Cannonball Read 17

Sticking It to Cancer One Book at a Time

Revisiting favourites

Do You Want to Start a Scandal by Tessa Dare

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When I started reading historical romances, Tessa Dare was one of the first authors I picked up. I still think her writing is some of the most unique in the genre; its heartfelt, emotional, romantic, and deeply, deeply funny. Despite that, she has never been a writer whose books I can binge. So it had been about three years since I read my last Tessa Dare when I decided to pick up this book. I think because it had been so long I rewrote how […]

A trio of historical book club reads

A Devil in Winter by Lisa Kleypas

A Night to Surrender by Tessa Dare

The Madness of Lord Ian Mackenzie by Jennifer Ashley

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I’ve read three excellent historical romances this year thanks to The Ripped Bodice’s book clubs. First up was my first Lisa Kleypas novel, A Devil in Winter, part of her popular Wallflower series. In this entry, said wallflower Evie propositions a right scoundrel to marry her. A veritable playboy, Sebastian isn’t most women’s first choice. However, the devilishly handsome viscount will keep her terrible relatives away from her. As he needs money, he reluctantly agrees and whisks her away to Scotland to be wed. Through […]

“Clearly the sight of a well-muscled forearm incited a woman to utter depravity. How else to explain the invention of cuffs?”

Goddess of the Hunt by Tessa Dare

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Plot: Lucy is decided as a girl that she would marry Toby, one of her brother’s friends. There was only one problem – Toby didn’t see her as a young woman ready to marry but as a kid. Fortunately, Lucy has two things going for her: her indefatigable spirit and her brother’s other friend Jeremy, who seems intent on throwing himself between her and her problems anyway. So he can start by teaching her some of the basics of seduction and then help her make […]

“No one had warned her it would be like this. Love was supposed to feel good. Wasn’t it? Not terrifying. Perhaps this wasn’t love after all, but malaria.”

Do You Want to Start a Scandal by Tessa Dare

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Last month when I was reading What I Did for a Duke I kept waiting for a particular scene to happen, and it never did. That is because I had superimposed the bathtub scene from Do You Want to Start a Scandal onto that book, which was all the excuse I needed to read it as well. Like with What I Did for a Duke this one is a reread of a book I only read a couple years ago. It deliciously fits into what […]

Realism? I barely know them

The Governess Game by Tessa Dare

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Apparently Evin the Magnificent was going to recommend this book to me as well because she was certain I would like it and what do you know, she was right! Here we have another entry in the series better paraphrased as “Utterly Implausible Meet-Cutes.” One cannot really believe that any of the situations in these novels would actually happen. Does that really matter? …not really? The reason why this novel is my favorite is because it’s the least believable of the lot (winning by a […]

I think I might end up reading Dare’s entire back catalogue at this point

Say Yes to the Marquess by Tessa Dare

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So after reading Alexis Hall’s latest work I was back in a historical romance kick and thought I’d pick up some of the intervening novels in the series of Dare’s that I had perused–Spindle Cove, Castles Ever After, and Girl Meets Duke. Those might actually be her only series, I don’t actually know! I am sorry to note that while this book has many of the tropes that I really adore–childhood friends/known each other for a while, have liked each other for a while as […]



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