When I was in college, one of my mentors was a lovely woman named Marita Woodruff. Marita wasn’t shy about sharing her life with her students when appropriate. One of her more famous moments was when she was talking about sex. She said, “sex is awkward and messy!” And then she would tell the story of when she and her late husband fell off the bed when making love. At the time that sounded more uncomfortable than romantic. A couple of decades and more experience […]
A Hero as well as a servant
I swear at least half of the books I’ve read this year have come from NPR’s Best Books of 2016 list, and Listen to the Moon by Rose Lerner is no different. I was browsing the “love story” section of the list when I came across Lerner’s novel. The blurb stated in part: “Fans of historical romance know that if there’s one thing fictional England has in spades, it’s dukes. But they might not be as accustomed to encountering valets. You might see one briefly, making certain a coat […]
An Ideal Set in Motion is a Dangerous Thing
The United States has never lived up to it’s stated ideals of equality and freedom. It hasn’t even always struggled towards those ideals. Right now, there is a strong push to move backwards. The resistance to moving towards a white supremacist, patriarchal land of the wealthy is also strong. Rose Learner, Courtney Milan, and Alyssa Cole have fired their own shots in the beautiful short story collection, Hamilton’s Battalion: A Trio of Romances. We make a lot of arguments about diversity and representation, but it […]
“Contains elections, confections, and a number of erections.”
3.5 stars Weeks ago, I finished Sweet Disorder, and this is why you cannot wait to review books, because I can’t honestly remember too many details about it. I am not going to make a snarky comment on the memorability of the book itself, even if that may apply, because the actual issue here is that I have garbage for brains and a singular talent for avoiding doing anything so productive as reviewing the books I inhale. Anyway. Goodreads says: “Nick Dymond enjoyed the rough-and-tumble […]
My Review: “Meh”
I didn’t love Rose Lerner’s Sweet Disorder (2014) as much as Ellepkay did, though her wonderful review is what sold me on reading it. Nonetheless, she is correct in identifying the nonstandard aspects of this romance as being its main appeal. Read the full review.
A Regency romance with unexpected diversity
Lady Serena Ravenshaw fell for one of her father’s footmen and was told in no uncertain terms that they had no future together. Rather than be forced to marry some crony of her father’s, she ran away and chose to to become a prostitute. One evening, a drunken young gentleman felt pity for her and gave her his entire quarterly allowance, making it possible for her to buy her freedom and set herself up as one of the most famed courtesans in London. With the […]