England

REVIEW: A Discreet Affair by Shelley Munro

REVIEW: A Discreet Affair by Shelley Munro

Dear Ms. Munro, Years ago I read one of your other novellas set during WWII and liked it enough that your name stuck in my mind. When Liquid Silver offered us the chance to review “A Discreet Affair” I was all ready to go. Widow Pamela Allison has avoided her cousin’s and aunt’s attempts to(…)

REVIEW: The Ice Princess by Elizabeth Hoyt

REVIEW: The Ice Princess by Elizabeth Hoyt

SEVEN NIGHTS OF SIN As the madam of Aphrodite’s Grotto, the most infamous brothel in London, Coral Smythe knows everything possible about men’s needs and desires. Yet she’s never experienced the love of a single man-’not even that of Captain Isaac Wargate whose hawk-like eyes stare at her with both condemnation-and lust. SEVEN NIGHTS OF(…)

REVIEW: An Unlikely Countess by Jo Beverley

REVIEW: An Unlikely Countess by Jo Beverley

Dear Mrs. Beverley, When I hear the name “Malloren,” I go to point like a champion gun dog. I’m there, poised and ready to read. But, after my disappointment that your last book didn’t work better for me, I opened this one mentally chanting, “please, please, please.” My prayers paid off as I enjoyed this(…)

REVIEW: What I Did For A Duke by Julie Anne Long

REVIEW: What I Did For A Duke by Julie Anne Long

Dear Ms. Long: I have had kind of an on-again, off-again relationship with your books. I adored Like No Other Lover but was pretty meh about The Perils of Pleasure. So when I saw What I Did For A Duke on NetGalley, I figured I'd give it a shot but had no particular expectations about(…)

REVIEW: The Hating Game by Tallie Roland

REVIEW: The Hating Game by Tallie Roland

Dear Ms. Roland, I will admit to not understanding the whole appeal of reality TV shows. Let’s go on national TV, make a fool of myself – or be made a fool of by the hosts, all for …what? Fleeting D list fame? Nope, not for me. And not for our heroine Mattie Johns either.(…)

REVIEW: A Room with a View by E.M. Forster

REVIEW: A Room with a View by E.M. Forster

Dear Readers, I don't know if it was Jayne's recent review of the Merchant-Ivory film adaptation of this novel, or a discussion of Forster's works that some of us on Twitter got into a while back. There's also the fact that every time I see Jennie do one of her classics reviews, I think to(…)

REVIEW: The Admiral’s Penniless Bride by Carla Kelly

REVIEW: The Admiral’s Penniless Bride by Carla Kelly

Dear Mrs. Kelly, I see a book by you and I’m like Pavlov’s dogs – minus the barking. And the book then automatically goes on my list of “this will be read soon, if not sooner.” And though each one might not always climb the heights of my best reads for that year, you seldom(…)

REVIEW: Major Pettigrew’s Last Stand by Helen Simonson

REVIEW: Major Pettigrew’s Last Stand by Helen Simonson

Dear Mrs. Simonson, This may be your first published book but wow, just wow. I am in love with it and want to go around telling all my friends, my coworkers, total strangers on the street, almost everyone about it. I haven’t read too many A grade books this year but the wait for another(…)

REVIEW: The Silver Locket by Margaret James

REVIEW: The Silver Locket by Margaret James

“If life is cheap, how much is love worth? It’s 1914 and young Rose Courtenay has a decision to make. Please her wealthy parents by marrying the man of their choice – or play her part in the war effort? The chance to escape proves irresistible and Rose becomes a nurse. Working in France, she(…)

Friday Film Review: Love Actually

Friday Film Review: Love Actually

Love Actually (2003) Genre: Romance/slice of life Grade: B+ “Whenever I get gloomy with the state of the world, I think about the arrivals gate at Heathrow Airport. General opinion’s starting to make out that we live in a world of hatred and greed, but I don’t see that. It seems to me that love(…)

REVIEW: Dating Mr. December (aka Decent Exposure) by Phillipa Ashley

REVIEW: Dating Mr. December (aka Decent Exposure) by Phillipa Ashley

“When a nice girl asks twelve men to get naked, it's sure to cause a scandal- Emma Tremayne leaves her high-powered PR job and moves to the Lake District looking for peace, quiet-and celibacy. So perhaps it's not the best idea when, in the spirit of "community-mindedness," she agrees to help the local mountain rescue(…)

REVIEW: All that Mullarkey by Sue Moorcroft

REVIEW: All that Mullarkey by Sue Moorcroft

Dear Ms Moorcroft, Do you have some inner drive to write flawed heroines? Because both books of yours that I’ve read have featured them but here in “All that Mullarkey,” you’ve really gone all out and presented us with a woman who might trip a few triggers. “Revenge and love: it’s a thin line… The(…)

REVIEW: A Betting Chance by Lynne Connolly

REVIEW: A Betting Chance by Lynne Connolly

Sapphira Vardon needs five thousand pounds to avoid a cruel marriage and a grim future, and there's only one path for her. Don a mask and an assumed name, and risk everything to win at the gaming tables. First, though, she has to get through the door. Luckily she knows just whose name to drop.(…)

REVIEW: Jane and the Damned by Janet Mullany

REVIEW: Jane and the Damned by Janet Mullany

Dear Ms. Mullany, When I heard you were going to write a Regency paranormal, my initial thoughts were, “Why?” No, actually they were more along the lines of “You’ve got to be shitting me. Jane Austen as a vampire?!” But when the publicist sent me a copy, I couldn’t resist at least trying it because,(…)

REVIEW: Wild Romance: A Victorian Story of A Marriage, A Trial, and A Self-Made Woman by Chloë Schama

REVIEW: Wild Romance: A Victorian Story of A Marriage, A Trial, and A Self-Made Woman by Chloë Schama

Dear Ms. Schama: I approached Wild Romance: A Victorian Story of A Marriage, A Trial, and A Self-Made Woman with appreciation and excitement at the possibility of an academic study of cultural history crossing over to popular contemporary readership. The volatile story of Theresa Longworth's secret marriage to an Irish peer and subsequent battle to(…)