the conclusion of A Series of Worthy Young Ladies, a comic Regency romance series I have been following all year, and it was a good book to wrap up the whole saga. The hero is Harry […]



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